After his first assembly performance in a school in Cincinnati, Ohio in February 2011, a young girl came up to the then-22-year-old Cameron Ernst. She was in tears in and told him how grateful she was that he came to her school; her best friend had just committed suicide.
Since then, Ernst has been on the road taking the message of Love is Louder, along with his own music, on the road to have a positive impact on students. Love is Louder is a movement co-founded by actress Brittany Snow with MTV. It was started to address not only bullying and depression, but also ideas like positive self-image, according to Indian Hills Middle School counselor Amber Basom.
Ernst is a singer-songwriter from Dallas who was inspired by the message when a friend tweeted about it. He decided to use his own music along with the Love is Louder message to create Love on the Road, which visited Indian Hills earlier this year. Love is Louder preaches the message that think about love and the people that support you can help you out of any situation.
“A part of my message is the Love is Louder message which is just love is louder than anything that you could be going through, whether it’s fear, pain, loneliness, stress, your parents’ divorce, whatever it is,” Ernst said. “And so I use my music and I go into schools and connect with young people.”
Love on the Road has traveled to 22 schools in Texas, Kansas and Ohio. Cameron made a stop at Indian Hills Middle School in February of this year. Basom saw his activity on Facebook and invited him to share what he was doing with the students.
“There are a lot of kids that have taken it on since then and, there are always going to be some kids that it doesn’t affect as much,” Basom said. “But I think for the most part the kids liked it and I think it’s a message that they can relate to.”
Ernst gave the students three “challenges” to work on after he left. He told them to say “hi” to people in the hallways that they wouldn’t normally say hello to and address people by their names. He also challenged them to find people who were sitting alone at lunch or were feeling left out and to include them. And finally, he said to write kind notes to people who might be having a bad day.
“So, since he gave us concrete things that we could work on, that actually gave kids something that they knew how to do instead of just saying ‘be nice to everyone,’” Basom said. “I think that for the most part they’ve taken it on.”
In the weeks following Ernst’s visit, students at Indian Hills did what they call Homeroom Activities with the ideas from Love is Louder and Love on the Road. Once a month, both seventh and eighth grade students will meet in a room with a teacher that is near their locker to talk about different things.
“When we had our homeroom activity, we talked about if we did those three things and how we think they affected other people and made them happier,” said Indian Hills eighth grader Emily Kohring.
Ernst usually tells the students is that his goal is to ‘raise the volume around the message that love and support is louder than any internal or external voice that brings us down.’ There are still bulletin boards up in the hallways of Indian Hills with the message on them. Basom is seeing more kids at lunch including classmates that are eating alone and has had more students address her by her name and greet her in the halls.
“I liked it because I thought that it really helped put a positive attitude on things,” Kohring said. “I think it was a good thing in middle school, especially eighth graders as we’re going into high school, to keep it in our minds that love is louder than all the bullies and things.”
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