A strong leader can guide an entire organization of people to success, but a strong crew of leaders can change the world. LHS’s Link Crew has been training to change the lives of freshmen one step at a time.
Link Crew is an organization of upperclassmen who assist freshmen in their first high school experiences. Link Crew also helps to build relationships between divided grades, which supports students to achieve success regardless of age. It all starts with the proper guidance.
The 2015 Link Crew leaders were hand-selected to prepare the freshmen for their high school careers.
“The preparation for this year started in the middle of last year,” Link Crew coordinator Scott Gillespie said. “I met individually with each student who applied in an interview and we selected our current group of Link Leaders.”
The leaders know first hand how difficult freshman year can be and are determined to make the experience more enjoyable for this class of freshmen.
“When I was a freshmen I had a pretty rough transition to high school,” junior Isaac Leff said. “I wanted to be a part of Link Crew to make that transition a lot easier for them.”
“Freshmen year is definitely a big one because you are setting up your high school career and the rest of your life, honestly,” junior Janin Hernandez said. “You can make a lot of bad decisions, but I want all the freshmen to stay on the right track and get where they need to be.”
Training days were held for the Link Leaders both on the last day of the 2014-2015 school year as well as over the summer.
“We came in three days before school to prepare for it and then the day before school we helped out the freshmen,” Leff said.
During these training days, the Link Leaders prepared games and events for the incoming freshmen on orientation day, August 17.
“We all trained for different activities that we did during the freshmen transition day,” Hernandez said. “One of the most challenging ones was the 64 squares game. It explained how high school is a long journey and you’re going to have trouble along the way but you’ll get through it and we all have to find our way.”
The orientation day was an opportunity to get the freshmen warmed up to the building and get to know one another before the first official day of school.
“We start out with a big assembly to try and get everybody in one place and build some energy,” Gillespie said. “Link Leaders took their group of freshmen into their advisory classrooms and worked with them to get to know one another and build some comfort with one another and the school.”
For orientation there was also a cookout where some of the administrators were introduced and the Link Leaders proudly taught the freshmen, school cheers.
After the Link Crew interaction with the other students it was like a whole new atmosphere between grades with the nerves and tension diffused.
“When the new students first came in they seemed a little apprehensive,” Gillespie said. “As the day went on I really got to see a lot of the freshmen let their guard down and embrace the different activities, feeling more comfortable getting to know other students rather than just their best friends. When they left I think it was a whole different group of people, feeling confident, comfortable and ready for the first day of school.”
For the first few weeks of school Link Leaders attended advisory with their freshmen classes to get to know each other better and create stronger friendships.
“They are a lot more comfortable around me and each other,” Leff said. “They aren’t so worried about school anymore.”
One of Link Crew’s goals is to make the freshmen comfortable in their school environment.
“I was comfortable. I didn’t really need to go to them [for help] but I knew that if I did, they would be there for me to ask them,” freshman Daniel Garrison said.
Once a week on Thursdays during Liberty Hour, Link Crew has meetings in the Little Theatre to train the Link Leaders in further educating the freshmen in healthy habits for school.
“So far they’ve basically been going over the syllabus and what to do online, cyber-bullying wise,” Garrison said. “One day they went over study habits and what we should do for high school. We did a worksheet on that, it was fun.”
“We want to teach freshmen good study skills,” Leff said. “They want to teach them to be involved in school. They want to teach them to be outgoing to try as many things as possible and meet as many people as possible.”
Freshmen are not the only ones benefiting from Link Crew.
“There are a lot of benefits for our upperclassmen Link Leaders,” Gillespie said. “It changed the relationship that they have with the school itself. Taking on a big leadership role means that those upperclassmen have to carry themselves differently. They’re looked up to.”
From mentoring, building friendships, supporting one another and encouraging school spirit, the framework of the LHS student body has become enriched by the unity that is brought to school by Link Crew.
“Even though there are a lot of different groups of people we are all in it together,” Leff said. “Link Crew gives freshmen a unifying experience.”
There is no doubt that LHS has been empowered by what Link Crew does.
“I think the biggest thing is the school culture,” Gillespie said. “Link Crew is one way that we can create the school culture and school climate that we want here at LHS. Our Link Leaders set the tone and we hope that our freshmen follow suit. I think really big things can happen when the right people are in place and everyone is doing what it is that they need to do.”