Trending
HUBBARD -- Incoming freshmen will be able to make a smooth transition into high school with the Hubbard Exempted Village School District's new mentoring program.
Hubbard High School will utilize the Boomerang Project's Link Crew program to help make school feel like a safe, welcoming place for its students.
Link Crew is a yearlong orientation and transition program for incoming ninth-graders. The program uses upper classmen as "Link Leaders" to the new students, so they can have an ally within the school should they need help from a peer.
Hubbard High School recruited 40 junior and senior leaders to welcome 181 incoming freshmen.
Before the school year began, the leaders attended training.
"The transition into high school is oftentimes fraught with uncertainty, trepidation and fear. As a result, incoming ninth-graders do not often perform at their best level and, in many cases, lose interest in school and fail or drop out," said Mary Beth Campbell, co-founder of the Boomerang Project. "Part of the reason for this is that the culture of many high schools is such that older students -- instead of welcoming and supporting freshmen -- bully, harass or haze them simply because it's what happened to them when they were freshmen."
The Boomerang Project, according to Campbell, was built on the premise that students can help other students succeed. The Link Crew transition program enables it by addressing three topics -- information, safety and connection.
"Freshmen have a lot of questions and need a lot of information. Educators know this, but the information they think the freshmen need and the information the freshmen actually want to know, are sometimes drastically different. Educators want the freshmen to get information about the school's rules, dress codes and testing, for example; but freshmen, while understanding these topics are important, don't really care as much about those things as they do about knowing where the good bathrooms are, or the unspoken social rules of walking down the hallway or the best places to eat lunch. This is the type of information freshmen want to know, and yet without help, the only way to learn it is to discover it through trial and error," Campbell said.
"The importance of having a Link Leader -- a person who has been through all this already and is a trusted resource for a ninth-grader -- is paramount to freshman success. "
This program helps students navigate high school life while feeling safe, both physically and emotionally, because they have made meaningful connections with older students who they can relate to and use as a resource for a successful freshman year.
"It's a good thing for the freshmen. They won't be as scared to enter high school and they'll have an idea of what to expect," senior Samantha May said.
The leaders are paired in groups and together they will aid eight or nine freshmen with their transition into high school.
"Everyone got to know each other better, they got to work together and I think it helped build friendships," said Kobe Krisuk, a junior leader and May's group partner.
Link Crew has been helping students transition into high school for over 24 years and has shown a significant drop in freshman discipline referrals, an increase in attendance, improvement in academic performance, an increase in student participation, a shift in student leadership and improvement in overall school climate, according to Campbell.
"Transitions make all people, especially adolescents, vulnerable and potentially susceptible to at-risk behaviors; the key to freshmen success is a positive transition," Campbell said.
bshiller@tribtoday.com