Successful Start For Link Crew!
Freshmen and Link Leaders listening to Ms. Siegler.
For the first time in HMSA history, HMSA welcomed Link Crew! For the people who do not know, Link Crew is a transition program that welcomes freshmen into high school. By linking the freshmen up with juniors and seniors, link crew helps freshmen broaden their views and helps them through the process of entering high school. The seniors and juniors that help the freshmen are called Link Leaders. Throughout the year the Link Leaders meet with the freshmen to check how the school year has been going so far.
Thanks to Ms. Siegler, Ms. Jordan and all the Link Leaders, Link Crew’s first year was a success! How did the Link Leaders get chosen, you may ask. In order to participate and become a Link Leader, you need to be a Junior or Senior. You also have to turn in an application, then Ms. Siegler and Ms. Jordan will decide if you are able to be a leader.
In order to be prepared for Summer Bridge, Ms. Jordan, Ms. Siegler and the Link Leaders met together during the summer for two days. In those two days, the Link Leaders were introduced to the program and were informed about the activities that were going to take place during Summer Bridge. Link Leaders went through the activities to be familiar with the process. A pair of Link Leaders were assigned a group of ten students. Prior to Summer Bridge, Link Leaders had to call their group of ten students to remind them about Summer Bridge.
After the two days of training, it was show-time. This year, Summer Bridge looked a bit different than what the rest of the upperclassmen were used to. The first day of Summer Bridge, focused on the activities practiced during the two training days. These activities were fun for the freshmen but also included a lesson. The activities varied from learning each members’ name to tossing around a ball. These activities were able to open the freshmen to new ideas in how to handle the stress HMSA may come with. The Link Leaders were able to share their experience and how they handled everything. For the rest of the three days, Summer Bridge was informing the freshmen about the expectations, requirements, and the general information about HMSA.
Many freshmen found Link Crew helpful and beneficial. Freshman Daniel B. stated, “Link Crew helped me in navigating around the school. It also helped me make new friends within my Link Crew group.” Other freshmen were able to learn the expectations of HMSA from a student’s point of view. Freshmen found the Link Leaders helpful and were able to connect in some way with their Link Leaders. Freshman Victoria R. described her Link Leader as insightful: “My Link Leader shared her personal experience here, finding this helpful.” Link Crew was able to reach to the freshmen and help them ease into HMSA.
For the first time taking off, Link Crew has been a success. As the following years continue, there may be changes made. Since this is the first school year Link Crew has been implemented, “there is nothing to compare it to” stated Ms. Siegler. She continued, “With the years, Link Crew will be better. So far, everything has gone well. Receiving feedback from the Leaders and freshmen will help us improve Link Crew.” Senior Link Leader Amelia N. believes overall Link Crew is a success. She said, “In my opinion, Link Crew is successful, so far. Compared to past years, this was different to what we have done. Freshmen didn’t expect such excitement and the activities done on the first day of Summer Bridge.”
We can say that so far, Link Crew is a success! Link Crew allows freshmen to connect more personally and helping them get to know each other more in-depth.
