“My biggest fear before high school started was the cockroaches outside the band room,” Freshman Ivy Chung said. “I just personally don’t like them and when I saw them I got disgusted.”
Chung, like many others, heard a lot of rumors from high school students in her eighth grade year. Each year, these rumors, which range from reasonable to ridiculous, spread like wildfire in the incoming freshmen class.
“One of the fears I did have was overpopulation of the high school,” Freshman Eric Lau said. “And inability to adapt to a new surrounding, such as being surrounded by 2,000 students and having new teachers.”
Adapting to high school drives fear into Freshmen. Along with that, students who choose to take honor classes are consumed with stress.
“The increase in homework and the difficulty level of subjects scared me a lot,” Freshman Amanda Lam said. “There is a higher chance of a less than perfect GPA that will now contribute to placement in colleges.”
The incoming class usually does not know what to believe from the fears they have and rumors they are told. This is where the Link Crew steps in—helping students make the transition into high school easier.
“Usually if we hear any fears, we hear them at Link where we have small groups of students talk a bit about what they’re nervous about,” School Counselor Ms. Deanne Sciarrotta said. “The idea is that the Link Leaders are able to talk to the students from a student-to-student point of view, and let them know that a lot of the things they are afraid of are really just urban legend.”
The incoming freshmen have their first interactions with their Link Leaders at the annual Freshman Orientation. Link Leaders are teamed up, and each pair is assigned ten freshmen, who they keep track of and help throughout the year.
“From Link Leaders, I learned that high school can be really fun but challenging at the same time,” Chung said. “They helped me see that the rumors about everyone hating freshmen are not true, and they’re nice, super smart, and funny.”
During the first grading period, Link Leaders continue checking up with their assigned group of freshmen every Thursday. They also attend a Link meeting every month for training on how to make the freshmen feel more welcome.
“I’ve learned that the freshmen class is really fun,” Link Leader Junior Liborio Suarez said. “They love to talk, at least my freshmen do. They’re really outgoing.”