Senior Link Crew Leader Gary Ni helped his group of freshmen find the right words to describe their positive traits. As he linked rings of colorful paper together, Ni hoped to guide the freshmen’s reflections on themselves and realize their potential.
“It felt good being really productive and helping out,” Ni said. “We didn’t do this last year, so when Ms. Castro approached us, it was something new.”
Link co-advisers Kristen Castro, Nate Slaymaker and Riley Saxon organized an activity for freshmen with Link Crew during Suicide Awareness Week on Sept. 12. During RAMS, Link Crew Leaders helped freshmen write their positive traits on papers and connect them in a chain to promote resilience and confidence.
“The idea behind resiliency is understanding what qualities you have—your strengths and what characteristics you have to handle difficult problems,” Castro said. “Instead of focusing solely on suicide, we looked at protective factors such as resiliency in students when challenges arise.”
The idea for the activity came from a discussion with TCUSD Director of Student Services Hannah Geddy. Having organized a lesson on resilience for freshmen the previous year, the Link co-advisers decided to bring back the topic.
Link Crew Leaders helped the co-advisers coordinate the event and reach out to students. After the RAMS activity, they spent their lunch break asking students to write their positive traits and add to a paper chain.
“I feel like this activity helped me realize that I am worth so much more than the things I have or don’t have,” junior Link Crew Leader Madeleine Kappas said. “I hope the activity made them open their minds to knowing that we do have a place or a certain role to play in society.”
The co-advisers aimed to help students recognize their positive traits and understand how these strengths could help them in difficult times. By hanging positivity chains around campus, Link Crew Leaders helped students remember that they have the strength to endure anything.
Other programs on campus, such as the Peer Listener Program, strive to promote mental health awareness and encourage students to support their classmates. Peer Listeners and the Miss Temple City Court will be working together to post positive Post-it notes around campus. Peer Listener Program Director Susan Hook hopes to put the notes up after students take the PSAT and after the first grading period.
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