Photograph by Dai Sugano

Los Gatos High School math teacher Dolly Sandoval shows Link Crew volunteers how to help freshmen relax with a game to learn names.

Link Crew aims to ease high-school transition

Juniors, seniors lend helping hand

By Jason Baker

As high school students across the country geared up for the fall semester, memories of a spring wracked by violence were slowly being replaced by anxious hope for a successful fall. Football players already have begun nursing the first bruises of the season. Teachers have started the lesson plans that they hope will guide students down the path of lifetime learning. And student leaders are readying themselves for the task of helping incoming freshman students make sense of the confusion and chaos high school can present.

At Los Gatos High School this fall, wide-eyed freshmen will have a beacon in the sea of classrooms and new faces in the form of the Link Crew. The newly implemented program paired each of the 420 incoming freshmen with a specially trained junior or senior peer counselor, who will provide a resource and friendly face seasoned by the trials of high school life.

Assistant Principal Doug Ramezani, one of the Los Gatos instructors who helped coordinate the Link Crew, said the program is geared to help smooth students' transitions from middle school to high school.

"There are so many things students need to know--things they may not hear from teachers or counselors," Ramezani said. "The peer counselors provide a point of first contact for them."

The 110 Link Crew members tackled their first assignments on Aug. 30 as they guided the incoming freshmen through freshman orientation. The morning began with new students pairing up with their links and participating in lighthearted activities, such as learning names, intended to break the silence of first-day jitters. Groups of students, many clad in unique hats--including Burger King crowns and propeller-topped beanies--then toured the LGHS campus, an activity which may serve to eliminate "I was lost" from the list accepted excuses for first-day tardiness.

Much like other student organizations, Link Crew demanded work above and beyond the expectations of the average student. Along with attending a special training session in May, members spent more than eight hours Aug. 25 and 26 learning the skills and instructional games that they employed during freshman orientation. Senior Links Katya Dara and Jamie Kellenberger said they have grown to see the Link Crew as a valuable program they would have liked to go through as freshmen. The program, they said, helps cut across the social cliques that often develop in high school. The primary goal of the program, they said, is to lessen the anxiety most incoming freshmen face during the first days of high school.

"When I was a freshman we didn't have this type of program. We didn't really know anyone and we had to find friends on our own," Dara said.

Crew members will have two other scheduled meetings during the year. But Kellenberger said the juniors and seniors also would be exchanging phone numbers with their freshman counterparts, providing them with a source of support.

"We may even make plans to take them out to lunch, since most of them don't drive," Kellenberger said.

Ramezani said freshmen would participate in other activities with their assigned peer counselors throughout the year. Additionally this semester, administrators plan to have one academic advisor stay with the same class through all four years, in order to build trust and security by giving students enough time to develop a relationship with an advisor.

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