Stepping into high school can be a mix of excitement and nerves. Some are ready to explore new opportunities but still determine what lies ahead. That’s the adventure of freshmen year. As the once-top dogs of middle school, freshmen now find themselves at the bottom of the high school ladder.

Link Crew, a group of upperclassmen, was created to turn those jitters into joy. With fun bonding activities and helpful meetings, student mentors guide freshmen through the maze of high school, ensuring no one feels lost or alone. 

“The original concept of Link Crew was to provide orientation and mentorship, and I think we’ve done the orientation piece since 2014 very well,” Link Crew sponsor and science teacher Doug Verby said. “The problem is the year-long mentoring and support for freshmen hasn’t taken place, mostly because of the availability of common meeting time. So our first goal after Covid was to bring back the orientation day and all the activities associated with that.” 

The club faced conflicting school schedules and needed more initial support. When the district established Greyhound Time, a period when students could meet with their teachers and receive extra help, Link Crew coordinated a time for upperclassmen to be trained to mentor freshmen. 

“It’s been called Link Crew forever, and we call the class Compass because it gives the kids a way of navigating the globe. It’s a cutesy little thing, but it made a lot of sense for this extension of what Link Crew was,” he said. 

The group’s name is intentional, demonstrating how it acts as a compass that leads freshmen in the right direction.

“Getting good quality leaders in front of freshmen makes them realize the importance of a freshman year and the difference between middle and high school. We’ve got a lot of great opportunities. We’ve got a lot of great activities, sports and clubs, but we also have very high expectations,” Verby said.

Verby is thankful for the crew they put together. He was unsure about where Link Crew was headed after COVID-19. 

“Luckily, we had Mrs. Chisholm step up and eventually partnered up with Mrs. Todaro and Ms. Cooper. We’ve got a really good group of sponsors. We’ve got wonderful support from the admin. They’ve bought in on the idea,” Verby said.

Verby believes that he and his fellow sponsors are present to steer the ship, and the students make the connections. 

“I see it as a group of people who are willing to help others and want to make this school a better place,” freshman Sia Girivaru said. “Coming into high school, I was really scared, especially about getting lost and adjusting to the system. My Link Crew leaders made me feel like I knew what I was doing, even though I did not. [On] the first day of school, I wasn’t as nervous as I thought,” Girivaru said.

Girivaru noticed the similarities between Link Crew and Web leadership in middle school.

“I was a web leader, and so, to be honest, when I was at orientation, I did feel like a sixth grader, but not in a bad way. We did the exact same thing in sixth grade. So, it was nice to experience and change,” Girivaru said.

Link Crew member senior Lavanya Mani was not a part of the Link Crew before this year.

“I saw it as a pretty one-and-done thing—a group made just for orientation. However, this year, we’re doing consistent meetings with our groups and with each other to talk about how things are going,” Mani said. 

Mani sees a noticeable organizational change from when she was a freshman. 

“One particular thing I’m excited about is getting to help the kids as they get more into the academics of high school because I feel like that’s where I’m strongest at helping,” she said.  “I’m able to help out with my kids. With freshmen, you get very different personalities. In the end, it’s a lot up to what they want to get out of it.”