The freshmen have been helped, but they have opinions

Tuesday Aug. 21, the crowd is swarming, you’re walking around the hallway trying to hear your Link Crew leader over all the noise, keeping an eye on their red “Linkcredibles” t-shirt. 500 people all attempting to map out the school, all new students, all attending orientation.

Orientation, led by math teacher and new Link Crew sponsor Victoria Russell, functioned as a guide to incoming freshman and new students. Freshman Annie Rose Greenman said, “Orientation helped me settle in by giving me an idea of where everything is, and some basic rules like phone rules, lockers, and backpacks. It also helped me to meet new people.”

Not everything about orientation was helpful, though. When adjusting to a new area, the new environment can be challenging, and even mapping out the space is potentially difficult. Because rising freshmen were not familiar with the school, some felt that they needed more time to explore.

“The first few hours spent in the main gym with all the other freshmen doing bonding exercises could be shortened. Most people know everyone in our grade, and they… just wanted to see their classes,” said Greenman. “The biggest adjustment is probably just the size of the school and getting to where you need to be.”

Some of the activities in the gym included Simon Says, Quality Acha, Hula-hoop racing, and more. The goal of these games was to get the freshmen involved. “The games were useful in getting the freshmen comfortable with the leaders as well as each other,” said senior Link leader Ellie Ruhl.

After the games in the auditorium, freshmen went on a tour of the school before going through their entire schedule to meet their teachers, spending eight minutes in each block. Orientation has indeed helped students; new from Florida, junior Thomas Kest found orientation useful for getting adjusted.

“[I thought it was helpful for] finding out that most math classes are downstairs and most sciences are upstairs and stuff like that,” said Kest.

Greenman and Choi also agreed that seeing their classes and walking around the school was “helpful.”