Student leaders describe Link Crew program that mentors more than 500 incoming freshmen

At a Sept. 9 Committee of the Whole meeting, student leaders and district staff described Link Crew, the high school's peer-mentoring program for incoming freshmen, saying the program gave new students a positive first-day experience and lines of adult and peer support. "Hi. I'm Anya Polanski and I'm a senior here at Warren," student Anya Polanski said in introducing the team. Student presenters said the program trained upperclassmen over the summer and ran orientation activities on Aug. 6 that drew more than 500 freshmen. "So Link Crew is our freshman mentoring program," one leader told the board. District staff connected Link Crew to the district strategic plan and metrics the board watches, including ninth‑grade on‑track rates and student sense of belonging. "This year's improvement plan includes Link Crew implementation and some measures around ninth grade on track, failure rate, sense of belonging for students, and student engagement," a district staff member explained. Student leaders told the board they organized roughly 85 link crews, each with about nine to 10 freshmen and two to three upperclass leaders, and that leaders prepared activities designed to teach names, build relationships and practice time-management and communication skills. Demonstrations shown to the board included a “juggling” activity the leaders used to illustrate how students must balance homework, activities and social life. Students said leaders maintain contact with their crews by email and plan to meet periodically during the school year. They also described plans to staff events at the A‑Plane activity fair and to be bused to other campus events once or twice a semester to keep contact with their assigned groups. Board members praised the student presenters and asked for ways to measure the program's impact. "I think it would be kind of interesting to see, like, for those that did attend and even for those that didn't attend that are assigned to Link Crew, like, how do you feel about your first experience," a board member said, asking whether the district planned surveys. District staff and student leaders said they could implement surveys now and suggested collecting that data next year as the program matures. What happened next: Board members encouraged continued work on Link Crew and on linking the program's activities to district outcomes; no formal action was taken. Why it matters: Board members and staff tied Link Crew to efforts to increase ninth‑grade success and to reduce early failures by giving freshmen multiple peer and adult contacts before classes begin.