NHS Link Crew Welcomes Freshmen

Newtown High School juniors and seniors welcomed incoming freshmen to the school during the new student orientation on August 24.

For the first time this year, the juniors and seniors participated in the Link Crew program, which, according to the school, is designed to “welcome and support freshmen by assigning them a junior or senior Link Leader as a mentor during their first year.”

Link Leaders wore orange shirts during the orientation event, and wore the shirts again on the first day of school to designate themselves as people the new students could look toward for guidance, according to Link Crew coordinator Amy Repay.

Ms Repay is a coordinator for the program with Cheryl Lombardo, Jeremy O’Connell, and Lisa Kapitan.

According to the school, Link Leaders were selected from a pool of applicants for their leadership qualities.

“Link Crew was a huge success,” said Ms Repay. “We had over 100 upperclassmen come in three days early over the summer.”

The Link Leaders spent two days training for their roles and one day helping to oversee orientation.

Ms Repay also said each Link Leader was connected with two or three freshmen to serve as “big buddies” throughout the students’ freshmen year.