Students Partake in 2nd Annual Freshmen Project
The second annual Freshmen Project took place on Sept. 27, 2012. This time, there were multiple activities happening across school so every grade level could be involved.
“[The Freshmen Project was] a program developed last year,” said athletics director Kris Kellams. Kellams organizes the Freshmen Project along with three student leaders – senior Paige Marshall, senior Emily Ladig and junior Mary-Kate Mudd. “We developed a program that helps people respect differences.”
The Freshmen Project is designed to allow upper and lowerclassmen to bond. They discuss personal differences, respect, and how to keep North a safe community. Seniors volunteer to go into freshmen academic labs and lead them in activities and discussions.
“[The Freshmen Project is important because] it establishes the school’s climate, [and] sense of togetherness,” said Marshall.
The freshmen ac-labs were focused on getting the students to know each other and their senior guests. After the seniors’ introductions, the class performed activities to show things about themselves others might not know, like “if you really knew me” (where students tell things that define them) and “stand if you can” (where students show their personal experiences by standing up to prompts). At the end of lab, students were given contact cards for them to get in contact with people if they need physical or emotional assistance.
“[We got students involved] last year by going to all leadership groups, went to meetings, told them what we wanted to do and they signed up. By the end, we had 60 student leaders to facilitate the project,” said Kellams. “This year, Emily Ladig started a Facebook page and got past members to come back.”
Marshall, Ladig and Mudd organized the project before it starts, but let the senior volunteers run the discussions on their own.
“[We] make sure everybody goes to lab, make sure everything is organized,” Marshall said. “We pretty much took what we did last year and did it again with a few revisions.”
This year, there were several changes. After receiving feedback from students, Kellams decided to move the day of the project to the first semester instead of the second. There were also events scheduled for sophomores, juniors and seniors.
“One difference is that we have 90 student leaders…so we added sophomore labs, but we’re doing…fewer activities and more discussion,” Kellams said. “We have a whole assembly on bullying for juniors, and the seniors will also have an assembly on personal responsibility and safety.”
The junior assembly was held in the upper gym and led by Jody Chambers, North’s health and wellness instructor. The students were told about cases where school communities both succeeded and failed to respect people. They then performed a “cross the line” activity to show the people who stand out from the crowd. The assembly concluded with students and teachers pledging to be more respectful to others.
In the theater, the seniors had an assembly led by guest Officer Struckfuss. Struckfuss focused his presentation on personal responsibility and obeying the law. He told a personal story of when he, as a teenager, got into a car accident and only survived because he had taken the responsibility to put on a seatbelt. He later answered questions about his duty as a police officer and the duty of citizens to obey the law.
“I am amazed every day by the character of our students and their willingness to step up and lead – to make this a better place,” Kellams said.
The Freshmen Project was only one day long, but organizers hope that it has lasting effects on the Parkway North community. A follow-up with the seniors and freshmen is planned for Jan. 2013.
by Jonothan Herzog