By Abigail Miller 42Fifty Staff Writer
Senior Leaders at Oswego High School are finishing off their time with their freshman in Freshman Seminar classes.
Each week, Senior Leaders do at least two activities with freshman in their Freshman Seminar. Senior Leaders are also available to tutor their freshman, or just to be a peer mentor for younger students. Senior Leaders Hailey Martens, Ally Peters and Alison Sanders try to incorporate their own ideas into the class period as well.
“ like to play Hangman with class because everyone gets really involved and super competitive,” Peters shares.
“Sometimes we do activities like bringing in snacks every Friday, and that helps everybody talk to each other and get to know each other better,” Martens adds.
Martens, Peters and Sanders were all recommended by teachers to take on this position, but they were also self motivated.
“I wanted to be a senior leader because I really like doing things for people,” Sanders says. “I really thought that it’d be a good opportunity to help the freshman because I know when I was a freshman, I was really scared of the transition into high school and I wanted to help ease the next generation of freshman get into high school a little more easier than I did.”
“I wanted to be that person to help . . . figure out how to deal with high school because it is such a different thing than junior high,” Martens shares. “I like to help the freshman because I get to meet them too, and it’s nice to meet people outside of your comfort zone.”
“I just wanted to get involved more with school,” Peters says. “I feel like I’ve helped have a pride in OHS because I’ve enjoyed my time here, and I want them to have the same great high school experience I did.”
Martens, Peters and Sanders all agreed that being a senior leader wasn’t what they expected. But, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Sanders admits. “But now I realize how fun it is and how many opportunities it gave me to understand the younger kids in the school.”
Peters says that her freshman year, she barely even saw her senior leader. Now being a leader herself, she did not want to see this pattern continue.
“This year, I definitely made connections with a bunch of my kids,” Peters says. “”It’s really been a lot more impactful than I thought it would be.”
The Senior Leaders have made many new connections and memories through their position. Some of their favorite memories are when the class isn’t doing their assigned activities, but are just bonding and laughing with each other.
“I think one of the moments is when we played random Kahoot in my class…like Disney or Nickelodeon kahoots, “ Sanders explains. “I just think that seeing the whole class get together and doing it is really fun. It’s really fun to see them work together and be competitive.”
“The snack days are . . . nice because in the beginning no one really volunteered for it… but when we did have those days . . . you could tell that were caring more for their classmates and they’re all being friendly towards each other, which is nice to see,” Martens shares.
“I think my favorite is our hangman games,” Peters says. “One time . . . I put up my name and they guessed all but four letters and finally they’re like ‘Who’s Allyson Peters? I don’t know who Allyson Peters is!’ And I looked at them like, ‘Guys! It’s the beginning of second semester and you still don’t know my name?’”.
With moments like these, Senior Leaders agree that they enjoyed their involvement with this program.
“It was such a fun experience,” Sanders says.
Abigail Miller covers fine arts and academics at Oswego High School. She can be reached at 15000159@students.sd308.org. Or, contact the publication directly at 42fifty@sd308.org.
Student Publication of Oswego High School, Oswego, IL
