“When a school has spirit, it means it has a soul.”
So said Keith Hawkins, owner of Real Inspiration, Inc., at freshmen orientation on Aug. 5. Leadership hired Hawkins to train the members of the new buddy program, which aims to make the integration of freshmen into Aragon as positive of an experience as possible.
“We’re hoping that the freshmen will be a lot more comfortable with the campus,” says leadership advisor Melissa Perino. “The main thing we’re trying to do is let them know that they have a community here that’s meant to support them and not to put them down because they’re the newcomers.”
There are 60 upperclassmen “big buddies,” and each is paired with six or seven freshmen “little buddies.” Students applied to be a buddy at the end of last year.
Says senior big buddy Takuya Miwa, “I wanted to be a buddy because I feel like I work really well with kids [and because] I’m a really big spirit guy. Honestly, when these freshmen are seniors, the tradition of this school is going to be so different. I feel like the freshman are already more involved in the class.”
Before orientation, the big buddies attended a training led by Hawkins. “We’ve trained the buddies to be a blueprint for the freshmen for the whole year,” says Hawkins. “They’re trying to teach [the freshmen] to understand that if you love yourself as a person no matter who you are, you’ll feel like you belong.”
Big buddy and senior Miranda Morse says, “I was expecting to be watching some Powerpoint or something, but then [Hawkins] gets up on stage and starts yakking away and telling us about his experiences and about what he does, and I was like ‘Oh my God, this guy is cool.’”
At freshman orientation, the buddies did activities with their groups and gave a tour of a campus, and the buddy program will continue beyond the first few days of school.
Perino says, “We will also be planning events about once a month for the first semester, just until they acclimate, and then during the spring, we’ll still have a few events.”
The buddy program not only creates connections between upper and underclassmen but also among the freshmen in each buddy group.
“I got to know other people, I guess I made some friends, so I’m not completely alone, and it’s helpful knowing that,” says incoming freshman Melissa Zuno Garcia. “It shows you it’s nothing like ‘Mean Girls.’ “
