Table of Contents
If you drove by Winchester High School this week, you might have wondered what was up with all the kids coming and going from the building, especially the ones with the yellow smiley-faced shirts.
Sure, it’s only a week before school officially starts on Sept. 5, but it didn’t stop a few hundred kids from participating in tours of the high school, both giving them and taking them.
WHS Principal Dennis Mahoney said about 100 students from Peer Alliance Leaders (PAL) volunteered to be on campus Aug. 28 to show the new kids around, 50 in the morning and 50 in the afternoon.
“I took a tour as a freshman and I thought it was very helpful and I wanted to do it for someone else,” said PAL volunteer and incoming senior Tasnim Abdurrob, of why she was on hand. “McCall [Middle School] is so different and I thought it would help kids feel less stressed out.”
Fellow senior Aden Huang said he’d also taken the tour as a freshman.
“It helps to have a person you know on the first day of school,” he said. “You can be a friend.”
Julien He, also an incoming senior, said his brother is a freshman this year and unlike Abdurrob and Huang who have done the tours for a few years now, this was his first time volunteering.
“My brother is a freshman so I know a lot of these kids,” he said. “I wanted to help them start in a good way. It’s also a good way to connect, especially if you see them during the school year.”
Freshman wandered WHS Wednesday, whether in groups with PAL tours, in pairs or even solo. Alfredo Solar de la Fuente said he wasn’t sure what drew him to the school except maybe to get a feel of the building.
“I went to orientation, but I wanted to come to the tour so I could follow my schedule,” he said, looking around a corridor in B building.
When asked if he was excited about starting high school, he shrugged.
“A little bit,” he said.
Fellow incoming freshmen Michael Torres and Euan Gwee were also unsure about opening day. Gwee said it was mixed feelings.
“Half and half,” he said about whether or not he was excited. “I’m excited to be here, but you know, it’s school.”
As they waited in the teeming cafeteria, both Torres and Gwee agreed it was important to come take the PAL tour.
“I don’t want to be here on the first day with no idea where I’m going,” Torres said. “I want to have a good start.”
Gwee agreed.
“I don’t want to get lost,” he said. “I wanted to have a general sense and overall understanding of the school.”
Mahoney said giving freshmen support, whether via PAL or other programs, has paid off. He said throughout the year, freshmen and other students starting out in Winchester, have the opportunity to provide feedback about what works and if they need other resources to settle in at the school.
Upon hearing how enthusiastically the PAL mentors spoke about the school, he laughed.
“It’s par for the course around here,” he said. “Most of our students enjoy the high school process. They are engaged and they volunteer and attend to the school in one form or another.”
As the new school year draws nearer, Mahoney added WHS is ready for opening day.
“Oh, yes, we’re ready,” he said. “We were ready last week! Now it’s just a matter of crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.”
