Photo courtesy of Link Crew
17 May 2013
GRADUATE: Link Crew held its second-annual Commitment to Graduate.
By Leti Bernard, Features editor
From the first day of high school, a majority of students resolve to graduate by the end of their senior year. However, this goal may become uncertain for some freshmen after they go through the motions of their first few months of high school.
Luckily, Link Crew, a program at Poly that aids freshmen throughout their first year of high school, knows that this uncertainty is a common problem. So, Link Crew has created a resource that hopefully gives freshmen the desire to graduate: an event called Commitment to Graduate, or C2G.
C2G was initiated last year, when Link Crew was first introduced to Poly, and this year Link Crew hopes to make the same effect it did previously. The main goal of C2G is to emphasize to freshmen how important it is to graduate high school.
“Our ‘Commitment to Graduate’ Assembly (C2G) is one of my favorite Link Crew events of the school year. It allows our Link Leaders (especially the seniors) to get excited about their own graduation as they reminisce and share stories about their high school experiences and plans for their future. It also allows our freshmen to celebrate as they commit to graduate together, as a class,” Mrs. Wilson, the Link Crew coordinator, expressed about the event.
The event, which took place on March 29th, consisted of activities that were designed to get freshmen excited and motivated to graduate high school. They started off by going through an obstacle course that represented how high school is not always a smooth ride; there are, well, obstacles that students must get through in order to succeed. The freshmen then watched a five-minute video, created by students in the Link Crew class, that documented all the important components of one’s high school career, with an emphasis on graduating.
During the rest of the event, the freshmen visited the different graduation-oriented stations that were in each corner of the gym. Some students signed a graduation banner, while others signed gowns or took pictures, with their friends, in front of a back-drop that read: “Congratulations Class of 2016.”
When the day was over, every Link Crew leader was in good spirits, hoping that his or her efforts in getting freshmen to commit to graduate would pay off in the long run. The odds are in Link Crew’s favor, however, since last year’s event impacted those freshmen significantly. One sophomore in particular, Eric Flores, experienced the effects of C2G first hand, and is now a part of a department of Link Crew called The “A Team.”
“It is great knowing that Link Leaders care about our academic progress besides all the fun activities they provide for us. It helped me understand what type of steps I should be taking in order to attend a University,” Flores reflected about his prior C2G experience.
High school is a small milestone in a person’s life, and Link Crew has committed to help freshmen resolve to get through these four years and graduate.