By AMANDA M. HULCE
Staff writer

Kyle Cousins remembers walking through the halls of Holland Christian High School for the first time with his fellow freshmen.

"We were intimidated," he said. "We would have really liked friends who were seniors."

Cousins was one of 48 Holland Christian seniors out to change that for the class of 2008 Wednesday, as he voluntarily started school a day early to help ease incoming freshmen into high school life as a member of the school's new "Link Crew."

All 205 freshmen were received in the high school gym for orientation at 8:10 a.m., running through a gauntlet of screaming, high-fiving Link crew seniors.

 Holland Christian freshman Kathy Nunez-Reyes is welcomed to school by senior classmates, called the "Link Crew", during orientation Wednesday morning.

Sentinel/Dan Irving

Freshman Liz Tull said she wasn't as nervous about starting high school after the enthusiastic welcome.

"It's cool they would go through all the trouble to do that," Tull said.

This is the first year the school has had a specific transition plan in place for freshman. It was developed, said program organizer Janet Howell, because the high school receives students from so many different feeder schools -- the two Holland Christian middle schools, Zeeland Christian, South Olive Christian, and others.

"We wanted a program where they would all get to know each other and we could break down some barriers between them," Howell said.

"(Being here) is different, because it's a lot of people," said Jake Van Alten, a freshman coming to the high school from Zeeland Christian who says he is looking forward to the sports opportunities a larger school can offer.

After the welcome and an assembly, the students broke into groups of eight to 10 freshmen led by two Link leaders, and went through activities to learn each other's names and become acquainted.

New students were also taken on a tour of the high school by their Link leaders and given a pizza lunch before running through a mini-school day that allowed them to visit all of their classrooms briefly before school officially starts today.

"When you're a big school, you have to take some special measures to make people feel a part of the school," Principal Tim Hoeksema said. "We wanted to do a better job of transitioning kids ... of making them feel at home real quickly."

Contact Amanda M. Hulce at amanda.hulce@hollandsentinel.com or (616) 546-4258.