Easier initiation

By Julie Rooney/Enterprise staff writer

This year's crop of seventh-graders were treated to a warm welcome few of us can say we received in junior high school.

On the last day of summer break, they were invited to something called “WEB Orientation,” a morning of fun and games designed to introduce students to their new school. Principals, vice principals and counselors were on hand to offer assistance. Leading the orientation were eighth- and ninth-grade peer mentors called “WEB leaders.”

If you haven't heard of WEB, you're not alone. It's a new program at Davis junior high schools that stands for “Where Everybody Belongs.” WEB's purpose is to transition seventh-graders into junior high and to provide yearlong activities to help them succeed.

Based on the idea of students helping students, WEB is run by student leaders in the upper grades who mentor younger students - offering everything from a campus “hello” to forums on study skills and school diversity.

Counselor Cara Leppington introduced the program at Emerson Junior High School last year. After a successful first year, it expanded this year to include Harper and Holmes junior high schools.

“The WEB program immediately shows seventh-graders that there are eighth- and ninth-graders here who are kind and it really affects the school climate as a whole,” Leppington says.

She says she's seen a real difference at Emerson since the program began.

“Our school has shrunk in size and that can't go unmentioned,” she acknowledges. “There are fewer bodies on this campus so that does eliminate some of the cramming in the halls, which didn't feel good to everyone.”

But Leppington says she has seen a happier student body. Things like seventh-graders asking eighth- and ninth-graders to “play ball” is something new.

“In the past, you would have never seen that,” she says.

In return, the older students feel empowered with the effect they have had on the younger students.

Students helping students

Who are the WEB leaders? Selected by a panel of teachers and counselors, WEB leaders represent a cross-section of the student body with a range of ethnicities and interests. Ideally, Leppington says every seventh-grader should identify with a WEB leader and say, “Hey, I'm like him,” or “I'm like her.”

WEB leaders undergo training in a variety of areas, including small-group mediation, conflict resolution and public speaking. With loads of enthusiasm and a new set of skills, the leaders are assigned small groups of seventh-graders to guide throughout the school year. They may send their WEB group personal notes inviting them to a Wednesday morning late-start breakfast, an upcoming dance or to just say, “I'm here if you need me.”

They also address important issues as well. This year's WEB leaders will present seventh-grade forums on a variety of relevant topics, including study skills, bullying, diversity and gossip.

Ninth-grader Charlotte Krovoza, 14, is a WEB leader at Emerson and has enjoyed the experience.

“The most rewarding part for me is that you are making a difference in these seventh-graders' lives,” she says.

With the program in full swing, Krovoza says, “To see these guys later on quite social and having a good time, and not afraid to be themselves is really great.”

Explains Leppington, “We know that kids learn from kids. It's a really significant and powerful way to influence kids.”

While all three junior high schools structure the program differently - Emerson is the only program that has both eighth- and ninth-grade WEB leaders - Leppington says the main WEB concept is identical at each site.

Teacher Patricia Marlow is involved with the program at Harper Junior High School. She says the WEB orientation was a big hit with students.

“It made them feel more comfortable with the school,” she says.

Marlow also has noticed a decrease in bullying on campus, a major focus of the WEB program.

Paraeducator Cheryl Ozga, who works with WEB leaders at Holmes, reported her school's Web Orientation was well attended with almost every seventh-grader showing up for the pre-junior high morning.

“I think that for the seventh-graders, it made them feel comfortable with Holmes before school started,” she says.

And once the school year began?

“Everyone at school really commented that at the beginning of the year, the seventh-graders seemed to be walking a little taller, they weren't as worried,” Ozga says.

Life at 12

Why all of this attention on seventh grade? Any counselor will tell you it's a notoriously difficult stage in a child's life.

“The main issue I see is the struggle between being 12 and feeling like a kid and being 12 and feeling like I want to be a young adult,” explains Leppington.

During this phase, Leppington says peer groups often shift and kids begin to pull from the parental influence.

“This is the time when parents need to be the most present,” Leppington adds.

She suggests that parents allow some of that testing of independence in a variety of areas, like managing their homework and planner.

“It's not that you want to set your child up for failure,” she says. “Set your child up to try and then support.”

While seventh-graders are wading through myriad new experiences, the WEB program offers that extra boost of support the junior-high age student needs.

“Everything you say to them they really take to heart and really appreciate it,” Krovoza says. “If you just say ‘hi' in the halls, it means so much to them.”

- Reach Julie Rooney at jrooney@davisenterprise.net or 747-8051.