Link Crew Welcomes Class of 2014

By Anh Le

Every year, the Fountain Valley High School  organizes Link Crew, a fun and welcoming freshman orientation event that helps incoming freshmen become more comfortable with High School the week before school starts. This year\’s event, which was held on­­ the 23^rd and 24^th of August, was very successful.

The class of 2014 was first welcomed to FVHS by reassuring cheers as they walked through a gauntlet of link leaders dressed in uniformly vivid  blue shirts. After name tags where distributed, the freshmen sat down in the bowl for an encouraging pep talk with Mr. Nelson, a proud and dedicated  teacher. They were told how high school worked, and the basic rules that governed it. Among the guest speakers was Mr. Herzfeld, FVHS\’s  very own principal, who personally gave his greetings to the new students.

The gathering was also filled with ice-breaking activities and funny songs. “Pop the Balloon” for example, was  a game where six boys and girls were given a balloon to pop by  squeezing the balloon between them.

After the opening meeting, freshmen felt pumped to get into personal groups with their link leaders. Each group had slightly more than ten freshmen for every two link leaders.

Each group played different games such as Count Off and 64 Squares. The freshmen  were also able to listen to each Link Leader go through their personal high school experiences. By the end of the session, the freshmen were definitely much more comfortable about starting high school. They were also given tips on how to survive the first hectic year.

Incoming “Freshie” Pauline Nguyen (\’14) says, “Link Crew really helped me get a feel [for ] what high school was going to be like, and now I\’m super excited!”

The tradition of dressing freshmen in silly costume continued onward this year. Kids dressed in a variety of costumes and props, ranging from trash bags and hippies to the famous Mystery machine from Scooby Doo could be seen wandering the campus.

The orientation  ended with a campus tour and an optimistic closing speech by Mr. Nelson. All in all, everything went smoothly and the freshmen had a good time.

Link leader Justine Nguyen (\’11) comments, “The freshmen this year really surprised me. Some acted like how the teachers warned us, which was pretty immature, but mostly they held themselves accordingly and seemed to fit in perfectly at Fountain Valley.”