Picture this: It’s your first day, middle of the semester. You walk into this huge building filled with people you have never seen in your life. Your locker won’t shut; you don’t know where to go to get help and the five minute bell rang three minutes ago.  Wouldn’t that suck? Coming to this school the first time when no one else knew their way around was bad enough, but being a new student to LJHS in the middle of the year would be frustrating. Luckily, LJHS has Student Ambassadors to help our new friends out.

Never heard of Student Ambassadors? Not many have. Student Ambassadors go behind the scenes to make the transition to LJHS easier for new students. Ninth grade counselor, Ms. Gannon, is in charge of all 17 ninth grade Student Ambassadors. They meet in seminar on Wednesday and Thursdays and walk new students to classes, sit with them at lunch, and help them learn their way around the school. LJHS has had Student Ambassadors for about five years; in past years Ms. Presser has run it.

Student Ambassadors get matched up with new students by gender and common interests. They get to leave classes five minutes early and come five minutes late so they can walk new students to classes. To be a student ambassador for LJHS you need to be easy to talk to, nice, and know your way around the school.  If you are an eighth grader at LJHS and are interested  you can talk to Ms. Gannon; also teachers recommend students who they think would be good ambassadors. If you are in ninth grade going into the high school, they have Peer Helpers (like Student Ambassadors, just a different name) at both of the high schools. If you are interested, you can email Amy Tuso for LHS or Emily Presser for LNHS to learn more.

Olivia Wilson, former Student Ambassador, describes Student Ambassadors, “We just try to help new students feel comfortable. We have breakfast once a month with the new students and talk about how things are going. It’s a lot of fun.” Olivia mentions she wants to do this next year, “I really enjoy it and I feel good helping new students.” Olivia was chosen to do it in seventh grade and has stuck with it.

Whether it’s your thing or not, we owe a round of applause to our Student Ambassadors for helping our school run more smoothly. Without them being here, new students at LJHS would be a lot more stressed.  We have 20 new students this year, that’s a lot of prevented chaos thanks to our Student Ambassadors.

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