Service with a Smile: LFHS Students Embrace Helping Fellow Students

By David A. F. Sweet

A Lake Forest Community High School student was frustrated with the 16^th-century language of Romeo & Juliet. He struggled to relate to the Shakespearean tragedy involving teenage lovers.

Peer Tutoring, which nurtures student-to-student sessions, helped bring understanding.

“Everybody has big hearts,” says Elaine Metz about the Scout Buddies program, one of many where students help students. “The peer tutor told him, ‘You’re absolutely right,’ and got the student on his side,” said David Hain, part of the LFHS Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) who helps organize the five dozen or so weekly gatherings. “The peer tutor started talking about Romeo & Juliet in personal terms – ‘Romeo is like this person you know at the school.’ Then the student understood it.”

The idea of students helping students is embedded in LFHS culture. Aside from peer tutoring, other programs also embrace serving fellow pupils.

Scout Buddies is one. Every other Thursday, regular students known as Peers connect with those with special needs, known as Scout Buddies, fostering friendships among teenagers who may not otherwise meet.

“The friendships each member forms are real and lasting,” wrote Libby Whidden -- who has been part of Scout Buddies since freshman year -- in The Forest Scout.

Peers take Scout Buddies to LFHS football and basketball games, often for the first time, as the Scout Buddies can feel the normal teenage unease of attending events with their parents. A Valentine’s Day DJ Dance is always a big hit. The Peers and Scout Buddies make pancakes together and run bake sales, work on holiday crafts as a team, and participate in talent shows and karaoke.

“We’re always looking for fun ideas,” said Elaine Metz, who works in the Math Resource Center and whose 28-year-old daughter, Sammie, has Down Syndrome. She sponsors the Scout Buddies program with Brian McAdams, a teaching assistant in the Educational Life Skills program.

“Everybody has big hearts,” Metz added. “Not everyone is patient with people with special needs, but those who are, it’s beautiful to watch.

“On days when you’re so tired and want to go home, and you see the friendships and the smiles, it’s heartwarming.”

Upperclassmen who are part of Link Crew help freshmen feel welcome and comfortable during their LFHS orientation. Bedecked in green T-shirts with the words “The Power of Freshmen” inscribed on them, Link Crew members high-fived the newest LFHS students this past August, put leis on them and generally tried to mitigate any anxiety they might feel.

“Every freshman meets someone new, and they start to get to know each other," says Maggie Harmsen about Link Crew.

“There was a part where all 400 freshmen and the Link Crew leaders were doing activities, and you could hear a pin drop,” said Maggie Harmsen, a social worker at LFHS who runs Link Crew, which consists of about 70 students annually. “Every freshman meets someone new, and they start to get to know each other.

“I would say most, if not all, in their application process to join Link Crew later on say, ‘I loved my Link Crew leader. That is why I’m applying to be one.’”

In a similar vein, applicants to Peer Tutoring must have been tutored by a peer tutor previously. Like Link Crew leaders, they must go through training.

“The critical aspect of the tutor is his or her relationship with the student, so we role-play in training,” Hain said. “The student pretends to be uncommitted to the process. The tutor needs to have enough honey to get the students invested in the process.

“We’ve made the program successful because the tutor can say, ‘I’ve been here too.’ I don’t know what we’d do without the peer tutors.” This story was first published here.