A Peer into Peer Leaders
Hawken’s Peer Leadership program was created with the goal of helping freshmen transition into high school and to help them connect to upperclassmen. Freshmen are assigned to two peer leaders and usually meet with their peer leadership group once a rotation, discussing both topics prevalent in the Hawken community and topics that affect high school students. Some of you may remember peer leadership because of the Know Abuse discussions and others of you may remember the kindness of your peer leaders. We decided to explore if the program is actually meeting its goal and also to evaluate its effectiveness.
While there are many positive aspects to the peer leadership program, there is still room for improvement. Through anonymous interviews with the freshmen, we have learned that the majority believe that peer leadership groups helped them make friends, but there are limitations to the program’s usefulness in other areas. Pedro Chiesa, a current freshman, believes that while “the peer leadership program has helped [him] make friends at Hawken,” what would be more useful was if peer leaders were people he could go to “for advice but this hasn’t happened.” While the peer leadership system tries to foster connections and trust between the freshmen and the upperclassmen, other aspects of Hawken culture have prevented the integration of these groups. Based on the belief of many freshmen, it would be difficult to interact with a peer leader outside of the group meetings due to the physical divide between the grades. As many of us know, entering the Shiv and finding seniors is not the easiest task and can be nerve wracking, especially to a freshman who feels out of place amongst upperclassmen. This physical divide makes interactions difficult, but there are other problems that add to this. Another freshman, Cassidy Feng, believes that the few meetings are not sufficient enough to foster a deep connection with peer leaders, so she feels uncomfortable with the idea of asking them for advice or asking questions outside the safe space of the peer leader meetings. A word of advice for the freshmen is to not be afraid to talk to your peer leader when you see them and to search for them because they do want to talk to you. Current peer leader Ally Sewell believes that “one of the best feelings ever is when you see one of your freshmen in the halls and getting a high five or when they come to you with a fun story or for advice.”
A question that many of us have about the peer leadership program is how useful is it really? Sure, the concept of having a group that meets and discusses important topics and works to integrate students in the community sounds like a great idea, but how does this play out in our community? Ally Sewell recounts that “[she] remembers going to peer groups as a freshman and not getting as much out of it as [she] wishes [she] did which made [her] want to become a peer leader and try to help freshmen get a lot out of it.” The effectiveness of the peer leadership program has been in discussion for a while amongst the student body, but by discussing with current freshmen, we think we have learned more about this issue. Freshmen like Pedro believe that the big picture discussions and some of the discussions about pressing issues like those covered in Know Abuse should be saved for another time, and instead, the peer leadership program should devote its entire efforts to the goal of helping freshmen integrate into the community and “make sure they are comfortable and doing well.” Junior Jake Wei who went through the program as a freshman believes that the peer leadership program should place “more emphasis on actual high school life apart from social life” such as important tips to integrate academically and tips for making the most out of high school. As Ally Sewell notes, one of the biggest challenges the peer leadership program faces is keeping freshmen interested in the discussions. She explains that she wants “to help freshmen have the meaningful experience that [she] didn’t. It is a two way street though. We can plan the most amazing peer group but if freshmen aren’t interested it can be hard for them to get anything out of it.” Many of the freshmen voiced their disinterest in the topics of discussion in peer leadership which, as Ally explains, makes it difficult for them to engage and have a meaningful experience.
A solution proposed by some of the freshmen would be to keep peer groups mandatory in the first semester when freshmen are new to the high school and require more guidance but make peer leadership groups optional in the second semester. Those who are truly interested in the discussions would still be able to utilize the peer leadership space when they would like while others who feel like they have found their space in the community may only have to check in with their peer leaders for a few minutes to make sure everything is going well. One reason this solution may be justified is by the second semester, many of the freshmen have found their place in the community through extracurriculars such as sports, HPS, Speech and Debate, and other clubs. Through these activities, freshmen are able to make connections with upperclassmen which may be stronger than connections with peer leaders, and they may also be more comfortable with these people as they spend more time with each other.
Overall, the goal and efforts of the peer leadership program are in the right place, but changes can be made to increase the benefits that the freshmen receive from the program and to increase interest among them. This can be achieved by changing community norms, working to find topics that interest the freshmen, or altering some of the program requirements. We hope that all the freshmen feel like they have a place in the community by the end of the year, and we encourage them to utilize the resources Hawken offers and to reach out to those who want to help.