With an entirely new class of freshmen arriving at South in the coming year, Link Crew is a student-driven source of guidance for new Blue Devils. As a means of helping these students adjust to a different and more intimidating environment, they are separated into small groups for an orientation and accompanied by an appointed group of juniors and seniors to help them learn about the school and make it through their first year. Link Crew advisor Andrew Taylor said that the group’s main goal is to make the transition from middle school to high school more comfortable and relieve any tense feelings they might have.
“Many freshmen come to South and feel connected right away, but many do not,” Taylor said. “Along with this making them feel happier, it can also help them with academics and to not miss opportunities like joining a club they are interested in but might not have known about.”
Link Crew also has designated officers in the club that receive additional training to learn how to help and distribute information to the leaders . Officer Kate Ozar ’24 said that part of being an officer is being a very engaged member in Link Crew.
“You have to really communicate with the advisors as well as the students to make sure you know everything that is going on,” Ozar said. “Link leaders will have questions that you will need to answer because you are a supervisor for them, as well as you are the freshman”
The sense of community in Link crew is a unique thing found at South—it is different from other clubs as it brings together students that participate in all different types of extracurriculars. Ozar’s favorite thing about Link Crew is just that, and said that everyone is always helping each other out no matter what.
“We are always bouncing ideas off of each other to come up with the events Link Crew does,” Ozar said. “We always check in with the freshmen and try to connect with them with the milestones in their first year.”
Davis Linell ’25 is applying to be a Link Crew leader for the upcoming school year, and said that he is really excited to help out the freshmen with things he struggled with in ninth grade.
“I think I can connect with a lot of the students coming in that are interested in playing sports because that was one of my favorite things freshman year,” Linell said. “If me and the freshman are different in ways, I am confident that I can find a common ground to bond with all of them in some way.”
Taylor said he wanted to be an advisor for Link Crew because he enjoys seeing students grow in a different environment than just academically.
“Link crew helps you to work with people you don’t know and build relationships you may not have had without it,” Taylor said. “Link crew club is always trying to grow especially after our Covid set-back. We try to look into the experience for everyone to make the organization better overall so everyone can enjoy it.”
