New buddy system helps students feel more welcome

The New Student Commission is adding a new component this year: an upperclassman-new student buddy system. Usually, the commission only holds an annual barbecue at the end of summer for students new to the district.

Senior commissioner Ruchie Bhardwaj, however, felt that they should do more to help students adjust to a completely new school.

“When I was new to Harker in sixth grade, they had an entire buddy system set up,” Bhardwaj said. “It was nice knowing that you could talk to someone, so I wanted to do something like that here.”

Each commissioner is assigned to one new student and will contact him or her by phone or by Facebook for a lunch date sometime during the first few weeks of school. Commissioners will get to know their buddies and help them feel more welcome. However, head commissioner Nicole Shadman, a senior, thinks the system might have worked better in previous years.

“I’ve seen more new students involved in school activities this year. A lot of students have many friends and are already doing really well,” Shadman said.

Junior Wesley Park is a new student who is fitting in well with Saratoga High students without much help from the commission.

“Everyone is really nice and I knew some people from before, so it’s OK,” Park said. “But in terms of academics, it’s harder to get used to.”

Bhardwaj believes the program will be more effective in the future because it will run more smoothly once the commissioners have worked out the kinks.

“We started the program kind of late this year because it’s the first year that we’re implementing it,” Bhardwaj said. “Ideally, we would have had the buddies matched at the end of the previous year. I think in the future, it could be really helpful to the new students.”