This school year marks the second year of Link Crew at Dominion. Instead of going to traditional Clubhouse, a group of 10-15 freshman will meet up with each other and their two ‘Link Leaders’ or upperclassmen who guide them throughout their first year of high school.

Link Crew was established in order to accomplish a variety of schoolwide goals. Antonn Chasse, a senior Link Leader, said, “The original goal for link crew is to accelerate the integration of freshman into high school.”

Mr. Libuit, Dominion’s Link Crew sponsor, takes it a step further by saying, “The original goal of Link crew is to build a positive environment for the whole school—not just the freshman, but that’s where it starts. The idea is to implement a program that will take 4 years to be fully successful.”

While upperclassmen work with their Clubhouse teachers to learn beneficial life skills, the freshman do similar activities with their Link Leaders. Beth Devine, a senior Link Leader, said, “We do a lot of bonding activities that allow us to grow closer as a Link Crew. We have a lot of actives that also teach important life lessons. For example, our most recent activity was a survival scenario. The freshmen were given a list of 10 items, and listed the items in level of importance first by themselves and then with other people. This lesson shows that working with others and seeing different perspectives helps one make crucial decisions.”

Overall, Link Crew has become a part of the day that freshman enjoy as it gives them a chance to bond with one another, learn from their leaders’ high school experience, and transition more easily into the next four years of their education. It has also proven to be successful through teacher feedback about their freshman students.

Libuit said, “One of the biggest things that I feel has been a success is that some of our freshman opened up to the upperclassman, and in some cases, those seniors had the ability to tell teachers and counselors about some of the things that are affecting our younger students. It’s a community of protection, and that’s a success.” Chasse and Devine, as leaders, get to see this success firsthand as their freshman open up and share their experiences with them, and also as teachers give them feedback that the freshmen have become more involved with various school activities.

While Link Crew has in general been very successful thus far, Devine, Chasse, and Libuit say it could still be improved to take the program to its full potential. For example, Devine would like to see more link crew activities outside of the standard 15 minutes they spend with each other every Tuesday and Wednesday. Link Crew usually holds a tailgate party at the beginning of the year, but aside from this, there are few events outside of school.

In order to promote the success and improvement of Link Crew in the years to come, Libuit attended a Link Crew conference in North Carolina earlier this week where he learned more about his job as a sponsor and what he could do to benefit the program as a whole. Libuit said, “I learned how to train the Link crew leaders. I learned how to give the presentation in front of the freshman class on their first orientation day, and a set of best practices for education that I will weave into my classes.”

While many are unaware that Link Crew extends outside of our own school, the conference provides more insight into the true reach of this program. Link Crews can be found scattered across the U.S., according to Libuit, who met people at the conference who came from places such as Detroit, Michigan and Washington State. As a nationwide program, Link Crew has been established for the past 20 years, despite its new arrival to Dominion.

Link Crew will continue next year, and will possibly see some new changes and improvement as Libuit shares his experience at the conference with his fellow sponsor Ms. Nguyen and the Link Leaders. Libuit said, “We’re in year 2 of a 4 year re-build of a culture.”