By: Gabby Lewis, Editor in Chief<\/p>\n
As all River Hill students know, the transition from middle school to high school can be a tough climb. In comparison to eighth grade, being in ninth grade is a swift shift into being a teenager and having more independence. The Class of 2022 is bigger than any of the other grades, with over 200 students from JumpStart, meaning more students than ever before are adjusting to high school life. With the addition of this year\u2019s mentoring program, \u201cHawks on the Rise,\u201d the new freshmen will hopefully have a much easier start to their time at River Hill with the rest of the school body.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHawks on the Rise\u201d pairs incoming freshmen, or \u201cfledglings,\u201d with an upperclassman who acts as their mentor. With the help of mentors, or \u201cfalconers,\u201d the freshmen will have someone to guide them during the school year and aid them with problems both academic or social. The falconers and their fledglings, or \u201ckettles,\u201d eat lunch together on certain days, and multiple kettles will eat together on specified days as one large group known as a \u201ccauldron.\u201d In addition, each falconer with their kettle is paired with a teacher who can give the freshmen further advice if needed.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms. Martin, one of River Hill\u2019s English teachers and the leader of the ninth grade team, created \u201cHawks on the Rise\u201d this year specifically because of the amount of freshmen from JumpStart rather than from feeder middle schools, meaning that it could be harder for students to find a group because others from their own schools were feeding elsewhere. One of her goals is that \u201c[the freshmen] don\u2019t feel alone this year and that they feel connected to somebody or something… I was hoping that this would give them a way to find friends faster and give them a support group.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Martin also hopes that \u201cboth the mentors and the freshmen will actually both grow, will learn from each other, will become more empathetic and understanding, and more relationships will form between grades so that the school doesn\u2019t feel so big.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Senior Melissa Anderson helped Martin by being her assistant in the entire creation of \u201cHawks on the Rise.\u201d As a student coming in from one of the minimal feeder schools, she remembers being \u201cdesperate to bond with others and feel like I belonged.\u201d She chose to help make the program to \u201ccreate an environment where incoming students regardless of their prior schooling or backgrounds can come together as one River Hill.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Although the school year has only just begun, the program has begun to help freshmen\u2019s transition feel easier and more natural. Freshman Sam Rennich states, \u201cMy mentor has not only introduced me to new people but has also taught me the \u201cbasics of high school,\u201d or so to say.\u201d Another ninth-grader, Olivia Lewis, adds, \u201cMy mentor has given me some of his own advice as to what high school is like and his opinions on teachers and stuff which really helped me feel more comfortable… during the first week.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHawks on the Rise\u201d might be a new program, but it will hopefully become a staple aspect of River Hill culture in years to come so that we can come together and be more united as a school community.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Gabby Lewis, Editor in Chief As all River Hill students know, the transition from middle school to high school can be a tough climb. In comparison to eighth grade, being in ninth grade is a swift shift into being a teenager and having more independence. The Class of 2022 is bigger than any of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[280,330,286,329,328,332,269,211,285,331],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-feature","tag-hcpss","tag-journalism","tag-mentor","tag-metoring","tag-newss","tag-rhhs","tag-river-hill","tag-river-hill-high-school","tag-the-current"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/fledglings.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1032,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions\/1032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}