Vista Murrieta's Link Crew Helps Freshmen Prepare for Final Exams

Vista Murrieta High School's Link Crew hosted a free tutoring event Saturday, Dec. 14 for freshmen tasked with taking their first final exams as high-schoolers.

Sixty-four leaders arrived at school at 6:30 in the morning to prepare for the fall Final Review Sessions. At 7:30 a.m., 150 freshmen began to arrive, were broken up by subject matter and then spent four hours studying.

The subjects offered included English, biology, spanish, French, AP Human Geography, algebra 1, algebra 2 and geometry. Each student selected two subjects. The junior and senior Link Crew leaders were in every room to help and guide these freshmen as they studied.

Link Crew leader Bryan Rochford, a senior, is currently taking AP Human Geography and asked if he could put together a study session for the small group of freshmen who are taking their very first advanced placement class. So Bryan and fellow seniors Darren Charrier, Justin Duclayan and Anil Nair sat with a group of six AP Human Geography freshmen and studied for the full four hours. 

When the freshmen were asked how they felt at the end of the day they were all beaming and thankful for the help.

“The final review session was a success,” Bryan said. “As a tutor for AP Human Geography, we, hopefully, made a difference and taught the freshmen something useful. Tutoring always helps and by Link Crew leaders offering this event for free, I know the freshmen who came will do better on their finals.”

To continue to support the freshman class as they go through their finals, Link Crew leaders worked to ensure that every freshman received a handwritten good luck note on Tuesday, Dec. 17. Leaders wrote more than 900 notes and hand delivered them during English classes.

Link Crew is a national program designed to link juniors and seniors to freshman students. There are 100 Link Crew leaders at Vista Murrieta and each leader mentors 10-15 freshmen. They host a variety of events over the course of the year to support ninth-graders—socially, academically and personally.

—Story submitted by Markela Parsons, English teacher and Vista Murrieta Link Crew coordinator