Lasallian Youth Leaders welcome new students

  
   It was a big scramble on the 40-acre campus of St. Paul’s School in Covington on Aug. 5, as approximately 200 incoming eighth and ninth graders learned a little about the school’s history and traditions at a special, five-hour evening orientation.   
   “Guess who this is,” junior Ross Allbritton, a St. Paul’s Lasallian Youth Leader, asked newcomers as they stood before one of the statues on campus.
   He read the riddle, “Find the wheat and grapes, near the red learning place, where a marble man holds them in his arms, a man known for his undying grace.”
   “Jesus,” eighth grader Logan Davenport guessed correctly as he stood beside a statue of a teen Jesus.
 
  Through a series of activities – hunting for five campus monuments, a “Welcome to St. Paul’s” skit, ice breakers, praise and worship, learning the fight song, eating pizza, exploring sports programs and going through a mini schedule – new students became more comfortable with the school they would attend for the next four or five years.
   Christian Brother Ray Bulliard, St. Paul’s president and principal, welcomed newcomers in the chapel and encouraged them to step out of their comfort zone of familiar faces and make new friends at the 102-year-old school with a Lasallian tradition.
   “May this be a year of seeking, asking and knocking, growing in wisdom, in age and grace,” Brother Ray said.
Takes place of Big Brothers
   Two years ago, former graduates of St. Paul’s thought a change was needed in the manner in which new students got acquainted with the school.
   2013 graduates Bobby Bayer and Brian Schmitt and 2012 graduate Andrew Mullet noticed that the Big Brothers program – where older students (mostly seniors) were paired with newcomers – had diminished with haphazard communication  between the upper and lower classmen.

   So, they devised a new plan.
   “It started with an idea that Brian had to introduce students to school before the academic year started,” Bobby said. 
   Schmitt said he had attended a Lasallian Student Leader Conference in California and experienced a lock-in where attendees bonded. He  thought he could tweak that idea into an evening event at St. Paul’s, and the orientation was born.
   It was decided to group a dozen or more students (mixing students from different geographical areas and elementary schools) and assign a leader – either a St. Paul’s graduate or an upperclassman Lasallian Youth Leader. That group would not only unite during orientation but would assemble at planned school events year-round.
   Members of each group could call the leader any time. No longer would there be one upperclassman as the sole contact at St. Paul’s.
   “Group leaders are like role models,” Schmitt said. “They can look up to them to ask questions if they have them without worrying about being intimidated by a senior.”
   The idea behind it was to give new eighth and ninth graders a chance to get acquainted with the school and each other before the first day.
   “They will have met at least 10 people they didn’t know before by the end of the evening,” Schmitt said about orientation.
   Since its debut last year, the trio has noticed that relationships between older and younger students grew as they spent more time together at retreats, the school’s “5-Core” rally and other events.
Jam-packed itinerary
   The “5 Monuments Hunt” was one of the new activities added to the orientation this year to make it more engaging, Schmitt said.
   The Lasallian Leadership group also hopes to add more faith-filled activities.
   “This year, we are planning eucharistic adoration once a week before school,” Michael Burke, Lasallian Youth Leadership vice president, said.
   Logan Swords, an incoming eighth grader who has a family tradition of attending St. Paul’s, said he enjoyed the orientation.
   “I learned a little bit about the fountain and the history of the school,” Logan said. “It’s been here 102 years. I might play football, and I am looking forward to that.”
            Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].