On Friday afternoon, August 26, 2023, I had the opportunity to interview Ms. Lecitona, the co-facilitator of Link Crew at Aspire Langston Hughes Academy. Beyond her role as the co-facilitator, Ms. Lecitona teaches sophomore-level math and robotics. The point of this interview with her is to inform not only students but parents as well about how significant Link Crew is to incoming freshmen. 

Questions and responses are presented below:

Yahir Paramo: What is Link Crew?

Ms. Lecitona: Link Crew is an organization that was established at LHA in 2022 to help incoming freshmen transition into high school and to make them feel more comfortable on campus.

Yahir Paramo: What is your job as Link Crew’s co-facilitator?

Ms. Lecitona: I facilitate Link Crew students and help advise on what to do next and [function as] a form of communication to administration.

Yahir Paramo: How does Link Crew benefit incoming freshmen?

Ms. Lecitona: Link crew benefits freshmen by making them feel comfortable in a new environment.

Yahir Paramo: How are Link Crew leaders selected?

Ms. Lecitona: Teacher recommendation and students who I think I would be great leaders.

Yahir Paramo: How are Link Crew leaders trained?

Ms. Lecitona: They are trained to do the freshmen orientation before school starts in order to get the freshmen used to the company of Link Crew members. Besides that, they do everything on their own unless we have something important for them to do.

Yahir Paramo: Who came up with the idea of Link Crew?

Ms. Lecitona: Link Crew was [introduced] by Dr. Geigle as a way to connect to the freshmen more.

Yahir Paramo: What types of activities or events does Link Crew organize for freshmen?” 

Ms. Lecitona: “The activities that Link Crew organizes for freshmen are mainly lunches, but we also have done events outside of regular school hours.

Yahir Paramo: How does Link Crew contribute to creating a positive school culture?

Ms. Lecitona: Link Crew contributes to a positive school culture by joining different grades together to work on assisting freshmen and ensuring positivity in them and bringing that with them as they graduate.

Yahir Paramo: Can you provide examples of successful outcomes or positive impacts resulting from Link Crew?

Ms. Lecitona: Some successful outcomes from Link Crew were the number of lunches that we hosted with our games, as well as our freshman orientation, inviting them to be around with some of our leaders before school started to get comfortable with their new peers.