Ms. Jimenez and students share their experience while in Link Crew.
By: Olivia Gonzalez
The Redwood community is full of clubs and activities that give back to the students. Link Crew is one of the many organizations that is dedicated to giving back, especially to the freshmen class.
Ms. Jimenez took over as the teacher of Link Crew at the beginning of the school year. She says, “Good, but I’m excited for next year because I feel like I’m in a developmental year. Next year we are going to implement a lot of new stuff and really support freshmen.”
“Club or class needs to show up for summer for two days of training to help with freshman orientation. We have a meeting once a month for the club members and they can help with any of the activities that we are going to run for the freshmen and the haunted house. The class obviously meets every single day they are more responsible for focusing on freshmen on a daily basis,” says Jimenez.
Joining Link Crew is apart of a bigger project, so whilst the application process Ms. Jimenez has a criteria on who is admitted. She says, “They need to have good grades, be responsible, care about their fellow students, students who want to have fun, students who want to grow.”
Every group present on the Redwood High School campus runs in their own way to get their goals achieved. For Link Crew the lesson plan differs a little bit each day depending on which projects the students are working on.
Jimenez says, “We spend a day on team building, we do leadership lessons and we tend to focus on whatever project we are doing. One day is a project day where they work on lunchtime activities or whatever they need. We usually do a reflection piece where they look at themselves as a leader. Every day is different. It’s a fun class, we develop you guys as leaders but at the same time we have some fun.”
Link Crew is one of the few classes where activities are led by the students and created by the students. Nadia Kunkel ‘24 says, “We are a class or club that integrates freshmen into high school. So we plan events and get-togethers for freshmen to meet each other and to just get more comfortable around the school.”
Every Redwood student finds their place and for many they have found their place in the Link Crew community. Kunkel says, “I joined Link Crew because I wanted to make this high school a more comfortable place for freshmen and I like planning events and being creative.”
Araceli Martinez ‘24 says, “I joined link crew because coming back from COVID I was really this awkward and antisocial kid that really didn’t no anybody since I was coming from somewhere where I didn’t know anyone…I met some amazing seniors in that class that played the role of a brother or a sister and just started getting me out my comfort zone.”
Students in Link Crew develop skills as they support incoming freshmen to enjoy their first year at Redwood. As they have a class and club, students create close bonds and friendships with one another and enjoy the ability to welcome freshmen to the school.
Kunkel says, “My favorite thing about Link Crew is the people that are in it. It’s really fun to get to help freshmen and play games with them along with people that you’re also friends with in class.
“The thing I like about the crew is how different people with different personalities and their aspects of Life can actually like come together as one and talk about basically anything and just have fun.”
Araceli Martinez ’24
Olivia Gonzalez
Olivia Gonzalez '24 is a third year writer for the Redwood Gigantea. She is interested in looking deeper into the lives of students at Redwood. Outside of Gigantea, she is apart of the Law and Justice academy and CSF here at Redwood Highschool. You can reach her by email at olivi.go4371@vusd.us
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