Head start on high school

Marissa Espino

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- At Ocean View High School, the usual wide-eyed,

nervous looks on the faces of incoming freshman will be scarce because

hundreds of the newcomers have been participating in orientation

activities this week.

About 80% of the about 480 freshman students are participating in the

fifth annual Week of Welcome.

“I know where everything is already,” said Jenny Kuehn, 14, who graduated

from St. Bonaventure School.

Ocean View senior Kevin Wagoner has volunteered to work the Week of

Welcome for three years, but still remembers when he attended the event

as a freshman.

“[The program] gives students a chance to get to know other people and

the school,” said Wagoner, 18. “It gets the jitters out of the way and

you’re not embarrassed in front of everybody who has been here for three

years. By the end of the week [when I was a freshman], I was so relaxed.”

The week of activities includes a tour of the campus, presentations, a

co-curricular fair and an assembly with BMX bikers showing off their

moves.

More than 100 parents and close to 100 students volunteer their time.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Daric Barton, 14, a Vista View Middle School

graduate. “You meet a lot of people and the teachers are pretty cool,

too.”

Students also take three short classes each day.

An academic class focuses on how to stay on track in class and stay

organized, a communication class guides students on asking for help, and

the connections class encourages students to get involved in activities

outside of the classroom, like band, clubs and sports.

Ocean View was the first school in the Huntington Beach Union High School

District to establish the weeklong freshman orientation, but all schools

have now organized shorter versions of the program.

Phyllis Helland, the Week of Welcome coordinator and an Ocean View

teacher, said the annual event makes the move into high school an easier

one.

“These kids are here because they want to be, and they keep coming back

all five days so we must be doing something right,” Helland said.