Standing in the hallway of the third floor, new student Maria Ruiz is lost in the confusion. Her head is swimming as the loud sounds of talking and shoes moving pound their brain. She begins to feel overwhelmed. Suddenly, Maria sees their welcoming committee buddy and their mood changes. They walk her to her next class and she begins to feel better, and safe. From once being lost in confusion, she now feels welcomed into the school.

The welcoming committee is a club that helps new students that join the school year in the middle of the year.

There are several students who join MCHS in the middle of the school year. Upper Campus Principal Dr. Jeff Prickett saw this as an issue and created the welcoming committee.

“The point is to welcome students as they come to the school throughout the year,” said Prickett.

 This committee is a branch off of the school’s renaissance team. This team works on fixing the culture and climate at MCHS. So the welcoming committee ties into their mission perfectly.

“It is hard to move into a new school system in the middle of the year,” says Prickett. “You do not know anybody.”

The point of the welcoming committee is to make new students feel seen and loved.

 “I feel that new students come here all the time and they are very lost and we do not have people there to assist new students,” said Isis Flores, the senior chair advisor.

The committee was designed to help these new students feel welcomed into our school.

As soon as the committee hears of a new student registering, they get a schedule with their counselor. Then, the new student is paired up with a welcoming committee member. 

They walk them to their classes and introduce them to important people in the school (principal, deans, security, etc.). New students also get a “swag bag,” an MCHS drawstring bag with school gear for the new student to wear.

“I really appreciated getting a connection with someone,” said Maria Ruiz, a junior at MCHS. Ruiz has moved three times, but MCHS is the only school she has seen with the concept of a welcoming committee.

The point of the committee is to make sure no student goes unseen.

“We kinda let them go out of mind and sight for some reason … We always want them to be very recognized,” said Flores.

New students enjoy the welcoming committee as it helps them get a feel for our school’s environment and standards.

“It was really nice to get to know someone, they had a lot of answers and they were in most of the clubs I wanted to be in,” said Ruiz.

This committee works hard to make all new students in the middle of the year feel appreciated, and to remove the burden of coming to a new school.

If your interested in joining this committee, please express your interest to Dr. Prickett.