Today, November 9, ROAR launched its first session of the year, with games for all to participate in, guest speaker Richard Kost, and advice for students as they navigate this changing world.

ROAR first started in the Spring of 2015, after learning of a program similar named TALK at Oswego East. Now in 2023, eight years later, sponsors Jen Culbertson, Beth Schuck and Krysta Schoenbeck have successfully made ROAR a part of WEGO’s annual tradition of stepping out of one’s comfort zone. Students lead the quarterly event as mentors – commonly known as ROAR Mentors – along with directors who oversee the entire event and ensure a smooth program. The goal is for attending students to feel a sense of solidarity and community since the mentors are around the students’ age.

Students who attend ROAR are given a whole day off from their regular classes, a way to wind down before starting their studies the next day and getting to know one another.

They are invited to attend once during their four-year tenure at WEGO.

“Teacher handed me a random piece of paper,” said sophomore Sergio Zavavla of his invite to ROAR. Zavavla “at first came to skip class,” but quickly realized ROAR “was fun and really enjoyed it.” 

In the morning, after the first-hour bell rung, 50+ students entered the LRC (or Learning Resource Center) for the first ROAR of 2023-24. Many joined the ROAR mentors in ice-breaker games such as “Egg, Chicken, and Dinosaur”, which was basically a variation on rock, paper, scissors, but participants started as “eggs” on the ground. Whoever won the first round was promoted to “chicken”. They then stood with bended knees and repeated the rock, paper, scissors routine until someone won that round and found themselves promoted to “dinosaur”. The last person standing was the winner.

After the big group games, ROAR mentors split up the 50+ group of students into smaller ones helmed by two mentors, with five students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, in each.

Once in their smaller groups, the students played additional games, including “Rabbit, Elephant, and Toaster”, “Monster Drawing”, and “Human Knot”.  These games and activities were designed to allow students to get to know their ROAR mentors, and also peers whom most have never met.

The smaller groups are purposeful “to help out the community grow and know that a community can get better, and spend time with people who I never met or knew,” said senior ROAR mentor Lixy Barrera.

Midday, ROAR attendees go into the school’s auditorium for a presentation by a guest speaker: this year, that role was filled by retiring AVID teacher Richard Kost. Many senior ROAR mentors, having been in his class, reported that they were pleased to see Kost serve as the last guest speaker they would see during their high school experience at ROAR. 

According to Kost, he enjoyed being a teacher, and is particularly savoring his experiences with the AVID class of 2024.

“The guest speaker was great, his message applied to everyone in their own unique way. We all have gone through different experiences and battles in life and his speech really captivated that beauty of life; that no matter what battle you face, it’s your only ‘chance’ to conquer it to obtain your ticket to ‘freedom’,” said senior ROAR mentor Rudra Gor.

After the guest-speaker, students returned to the LRC to enjoy pizza, drinks, and snacks, as well as to debrief following Kost’s motivational speech. The attendees also wrote notes of encouragement to their peers and put said notes into paper bags that will be collected later by other attendees.

The afternoon centered around personal topics, most of which were confidential, thereby allowing students to open up about their experiences and challenges. 

“I would recommend ROAR for anyone, it helps people come out of their shell,” said junior Ayleen Mondragon.

Toward the end of the day, students enjoyed one game/song, followed by speeches given by the mentors/directors about how ROAR impacted them. Finally, after a full agenda of connecting and communicating, there was one last game of “Ships and Sailors”, which seniors Kevin Dorl and Jose Cruz-Antonio won, thus concluding the eighth annual ROAR session of 2023.

“I would recommend [ROAR]. Don’t miss your chance of a good experience,” said sophomore Alex Hernandez.