Students and staff built friendships and leadership skills in a friendly environment through ROAR on Oct. 15.

ROAR is a program that runs three times a year during November, February, and April. For each ROAR, 200 students are selected at random to join via invitation.

Advisers for ROAR include staff Amanda Cordes, Krysta Schoenbeck, Cat Thielberg, Lauren Stewart, Mark Poulterer, Beth Schuck and Jared Winquist.

“The purpose of ROAR is to provide a place for the student body to come together as one community and build a positive school climate. The other purpose of ROAR is to grow a wider body of student leaders at Community High School,” Cordes said.

Group activities take place in which students learn more about themselves, other students and staff in ROAR.

“Students participate in small group icebreaker activities, large group games, they get to hear a guest speaker, enjoy lunch together, and we finish with an open mic session where students speak about what important takeaways they’ve had from the day,” Cordes said.

In addition, ROAR participants get to learn and exhibit leadership. Thirty-six members in ROAR were student leaders.

“Technically, the first ROAR of every school year is mentors only. On Oct. 15, the adult staff trained the 36 selected ROAR mentors in the program so that they are equipped to be the leaders for the student participants coming in November, February, and April. Our ROAR events are entirely student-led. We are confident in and inspired by the crew selected this year,” Cordes said.

Students who complete Roar have a new outlook on school spirit and leadership.

“By the end of a ROAR day, the students leave the room with a renewed sense of school spirit and connectedness to their student body. We hope that students will learn that they are not alone and that they are supported here at our school. Ultimately, we would love to see ROAR inspire students to want to come back the following year as a mentor. We want to grow student leadership in our building,” Cordes said.

ROAR was first introduced in the spring.

“This is the first full year of the ROAR program. Last year, the program was brought up at a School Climate Committee meeting and several staff members went to observe a similar program called TALK at Oswego High School. After observing their version, the WeGo staff got together to plan our own Wildcat version of the program. In the spring of 2015, we ran a pilot ROAR day and witnessed great success,” Cordes said.

Having a ROAR program is crucial in the mental development of students.

“ROAR is important because it is a way to provide social-emotional learning for our student body.  It validates students as young people that are navigating a complicated time in their lives and need support and encouragement. This is the program that helps students break down the barriers they might have between one another and recognize that they have more in common with one another than they may have realized,” Cordes said.