On January 25, ROAR launched its second session of the school year and first of the new year.
The event was held in the Learning Resource Center (LRC). Participants were greeted – after the first period bell rang – with name tags and were then encouraged to play a game called “Egg, Chicken, Dinosaur.” After that, the group norms were set and attendees were placed into their small groups of 5-7 students and 2-3 mentors.
“The best part was getting to know everyone in my group,” junior and ROAR mentor Kayla Zamora said.
Once in groups, attendees and mentors alike played multiple, interactive games like “Ninja”, “Copycat”, “Human Knot”, and many more. The small groups also mixed in some icebreakers to allow people who did not know each other to interact.
Later on, groups went down to the auditorium to listen to guest speaker and AVID teacher Richard Kost.
Kost has been a teacher at WEGO for 17 years and this is his last year before retirement. His speech went through his career, and then he had time for students to ask questions about “absolutely anything.”
After Kost’s speech, groups made their way back to the LRC where they were given pizza, cookies and drinks for lunch.
“The best part so far is getting to meet new people and just learning to get out of my comfort zone,” sophomore Rylee Finstrom said.
During the last half of the day, groups went down to the small gym where they did an activity called “Cross the Line” to get to know each other more.
“Seeing everyone step out really encouraged everyone else to show how they truly feel,” junior Gavin Dyer said.
The last hour was filled with dancing and an open mic, where directors, mentors or participants were allowed to go up and share how their day went and how ROAR changed them throughout the day.
“Every ROAR I’ve been to has been a little different, but this one really stood out because there was a lot of people who went up to the mic talked about how it changed them. There was a lot of good that happened here today,” junior and ROAR director Michaela Miller said.
