The New Student Program was founded this year in order to teach new students about the community and about various rooms in the high school.

“The (student) ambassadors are here to give them a tour and make sure they don’t get lost,” guidance counselor Curt Larkin said. “Our New Student Program is to get them active and familiar with things beyond just class to class.”

The students meet up and learn more about the community and the little things that are special to Johnston. “None of the new students know about the significance of Van Dee’s,” Larkin said. “Those types of things that are unique to our community, they haven’t learned about. Whether they’re from Texas, Washington state, or even Valley, they don’t understand the little intricacies that we all know about.”

Senior Pavat (Ed) Sirikanchai is a member of the New Student Program. “The group is good,” he said. “I like their activities and I also made new friends.” Sirikanchai moved here from Thailand and has joined the group to familiarize himself with the school. “Everything here is all different and hard but everything takes time,” he said.

During the first meeting of the New Student Program, the students went on a scavenger hunt. The hunt consisted of them splitting into pairs and searching for different QR codes that were taped to walls outside of various rooms. When scanned, the QR codes brought them to a page with a little blurb of information about the room and what happens inside of it. For instance, when the code was scanned outside of the journalism lab, it says that it is the home to newspaper and yearbook.

There were codes outside of the iPad headquarters, the attendance office, the accounting office, and many more. Each pair of new students were given a list of the places they had to find, and then they scanned the QR codes to learn more. “I think that the scavenger hunt was really helpful because it took us all over the building to places that we may need or will need in the near future,” sophomore Caroline Ludwig said. She was paired with Sirikanchai to search for the QR codes.

The New Student Program was successful in getting the new people more used to the building and activities here. “It was really fun to meet new people that are in the same situation with transitioning into a school with people they don’t know,” Ludwig said.