Peers Helping Peers By: Nicole Browne Everyone remembers being a Freshmen in high school, even those upperclassmen who tease the Freshmen as if they were never in their position. Remember walking into a place that seemed at first too big to be called a school, getting lost because every hallway looked the same, seeing all the strange faces and staring unbelievably at the height of the juniors and seniors. Yes, we have all experienced similar nerve-wrecking scenes as newcomers to high school. The beginning of Freshmen year can be a both a terrorizing and frustrating experience to ninth graders who refuse to believe that they will eventually find their place among the chaos that the month of September brings. Sometimes a ninth grader may believe that he is the only one holding thoughts of confusion about the present year but he needs to be made aware that his other peers are going through the same process of gradual adjustment. Within South Brunswick High School lies a program in which seniors are both willing and eager to help Freshmen with this adjustment, this organization is known as the peer program. The peer program is composed of forty seniors carefully selected after an application, recommendations from teachers and an interview in order to work together with the Freshmen to create an environment in which they feel comfortable in and to strengthen things such as trust amongst each other and group interaction skills. These peer leaders take pride in the fact that they will be offering their prior experiences and knowledge to Freshmen who might need the chance to talk to someone who is not a parent or teacher about school related along with the non- school related aspects of life. The peer program contributes to the community what it needs the most, people who enthusiastically take time out of their lives to make other people’s live easier.