Holding an event in the cafeteria called Cocoa and Cram, Link Crew helps students study for their finals by going over the material with them. The latest took place after school on January 21.
Link Crew is a club that helps freshmen students get accustomed to the high school once they transition from middle school.
According to Link Crew Leader Grace Murray, Link Crew leaders participate in Cocoa and Cram to help students learn the material they need to before the final.
“All the Link Crew leaders come out and sign up for different spots that we will help tutor kids for, help them review with their final materials or help them get down last minute concepts to make sure they are prepared and ready,” Murray said.
According to Murray, Cocoa and Cram also provides a unique environment for students to study together.
“Cocoa and Cram gives students a time and unique space to study. Also Link Crew leaders can help prepare them with the information that they might not be able to study by themselves at home,” Murray said.
The benefit of having the Link Crew leaders at Cocoa and Cram is to help students see different concepts or topics from a different perspective, according to Link Crew Commissioner Mary Kraus.
“Sometimes students struggle with certain topics because they don’t understand the way their teacher taught it,” Kraus said. “Students teach differently than teachers do, so when a student isn’t understanding how the teacher explains it, then we come in and we explain it a different way and it helps click in their head.”
According to freshman Ally Lemon, having upperclassmen there was one of the reasons she attended Cocoa and Cram.
“I attended Cocoa and Cram because I thought that having an upperclassman there to help me study would be very beneficial,” Lemon said. “Since they already have been through most of the coursework that I am going through now, I figured that they could help me understand it better.”
Sophomore Ellie Jacobs said that she also had a positive experience at Cocoa and Cram.
“I attended Cocoa and Cram because I needed help in biology. The Link Crew leaders that worked with me helped me develop a better understanding of the class,” Jacobs said.
Even with these positive messages from students, the event had quite a poor turnout, according to Link Crew Advisor Dan Glatts.
“Up until last year, it was pretty successful. This year we were very disappointed at the lack of kids that showed up,” Glatts said.
Glatts said that the main reason Cocoa and Cram wasn’t as big of a success as previous years was due to the lack of students knowing it was happening.
“I think a challenge in this building is getting information to kids. We have been trying to push it out in any way we can,” Glatts said. “Promotion is the key to anything. You really need to hit it from a bunch of different angles, especially in a school like this because there is so much going on.”