By Ethan Harrigan – Staff Reporter

Mr. Young is a Modern World History, AP Humanities and AP Psychology teacher at Jonathan Law High School and is one of the three Freshman Team leaders along with Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Mercaldi. The Freshman Team is a group of teachers that meets every first period and works with freshman to get them accustomed to the environment at Jonathan Law. Advocate Staff Reporter Ethan Harrigan interviewed Mr. Young about the program and his involvement.

Ethan Harrigan: What is your role as a leader of the Freshman Team?

Mr. Young: To help organize the Freshman Team meeting, and set up ways to help invite the freshman to Jonathan Law and make them be as successful as possible.

EH: What are the goals of the Freshman Team this year?

MY: The goals of the Freshman Team are always to help incoming ninth graders, to get them introduced to Law, learn about what opportunities they can have here at Law, and then help them achieve their potential.

EH: How is the program influencing and guiding freshman?

MY: I think it’s influencing in the sense that it allows them the opportunity to meet upperclassmen and people that have really done well here at Jonathan Law. It guides them in ways of introducing them to extracurriculars and future classes that they might be interested in.

EH: Are there any changes in the Freshman Team this year?

MY: This year, we have two new members in Mr. Walsh and Ms. Smuniewski. In terms of our approach we have looked at new ways in terms of contact with students, and also with our welcome day, we made a few adjustments there to make sure that students are getting the most at their experience at Law.

EH: What do you and other freshman teachers do during your meetings?

MY: During our meetings, we try to focus mostly on what students are doing in the classroom, where they might need a little bit of extra help, or things that we can help them to do to perform better. We also discuss ideas on how to acknowledge students that are performing really well and we try to also come up with new ways in order to make students part of the Law community.