Students of the Manteca Unified School District return to the classroom next week.

Ninth graders at Manteca High and Sierra High, as part of freshmen orientation, received a small dose Thursday morning on what to expect as they embark on their new surroundings.

Upperclassmen in Link Crew were on hand to provide guidance and support on this day – they’ll be available to their freshmen counterpart throughout the school year.

“I can remember being nervous,” said MHS senior Alondra Lopez, recalling her early days of high school.

She’s among the 30 or so Link Crew leaders on campus. According to longtime advisor Mary Ann Tolbert, the Class of 2027 tallies about 500 students.

“That’s a big class,” she said.

Link Crew is a transition program that welcomes freshmen to their high school. Students engaged in ice-breaking activities while breaking into small groups intentionally made up of classmates from the other elementary school feeder sites.

The hope in Link Crew is for students to meet new people while getting involved in high school activities.

That first step kicked off with those attending freshmen orientation.

“We played games to get know each other,” MHS Link Crew leader Madelaine Patterson said.

Students jampacked the bleachers on one side of the old Winter Gym. MHS has undergone renovations in recent years, including a campus expansion consisting of new classrooms, gymnasium, and swimming pool, to name a few.

At Sierra High, second-year Link Crew advisor Ryan Tyler led the freshmen in attendance – the SHS Class of 2027 is estimated at over 410 students – in a few activities.

Included were 10 who volunteered to do a pop-the-balloon relay involving pair of Link Crew leaders – SHS has 77 mentors altogether for this year, Tyler said.

They formed two groups and raced to see which freshmen-mentor team would be the first to pop all the balloons, doing so while using backside of their bodies.

Tyler noted that the exercise revealed the three types of people – those who make things happen, those who watched things happen, and those who wondered “what happened?”

The volunteers were among those willing to make things happen.

“These next four years are going to happen so fast,” he said to the young group.

Lathrop High held its Link Crew event on Wednesday, with more on the way prior to that first day of school on Thursday, Aug. 3.

East Union High and Weston Ranch High have scheduled freshmen orientation on Wednesday, Aug. 2.

For more information, log on to the school site at www.mantecausd.net.