Cathleen Allison/Nevada AppealKarenza Strode, 14, and a group of fellow freshman play team-building games during freshmen orientation Tuesday at Carson High School. More than 700 freshman join the ranks at CHS next week.
They spent the day dressed as a deck of cards, M&Ms and orange caution signs.
They played a game of concentration and memory, attempting to cross a mud bog, traipsing through the halls and generally celebrating the fact that the start of high school is just a few days away.
"Today is really important," said Carson City High School teacher Misty Harris, adviser to the 78 upperclassmen who make up the Link Crew, a group designed to help freshmen ease into high school. The Link Crew led nearly 700 freshmen through a day of role-playing activities and giant pep rallies.
"Today is really the first day of school for them," Harris said.
Senior Maggie Jessie helped create costumes festooned as a deck of cards for her group of incoming freshmen, who begin school Monday.
"I'm pretty happy that they're excited," she said of the incoming class. "I hope they're successful, and I hope they can walk on the board of high school as I get ready to walk off."
If they were nervous about starting school in just five days, the incoming Class of 2012 wasn't showing it Tuesday.
Many students said they were excited to make new friends and be given new freedoms, like going to a school with an open campus.
"I'm scared," said incoming freshman Whitney Giron. "I just don't want to get lost."
While not everyone who will be a freshman next week attended the orientation and the social events later in the evening, those who did said they were glad they had.
"It's good to have a little advantage about how to get around," said incoming freshman Will Struble, whose class load resembles that of someone a little older.
He's taking Spanish II, honors English, geometry and marching band this year.
Staff at Carson High is expecting a class of 702 freshmen this year, which is down slightly from previous years.
Harris said she tries to keep the focus each year less on the enormity of the school and more on the positive things incoming students can experience.
There are three types of students, she noted: those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
"The focus is on them," she said of the incoming students. "It's a good way to get them comfortable."
- Contact city editor David Mirhadi at dmirhadi@nevadaappeal.com 881-1261.