The annual eighth grade transition day has returned to West, welcoming the incoming freshman class of 2028. These eighth graders had the chance to break into groups, get tours, attend an activity fair and fashion show, as well as go to their first OW pep assembly.
Even though the incoming students did not arrive at West until around 9:30 a.m., some clubs and activities had been setting up their booths for the activity fair and running through the plan of the day as early as 7 a.m.
As the students arrived, they were placed into groups with their Link leaders for the day. Before the activities started, the Link leaders ran a few “get to know you” games so the kids would feel more comfortable.
The Link groups were split in half, with some groups starting the school tour and others going to the auditorium to sit in on High School 101, which was a general question-and-answer panel between active high school students and incoming freshmen.
The tour, given by the Link Crew leaders, took the eighth graders through all three floors, showing the kids all the different kinds of rooms.
Sophomore Kennedy Heidiman, who was representing FCA in the activity fair, shared how important the tour was for her during her transition day.
“I really liked the tour that we had of the school,” Heideman said. “I thought it was really confusing at first, but having a tour of the school, and transition day, and the assembly really got me excited to come to West and come to high school. It made me less intimidated.”
As the tour came to a close, half of the Link groups went into the auditorium for the fashion show and the other half went to the aux gym for the activity fair.
The fashion show is a way for current high school students to represent their club or activity by showing the eighth graders their uniforms and a bit about what it means to be involved in that group.
Organizations like football, band, green tech and more came and showed off their club gear while doing something fun on stage. For the green tech academy, they drove their electrathon car for the eighth graders to see.
For the students in the aux gym, clubs set up booths representing what each does. Eighth graders had the chance to walk through and get a sense of what West has to offer.
Senior Amberleigh Worley, who represented the choir booth, explained why the activity fair could be beneficial for the incoming freshman class.
“I think it makes people more aware of what clubs we have,” Worley said. “I don’t know exactly if more people are more likely to join [clubs] the feminist club for example, but also I know if I was in eighth grade and saw that we had a feminist club and I was coming here I’d be like ‘oh I want to join that’.”
After the fashion show and activity fair concluded, the eighth graders all came together again in the main gym to attend their first Olathe West pep assembly. The students got to watch performances by cheer, band, dance and choir as well as learn the school fight song.
When the assembly was done, the eighth graders grabbed lunch from the commons like real high schoolers to get to experience what it would look like for many of them next year.
The day ended with the incoming freshman class receiving their OW t-shirt and taking their class picture.
A lot of importance was placed on the clubs and activities throughout the day to show their best foot forward so the eighth graders would have something to look forward to next year.
“Transition day is really important because we have a lot of activities and clubs and sports here at West and I know when I was a freshman it was really hard to find something that I really liked to get involved,” Heidman said. “So it’s really important to introduce that to those incoming freshmen just to get an idea of what we have here at West.”
