The first month of school for a freshmen can be daunting– trying to find their away around a new, huge school with hundreds of upperclassmen and the stress of a piling amount of homework. The Leadership program at McLean was initiated years ago to help ease this transition, and they met for the first time during the school year on Thursday, Sept. 19th.
The Big Macs, the junior and senior mentors, were assigned their Little Macs, the incoming freshmen, during freshman orientation. Here, the Big Mac’s gave tours of the school and gave them their advice on how to navigate the crowded halls, manage their time wisely, and enjoy their time at McLean.
“I explained to my Little Macs that they should be active in school events, join clubs, and tryout for sports,” junior Aaron Bremser said.
On Thursday during Highlander Time 1, the Big Mac’s met for the first official connect group of the school year. Situated in the lower gym, dance room, lecture hall, and cafeteria, freshmen met with their Big Mac’s and did a tic tac toe activity.
“I wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and saw me as a friend rather than someone to be nervous around,” junior Julia Irons said. “Then we paired up with another group and played a human tic tac toe game with trivia about McLean. We made it pretty competitive and I think they had fun with it.”
Connect Groups will meet once a month and will rotate through Highlander Times 1-5.

Big Macs are being trained this morning for their continued work with their freshmen little macs throughout the year. pic.twitter.com/wnjR5Yk3jD

— McLean Highlanders (@mcleanhigh) September 10, 2019