One by one, ALE students were carefully paired with their online buddies.
The new National Honor Society (NHS) virtual ALE Buddy Program launched for the first time this school year.
NHS teacher coordinator, Summer Manchester, has worked tirelessly with ALE department head Karen Pumphrey to plan the new program.
“The Buddy Program began the Fall of 2020 as we sought to find a virtual alternative to our long term service project,” Manchester said. “The idea was a collaboration between our NHS student officers, Mrs. Pumphrey, our ALE teacher, myself, and Ms. Rodgers.”
Pumphrey recalls that ALE has a pre-existing Buddy Program but this is the first time NHS has begun involvement.
“ALE has had a Buddy Program [called] Friends Having Fun since 1995,” Pumphrey said. “The NHS program was initiated due to the limitations with social distancing [and] gatherings, and limited service programs being held in the community.”
Manchester echoes this statement, describing how changes to programs administered by NHS were adapted to follow the current health and safety guidelines.
“The program began as an online program due to the online virtual environment we are currently operating under,” Manchester said. “This year has definitely been interesting and challenged us to do more outside of the box thinking, adaptation, and required a huge shift in paperwork.”
With the help of Senior Maddie Elizondo, Manchester worked to ensure that despite expected challenges, the program ran smoothly.
“Logistically, we knew that it would be difficult to connect over 120 students to their ALE buddy,” Manchester said. “The initial idea stemmed from one of our officers. Maddie Elizondo was the brains behind setting up how this would ultimately work. She has worked with the ALE students in the past and tried to [help with] match[ing] the needs of each individual student with the personalities of their NHS colleagues.
Before beginning to organize the specifics of the program, Manchester issued a survey.
“The first step was to see if it was possible [to do the Buddy Program] with Mrs. Pumphrey,” Manchester said. “She helped us do a survey to see which of her students would like to participate.”
Next, participating ALE students were paired with NHS members. NHS Officer and Senior, Cole Thompson, elaborates on the details of managing these pairings carefully.
“The pairing process is not random,” Thompson said. “We understood some of the accommodations that would have to be made for our non-verbal buddies and we asked [members] who would be comfortable and able to provide such an accommodation. We then paired those who volunteered with those with special accommodations.
After pairing ALE students with their buddies, Manchester faced issues with finding a way to have the students meet.
“We had to think through how we could connect so many students,” Manchester said. “Breakout rooms seemed to be the answer, but again, logistically we had to have several discussions on how that would work.”
Deciding to give each NHS officer their own Zoom link that students from NHS and ALE could access helped Manchester to begin preparing other parts for the program.
“Ultimately we came up with the idea of each officer having their own link,” Manchester said. “Each officer would also have a facilitator to further help each subgroup. We also made video instructions, had to get information to our NHS students, and prepared some sample [meeting] ideas for our students.”
Thompson highlights how the few challenges faced so far have been well managed.
“The only difficulties we’ve run into is with the attendance of buddies more than anything,” Thompson said. “This is a non issue with our participants as they are patient and understanding if their buddy doesn’t make it.”
Pumphrey adds that the program’s online format has also contributed to some difficulties within the program.
“[We struggle] connecting with some of the ALE students who may not have assistance at home,” Pumphrey said. “[Also,] the number of students from ALE that are participating versus NHS members [is a difficulty].”
Overcoming these challenges, Thompson is pleasantly surprised by the program and NHS members’ participation, and especially proud of their cooperation with ALE students and making them feel welcome.
“I see successes everyday,” Thompson said. “Seeing our buddies excited to come back and meet new people and talk to old ones, that was the goal of the program. It’s a perfect win in my book.”
Thompson adds that he is appreciative of the members who have taken on the role as a facilitator. Their leadership encourages other participants to feel more comfortable and outgoing during meetings.
“I’ve been blown away with the creativity of my facilitators at engaging and including all of the members in the process,” Thompson said. “Of course we have a handful of buddies and participants that don’t like speaking up but I’ve seen more that come into their element over time than those who don’t.”
During meetings, held on the second and fourth Tuesday and Thursday of each month, participants do a variety of activities such as talk about interests, play games, sing, and more. Friendly interaction is the program’s main priority.
“The Buddy Program at its core is made to help people feel included,” Thompson said. “It’s to give our buddies in the ALE program a sense of belonging. That’s why it’s important to me; because I believe it does just that, it helps all the students to feel like [they are] a part of something bigger.”
The Buddy Program has only existed for a few months, and plans for the future are uncertain as of now.
“The program will continue through May,” Manchester said. “We have not determined if it will continue next year. Typically our officers vote and decide on these types of events [and] programs. Next year’s officers will likely play a large role in determining this.”
Whatever the future may hold, the program remains dedicated to fostering relationships between NHS members and ALE students, none of which would be possible without many helping hands.
“It was a big design with a lot of little moving parts,” Manchester said. “The participation of our NHS officers, our volunteer facilitators, and Mrs. Pumphrey working behind the scenes with her students, have helped our vision come to fruition.”
By Amanda Gaupp.