'Soulful Seniors' Make Back-to-School Easy, Show Lancer Pride

For most freshmen, walking into high school for the first time is an experience filled with a mix of excitement, nerves and even a bit of confusion. At La Follette High School, that’s where Soulful Seniors step in.

“A good Soulful Senior is someone who goes out of their way to help someone, even when they're not looking,” La Follette Senior Ethan Ceron said. “Someone who just wants to help in general, who will do the right thing no matter what.”

At the start of the school year, their primary job is to be a friendly face, help new students get around the school, and answer questions.

Soulful Seniors advisor and Coordinator of Student Engagement at La Follette High School Molly Hayes said the program has been going on for years but this senior class stands out.

“What's cool about this group of seniors, I emailed them one time and I got 86 kids to sign up,” Hayes explained. “Usually, you have to send lots of reminders, you know, like ‘Hey, don't forget to sign up’ but I only sent it out once.”

Katerin Hernandez said she signed up because she remembers well her own experience as a freshman and how much Soulful Seniors impacted her induction into La Follette.

“I was pretty nervous, but they were really welcoming, really nice,” Hernandez recalled. “It matters to me because honestly, it can be the smallest interaction, and you never know.”

Those small interactions inspired Hernandez to pay it forward. She wanted to help a shy newcomer, like she once was, step out of their comfort zone and foster a sense of belonging as a Lancer. 

Senior Carter Schroepfer said for him, taking part wasn’t just about making his peers feel welcome but also about giving them a jumpstart.

“I wanted to be a Soulful Senior specifically, so I can help share the opportunities that I learned way later than I should have,” Schroepfer said, “to help their future and help them graduate.”

Hayes said that, over the years, freshmen have often credited Soulful Seniors for helping them learn about school resources, like tutors, that support their academic achievement and for encouraging them to try a new class, sport or activity.

She also said that while the Soulful Seniors program is more formal at the start of the school year, it really serves as a gateway to get students more engaged in school programs and activities. 

“They're hungry for opportunities,” Hayes said.

She finds that participating students are among the first to take on leadership roles, sign up to be tutors, plan school events, and support restorative justice at school.

Senior Elizabeth Duncan believes promoting a good school culture is a shared responsibility and she wants to do her part to make sure students feel comfortable asking for help year-round.

“I think if there isn't much school pride, then we're a community that's not together,” Duncan said. “We can come together more and just uplift each other and have other schools look at us, be like, 'Damn, we want to be like how they are’, just together and not much drama or this and that.”

It’s a belief and commitment to the community that fellow Soulful Senior Aiden Browning shares.

“The people around you always feed off of your energy; you have to make sure that you're always staying positive and being a good role model, even if you're a freshman,” Browning said. “Ultimately, I want La Follette to be the best school it can be.”

More Soulful Seniors