PHOTO BY MATT NAGLE

Cougar Ambassadors are chosen by teachers and staff at Columbia Junior High for their innate leadership abilities and commitment to building strong character traits within themselves and their peers. Pictured here are ambassadors (clockwise) Ashly Burgado, Natalie Young, Kevin McCrossin, Hannah Waters and Ashlee Johnson.

Cougar Ambassadors influence school climate in positive ways

By Matt Nagle

For a lot of students, entering junior high school can be intimidating, to say the least. However, at Columbia Junior High School, there’s a group of 28 ninth-graders who carry the mantle of Cougar Ambassador to help the incoming eighth-graders feel welcomed and valued in their new school.

Cougar Ambassador Kevin McCrossin caught the imagination of the group early this school year when he said to them, “It starts with us.” The “it” refers to character traits the young leaders practice toward their peers such as respect, kindness and personal responsibility, making McCrossin’s statement more than just a slogan, but rather a way of living. “We want to make sure we’re leading by example and not just words,” he commented. “You start it and others will follow along.”

“It’s basically the ripple effect,” added ambassador Hannah Waters.

The Cougar Ambassadors got right to work on the very first day of school this year, which was Cougar Kickoff Day at Columbia. They led new students on an orientation and tour of the school to show them where their classes would be. The ambassadors also organized a new student doughnut fest and held a pep assembly to start the year off right.

“We showed them what our school is all about,” Waters remarked.

Brooks Clergy, counselor at Columbia, is advisor to the Cougar Ambassadors. “We find it important to make those connections with the new students so they don’t come here and jump into the deep end of the pool and flounder,” he commented.

Ambassador Ashlee Johnson said she likes to focus on expressing kindness to others whether at school or out shopping with her mom. “You have to be nice,” she noted.

“If you’re negative, it spreads,” said her friend and fellow ambassador Ashly Burgado.

According to Clergy, Cougar Ambassadors are selected by teachers and staff to represent a cross-section of different social groups among the students at Columbia. Leadership qualities are essential.

“We look for students whom other students gravitate around,” he said – not because the students are merely popular, but because they impact their peers with an attitude that influences the school climate in positive ways. “Their peers seem to listen to them,” Clergy explained. “The whole idea is if students are engaged in school and find it a fun place to be, then learning will occur.”

Seeing a welcoming face means a lot to the incoming freshmen, especially the shy ones. “I recently had a boy tell me, ‘If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t know anyone.’ Now he walks down the hall and waves at everyone and talks,” Waters noted.

Clergy noted how the Cougar Ambassadors program builds bridges among students who normally may not associate with each other, fostering some long-lasting friendships among the ambassadors themselves and between ambassadors and incoming students. He said that as the school year progresses, the ambassadors get to know each other on progressively deeper levels through activities and conversations.

“It breaks down barriers,” he said, and encourages students to drop whatever “mask” or “front” they may have, and just be themselves. “What (the ambassadors) do a really good job at is they take that out there,” into the school hallways. “As they get to know other people, they see beyond that mask and make those connections.”

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