The first weeks of school can be hard for students, with looking for classes, searching for a spot to sit in the cafeteria or seeing if their friends are in their classes. To help with this, the PALS program hosted their annual luncheon on Sept. 8 in the lecture hall during the two lunch periods. Their main goal for this lunch was to help the incoming students to feel comfortable in the new environment and get a feel for the students at their high school. They hoped to accomplish this by simply eating lunch and building relationships with them.

“Talking to the new kids was great because I got to meet the great people that are coming into our school,” junior Jenna McQueen said. “I loved getting to see what they planned on doing to make our school better.”

For some students in PALS who were once new students themselves, it gave them a chance to give back and help students, like the PALS once did for them.

“Being someone who was once a new student, I loved changing roles and being the one welcoming the new students,” junior Alec Peal said. “I remember PALS helping me on my first day, so I enjoyed being to help the new students (at the lunch).”