Antioch Community High School psychologists Kristine Kashbohm and Joseph Loffredo recently inducted a new group of friendly faces to the student body of ACHS: Student Ambassadors. ACHS’s student ambassadors are like mini guidance counselors; they are the first face a new student will see when they walk into ACHS for the very first time. They are a group of dedicated  role model students who help new and struggling students.

You can think of ambassadors as head of the student body. Ambassadors are responsible for ensuring that new students feel comfortable in their new environment. They give these students tours of the school, offer advice and provide a safe and comfortable setting.

“This is a group of dedicated students that we would see as role models for the student body to help new incoming students or other students that are struggling and just make a connection with them. I actually was a student ambassador in high school and part of the inspiration for this program was that we had a lot of students in NHS who did a lot of school volunteer work, which is fine. We were getting a lot of sheets for the same type of hours and we felt like we just really wanted them to be more of a community face and to get out and get their hours beyond the school,” said Kashbohm.

Loffredo and Kashbohm sat down through several meetings to ensure this program would work for student leaders. The ultimate goal for ambassadors is to give another opportunity for students to develop leadership and mentoring skills combined with taking care of the needs of the school and making connections.

There were some requirements, however, in order to be approved into the program. Students, separately, sat down with Loffredo and Kashbohm as they conducted interviews with each and every applicant. The interview was to see how ambassadors could handle on-the-spot questions and measure how comfortable each member was with their social and leadership skills.

Loffredo said, “I like that there’s some diversity in the group. Everybody’s not all the same and they all have different strengths which will be nice when the program gets up and running.” As the student body knows, Kashbohm and Loffredo run the National Honors Society (NHS) at ACHS. Now, they run two major programs in the school. “Yes, it’s a lot of work, but something like this is so enjoyable. It’s really nice to be a part of such a positive component to the school. It makes our jobs better. Now, if there’s a student struggling socially, well, now we have a team of student ambassadors helping us. It’s all tied together,” said Loffredo.

Kashbohm and Loffredo are very passionate, not only about their jobs but about community service and involvement, as well.

Student Ambassador meetings are held once a month. Currently there are over 20 students in the program, mostly made up of honor roll sophomores who will be juniors in the following school year and a few juniors who will be seniors in the 2014-2015 school year. Open communication is always expected from the group. New ideas are shared and service opportunities are discussed and slowly performed.

With all the excitement of a major program at ACHS, ambassadors and teachers prepare for a smooth sailing upcoming school year.