Monarch Connection was created for freshman students in 2021, with the goal of allowing incoming freshman classes to get to know their classmates before the beginning of the school year. Following the well-known concept of ‘link-leaders,’ upperclassmen who welcome freshmen, Mater Dei began the Monarch Connection program utilizing their own Monarch take on it. The incoming class came to Mater Dei the Friday before school began to get to know the campus, and have the chance to make new friends.

During the very first Monarch Connection orientation, freshmen arrived to a welcoming committee of upperclassmen. They were then led to their name tags and met their team leaders for the year. Each team received costumes from their leaders, adopting new character icons for the day, and a corresponding catchphrase to help build their community.

As individual groups split up, freshmen were sent into classrooms where they were able to play games and get to know one another as individuals. Activities like these allowed the freshmen to bond with one another and develop friendships prior to the start of school. Executing this idea, some students were able to carry out their friendships from orientation to when they officially started at Mater Dei.

Freshman Brandon Fragoso shares his own experience with Monarch Connection, and how it affected his high school entry.

“[Monarch Connection] was helpful, actually. Being more social is something I’m working on going into Mater Dei, and I want to help people more often and have more friends at the school,” Fragoso said.

Throughout the year, the groups of freshmen continued to meet with their leaders monthly. It provided them the opportunity to check in with them, ask questions, and talk about their recent high school experiences. Having an open environment such as this would help facilitate opportunities to ask for help and create stronger community relations between students.

As time went on, student leaders began to notice that a lot of freshmen were not coming to their leaders or teachers to ask for help very often. Seeing this issue, Senior Gracie Clapp began the “Freshman Project” in April of 2023, aiming to allow incoming classes to have a more welcoming and immersive experience when coming into Mater Dei.

“Since there are new students coming from so many different schools and so many different cities, a lot of freshmen come in not knowing anyone,” Clapp said. “It’s hard to go into a new place, figure out a high school schedule for the first time, navigate a new campus, juggle extracurriculars, and still find the time to make new friends.”

Through this project, she was able to gather leaders to create special events for the students to come to, and add new concepts and improvements to Monarch Connection for the 2023 school year. Leaders received more advice for how to work with the freshmen, instructions on how to start different games, and feedback from the freshman themselves so that they are always receiving the best experience possible.

“Hopefully Monarch Connection makes the freshmen feel welcome at MD. The goal is for it to be fun, not something they are forced to do, so I definitely think making Monarch Connection more known on campus will help give the Class of 2027 and all future Monarchs something to look forward to,” Clapp said.

Freshman Christian Newberry participates in an activity called “42 Squares,” led by his future peers. During the first year of Monarch Connection, student leaders initiated various activities for new freshmen. Leaders presented games for their groups that allowed students to get to know one another, and utilized ice breaker activities that helped groups become more comfortable with each other in a familiar environment. These bonding exercises opened opportunities for the Class of 2027 to form new friendships as they join the Monarch family.