Photo courtesy of Erin Priestly.
In the Fall of 2025, Hastings Senior High introduced a new Social Peers group created by Erin Priestley and Kaitlyn Sanchez, and coordinated with Holly Vanderpool, to help the students gain social experience skills and new friends.
During T3, students from ninth through twelfth grade gather in the gym to participate in activities involving social skills. Senior Alondra Pedraza Arizmendi and her fellow unified bowling members were some invited to join.
“Everyone is very welcoming here, and it’s a very good environment. It can get awkward, but all-in-all we all get together, [and] we’re just here to make friends,” Arizmendi said.
In a meeting a few weeks ago, students were bonding over their favorite teachers and creating posters to place on their classroom doors. Junior Rigo Castro worked together with other show choir members to make a poster for their show choir teacher, Christian Yost.
“We have a bunch of hearts and some heart balloons. We put all of our hands on it too,” Castro said.
During this activity, Social Peers partnered with Tiger Vision to create a video of everyone, which was sent to their favorite teachers. Each poster group stated who their favorite teacher is and why before sending the videos and posters to them. Arizmendi chose Chelby Schlichtman, her art teacher.
“We quickly got really close this year, since I didn’t have her my freshman or sophomore year. She’s always been there for me, and I’m really grateful that I’m able to have a teacher like that in my life,” Arizmendi said.
Junior Gracie Craig is one of many students who also joined the group, helping it grow from board games in a classroom to larger activities. Craig has made several new friends since joining the group, and she hopes this club continues to expand.
“I just think it’s a good thing because you’re helping all these kids make new friends and know how to talk to each other and different people,” Craig said.
Social Peers welcomes anyone interested in making new friends to their newly developed group, which meets once a week on Thursdays during T3 and is located in the South Gym. In the future, the group is hoping to expand beyond T3 with the goal of building inclusion in the school.
”If you’re bored during T3, come check this out, it’s really fun!” Castro said.
