As soon as you walk into the WAHS library, you’ll be greeted by the librarian staff. Our library has a large and diverse number of books available. “We pride ourselves in that,” said Lori Linville, librarian at WAHS.
Something occurring at the library this year is the Speaker Series. This year, the library wants to hear from the students on how this community builds them up, but can also bring them down. “We hope to change injustices occurring within the community, and in order to do that, we want to have multiple speakers come to the library to express their perspectives,” Linville said.
On November 18, Michael Redmond and Robert Crickenberger, coaches for Western’s varsity football team, spoke to students about how Western strives to make everyone feel like they belong. This was the first talk in the series. Crickenberger is a Crozet native, attended high school at Western, and now is back teaching and coaching football. Redmond said they told “lots of stories, some short, some long, some funny, and some really not funny.” Redmond and Crickenberger discussed their aspirations for the future, not only pertaining to sports, but also how the school will evolve and make more people feel included. A Q&A session also offered the opportunity for students to ask them questions about their journeys and hopes.
Later this year, sometime around the first week of December, Linville and Curry will be conducting a student round table talk. “It’s still under development,” Linville said. The pair will be sending out emails to students who represent different groups at Western. “We hope the students will want to talk about the successes that they had in the Western community, and the challenges that they have faced. Realistically, at the end of the talk, we’ll brainstorm ways for the students to find support to belong in the WAHS community,” Linville said.
Lastly, around the start of the second semester, they hope to hold a “Reflective Luncheon,” which will be invite only. They hope to bring some of the people that will talk at the second Speaker Series, and some of the people that listened to the coaches’ talks. The students will come together and talk about ways that they can make a change or difference in this community.
