By Avery Edward
Marco Forster Middle School and Ladera Ranch Middle School have been honored by the Orange County Department of Education for their Outstanding Peer Assistance Leadership (PAL) programs.
In addition, Marco Forster Middle School PAL Advisor Nick Corbin was awarded PAL Advisor of the Year.
The PAL program is an integral part of the school experience, allowing students to connect with their peers—and create a caring, positive school environment. By encouraging students to help students, the PAL program’s multifaceted approach provides opportunities to lead on campus and incentivizes strong character.
Marco Forster’s 57 PAL peer leaders in two PAL classes partner with local nonprofits, spend time with special needs students, undergo leadership training and team building exercises, and help acclimate new students to life on campus.
This year, the peer leaders organized a canned food drive, created a rummage sale with profits donated to feeding school families, coordinated 107 volunteers for a cleanup of Salt Creek State Beach and even started a podcast to help elevate student voices on campus. Through their “Gotcha” program, PAL encourages good character on campus with “gotchas” awarded to students in moments of leadership, positivity, citizenship and kindness. These “gotchas” can be accumulated and redeemed for prizes.
“We have a history with this program,” Marco Forster Principal Pam Sawyer said. “It really helps us boost what we are already trying to teach our kids in the classroom: to be positive, to help your community, to lead. Our group of PAL advocates serve as real ambassadors on campus.”
Sawyer credits the success to Marco Forster PAL Advisors Ryan Healy and Nick Corbin. Healy and Corbin have shaped the school’s PAL program and guided its evolution.
Finishing his second full year working as a PAL Advisor, Corbin was initially inspired to begin this work because it “sounded like a great opportunity to go beyond the classroom.” As an advisor, Corbin seeks to cultivate his students’ growth as leaders in the community.
Corbin was not expecting the honor of Advisor of the Year.
“It shows that our work isn’t going unnoticed,” he said. Working with the PAL program is incredibly rewarding, he said.
“You get to give your students a sense of direction and watch them take that and run with it,” Corbin said.
Sawyer said she’s “most proud of the real, authentic connections that these kids have made with other students.”
While the PAL Program provides structured time and activities to connect PAL leaders with their peers, Sawyer says what is truly remarkable at Marco Forster is the initiative that students take to continue their connections.