By: Abby Shapiro

High school may be one of the the scariest transitions.

On April 29, 2016, Hershey High School has hosted its first ever Community Day involving each and every grade. You could choose which activities you wanted to do, including adult coloring, speech and debate, gym time fun, Model UN, and more. This year, the 8th graders have contributed to one of the activities as well, which is asking questions about high school for the upperclassmen.

A group of seniors, sophomores, and juniors across the high school have created an interactive website called Cocoa Community that would provide access and help with answering the questions the 8th graders have when it comes to high school. The Cocoa Community created a survey about what questions they have and sent it out to the 8th graders. The 8th graders asked and the Cocoa Community is providing the answers.

“Our goal for the Cocoa Community is bridging the gap between high school and middle school for the middle schoolers that goes beyond STAR and GOLD. Those events are good, but they are only one time things,” said a member of the Cocoa Community, junior Sarah Haverstick.

According to the Cocoa Community’s website, they said, “Cocoa Community is for not only providing mentors, but we aspire to grow friendships. They are here to help you out with tough decisions leading up to high school as well as when you’re in high school.”

Most of the questions from the 8th graders were wondering about the amount of homework and the strictness of the teachers, but also varied from sports games to extracurriculars.

“We want to create a way to have a resource when [the 8th graders] can ask any questions at any time. It makes high school less intimidating for them,” Haverstick said.

Cocoa Community won’t only be for answering questions the 8th graders have. They plan on doing activities with them to make them feel more comfortable with their transition.

Another member of the Cocoa Community, Sophomore, Jenny Kim, said, “We plan on making videos giving advice for the incoming freshmen and we want to contact the middle schoolers directly. We also want to have a small hang out with them to answer any of the questions they may have.”
“Cocoa Community is here to form relationships. You have familiar faces you can look up to, it’s someone to trust,” Haverstick said.