OJAI : Students Act as Role Models for Children

Student Council members at Nordhoff High School in Ojai reach out to younger children each week in the school’s “Little Brother, Little Sister” program.

Every spring, the 31 students enrolled in Nordhoff’s leadership class, which conducts student government, walk or bus to an elementary school where selected pupils are pulled from class for an hour of special attention.

They all hit the playground together. Between the tag and tetherball, wrestling and shrieks of laughter, shy questions are asked and reassuring words are heard from the older role models.

Everyone benefits and lasting friendships often develop, said Brenda Knight, Nordhoff Student Council adviser and director of student activities. One of her leadership classes started the program five years ago as a community service project, she said.

“I love it. We get to play games and wrestle with the big kids,” said Justin Morris, 12, a sixth-grader at Meiners Oaks Elementary School. Principal Marvin Van Wagner said teachers choose pupils who lack other opportunities to socialize with teen-agers in positive ways.

But the rewards are mutual for hard-working Nordhoff student body President Dascha Spellman, 18, in her third year with the program. “You get to be a kid again,” she said.

Senior Bart Valencia, also 18, said he values the opportunity to dispel younger boys’ fears that high school will be all work and no play. “They open up to me more than to their teachers,” he said.

Sixth-grader Deanna Ortiz, 12, clutched an orange flower from a bouquet that Nordhoff student Sara Valenzuela, 17, brought her last week. She hoped to find Sara for a final gift exchange before the teen-agers disappeared into the meadow separating the schools.

“We always bring each other things,” Deanna said. The girls said they’ve become close friends who call and write letters, go bowling and plan for Deanna to enter the Miss Ojai Valley pageant next year in Sara’s footsteps.

Sara said she is having the best of her three years in the program, and Deanna raved about Sara: “She’s cool, she’s awesome and she’s neat. She doesn’t think about herself and she’s not worrying about messing up her hair.”

The teen-agers hope that a service club will sponsor a field trip for the children to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo. “We need about $400 for the bus and admittance,” Knight said, adding that more money will be needed to bus her class to another elementary school next year. “This year, we walk,” she said.