BHS has been known for student representation and taking care of things in the most beneficial way.

There is a volunteer group to tour around new students called the Welcome Wagon. The volunteer group is a group of students helping counselors, and the rest of the administration shows new students around the school and the places they would need to know where to find.

BHS students Mady Gray and Evan Baumann were shown around by the volunteer group this fall before school started.

“It was a very big change,” Evan Baumann stated. “I had lived in Minnesota my entire life, and went to one school.” 

Though he moved from a small town an hour north of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he said that the move did not affect his transfer. 

“Because I knew where to go, I wasn’t lost on my first day, and I got to my classes on time and I knew where the stairs were and levels,” Baumann said. “In the future, you could quiz students on places like the Knaak. But yes, I think this could help other students in the future.” 

Gray, similar to Baumann, came from a small town. Gray came from Beach, North Dakota, and attended Beach Highschool. 

 “I think there isn’t anything you could really change,” Gray said. “This school is a lot different [and] way bigger. It helped me a lot and I found all of my classes on the first day. There is nothing more the Welcome Wagon volunteer {group} could do now that would help me.”

Julie Berg is a counselor from BHS. She created the group with the help of others a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t as put together as it is this year because of COVID-19. Berg said that there were over 20 new students registered in the couple weeks before school started, and that using students to help them with the registration process was the best way of getting things done. 

“We do have a form we give to them in case they forgot to show them [places]. They can have a little checklist to look at,” The founder Julie Berg said. “So we started the Welcome Wagon a couple of years ago, but we wanted a group of kids that were willing and able to help with new students coming in,” Berg said. “It’s always nice to have a student do that [give a tour] so they create connections with other students.” 

“We rely on students to check the sign-up, some of them we didn’t have any students that could do it,” Berg said. “I think anything could always be improved. It’s hard because kids this age don’t want to get up and check their email. We could always improve, but we need more boys – there are a lot of girls. We’ll pull their schedules and try to match new students with their volunteer’s lunch.”

The group needs more students to join the Welcome Wagon. Everyone interviewed thought that the welcome wagon group had helped people, and will continue to help people in the future. 

“As long as you’re doing well in school and you’re not getting into trouble, we want you to be a good representative,” Berg said. “We haven’t been able to lay it down and figure out how we want to do it. We want to see change and growth with Welcome Wagon.”