In April, before the induction ceremony of the new members of the Patriot Ambassadors organization, a boot camp will be held after school. The new ambassadors will be welcomed and this boot camp will be their training before holding the title “Patriot Ambassador.”

Meredith Lange, a Spanish teacher and sponsoring supervisor of Patriot Ambassadors, finds the Patriot Ambassadors boot camp an important event. “This is a week-long activity that we ask our new Patriot Ambassadors to participate in, where they can learn the skills to become an excellent Patriot Ambassador. We teach them how to usher students and adults around the school, how to give proper directions, how to tour walking backwards, how to speak publicly and become comfortable with it, how to write formal emails, and we do different team builder activities. We bring in the current and veteran Patriot Ambassadors to teach them different activities and we have them break into groups to give tours around the school just within the Patriot Ambassador group so they can practice speaking in front of a couple of students at a time. We have them get into small groups to do fun activities where they need to interact with other students or students that they don’t know so they can become comfortable speaking to people they don’t know,” Lange said.

The training is important to becoming a successful, proper ambassador, and veteran members like senior member Laila Ghorab have a pivotal role in teaching the new members. “As veteran members, it is our responsibility to lead the activities and help give them tips so that they feel more comfortable when it comes time for them to usher at events or give tours to new students or parents. We not only engage them in the activities but also strive to develop a sense of camaraderie within the organization so that things run more smoothly in meetings. Last year, I got to help out with the boot camp, and it was exciting to see so many new faces. They seemed to really enjoy participating in the activities and getting to know their fellow ambassadors. All in all, everybody had a good time, so I can’t wait to get to know more newbies at this year’s boot camp,” Ghorab said.

According to Ghorab, the camp is not just serious training. “We usually have fun speaking activities like trying to say tongue twisters really fast, or seeing how long a person can talk without stuttering or stopping. Overall, it usually just ends up with us laughing a lot because we’re struggling to say something really fast,” Ghorab said.
Lange advises these new members who will be undergoing training on how to act as an ambassador. “New Patriot Ambassadors need to not only be flexible but to always be willing to chip in and have a smile on their face because we never know what the school or administration is going to ask of us and we need to be willing to work with different groups of people that we may not be familiar with,” Lange said.