Would you like to make a difference

with your peers?

Come join SOS!

Students Offering Support (SOS) trains and supports youth advocates

to listen, share, help, mentor, and teach their peers.

It encompasses four programs, each with its own focus:

Conflict Mediation

Freshman Transition

Kids Learning Empathy and Respect (KLEAR)

Safe School Ambassadors (SSA)

Freshman Transition focuses on building a welcoming, safe and caring community by teaming each 9^th grader with an upper-class Peer Leader. 

Peer Leaders are sophomores, juniors and seniors who complete approximately 20 hours of training to prepare for their work with the freshmen. 

Orientation Day is the kick-off event for Freshman Transition and the new school year.  Freshmen and new students attend a Welcome Rally and tour the campus with a Peer Leader.

During first semester, pairs of Peer Leaders meet twice a month with a small group of freshmen during PE class.  They teach a different theme at each meeting:  getting to know your group, getting to know your school, values, stereotyping, bullying, harassment, and working together.  Peer Leaders guide a variety of activities around each theme to help freshmen develop the communication and listening skills needed to build cultural competencies and to succeed in school and within their families and communities.    

During second semester, Peer Leaders assist freshmen with course registration, and are available to meet informally with freshmen, outside of class time.

As part of our Freshman Transition Program, our peer leaders take all freshmen on a low ropes course with their social studies teachers. The freshmen bond and engage in trust and team building activities that increase the feeling of community at Woodside High School. Research shows that students who feel connected to school are more successful than those who don't.

Conflict Mediation provides a safe and confidential environment for settling problems between students, teachers and/or parents in a non-violent manner.  Peer Mediators complete 12 hours of training to learn the mediation process. 

Mediation sessions are held during school time on an as-needed basis throughout the school year.  Any WHS community member (students, teachers, administrators, staff or parents) may refer a dispute to our program by contacting one of the coordinators in person, or by phone or email.  During a session, two trained mediators sit down with the two disputants and help them solve the problem.

The Safe School Ambassador Program is a national violence prevention program that promotes the power of teens to intervene when they notice bullying at school and off campus. Students are trained in seven strategies for preventing and intervening safely when they notice mistreatment. Woodside High School trains 45 students each year to join the SSA Program. We meet every other week to discuss what we've noticed and to plan multicultural activities for the school.

If you would like to join SOS, please complete the form below and we will invite you to the next training session for your program of interest.  Thank you for wanting to make a difference with your peers!