STUDENTS have the opportunity to assist in the office and counseling center as aides. Lancers cannot pick it out when they register for their schedule. What they do is deliver notes to students for the counselors and assist in the food pantry. Some students say that it’s like a workout while others say it’s more like a study hall class.

Ms. Oliver is in charge of the office aides. She is the one who gives them their grades and picks out who gets to be an office aide. “Not many kids want to be an office aide, so it is usually just a fallback class. This class teaches them responsibility and how to work in an office setting. It is great if that is what they want to pursue in the future,” Ms. Oliver said. This class teaches Lancers to stay busy.

“We have students who need to fill their schedule, or students that need extra time to do their work. It helps them catch up,” Ms. Oliver said. “We need students who attend their classes and have good grades in them, often times, they become office aides because a class doesn’t work out in their schedule.”

Ms. Peterson, a counseling secretary, said that about 100 notes go out in a day. “Every class period is busy, it varies, about fifteen different people hand us notes to deliver.” The office aides are kept busy.

“It is fun, I like that sometimes I can do assignments from other classes, it keeps me up to date with my school work. It gets pretty tiring going up and down the stairs,” Kaylee Peterson (12) said. Lancers who are office aides are similar to ‘Rocky’.

Teachers also have a strong opinion of the office aides. Mr. Timothy, a Success 101 teacher and adviser of Hope Squad, thinks that it’s a great opportunity for students to take this class and to assist the counselors. “We had office aides when I was in high school. Although, only females could take the class because it was like being a secretary, and really only females were secretaries.” Mr. Timothy, said. Anyone can be an office aide today.

Sometimes the aides will be listening to music on their earbuds or headphones when they deliver the notes to teachers. “I find it really offensive when they walk into my classroom with earbuds in,” Mr. Timothy said. “They need to be taught how to be respectful when they walk into a teacher’s class.”

Maybe teachers should just ignore office aides that wear earbuds to solve the issue. The aides are disrespectful when they walk into a teacher’s classroom doing so. It is as if they are aides just to get credit, and they don’t care about anyone else except for themselves. Office aides should just take out the earbuds before entering a classroom.

Mr. Babcock and Ms. Oliver agree that students need to be on track to graduate to take this class. “I think it’s a great opportunity for students who have space in their schedule to help out counselors and administrators,” Mr. Babcock said. “Without the aides help, we would not be able to do the work that we need to with the students.”

The staff at Granger has many similar ideas about the requirements for office aides. Although Mr. Babcock has some of the same ideas as others, he also thinks that it is crucial that the aides are awesome and have terrible jokes. “They need to be respectful and courteous because they will be walking into classrooms where teaching and instruction is happening,” Mr. Babcock said.

One amazing office aide, Kolby Smith (12), is very enthusiastic about being an office aide. “Oh, I love it! It’s the best,” Smith said. “I feel like my favorite things about it is the jovial atmosphere along with the assiduous striving to be better.”

Being an office aide helps with many things, “It assists us to get the proper feel of an office. There is a bit of downtime within the office aide position, but it does give you time to keep up with your schoolwork. It’s kinda like independent study,” Smith said. It’s a good way to stay on track.

There is a side to being an office aide that most people don’t know. “It actually gives us a look into the counselors’ lives and it shows us how busy that they actually are. Working side-by-side with both the Jennifers is great, too,” Smith said. All the people in the office and counseling center are very benign towards the office aides.

As an office aide, you get the opportunity to travel around the school. “It’s a great way to draw closer to the student body, it allows you to communicate with people that you probably wouldn’t if you weren’t an office aide,” Smith said.