When Isabella Longo ’29 launched the Link Crew club at her high school, she aimed to create a mentorship program for new students — specifically first-years, transfers, and non-English speaking students — that would help them meet others and feel welcomed.
It’s a cause that has a special resonance for her.
“When I started freshman year, I was really scared, so I wanted to make sure every student felt connected,” says Longo. “I was lucky to find a lot of other people who felt the same way.”
Longo — who hails from Newington, Connecticut, and went to Newington High School — organized Link Crew in the spring of her junior year and started the club that fall. It quickly grew to 40 members.
While first-years receive a high school Orientation, Longo notes, the Link Crew (made up of seniors) offers individualized tours prior to the school year, where they walk through the student’s schedule with them so they can see where their classes are located. Once school starts, a Link Crew leader is assigned to each homeroom, and they meet regularly with the first-years to help them get involved in the school community.
“There's research that shows that having a community in your school environment provides a space for students to be more likely to go to school, stay in school, and be involved,” says Longo, who received the Young Woman of the Year award from The Village for Families and Children organization for her development of Link Crew. “Making sure that students feel like they're not alone or that they have a safe space improves their mental health.”
For Longo, seeing the relief on a student’s face when they know where their classes are or hearing them say that the Link Crew helped them feel more comfortable with the transition to high school, was her favorite part of the initiative.
Community has always been important to Longo, and that’s exactly what stuck out to her when she toured Bryant University.
“I was looking at both big schools and small schools, but when I came to Bryant, I really felt that ‘home’ feeling,” Longo says.
She also appreciated that Bryant was striving to create the best experience possible for students.
“I love all the improvements Bryant is making,” Longo says, referring to the Puishys Residence Complex and the Navigant Credit Union Field House. “It's already an amazing school, but everything they're building and all the new programs they're starting proved to me that they don't want to just stop there.”
Coming in as undecided business major on the 3+3 Juris Doctor track, an accelerated program offered in partnership with Villanova University that allows direct entry into law school for qualified students, Longo is excited to take both business and law classes and try new things — including Bryant’s business-related clubs, Mock Trial, the Bryant Players, and the university’s music groups.
Longo is also a Wilson Leadership Fellow. Through the fellowship, coordinated by Bryant’s Ellen Wilson Leadership Center, she’ll learn about leadership from faculty, alumni mentors, her peers, staff and others — which will help her to apply her growing leadership skills to a variety of situations and life experiences.
As Longo prepares to move onto campus in August, she notes that Link Crew will return for a second year under new leadership back at her high school.
Seeing it continue on is a source of pride for Longo.
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“When I started Link Crew, it was this small idea, and I wasn't even thinking of what it could be in the end,” she admits.
In true leadership fashion, though, Longo shares credit for the success with others — praising the high school body, link leaders, and her community who assisted in bringing the club to life and continuing it following her graduation.
“I wouldn't have been able to do it without the people who were there helping me,” says Longo. “When you're starting something like this — or any club anywhere — it really is the support systems that get you there.”
