Student-Written Book Published by OLA Offers Real Advice for Navigating Middle School

Dan Stark
Jul 15
2 min read

“Get a good first impression.” “Stay out of drama.” “Beware of the stairs.”

These are some of the many pieces of advice offered by students in “The Ultimate Middle School Survival Guide, Volume 1” a new book that has been self released by Organización Latino Americana (OLA) of Eastern Long Island and is available at the East Hampton Library.

The book was made through OLA’s Youth Connect program, which holds workshops and provides support services for adolescents on the East End, as a way to provide a resource for incoming middle school students from those who were already experiencing it.

“We thought it would be a great way to show them as sort of experts in their field of surviving middle school and then generate some interesting conversations, which we did,” said Minerva Perez, OLA’s executive director.

To put the book together, the Youth Connect program ran three workshops at the East Hampton Library in which students from East Hampton and Springs middle schools were asked questions like “What’s it like going to middle school?” “What are some things that are difficult?” and “What are some ways to navigate middle school?”

The students were given these basic prompts and were then encouraged to talk with each other, with Perez adding that “once we got the conversation started, we didn’t want to be there leading them every next step.”

The advice students offer in the book ranges from ways to keep up academically and avoid procrastinating, tips for getting ready in the morning and how to deal with social situations. Some students offered candid advice such as “Be friendly to everyone, even the annoying ones” and “Get on the good side of your teachers, they will grade you accordingly.”

Perez said that holding these workshops in the familiar space of the East Hampton Library helped the students out more, as many of them visit the space and enjoy going there. This resulted in highly collaborative workshops.

The students were encouraged to make drawings as well, most of which are included in the book. The book also features advice in both English and Spanish, with translations available for each line included.

As the “Volume 1” in the title suggests, Perez said that she hopes there will be more editions of the book that will be done at more libraries across the East End, and that each edition published will be available at every participating library.

“Our aim is to show this and really encourage our libraries to be a project that we’ll do together, especially with middle school,” she said. “So what we want to do is have a bunch of middle school survival guides.”