Stockton-   Our Lincoln High School peer counselors recently went to a fun and unique event. The Peer to Peer summit was a meeting that happened on September 9, 2025 at the San Joaquin County office of Education. It was a meeting that our Lincoln peer counselors went to in order to meet up and learn with other peer counselors from other schools throughout San Joaquin County. Throughout this day, there were many interesting presentations that happened including Every Monday Matters by Matthew Emerzian, The Wellness center by the San Joaquin County of Education, A presentation by YMDHA on drug abuse and warning signs on suicide, and a key note speaker. All of these sessions that our peer counselors went through taught us a lot about respect for others and the respect for the people around us. 

For example, one peer counselor, Aaliyah Romero, a second year student said, “I learned that mainstream TV has built a society to be normalized with drugs and alcohol, especially within our youth. Having the youth be more open and seeing these things normalized on TV has shifted our community to not seeing the red flags of our health developing bad habits at an early age.” She is explaining how she learned how to normalize drugs and alcohol in our youth. She also explained how she learned to see the red flags in our community like the warning signs of suicide and how to tell if a peer is feeling bad about themselves like body language. Another peer counselor Chase Mendez, a first year student said, “This event made me feel closer bonded to my peer counseling friends and overall community.” Chase explained how the Peer to Peer summit helped our peer counselors feel more connected with each other. Mrs. Cunningham, the Peer Counseling teacher for Lincoln High School, said, “the peer to peer summit was a great time and I really enjoyed how my students acted, and how each session was talking about important issues that needed to be addressed.” The Peer to Peer summit was an amazing experience for everyone that went. It taught us a lot about respect.