Junior Green Keys

Tower Hill Middle Schoolers are growing their leadership skills in a new way through the Junior Green Keys program. 

Tower Hill’s Middle School ambassadors provide a friendly face and a helping hand to visitors. 

Inspired by the Upper School Green Keys program available to students beginning in 10th grade, Junior Green Keys is a student ambassador group that began during the 2025-2026 school year to improve the experience for potential new students and provide Middle School students with leadership experience. 

Interim Head of Middle School Melinda Martin and Director of Lower School and Middle School Admission Alyssa Worrilow saw an opportunity to enhance the student experience through a collaboration between the Middle School division and the Admission Office. 

“We came up with the Junior Green Keys to create a better visit experience for our incoming students and to create leadership within the Middle School,” Worrilow says.  

The group currently includes 30 students in grades 5-7. Students are responsible for a variety of different activities including assisting with Shadow Day visitors, welcoming visiting schools during events, greeting guests and providing tours during Open Houses. This cohort of Junior Green Keys was nominated by faculty as members of the Tower Hill community who embodied the school’s values and mission. As leaders in the Middle School, providing these students with a new opportunity was self evident. 

“For kids this age especially, they feel empowered to be given this kind of leadership position,” says Jennifer Houston, Middle School admission liaison and Middle School English faculty.

The program also allows current Tower Hill Middle School students to make connections with applicants.Worrilow said she pairs students up by grade level and sometimes even by common interests. This helps create connections between students from the first meeting. 

“Our students and visitors see potential friendships during Shadow Days and feel more connected because they know at least one person enrolled at Tower Hill. Many of our Hillers end the day saying they hope to see them back here next school year. It’s comforting for our visitors to know they’d have at least one familiar face greeting them upon enrollment,” Worrilow says. 

The positive impression Junior Green Keys make doesn’t stop with applicants. Parents and families are also impressed by this group of students who greet and tour them around the school. Worrilow consistently hears how kind, inclusive and professional the Junior Green Keys members are. 

“We look to these students to be the best versions of themselves; we’re not asking them to be anything but authentic,” she says. 

Visiting schools also get the opportunity to interact with the Junior Green Keys. During the Leaning into Equity Awareness and Diversity (LEAD) Conference in the fall, seventh and eighth grade students from Lancaster Country Day, Nativity Prep, Sanford, Serviam, St. Anne’s and Ursuline visited for a day of meaningful listening and conversation. 

Hillers greeted their visitors and guided them through the school to the auditorium to make sure everyone felt welcomed. 

Martin said this first year has been a great initial step in providing Middle Schoolers with a new leadership experience. She hopes to see it grow as the program continues, including highlighting these student leaders as members of the community who are always ready to lend a helping hand.

Following Middle School, Worrilow says it’s possible the Junior Green Keys could be a pathway toward joining the Upper School Green Keys program beginning in 10th grade. 

No matter what path the Junior Green Keys members decide to take, the skills and relationships they develop will leave a lasting impression.