Hammond Village
A village students learn to trust. With long-standing volunteers running this village week after week, that steady presence becomes the thing students can count on. It is where a quiet ninth grader finds her voice, and where a first-time question gets a real answer.
Hammond High School
Golden BearsColumbia, Maryland
Where people are important
At Hammond, the motto “where people are important” comes to life through the relationships, encouragement, and sense of belonging at the heart of the OhanaHC Village.
From alumni returning to share their transition to college, to village coordinators who are there year after year, the familiar faces have built a connected, trusted community that changes students’ lives.
Everything else at Hammond grows out of that.
That trust is built week by week, moment by moment. The unscripted parts of the weekly club are often the most meaningful, when students just talk, share, and support one another.
Join us
Students are always welcome to stop by a weekly club meeting, meet the OhanaHC community, and get a feel for the program firsthand.
Who We Are
Meet your village coordinators. The Hammond coordinators have led this village for six years running. Ask them what best supports a student and the answer is plain: being there.
Students can tell the difference between an adult who has to be there and one who wants to be, and when a mentor keeps coming back season after season, a student feels it.
That steadiness is what a decade of OhanaHC is built on, and at Hammond it starts in a club room on an ordinary afternoon.
- Village Coordinators
- Cindy Sandler and Mick Carbo
- School Liaisons
- Mollie Wolf and Alex Kosisky (HCPSS staff)
Impact
Before students can grow, lead, and find their voice, they need to feel safe, accepted, and valued. Preparing for college, getting a driver’s license, working out what comes next. A mentor is a steady adult who knows what to do next, or knows who to ask. That is the work of an Ohana: a student and two caring adults, walking the firsts together.
OhanaHC has been the best thing I’ve done! I didn’t know what I needed to do to get my driver’s license other than take driver’s ed. My mentor has helped me in so many ways. She connected me with a college selection counselor and helped me understand everything I need to do.
Four words
One student joined the village as a ninth grader carrying real anxiety. For two years she rarely spoke, in club meetings or in her classes. During her junior year something shifted: she started answering questions, offering her thoughts, speaking up. Asked what changed, she said, “I trust people here.”
A guide in a world of firsts
One Hammond student who immigrated to the U.S. was the first in their family to move through the American school system. So the ordinary milestones of adolescence, preparing for college, getting a driver’s license, sorting out what comes next, felt like a journey with no roadmap.
They demonstrate genuine care and concern for one another, offer encouragement, and clearly enjoy spending time together.
Four years go fast. Be the mentor who makes them count.
A Hammond student’s high school years are full of big decisions and firsts. A steady mentor guides them through it, one week at a time.
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