A Journey Through the Minds of the New Students in our Seven Hills Community
By: Josie LaBare, Bianca Patel, Maggie Jackson
You’ve probably seen new faces while walking around the halls. Whether you’ve been at Seven Hills your whole life or have been here for just a few weeks, middle school can be challenging, daunting, and a new experience for everyone. For new students, this can be especially challenging. New students often come to Seven Hills with no friends, no experiences, and a new chapter to begin in their own book. This can seem highly intimidating at first.
“Everyone is always worried about their children feeling welcome on the first day… people are worried about [fitting in socially],” said Nancy Clark, Head of the Middle School and Upper School Admissions. In general, middle school can be a challenging and stressful time for all students, especially the new ones, but thanks to Seven Hills’ “welcoming and friendly community”, new students feel comfortable right away.
We began by interviewing our seventh-grade representative, Sawyer Smith, who believes daily homework, tests, and quizzes make 7th-grade difficult. Sawyer explains that Fruit Break, walking around campus, and being outside is her favorite part of school. Sawyer exclaimed that her favorite class is “Pre-algebra because Mrs. Haskins helps us learn in a better way.” Sawyer says getting used to the schedule was hard, but she enjoys A days over B days. Sawyer was attracted to Seven Hills because she and her family liked the school’s learning environment.
Sahana Siddharth, a new 8th-grade student, believes that the most challenging part about the school is that there is a lot of homework and the classes are long. She also states, “Everyone is super friendly, everyone is super welcoming.” When asked what attracted her family to Seven Hills, she recalled, “A lot of my mom’s coworkers’ kids go here, and she’s heard really good things about it and they’ve been researching it for a while.” Overall, Sahana is enjoying her 8th-grade experience and is looking forward to the rest of the year.
We hope to continue to make The Seven Hills Middle School even more welcoming and open. You can help make our community even closer by making a small gesture of kindness and that could brighten someone’s day. Seven Hills is a welcoming place for new students ready to make great new friends and join the Stinger Nation! Go Stingers!!!!!