Incoming students to Catlin Gabel School struggle to form a relationship with the community
By Isabel Vestergaard ‘21
Some new incoming ninth graders feel alienated from the community. Photo by Isabel Vestergaard.
Given the remote shift to the beginning of the school year, ninth graders face new challenges of immersing themselves into a new community.
Ninth grader Kate Andrews is new to Catlin Gabel School (CGS) and believes CGS has included opportunities for her to connect with other students.
While she believes the days dedicated to welcoming the incoming students were helpful, they fell short of creating meaningful friendship opportunities.
“They haven't really been able to recreate the feeling of really bonding with someone,” said Andrews.
Ninth grader Catcher Kemmerer is also new to CGS and expected that it would be difficult for the school to engage the new students.
“I consider the ultimate goal to immerse oneself within and feel comfortably engaged with a community almost immediately upon entry to a new school,” said Kemmerer. “Though Catlin did not fulfill this, it is most certainly difficult, and to be expected.”
Kemmerer finds there are benefits to virtual school days that CGS should consider implementing into their in-person environment.
“I certainly enjoy the more popular aspects of beginning at Catlin virtually: lack of commute, later start time, and an ease into the year,” said Kemmerer.
Aside from opportunities to connect with classmates in person, Andrews feels that it’s harder to meet classmates online than in person.
“I really don't know anyone, and there aren't any passing times or lunch periods in which I could get to know people,” said Andrews. “It's impossible to have a one-on-one conversation virtually, and it's pretty awkward to privately message someone over Zoom.”
Andrews thinks the stigma of reaching out to someone you don’t know needs to be broken.
“Normalizing reaching out to people you wouldn't usually talk to would help,” said Andrews. "I think if it were encouraged more, there might be more people who were more comfortable doing it.”