By Lily Lebwohl
The transition from middle school to high school is never easy, and a global pandemic makes it no more simple. However, the incoming freshmen and the administration have made the most out of this big step in their lives under the given circumstances.
In typical years, Admissions Director Jackie Grosser plans several events throughout the school year and summer leading up to freshman year such as open houses, accepted student nights and ice cream socials. In addition, students have opportunities to shadow ninth-grade students to become familiar with what high school looks like and how it operates.
“We really tried to make the admissions process this year as welcoming as we could, knowing that we weren’t able to have big on-campus events and students weren’t able to come shadow classes as they traditionally would,” Grosser said. “We personalized the experience and did a variety of smaller events that were catered towards the families and the students so that they could still get the best sense of the school, even though they weren’t able to physically be present.”
Eighth-grader Sophie Zuckerman reached out to new students through some of these programs and believes they helped her get to know her future classmates.
“After an activity on Zoom, [new students] put their phone numbers in the chat and I was able to text them,” Zuckerman said. “Instagram has also been helpful because I followed people that I learned were coming to the school and messaged them to get to know them.”
Although options at the beginning of the school year were limited in terms of on-campus events, as the weather has gotten nicer and Covid restrictions have loosened, new students have been able to get a taste of what the campus has to offer.
“At first we weren’t having any guests in the building or on campus, but we started doing outdoor visits for families,” Grosser said. “Now we have been doing a few visits after school and even though there aren’t students in the building, they still get a sense of the space and the campus.”
