By Siddarth Tumu ’18, Staff Writer

 The start of a new school year brings excitement to students. Hallways are filled with many enthusiastic returning students, catching up with their friends and getting settled into their new classes. In the midst of all this, there are some puzzled and timid faces. As you can guess, these are the new students, the class of 2018 and new additions to the seventh and eight grades. These students have the additional task of transitioning and fitting into the NA environment. As a new student, I decided to look into how students made this transition and if they faced any issues.

New students, especially in the seventh and eight grades, need to get adjusted into the NA community. Making friends and establishing themselves in class are perhaps the two most important things that they need to focus on. Seventh grader Matteo Moretti says that being new he didn’t know anyone coming in and would have preferred to have had more opportunities during the summer to interact with other students and get to know them. It is a known fact that the workload is the hardest in the seventh grade. I asked Matteo how he was dealing with it, and he said “There’s definitely a lot of work but I’ve been (surprisingly) settling in well. I think that one of the reasons for that is that NA gives you the chance to work ahead and it’s a lot easier to plan ahead having everything on the website.” Matteo said that he enjoys the atmosphere at NA and is impressed by the way new students are welcomed in general.

New to the NA eighth grade this year, Steve Bonsall says that he had trouble adjusting to the pace of his assignments. “I like the school. It’s a lot of hard work but it’s fun too.” Both Steve and Matteo said that their previous schools weren’t big on technology. They both agree that it’s a lot easier having all of their information and homework online. Steve is happy that he doesn’t have to carry a notebook around anymore, having his own laptop that he brings to school.

Sixth graders have an easier job fitting in as everyone in the grade is new.  During my interviews I found out that many students had issues keeping up with the pace of their assignments. Sixth grader Jon Goodison-Orr says that one of his first problems at NA was keeping his locker organized. As he figured out ways to do this and efficiently find the books needed for his classes, he told me his problems started branching out to things like homework. He says that his teachers were a big help to him. “They checked in on me and we would talk. My advisor, Ms. Tavares, helped me out a lot by giving me a planner and Ms. Snow checks in with me every now and then.” He says that the best part was that he never asked for help, the teachers helped him on their own accord. “The teachers here are definitely more open-minded and you get a better hands on learning experience. I also got to say, I am sort of a tech-geek so I love having all these MACs and having the power to access everything I need online.”

One question I had was ‘how easy was it for sixth graders to make friends?’

“I think it was about the same. At my old school, I knew everybody so I had to go through the process of getting to know everyone here. The only main difference is that making friends here happened a lot faster than at my old school,” answered Reid Christmann, also in the sixth grade. Durga Srivatsan in grade six says that you definitely get a lot more freedom here than in your old school so that makes getting adjusted to life at NA a whole lot easier. This opinion is shared by a large majority of the sixth grade.

I also spoke to some teachers to get their perspective on new students integrating into the NA environment. “I think that students are at a loss about what to do during their downtime; they talk to teachers and organize their lockers when they can be greeting their classmates and making friends,” Ms. Sparacino, a sixth grade humanities teacher, says. “Some students come into NA trying to be the most popular kid in class, resulting in obnoxious behavior. The kids who end up making the most friends are the ones that are quiet in the beginning, stay true to themselves, and don’t worry about their popularity.” “The problems you face as a new student depends on the culture and the way your old school ran. Students face issues ranging from their social life to academics.” Mr. Pursell, himself a graduate of NA and a sixth grade English teacher, says. “When I joined NA in the ninth grade, I definitely faced the problem of getting adjusted to the academic vigor.” He says that sixth grade is easy as it is more of a gradual transition as every kid in the grade is new.

As a new student, I’ve had a very positive transition and I’m having the time of my life at NA. However, I feel that there is definitely room to improve with respect to the availability of information for students. I would like to share one of my personal experiences. I started looking into the middle school clubs and was very interested in writing for this newspaper. On the NA website, I came across the application for the Minuteman Society and since there was no description I assumed that it was for this newspaper. I completed the application highlighting my journalistic qualities and was looking to hand it over to Ms. Schottland. On the day the application was due, I went on a wild goose chase trying to track Ms. Schottland down; with an hour to spare, I found her and with a large smile handed in my application only to be told that the Minuteman Society had nothing to do with the newspaper. She was laughing while she explained to me that this society did community service and other things and was for the upper school only. She told me that she thought my application was ‘cute’ so she was going to keep it! I then found out that the person I should be talking to was Mr. Ball. It would have really helped to have had a listing, description, and contact information for not only this club but all clubs and organizations on the NA website.

In conclusion, the new student transition into NA has been extremely successful this year. This is evident as there are no longer any puzzled or timid faces in the middle school hallways. You’ll find well-adjusted students and any transition issues have been handled very efficiently by the outstanding faculty at NA. All in all, it has been a dream start for many students at NA.