One of the most appealing aspects about being a first-year student at JLA is that everyone here is new. No one ever feels out of place for being ‘the new kid’ and there’s no culture that you need to try and find your place in. It is all new.
After asking various students, it’s safe to say that many of them have had a pretty good time incorporating themselves into the community thus far. Ari Preciado, tenth grader, expressed his feelings on his transition to JLA: “It’s rough to leave your family after ten years, but I did not expect the transition, at least for me, to be very smooth and very welcoming.” The other students seem to agree with this wholeheartedly, a fellow high-schooler even explaining that, “it has been really good. I really like this experience, making new friends and going to Israel was also a very good experience.”
Even though everyone seems to be having a great time, there’s still many unique and different things that JLA does which are unfamiliar for the students, such as having to adjust from the schedules that have become second nature to them. One student states, “…in this school we take eight or nine classes a day, but in most other schools they have an A-B schedule which [is] around four classes a day.” It will take some getting used to for many who are familiar with A-B schedules or schools with earlier dismissal times. Sasha Radvinsky, ninth grader, offers a more positive take on the schedule: “In my old school, we didn’t really get a passing period, [so] I like that we get a few breaks throughout the day.”
Because of these alternative scheduling choices, some students have to adjust their outside life to fit with their school time. One student addresses a pretty common issue among their peers, saying: “We get out at five, and most of the time I take the bus, so we leave at five and I actually get home at six, so there’s not much that I can do at six. I just eat dinner, do my homework and go to sleep.” Most, if not all students share similar issues. “I get home at 7:15 if I take the bus on a bad day, on a good day it’s more like 6:30,” shares Gustavo, a concerned tenth-grader.
But there’s no point in asking the students what issues they have if there’s no opportunity for a solution. Manuel Safdie, a passionate ninth-grader, proposes a creative solution: “Maybe we can make the classes forty minutes and take the extra five minutes so we can get in between classes.” This is a great example of the critical thinking skills that the students in our school have learned to harness. “I feel like I have no time to take advantage of this building and the people around here, because we get to school and go straight to learning,” explains Ari Preciado.
All in all, there are many different people at this school, so everyone’s adjusting a little differently. Maybe it’s a bit easier for some and a bit harder for others. But what’s important to remember (especially for those having a bit of a tougher time adjusting) is that we’re still a new school with a long way to go. And if we’ve started this well in this small period of time, who knows how far JLA will reach in the years to come?
