Katherine Callaway, Journalist
December 5, 2023
As the first semester of college is coming to an end, Port Chester High School wanted to check up on our former students. While this is a completely new chapter of their life, there are several changes that our alumni are currently facing. These changes are both academically and socially.
Former students Caroline Policarpo, Jenna Provenzano, and Callie Sulivan are all in their first year of college. While they all go to different universities, they ultimately are facing similar challenges. When asked about the biggest challenge in their first semester, Policarpo and Sulivan believed it was an academic challenge, while Provenzano believed it was a social challenge. Policarpo said, “I think what was hardest for me for the first semester was adjusting to the course load because it is completely different. Once you get the hang of how things work, it gets a lot easier.”. Policarpo did however believe that taking the accelerated courses here at the high school did help to prepare her better for this workload. Sullivan on the other hand thought the academic challenge of time management was the most difficult part of her first semester. While Sulivan did go into her university with several credits due to the IB Diploma offered her at the high school, this made the class which she needed to make much harder. While Sulivan does believe that you have a lot of free time in college, she thought that it was overwhelming knowing the amount of work you must get done. Lastly, Provenzano believed that the most difficult part of her first semester was navigating social adjustments. She felt that she had to venture outside of her comfort zone to acclimate herself into her school’s environment. For her, she found that joining a sorority helped her to adjust to the social life at the University of Rhode Island.
These same girls were also asked about how the transition from high school to college was. While the girls all believed that the transition was not difficult, they did differ in reasons why. Sullivan attends Virginia Tech and she knew that the first night was going to be tough no matter how far away from home you were. However, she was grateful for the support of her family and school on her decision to go so far away. Provenzano felt that due to the wide variety of activities which she participated in throughout high school, she was much more prepared to manage her time in college. She wrote, “It became obvious that juggling a busy extracurricular and social life with academic obligations called for a planned technique.”. Provenzano knew that she had to use her past experiences from high school to adapt to her college life. Lastly Policarpo did not feel that this was a difficult transition for her as she did not feel many differences at college compared to high school. Since she goes to a mid-sized school, she felt at ease since most of her class sizes were similar or slightly smaller than her classes at the high school. While there were all different responses for these students’ transitions from high school to college, they all found their ways to make it easier!
When asked if they were able to change something about college, what would it be? Two of the girls had very similar answers and one believed something else. Both Provenzano and Sullivan thought that if they were able to change something about college, it would definitely be the cost. Both believe that everyone should be able to have a “college experience”, but with how expensive tuition can be, this is not possible for everyone. On the other hand Policarpo thought if she were to change one thing, it would be how classes are scheduled. She finds it difficult having long breaks in between classes. These ideas should be something which high school students take into consideration before making their decisions on college.
The last question which these former students were asked is probably the most important. The question is “Do you think PCHS prepared you well enough for college?”. While most students here at the high school know about the college level courses offered here, do they actually help you to prepare for college? The girl all did believe that yes, Port Chester High School does help to prepare you for college, if you take advantage of the benefits. Sullivan thinks that the high school has several well employed teachers and administrators that help to guide you throughout your years here. Provenzano agrees that the teacher’s dedication to helping students develop their academic abilities was also hugely beneficial. Provenzano however also thought that the wide variety of activities which were offered to her helped promote time management skills which have definitely helped her in her future. Policarpo did also agree that PCHS did help to prepare her, but she also felt she did not take full advantage of the perks given to us here. She found it very easy to fall behind on classwork when she did not apply herself to her work. She knew however that she could not let that happen in college. So she took the lesson which she had learned in high school and applied it to her college lifestyle.
Lastly, two sophomores in college were asked “How would you compare your sophomore first semester to freshman first semester?”. Both students’ answers were very similar. Natalie Tempesta sophomore at Quinnipiac University and Harrison Callaway sophomore at St. Lawrence University found many differences in the two years, in both social and academic form. Tempesta found that in her freshman year, there was a lot of trial and error in finding her ways, compared to her sophomore year where she felt much more comfortable as she found her way around both academically and socially. However, Tempesta does say that she finds her sophomore year to be much more academically challenging than freshman year. Callaway found that his sophomore year of college he was much more prepared for what was to come, but he also felt much more confident socially. He believed that over the course of his freshman year, he found very good people to surround himself with socially which made college much easier and a lot more fun!
Overall, the former PCHS students seem to be doing very well whether they are in their freshman or sophomore years in college. While all freshmen have been going through a lot of changes in their first semester away from home, they will all become much stronger and prepared for the second semester and their futures! The biggest thing that we can say is that PCHS alumni make us very proud and we can not wait to see what their future holds!