FRESHMEN have now been in high school for about seven months. Some of them had a rocky start academically and were completely lost and unprepared, while others were completely fine. Other students entered high school with a big friend group, and now they don’t have as many friends.
But for some students, it’s the opposite. They start with a little friend group and gain more friends as time goes on. This is what happened to Shantel Cano (9). “I started high school having zero friends, but now I have some friends, and it made me sidetrack a lot,” Cano said. “I failed two classes, but freshman year is going good so far,” she said.
However, a lot of freshmen start to think that just because it is their first year of high school, it’s OK to skip or fail any classes because they still have three more years to go. The reality is that they’re just making it harder for themselves to be able to keep their GPA and CPA high. Making up CPA hours can take more than a year, and students must have 100% attendance to see changes.
Kevin Gamez (9) says he has decent grades. “I would say my GPA is good, but it can get better — same with my CPA. I don’t hang out with people just to call them my friends, but I’ve met new people,” Gamez said.
Seniors say freshman is your most important year because that’s the year where it’s easiest to boost your GPA and CPA for the years to come.
Mr. Schmeling, an AVID teacher, was asked if he’s noticed some changes in his students academically and attendance-wise. “In this class period, I’ve noticed four of my students do so much better than when they started. All it took for them to improve was seeing how bad their CPAs and grades looked,” Schmeling said.
Students can feel like they must choose between grades and friends.
“Honestly, my old friends were such a bad influence on me. I’m not saying it wasn’t my fault either, but I was the one who made the change and decided to come to school. My grades are even going up,” Michelle Tejeda (9) said. The right friends can have a big effect outside of school, too. Some people do have things that go on at home and affect their school life, but they also try their hardest to overcome their problems, and good friends can help.
High school isn’t easy for some people, and for others like Angelica Pacheco (9), it’s a very big change. “At the beginning of the year, it was a very big struggle to keep up with all the homework I had, and I knew I had to fix my attendance and stop being late. What I did to fix it was I tried harder to stay after school so my teachers could help me understand the assignments,” Pacheco said.
Freshmen say that their first three quarters of high school were hard, but they tried their hardest to keep up and stay on top of everything. Hopefully, the rest of their year goes well, and they finish strong.
