August 23, at 8:30 am freshman began flooding the doors of West High School. Instead of an early out like last year, the class of 2028 were able to tour the building and have an earlier start rather than just having a meeting then abruptly leaving.
One of the new students states that, “I think it was very helpful that we started earlier in the day, because we got to find out where all of our classes were before we had to actually go to them,” London Riggs said. Riggs also stated that, “The meeting in the auditorium was helpful because we got to learn who our counselors were, that way we could contact them if need be,” Riggs said.
This freshman thought that the overall meeting and experience was very helpful when starting her first year of high school here at West.
An associate principal here at West High, Mike Orfitelli was very involved in this year’s freshman orientation. Orfitelli’s thoughts on this year’s meeting in the auditorium is, “I thought it went really well, the challenge is getting or providing the information that would be relevant so freshmen find it to be usable information. We only had 30 minutes to fill their head with all this information, most staff members here probably wouldn’t be able to obtain what these freshmen do in that kind of time,” Orfitelli said.
He thinks this year went smoother than last year, though he wishes that there were just a full day dedicated to freshmen and introducing them to the school.
Another graduate of 2028, Gabriella Marcom, had one main concern coming into high school, ”I usually got A’s at my middle school, and I was really worried coming into high school that would change. I really care about my grades” Marcom said.
Those extra two hours in the morning proved to be very beneficial for the freshman, getting their bearings, and just helping them learn more about West.
