Freshmen in facemasks

Not only did the class of 2024 have to adjust to moving on from middle school in the fall, but also virtual learning. The SunDevil Times reached out to freshmen for insight on what the transition to high school has been like in the age of COVID. 

With the lack of extracurriculars during the pandemic, one has to wonder if doing school online would make students more academically focused? 

A prime example of this is freshman, Savanna Fitzgerald. She has been playing soccer for 12 years and planned on playing for the SunDevils this year. Fitzgerald will still be able to try out for the team in April, but not being able to meet the coach face to face or condition with the team has her feeling left out. Fitzgerald also wishes that she could be in the building full-time with her teachers.

“At home, you can learn at your own pace, but it’s hard to concentrate,” said Fitzgerald. “I feel that I would be more successful if I was learning in person.”

Freshman Maggie Southall-Bartz finds herself trying to balance the adjustment to high school, staying involved with the Theater Academy Strand, and Madrigals. With an older sister who’s a senior this year, she’d heard stories over the past three years about what her high school experience would be like and it hasn’t been what she’d planned on. 

“When it was brought up that we would be quarantining for god knows how long during this next school year, it hit me like a wrecking ball,” said Southall-Bartz. “I am missing out on everything that I was looking forward to. Everything that I was told that I would get by my older cousins, my sisters, everyone. I still feel stuck in middle school.”

For senior Isaiah Henderson, freshman year was a time to be an all-star. Being a varsity athlete in three sports, along with juggling a social life, didn’t allow for his younger self to be too focused on school. But now that Henderson is a senior, committed to play football for the Air Force Academy for the next four years, he can look back on what he would do differently. 

“I never had bad grades, but I thought that showing up to school and playing football was enough to get me to the college level; Now as a senior, looking back I wish I would have taken academics seriously from the start because grades are what control the school you get into before athletics ever will,” said Henderson . “If I could tell my freshman self something it would be to focus. Focus on my dreams and goals, because high school went by way faster than I thought it would.”

With all the changes this year, it’s especially important for freshmen to find a community wherever they can, safely.