On August 22nd, six new freshmen walked onto the Cistercian Campus for the first time as students. They had a sense of what Cistercian was like, but as Montaigne said, “Nothing is known until it is experienced.” Even with prior knowledge, the experiences they were going to have were still unknown to them.
Before these new kids even had a class at Cistercian, they were welcomed whole heartedly into their new Form. The moment they stepped into that classroom they were involved in everything. Cayden Link said, “My favorite thing about the form is how welcoming the kids are.” This is demonstrated in how well these new kids have fit into the form. Every lunch they are with a group for the whole period–the same holds true for the other breaks. They don’t hang out all together in a group, as people new to an environment tend to do, but spread out among the form.
Finally, they had their first class of the year. And undoubtedly it was not as expected. As those who have been here for a long time know Cistercian classes can be challenging, in their material especially. Cayden Link’s favorite class so far has been geometry. He thinks the subject material is difficult, but “Mr. Humphries [is] very engaging and makes sure everyone understands what he is teaching.” This is reflected in the favorite class of most of the new kids being geometry, with a close second being Mr. Mehen’s history class. These new students have found this is a similar theme among all their classes.
What they did not find similar to their past experiences was the lack of technology in the classroom. At their old schools they lugged around a laptop, which was an unneeded added distraction to the classroom. Landon Borum thinks that “as a whole [its] better the old-fashioned way.” Another divergent item from their old school is a lack of lockers in the hallway and moving around classrooms. The general feeling is it gives them peace of mind to just stay in the same room, and not have to worry about moving around all day.
And at last, we come to the matter of the Form Master, Fr. Philip. Fr. Philip loves to play board games, as many of the new kids have already figured out and played a game with him during lunch. This general friendly attitude, and being quite speedy on learning their names, has already endeared the new kids to him. Cayden says his “favorite thing about Fr. Philip is that he is very engaging with the new kids and makes them feel at home in a new school.” Landon Borum even mentioned that “[Fr. Philip] would check up on me, and make sure I was doing okay.” The new kids have already begun to appreciate the fact that someone will be with them throughout their whole journey through high school, and even life, just as others new to the school will begin to appreciate.
Their journey here at Cistercian is just beginning. Yet no matter how hard it has gotten; they have been nothing but optimistic. Now they are not ‘new kids’ any longer but fully absorbed into the form as a whole and move forward into the year suffering more assessment
