Inaaya Omer

A sophomore successfully attempts a jump serve during a volleyball game at Station 3.

Year after year, high school students work tirelessly to prepare not only for their SATs but to submit college applications, all in hopes of getting admitted into the school of their dreams. However, the endless cycle of information concerning preparation for PSATs, SATs, & college applications broke during the pandemic, leaving students floating in a realm of a gray area. 

With the reinstatement of in-person education this year, Carlmont adjusted their once typical routine concerning the PSAT, which only juniors took on Oct. 13. That same day, sophomores rotated through four stations throughout the day to learn more about college and careers. In past years, sophomores took the PSAT along with the juniors; however, this year, Carlmont gave sophomores a day to learn about what they will spend the next two years preparing for. 

“Our intent in designing the activities today was to serve two of the school goals. One of our goals is to transition effectively out of distance learning,” Instructional Vice Principal Gay Buckland-Murray said. “A second goal is to decrease student stress.”

With the hopes of reducing stress on the sophomore class, since this is their first year of in-person high school, Carlmont staff designed the day so that the sophomores wouldn’t need to participate in this round of the PSAT. In addition, since the current sophomores weren’t able to do many of the orientation activities that freshmen usually do, the goal was to help them with the transition process and give them a chance to get more information and experience. 

“I learned A-G & college requirements which I thought was helpful. I feel as if yes [that these activities gave more information about colleges and career paths] because, in one of our classes, we did an activity to determine what could help us find a new job,” sophomore Kiryl Rapinski said.  

Sophomore Sebastian Llora agreed with Rapinski that the activities were helpful. 

“It gave me a little more information on whether I’d want to go to a 2-year college and then a 4-year university or what 4-year college I’d want to go to,” Llora said.

Some sophomores found the information about colleges helpful, especially because they have not met with their counselors in person. However, others, like sophomore Iryna Shegera, felt differently about how much they learned from the activities. 

“I didn’t really learn anything. I already knew all this information beforehand,” Shegera said. “The only thing I enjoyed was playing spike ball with my friends.”

Overall, the day was designed to give sophomores a break from their routinely stressful schedules. There were some students who enjoyed the quality time they were able to get with their friends that they may not have been able to get, and there were also those who gained new knowledge about what decisions they could make for their future. 

“The PSAT is a practice test, and only counts for juniors, so we felt this was one assessment we could omit for our students to decrease the test-related stress,” Buckland-Murray said.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Inaaya Omer

Administrative Vice Principals Grant Steunenberg and Gregg Patner discuss campus culture and expectations in Station 2.