With the new school year just under way, new students are settling into life at ISB. Now in our sixth week of school, we asked some of our new students about their first weeks of school and how we can help them get used to the pace here for years to come.

When asked about his first few days of school, David Enfinger (9) replied, “my first impression on ISB was that everybody is very nice and welcoming. The teachers can give you plenty of time because of the small classes.” When asked about what he liked on his first day of school, David added, “I liked that I was able to go to all my classes and that the teachers were very good at describing how each class will be and what is expected every day.”

Isabella Abate (10), spoke about her first impressions at ISB. “My first impression of ISB was that it was so much bigger than my old school. On the first day of school, I got the feeling that the people are really nice and it is a really great community.” She further added that her “old school had a lot more homework and was really stressful.” She recommends to any new students coming into ISB that they should “eat the school food because I thought it would be bad so I never tried it but it is actually so good.”

Imogen Alexander (11), felt that unlike her past school, ISB is “far more socially accepting and diverse.” She explained “everyone was extremely inclusive and helpful and made feeling new easy”.However when asked about how the first few days could be improved, Imogen recommended that “a small description of where classrooms are” would be beneficial to any new students.

Jaden Cilliers (9), spoke to us about his first week at ISB. “I had no idea where anything was, but luckily people were always pointing me in the right direction.” He also said, “there are so many people here. Coming from a place where I knew everyone, it was a big change for me.”After being asked how it compared to his old school, Jaden believed that ISB is “much bigger, and it seems to be more developed meaning a lot more funding has been put into the facilities. It seems to also be very academic and competitive,” as well as very sports-invested.

Marissa Taylor (12) spoke to Panther Nation about her first impressions at ISB as well, stating that “everyone was super nice to me and helped me get around when I was lost. The food is really good and my classes are nice.” She felt that her old school “did not have as many friendly people as ISB. From what we can tell, ISB seems to be a pretty great place to be a new student. Let us hope that for years to come, ISB can be as welcoming as they were this year for our future new students.     

Milla Harter