Park welcomes incoming 9th and 10th graders

May 31, 2009 • written by Samantha Hartfiel

When most students think back to their first day of high school, many recall that they felt lost and overwhelmed because the building appeared to be so enormous. This year, Park High School tried to ease the transition for upcoming freshmen and sophomores by hosting tours for the future classmen. These tours took place on April 29^th and 30^th for ninth graders and May 7^th and 8^th for eighth graders of Oltman and Cottage Grove junior high.

On these mornings, the students arrived by bus during second hour to find themselves being greeted by a group of current juniors and sophomores, who were deemed  admirable examples of the student body, and were to be the  tour guides for the morning.

The middle school students started off their tour in the auditorium, where they were introduced to Principal Dr. Agbamu and other Park administrators. Also, every teen was given a Park “passport” which contained a list of all 11 stations that the students would be stopping at throughout the day. These passports were provided to help the adolescents follow along and were also a small souvenir.

After Dr. Agbamu warmly welcomed the middle school members, the teens split into groups by homeroom and met up with their Park guide to get a special glimpse of the school. Throughout the hour tour, students were brought to 11 different stations by their guide, including the cafeteria, stadium, upstairs hallway, and library. At every stop, a member of the Park faculty would give the pupils a brief description of the area. For example, when students were brought to the cafeteria, they learned how lunch would work after listening to an explanation from two members of the cafeteria staff. They also got to hear about Park’s pristine artificial field at the stadium from the gym teacher Mr. Sikich, and were taught the school song by the cheerleaders in the gymnasium. At almost every stop, faculty members encouraged the junior high students to participate in extracurricular activities, which they believed would enrich their high school experience.

Additionally, the adolescents got a glimpse at two new components that will be available at Park in upcoming school years. For one, they got to hear about the IB program that will be open for scholars to participate in during the 2010-2011 school year and beyond. This new program, which is similar to the Advanced Placement course offered at Park now, consists of college level classes in which intelligent and determined students can earn college credit by passing the strenuous class. Also, the upcoming students got an exclusive sneak peek at the newly constructed entrance to Park High School. The newborn entry features a large commons area, a lecture hall, and a school store where students can buy school supplies and Park gear. Mr. Bach, who was the speaker for this stop, said that he was very excited about the lecture hall, which he believed would be able to enrich learning by having a space accessible for discussions and guest speakers.

All in all, the tour seemed to be very helpful for the future students and helped ease some nerves about high school. Andrew Hartfiel, who is a current freshman at Oltman Junior High said, “I felt that the tour was very informative.”

At the end of the tour, every student received a button that featured an image of the world and said ‘Preparing Tomorrows Global Citizens: Park High School’ which was a souvenir and token that represented that the future freshmen and sophomores are welcome at Park.

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