5 Weeks vs. 5 Years at OHS

When first arriving at OHS, students are introduced into a new online community that holds their own unique culture. Assistant editor-in-chief Rachel Hu ’22 interviewed seven students: Alina Rahim ’22, Quinn McIntyre ’22, Jada Badiyan ’21, and Lexi Tabacu ’22 have been at OHS for 4-5 years while Knox Choi ’23, Jasmine Li ’23, and Amanda Castillo-Lopez ’24 are only in their 5th week. Take a look into how they compare in their opinions on the academic, teacher, and student community at OHS.

Academics

All students agree that the academics at OHS has far exceeded their expectations. New student Amanda tells that she is now getting comfortable in class, “I like how we are relaxed and engage in chat.” Everyone also agrees that the quality of education at OHS is much better than their previous school situation, whether it was public school, homeschool, etc. Experienced student Quinn points out that OHS allows “much more specialization,” with their advanced math and science options as well as rigorous English courses. In addition, experienced student Lexi also shares her love for the Core sequence, with her most fun class memories being in those Core classes.

In terms of the rigor at OHS, all students have different experiences with workload. New student Knox, who was previously homeschooled but now full-time at OHS, says that the “workload is not too bad, it’s better than I initially expected.” Experienced student Jada also had the same experience, that when she joined OHS in middle school, “the workload was not a big shock.” However, other students had different experiences. Experienced student Lexi, who joined OHS in middle school from both public and private school background, stated that “the first year was hell.” Previously, she “never learned to really study since everything came easily in her classes [before OHS].” In addition, Alina states that she used “trial and error” to figure out how to manage her OHS workload. Coming from a public school, Alina also had a tough time when she first came. “In 7th grade I cried a lot, and overall the first 2 years was extremely hard [...] If you are adaptable, it should only take you a year to get used to OHS structure. However, it really took me five.” New student Jasmine, who was previously at a private international school but now full-time at OHS, recounts that her “first few weeks, it was very hard to keep up. I fell behind, but afterwards I got down a schedule and anticipated the workload. So now it’s much better.”

However, all students were unanimous that their favorite part of the education here are the teachers. Experienced student Alina raves that “the teachers are very smart and qualified [...] I’ve always only had amazing experiences with OHS teachers.” New student Jasmine admits that it is a bit harder because “you have to go out of your way to establish relationships with teachers since it’s online and that you only see them 2 hours a week in class.” Despite having to build relationships in a different way than in regular brick and mortar schools, she still expresses that “the teachers here, even just them as people, are unparalleled.” New student Knox was surprised that “the teachers are invested in students, which you don’t get a lot.” Even experienced student Jada, who also takes class part time at a community college, states that “OHS teachers are even much better than the community college ones [...] the difference is insane.” Experienced student Quinn tells that at first, they “may seem a little bit intimidating because they are all well educated and have PhDs.” Yet, he has found that “they are all nice and committed to helping you learn and better understand [the subject].” He was also impressed at how productive they are in class at “facilitating meaningful discussion rather than just asking questions they know the answer to.”

Friends and the Student Community

When inquired about making friends at OHS, experienced students and new students share many similarities as well as differences in their approach and struggles. New student Amanda shares that she is still “unsure on how to approach making new friends online.” She has not used Skype that much yet. However, she signed up for Pixel Pals and remarks that it is going well. In addition, new student Jasmine tells that it has been hard finding a group. This is because “there is not the same constant connection as you get in a brick and mortar school, where you see your friends everyday. It’s been hard because you need to constantly reach out to them, so it’s easy for a relationship to die [...] However, I found a few people that I’ve made friends with.” In addition, new student Knox shares that his approach was “just to reach out, start talking to new people, be outgoing and forward. Even if I saw someone in class that said something cool, I would reach out on Skype.” There are both limitations and benefits to online relationships. Knox notes that “when you are face to face, you can see their facial expressions. One can express emotions without showing words. [However] when you’re texting, it is harder to communicate. It is more surface level on text, you can only go so deep.” However, an upside is that “on skype, you can find anyone easily by searching their name, and everyone is friendly. If you are in-person, you can’t reach out to everyone as easily.” Although he admits that “I don’t think I have a deep relationship with anyone yet since it has only been 5 weeks, [...] but I talk regularly to quite a few people now.”

More experienced students also shared similar as well as different sentiments toward making friends. Experienced student Quinn shares: “I  didn’t know anyone too closely the first year; however, there are lots of people to meet over similar interests. I met a lot of friends that were taking the same classes.” Before, he used to only “lurk in class chats” but now, he “spends a lot more time on Skype now to talk to people.” One thing that he wishes he could change is that at OHS, “people get entrenched into small social groups,” which “unintentionally makes it hard for new students to join those groups, especially less outgoing people.” Experienced student Jada also shares the experience of not being able to make friends his first year. She admits that at first, “I did not think I was going to have any friends at OHS. I didn’t have OHS friends for a whole year. The conversations I initiated didn’t go anywhere when I reached out. But I mainly found friends at Summer @ Stanford.” She has learned to “prioritize what friendships you want to grow” and now, she believes that “I’ve made some of the closest friends I’ve ever had [at OHS].” Lexi and Quinn also expressed the value of meet-up events like S@S in making friends. However, unlike Quinn, Lexi, and Jada, experienced student Alina found extremely close friends at OHS without having gone to any Summer @ Stanford events in her 5 years here. Alina affirms that “for the people who are worried that they can’t go to meetups, you don’t have to go to meetups to make friends.” Alina shares that she made most of her friends through “Skype groups and class chats, not at meetup events.” Although now her workload is stronger so she is not as active, Alina used to “talk to people constantly on Skype.” She shares: “I would talk to a lot of people constantly, or call someone everyday for at least 2 hours everyday [...] I mostly met new people through study calls in my class. I was in 70 different Skype groups. I don’t know how I had mental capacity to do that.” Alina is glad “to have found the closest friends through OHS.”

On the topic of the overall student community, almost everyone agrees that the kids at OHS are extremely friendly. Experienced student Quinn shares that the student community here was different than his expectations. “I initially thought everyone here would be super serious button up shirt type, studying and reading books for 12 hours a day. Although there are many people like that, a lot of people are pretty relaxed. Even the super passionate and smart people, they are always super chill and welcoming.” New student Knox also agrees that everyone is pretty friendly. However, one criticism he expresses is that sometimes, “not everyone is as open-minded and sometimes you get bashed for your opinion.” However, he claims that “this is only some people, not everyone. Overall, it’s a pretty nice community.” Furthermore, experienced student Lexi believes that “OHS has a sick student body.” “Everyone is smart in their own way and it is great to be able to meet a group of people who share similar interests and are extremely passionate about academics.” In addition, Lexi loves how “we are all unique diverse individuals. There are pre-professional athletes, musicians, dancers, etc., and it’s crazy that all these different routes brought us here in one place.”

Clubs and Student Life

Events, both online and meet-ups, are very common at OHS. Most students express that they do not go to as many online events as they would like because of their workload. However, many of the experienced students lead their own online events. However, many students really like the meet-ups, especially Graduation and Summer @ Stanford. As above, many students expressed the value of being able to make a lot of closer friends by going to these meet-up events. However, experienced student Alina shared that although these meet-up events are great, one should not pressure themselves to go because there are plenty of other opportunities to form deep friendships.

In addition, the club scene at OHS has long dominated student life. New student Amanda tells that she “joined two club Skype groups already, but I’m not sure what to do.” She is a bit apprehensive because she feels that “everyone else is already oriented.” However, she definitely “wants to engage more and figure out the meeting times for the clubs.” In addition, new student Jasmine loves how there were “a lot of cubs she was genuinely interested in from the clubs list.” Although there are some limitations to clubs because you only meet for one hour per week and it’s harder to have a sense of team spirit in an online club, Jasmine still “she found that it was a really nice way to meet different people with similar interests and connect outward.” After going to their meetings, Jasmine is now a part of three clubs. In addition, new student Knox takes a slightly different approach by trying to experiment with a lot of new clubs and finding the ones he wants to stick with.

Experienced student Quinn “really recommends joining clubs to new students.” He shares: “clubs are not as formal as you think they are [...] They are intended for people to stop by and talk about common interests. Don’t treat it as something stressful! Club leaders just want to talk to people who are also interested in their passion.” Quinn shares that he was more nervous to join clubs at first, however, he found it helpful to join the skype groups and ease into it. Experienced student Alina believes that clubs really “made me feel like OHS is a real community.”

Overall Conclusions

New and experienced students agreed on improving on student engagement and mental health at OHS. Experienced student Lexi believes that there needs to be more mental health awareness: “We can provide more resources to tell kids that they are not alone. [...] This is a school that is designed to be difficult, and so there is always a learning curve. In addition, a lot of people at OHS with imposter syndrome. However in the end, everyone belongs here and your mental health is super important.” In addition, experienced student Jada emphasizes the importance of providing more ways for students to meet new people and form friendships. “The hard thing is that I’m not sure if this can even be improved since there are already so many events. Ultimately, making friends still forces everyone to be extroverts.” Experienced student Alina also hopes we can find “a more simple way to connect us, especially for new students.” Lastly, new student Jasmine also wishes there was a better way to accommodate international students. Jasmine lives in China, and so “club meetings and office hours are always in the middle of the night for me. I know it’s hard to accommodate time zones but I hope one day there will be some way to make everything more accessible!”

In the end, despite the drastic time difference of 5 weeks v.s. 5 years at OHS, new and experienced students shared many interesting similarities in their opinion on the academic, teacher, and student community. Experienced student Alina provides a perfect summary: “That although this is definitely a difficult school, the quality of teachers, academics, and students are unmatched. And that I can say with confidence.”