By Ari Binyam ’28 and Laura Chong ’28
For a lot of Gators and Crusaders, the last week of August is about getting back into the school routine, starting fall sports, meeting new teachers, and setting up for success for the rest of the school year. But for the Class of 2029, that week meant the start of a new chapter of life: Upper School.
Throughout the first month of the 2025-2026 school year, the Freshmen class here at St. Paul’s have been adjusting to the life of Upper Schoolers. Whether they were returning students from the Middle School or coming in from a different school, this was a new beginning for everyone. This made it essential for the students to bond and learn together through this new experience. Both respective schools constructed a transition week for all incoming 9th graders with countless informational sessions and rundowns of expectations and realities. With this new experience for all Freshmen, we decided to interview some students to hear their opinions.
Returning Gators, Jenna Khoury and Livi Howland, mentioned their favorite parts of transition week were meeting new friends and spending time with Peer Mentors. Along with the transition week, our upper-school peer mentoring program is assigned to an advisory to bond for the rest of the year, showing a true sense of community at SPSG!
We also asked Jenna and Livi their opinions on transition week and how they felt. With full transparency, they thought the week was a bit repetitive with multiple information sessions, as they knew most of the content presented coming from the SPSG middle school, which is understandable. As they have now completed their first month of Upper School, we asked how they like this new chapter in life. Jenna said “Overall, it’s great” while Livi said “I would say Upper School can be frustrating, but some parts are fun”.
Navigating a new journey comes with many challenges, but it’s about trial and error, learning multiple lessons throughout the course. In our SPSG community, we foster a sisterhood to support our community through any challenge, big or small.
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