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Alumni
Review #5, Class of 1997 |
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| College
Enrolled |
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Amherst College |
| Home
Town, State (Country) |
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Akron,OH |
| Years
Attended Boarding School |
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4 |
| Activities
During Boarding School |
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Varsity Letter—Field Hockey and Track/Field
Honors Dance program
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| 1.) What was the best thing that happened to you in boarding school? |
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| If I had to sum up my boarding school experience in very few words, I would say that it was much like a stereotypical freshmen year in college over the span of four years. I was totally unprepared to live away from home, I ate pizza and other crap every chance I got, never ate breakfast, discovered the importance of naps, involved more in dorm life than academic life—you get the picture. Unfortunately, in high school you can’t get away with all that like you do in college and you also don’t have the maturity of an 18 year old when you’re only a freshman or sophomore in high school. Looking back on it, I can admit I needed my parents at 14 or 15. In fact, I’d say a lot of my classmates did. But at Reserve, I just had teachers who would try to act like my parents by busting me for staying out too late or dress code violations, but they didn’t care much for me otherwise. And I don’t fault the teachers because it’s not their job to be Mom and Dad to 360 students. At the same time, I think that differentiation is a tough concept for a lot of kids to grasp and it is probably not unique to Reserve.
It was interesting to note that the day students on average earned much higher marks and seemed generally more well-adjusted than boarding students—they were less involved in alcohol, smoking, drugs than boarding school students tended to be.
In the end, though, going through a “stereotypical college freshmen year” gave me an edge that no day school curricula or rigorous AP schedule could have given me otherwise. The actual college-preparation Reserve gave me was in the small things—learning to live in a dorm, realizing the importance of breakfast, approaching teachers/profs on a more personal level, not going crazy with alcohol or partying, etc. I think that is truly the growth experience you get from boarding school, but is hardly addressed in the glossy covers of the brochures. I didn’t realize how far ahead all that put me until I got to college, which I call Boarding School Part II—the sequel. I can honestly say that after Reserve, college was barely an adjustment and a total piece of cake.
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| 2.) What would you have done differently during your boarding school experience? |
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| I wish I had more confidence in myself in high school, but that is not something I could have done differently. I guess it would be to have eaten breakfast on a regular basis and take less naps. |
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| 3.) What would you never want to change about your school? |
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| The free drinks/dinner Alumni gatherings in New York City! |
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| 4.) What things could be improved about your school? |
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| It became obvious to me that Reserve was essentially a business and the goal of the headmaster was to raise money and sell the business. Unfortunately, this definitely led to certain PR issues where the school would cover up anything or spin anything to put Reserve in a positive light. If I could improve Reserve, it would be for the administration to emphasize quality of life over the business aspect of it. |
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| 5.) Do you have any final words of wisdom for visiting or incoming students
to your school? |
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| I guess I’ve already pontificated on the importance of breakfast…This will sound cheesy, but embrace whatever indivduality you have and run with it. Don’t get too caught up in the stereotypical ‘Reserve’ mold. Ignore the 11pm lights out policy on occasion and just hang out with your friends, and realize that many of the rules are there for the sake of having rules. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your school’s academics? |
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| The best part about Reserve’s academic programs was that the teachers really made the effort to make the curriculum stand apart from standard high school fare. Most classes were seminar-style around a large conference table and class-based discussions were the bulk of most humanities classes. Also, every teacher had open office hours where students could come in and ask questions The English department at Reserve was probably the strongest department, in my opinion, in terms of living up to the “college prep” curriculum. Once a week, English class was cancelled in place of personal one-on-one “writing conferences.” During the writing conference, the teacher would meet with the student to go over the last month’s writing assignments, emphasizing both the strengths and weaknesses of the writing, developing a better strategy for the student in terms of approaching the upcoming work, etc. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about the academics in your school? |
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| Many teachers at Reserve were not objective in terms of grading, at least in History or English Classes. . If a student was already established as a “High Honors” student, that student honestly could have turned in a blank pop quiz and still receive a passing grade. On the contrary, if the student was an above average student, but had disciplinary problems, some teachers would let that effect the grade they gave him or her. The best example of this was at the annual Junior Writing Exam—all juniors were given a poem or short story to analyze and the next day, they were all given 4 hours to write an essay based on the given question that day. This test was a mock AP exam and the results were supposed to determine the student’s placement for his or her senior year, AP or regular Senior English. The exam was anonymous and each student was only given a number instead of writing their name on it and each English teacher took part in grading the exams. When the results came in, it was surprising to see some High Honor students receive mediocre marks while suposedly medicore students earn high honor marks. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your school’s athletics? |
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| Everyone had to participate in a sport 3 seasons a year—juniors and seniors could opt out one season for alternatives like “Winter Conditioning” or “Intramural Soccer” For me, I was not actively involved in athletics before Reserve, but I found a comfortable footing in Track/Field which I would not have attempted if it was not required. There was a large diversity of sports, better facilities than most high schools. |
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What did you like least about the athletics in your school? |
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| Everyone had to participate in a sport 3 seasons a year. There were some students who just were not athletes, but were incredibly talented violinists or artists. Such a requirement precluded them from developing their given talent and essentially just wasted their time. I think that is an indicator of where athletics stood in terms of extracurriculars—there was a bit too much emphasis on athletics and it took attention away from arts or music. |
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| 1.)
What did you like best about your school’s art program? |
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| Incredible facilities—The Knight Fine Arts Center was complete with a full size dance studio, photography/dark room facilities, auditorium, artist’s studio. These facilities probably rivaled some small colleges. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about your school’s art program? |
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| As mentioned above, athletics had a greater weight than arts or theater. |
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| 1.)
What did you like most about the extracurricular activities offered
at your school? |
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| N/A |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about the extracurricular activities offered
at your school? |
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| They were done solely for enhancing the college application. There were few activies I can remember that were genuinely done out interest or passion. |
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| 1.)
What was the best thing about dorm life in your school? |
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| Living with 80 other kids your age—at times it was like summer camp more than school. Truly a unique experience. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about dorm life? |
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| It wasn’t home. |
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| 1.)
What was the best thing about your dining arrangements? |
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| Um…..I suppose I learned proper dining etiquette from all those sit down meals. |
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| 2.)
What did you like least about your dining arrangements? |
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| So many things—lunch and dinner were required, assigned seating at meals, the quality of the food was awful, no diversity of food (if you were vegetarian, you’d be eating pb&j every single day), a faculty member sat at the head of every table, it was “sit-down” versus cafeteria style. |
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| 1.) How welcome did you feel by the other students when you first
arrived at the school? |
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| I felt welcome by other new students. Maybe it was because I was shy at 14, but I didn’t talk to older students at all. The experience was probably like any other high school in America. |
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| 2.)
Describe the level of diversity and integration of students in your
school: |
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| It was painfully obvious that the diversity was ‘imported’ into the school. Because we’re a boarding school in Ohio as opposed to New England, we tended to get overlooked by international prospective students. So the school seemed to take every international student who applied. All the Koreans hung out together, all of the black students tended to hang out together, etc. Diversity, yes. Integration, no. |
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| 3.)
Describe typical fun activities you did on a weekend: |
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| Most of them were illegal, but were done off campus. The school sponsored weekend activities were neither well-attended or well-planned, so students often sought refuge off campus with the help of day students with cars. Or went home. |
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What was the town like? |
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| Town was small. There was a Subway, a drugstore and half a dozen restaurants in walking distance. Everything else you needed a day student with a car to get to. |
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| 8:30 AM | Morning Meeting (school wide announcements) unless I had “Deans Club” (detention) which began at 6:30am | | 9:00 AM | Class | | 10:00 AM | Free period—sleep or go cruising around with day student friends | | 12:30 AM | Lunch | | 1:30 PM | Class until 3:30pm | | 4:00 PM | Practice--athletics | | 6:30 PM | Dinner--required | | 7:00 PM | Hanging out with Friends or club meetings | | 8:00 PM | Study period | | 11:00 PM | Lights Out | |
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| 8:00 AM | Class until 10am or so | | 12:00 AM | Went home as often as possible! | |
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