Before 2020, freshman year at Kearny High School has always been the year where students started to make new friends, join clubs, do activities, and become familiar with the layout of the building. However, that all changed when the pandemic unexpectedly caused schools all across the country to switch to virtual learning. 

Last year’s freshmen had no formal introduction to the building and were unable to map out the school. Due to this, the new sophomores may feel like they are getting lost or find it hard to comprehend the material they are being taught. 

Joseph Hurtado, a sophomore at Kearny High said: “Not being in the building last year honestly made me feel like I was at a complete disadvantage in regards to traversing the building, everything that I should’ve learned last year I’m learning now. In education, it feels like a case-by-case basis, some topics I was able to learn well enough virtually or about the same with relatively no trouble (such as history or English) but others I had a much more difficult time (science namely). Overall, I feel I was robbed of a proper high school experience, seeing my friends face to face each morning or joining clubs and extracurricular activities and having it feel meaningful.”

It is very frustrating for these students to be in such a large building and not know how to navigate it, be unfamiliar with the material they are being taught since they weren’t introduced to it properly nor got the foundation for it last year, or even the fact that they were not able to see their friends and make new ones. It seems like sophomores are just as lost and confused as freshmen this year.