The thought of moving schools as a teenager, and going to a completely unfamiliar place with new faces and always seems terribly difficult, especially halfway through the year. Leaving former friends and teachers is already stressful, but incoming students then have to adjust to a whole new environment. While the kids that have been going to Mendham wouldn’t find the school intimidating because they already know everybody, new students have tons of opinions about the school when first arriving. A sophomore named Aditi Roy that just started going to school a few weeks ago says “It was kind of hard finding my way around and getting to classes, but everyone was really friendly!”. A month or so later, she is totally adjusted to her classes, knows all of her teachers, and most of her classmates. The faculty and students here at Mendham try to make it a priority to make new students feels as comfortable as possible. To make the transition smoother, the faculty assigns a current student to walk the new student to all their classes and give them a tour of the school. New kids said that this really helps them learn the school and to feel more comfortable about the adjustment. Courtney Pascoe, a student that transferred to mendham half way through last year from chicago, says “It felt scary. It was very overwhelming. But everybody was nice and I made friends quickly”. Courtney now says she knows most of the people in her grade and knows the school like the back of her hand. Jade, another sophomore, that moved to Mendham from Central said “I liked it better than central, I kind of learned the school quickly, but it’s big and there’s a lot of space. The people are so nice here”. It seems the students her at Mendham get excited about new students rather than shutting them out and not accepting them into the school. The students said it took them about a week or so to remember the placement of all their classes and get to know their teachers. Generally speaking, a week is a very short amount of time to adjust to a whole new high school. So, Mendham is doing a great job of welcoming new students and getting them into the loop quickly! The thought of being in a whole new place with all new people might be very intimidating to most, however Mendham makes the change exciting and the students are always excited to welcome a new classmate!