Three years after the unification of the high school and lower/middle school campuses, the joint campus has sparked the creation of cross-divisional clubs and helped expand existing ones.
In the fall of 2020, the lower/middle school moved from MacArthur Boulevard to its current location on Davenport Street across the street from the high school. The school has made efforts to improve the sense of community between the two divisions since COVID-19 disrupted the planning process for the unification.
Clubs such as English Mentoring, Math Mentoring and the Buddy Program, which are all cross-divisional clubs that interact closely with lower/middle school students, meet in the lower/middle school building throughout the week, allowing high school students to engage with younger students.
Junior Jada Aksu is a co-head of English Mentoring, in which high schoolers help lower/middle school students with English homework and reading. “It is a place for kids to get work done with undivided attention,” she said. Students from the middle school can choose to attend the weekly meetings to get help on assignments for their English class. Aksu added that the club’s goal is to “help grow the love for humanities at a young age.” The club meets weekly at the middle school.
Aksu said she has been able to connect with younger students due to the united campus, and she enjoys saying hello to kids she has mentored. “It’s great to see faces that I recognize,” she said.
Math Mentoring is focused on helping lower/middle school students with their mathematical fluency and problems specific to their math classes and homework. According to junior Nora Sachse, a co-head of Math Mentoring, the club “helped build connections that really benefit the lower school.”
Junior Koen Yu, a co-head of the Buddy Program, described the club’s recent growth as successful. The club connects high school students in a mentorship program with younger students. According to Yu, “a large percentage of our student body are older buddies,” which allows for a stronger connection between high school and lower/middle school students. “I think now, because of the buddy program and other programs like it, we get to do more school-wide things,” said Yu.
Michelle McKeever, the community engagement and experiential learning program associate, helps manage the Buddy Program. McKeever, who has been at GDS for six years, said that she believes strongly that the success of the Buddy Program has truly united the two campuses. “I have heard from a lot of people that it is an important program for them and has made them feel connected to the campus as a whole,” she said.
Even with the unified campus, both freshman Arlo Rising and sophomore Charlotte Lee said they rarely see lower/middle school students. There are opportunities to engage with younger students, Lee said, “but unless you take advantage of them, you never really see them.”
Junior Clio Blum said that more efforts to feel unified would be beneficial for lower/middle school students. She believes more cross-divisional opportunities would give them the opportunity to get to know high school students and familiarize themselves with the high school building. “I know students can feel isolated and have trouble integrating into the 9th grade,” she said.
“It is really sad because I wish I could help [middle school students] transition better to the high school,” said freshman Emma Renigar. “There should be more efforts to have the lower/middle school students come to the high school or more joint events.”
“The school feels more connected,” freshman Maimouna Barry, who has attended GDS for 11 years, told the Bit. “I have siblings in the lower middle school that I can now pick up or see more easily.”
History teacher Sue Ikenberry has been at GDS since 1983 and was there when the school moved to the current high school campus in 1988. She said that the unification hasn’t been fully successful in helping connect the two buildings, and that most attempts feel forced. “It’s a shame,” Ikenberry said. She said that she believes traditions like the Halloween assembly cannot be forced into the joint campuses. “Start ways to unify the groups and let traditions come from that” she said.
McKeever said that one way to make the campus feel more unified is to provide more opportunities for high school students to engage with lower/middle school students. McKeever helps teach health classes in the lower/middle school and occasionally brings younger students over to the high school. She added that this health program is a step towards connecting the two campuses, but it would be better if those opportunities grew.
When asked about ways the two campuses can interact more, Ikenberry said that she thinks “sports have great potential” to connect students, and the lower/middle school cafeteria should be open to high schoolers.
McKeever said lower/middle school students get really excited when they are brought to the high school. Most cross-divisional programs are designed so that high schoolers go to the lower/middle school, but she said it should go both ways.
“We can only continue to go up from here and feel more connected as a community,” McKeever said.