The View From Here: Adulting?
by Janet Durgin, Head of School
Last year, we launched a new Connections program for second semester seniors that was focused on the transition from high school to college, teenager to young adult. This year, the program has continued to be refined, including a new name! Called "Adulting 101," students are spending their Wednesday afternoons learning about and practicing many of the skills required of adults.
This week, Captain Doug Dougherty, from SSU's campus police force, came to talk to the students about issues they will probably face in college--avoiding sexual assault, addressing underage drinking, and common pitfalls that young adults can fall into. Captain Dougherty addressed student questions and concerns with humor, understanding, and sound advice. Students had submitted questions to Connections leaders Cassidy Brown, STEM teacher, and Michele Martin, TITLE, and they started out with those, but pretty soon they were asking impromptu questions and showing genuine interest.
In this picture, Joey Johnson '17 is gamely doing a role play with Captain Dougherty in order to show our students what to expect and how to respond in the case of a traffic stop. [Side note: Joey also co-starred with Claire Lampson '17 in the play Gruesome Playground Injuries directed by Perry Parsons '17. They and their crew, the cast and crew for Don't Eat the Blue Snow, an original work by Connor Devlin '17, and other theater students are off to the Lenaea Festival this weekend. Both plays were great!].
All parents (and we faculty and administrators too) worry just a bit as we send our kids off into the next stage of their lives. Have we taught them everything? Are they well-prepared? Not just for their academic lives in college, but their burgeoning adult lives? As a school, there is only so much we can do, of course. This Adulting 101 course represents our ongoing commitment to make sure we're doing our part to ensure that they are as well-prepared as they can be. The rest is up to them. And, watching these young people engage in their lives here at school, that makes me feel very hopeful.
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...the only private, independent, college preparatory high school in Sonoma County. On our beautiful campus nestled at the base of Taylor Mountain in Southeastern Santa Rosa, our students are able to explore their interests and passions in a rigorous and inspiring environment that develops a lifelong love of learning and prepares them for college and beyond.
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