The transition from middle school to Jesuit can be a challenge for many students, regardless of previous enrollment. For example, many students have never taken a theology class, nor have they learned how to study for one. Additionally, the English curriculum at Jesuit, focused upon critical analysis and associative language, seems almost perplexing in comparison to a grammar-based curriculum. Obstacles such as these can be daunting and worrisome to many freshmen in their first year in a new environment.
Fortunately, a new program, designed by freshmen counselor Mr. Corey Marr along with English teacher Celeste DesOrmeaux, targets freshmen struggling to adapt to the more rigorous testing schedule Jesuit offers. This program, called Seminars for Academic Excellence, focuses on teaching students the most effective way to study, with each session focusing on a different type of class. Marr commented that the program is simply “designed to help you.” The type of class that the seminar focuses on will rotate every week, English and Theology, for example, being some of the first offered.
Students that went to the English seminar learned primarily how to study for and take a vocabulary quiz. English Teacher Mrs. Celeste DesOrmeaux said that many students tell her, “I looked over the words,” which she believes “doesn’t help help them when they see fill in the blank sentences.” She is trying to help students understand what the vocab words mean in context, which will drastically improve their quiz results. For the first meeting, ten freshmen were in attendance, but DesOrmeaux hopes that number rises as word spreads about the budding program.
Meeting every Thursday during freshmen lunch, students that attend Seminars for Academic Excellence can further their study skills, meet their Jesuit brothers or get to know their teachers just a little bit better. Marr explains that “you don’t have to sign up, you don’t have to pay anything… you don’t get extra credit, it’s just simply [there] if you need help in the subject preparing for quizzes or tests or note taking.”
The program has since concluded, for the semester. Even though the program had a low attendance level thus far into the school year, the program is set to return in the Spring semester. Marr believes that “it’s overwhelming to throw a lot of dates at Freshmen in the fall… I think some Freshmen didn’t realize until after the fact that it would’ve been really beneficial.” Marr concluded, “Anytime someone is willing to give you any kind of advantage, whether that’s in a leadership role, a service role, or an academic role and if you can make the time to do that, it’s probably always going to serve you well, even if you’re already successful.”
Spanish Teacher Ms. Karen Lahey sees the biggest challenge from a teacher’s perspective as “meeting the kids where they are because they come from many different schools where Spanish has been presented to them in a variety of different ways.” Given that there are very different levels of exposure, Lahey believes that she can “show [the freshmen] different ways…of learning the Spanish language, such as vocabulary or grammar, and being able to work with them.”
A novel program, the Seminars for Academic Excellence seek to fortify the pillar of Intellectually Competent in the profile of the Graduate at Graduation. By doing so, the precedent for widespread success for the Freshmen class prepares them for the imminent challenges that Jesuit has to offer.
