‘Keep a forward mindset’: Incoming freshmen get ready to start high school

Future nurses, architects, entrepreneurs, lawyers and more are getting ready to return to the classrooms and start the next phase of their educations: high school.

I.C. Norcom High School welcomed the new freshman class for orientation this week with much fanfare. The band and cheerleaders performed as the first group of students got off the buses at the start of the day.

For the new students like Donnivin Scott, it was a big day.

“I feel great,” he said. “I feel nervous. I feel scared. It’s just all hitting me all at once.”

Classes start after Labor Day, but the new Greyhounds got a peak at what to expect in their new school and from the administrators. Many local school divisions are starting around that time as well, though Hampton City Schools are getting ready for an early start at the end of August.

In 2020, COVID impacted student learning with schools reporting learning loss when they were remote. Each division in the state handled bringing students back to in-person learning a bit differently, and case surges kept divisions on their toes as they tried to navigate each situation.

In some cases, that meant the kids missed out.

“I feel like we didn’t get the full experience because we were still coming back from quarantine, so we didn’t get everything that we would normally get, like dances,” Aleveya Keyes, an incoming Norcom freshmen, said.

Now she is looking forward to cheerleading and tailoring her high school experience to help reach her goals in design and cosmetology.

“I just want to make sure I get the full high school experience, because everyone says that these are the best years of your life,” Keyes said.

Orientation took her and her classmates through several of the programs offered at the school and general information to help guide the students. Approximately 140 students participated in the four-day orientation.

They learned about TRIO Works and Upward Bound, which offers students support getting ready for education beyond high schools, athletics and more. They also learned the alma mater, an important tradition the alumni even remember.

Over at Phoebus High School in Hampton, the goals were similar for its summer bridge program earlier this month. It focused on life skills, social and emotional learning and what the students would need to know as they move forward over the next four years. More than 170 students participated.

Henry Godfrey, a Phoebus freshman, said the four-day program helped him and his classmates not just get acclimated to the school, but develop relationships.

“My favorite part of the week was actually learning real life skills ...” Godfrey said. “For example, we learned about empathy, which we’re going to have to use a lot.”

Now that Portsmouth schools are back to full-service, the students are ready to be back in the classrooms and enjoy being “able to socialize,” Scott said. He got to sit next to his friends during the orientation.

“Despite what you hear, the experience is what you make it,” Kaleb Lucas, a Phoebus freshman, said. “So it’s important to keep a forward mindset — a growth mindset, as some people say.”

The administrators are keeping that same mindset as they look forward with their students. Marcellus Harris, Norcom’s counseling director, said that last school year was difficult, but it is always exciting to welcome “new opportunities, a new year, new young people.” Now, it’s about returning to a sense of normalcy and creating a safe space for the students to learn.

Kelsey Kendall, kelsey.kendall@virginiamedia.com