As the summer winds down, students and teachers alike are preparing for the start of the school year. Many students are returning to the school starting another year, while other students such as the new freshman class will be arriving at AHS for the first time.

As a way to facilitate and assimilate the new students, the Freshman Orientation for incoming students was held on Sept. 2.

The orientation serves the purpose of allowing new students to meet each other as well as meeting their teachers for the new year. Students will be given the chance to spend 5 to 10 minutes with their teachers for their Red and White day classes.

After meeting their new teachers in a mock school day, all of the freshman will congregate in the main gym to listen to administrators speak, as well as hear the AHS marching band perform, and towards the end the freshman class will take a large group picture.

“I’m excited and nervous, it’s a new school with bigger kids,” freshman Kristen Peralta said. Peralta is a band student and spent the summer at band camp in West Virginia. “Band helped me to meet new people and experience new things,” she said.

The group of students that attended band camp this summer have an advantage over the other incoming freshman as they already created a group of friends before coming to school.

“Band has connected me to new people and taught me how to communicate better,” freshman Sarah Munoz said.

But, for those students who have never been to the school before or are unfamiliar with it, it will be a daunting first week.

“It’s nerve-racking, we don’t know people and we’ll get lost, but it’s still exciting,” Munoz said.