On Jan. 19, 2012, freshmen got out of bed early, while the rest of the students slept in for the last time this year. The Freshman Transition Program, which was designed to help freshmen adjust to high school, ended half way through the school year. There are many factors as to why the program ended earlier, but despite them all, many freshmen are happy.

“I’m so glad! I hate Freshman Transition, because it’s kind of a waste of time,” freshmen Leah Turner said.

For the past three years, the program had a total of 13 sessions, but the number was reduced to eight sessions this year. This was a joint decision made by the school counseling staff in order to improve collaboration between the counselors.

“One reason for this change is was the fact that while teachers are able to work together and meet during Collaboration Day, the school counselors cannot because they’re teaching the freshmen,” counselor Carrie Schaefer said. “Therefore, in order to collaborate, the counselors have to meet during the regular school day, which takes away time from meeting with their students. The counselors were happy that the reduction of sessions allows them more time to work with their students, teachers and parents, as well as allowing them more opportunities to collaborate more easily with each other.”

Another reason for the change was because similar programs in the county are much shorter.

“At the end of last year, the AHS school counseling staff reviewed freshmen programs at other schools and learned that the majority of schools in the county offer four sessions for their freshmen, and even one school only offered one session, while AHS offered 13 sessions,” Schaefer said. “Therefore, with the support of [Principal Vince] Randazzo, the school counseling staff decided to reduce the number of sessions we offered.”

During Freshman Transition, students and counselors would discuss topics ranging from study skills, college, good habits, cyber bullying, harassment and grade point average. The program was held on Collaboration Day about twice a month.

While the freshmen were with their counselors, all the teachers would collaborate and talk about how to improve their teaching.

Upperclassmen would get the chance to sleep in, since school didn’t start until an hour later. The students who rely on bus transportation came to school on time and would go to the gym to be with their friends or finish up homework.

“I am happy that Freshman Transition Program ended. It was helpful and all, but I didn’t like how freshmen had to come on regular time and everybody else came late,” freshmen Alina Waqar said.