This year has been far from normal with the pandemic going on. Starting high school is hard enough for incoming freshmen, and they face more challenges amidst the pandemic as it’s difficult to get to meet new people. Third former Ella Grindel said that the start of the school year felt like a rush. She added that it was difficult to make new friends because the COVID-19 regulations limited the interaction between day students and borders.

Grindel explained that she made an effort to try and get to know people by having numerous conversations. She said that it was challenging but that she eventually found a group of friends.

Hill could not do a retreat this year, which they normally do at the beginning of the year. This helps students get to know each other better through group activities. Grindel said, however, that Hill did a great job planning COVID-friendly events that helped everyone get to know each other.

Being part of the swim team helped Grindel meet some students that were not in her form. She also met some of the team at an event prior to the pandemic. 

Grindel went on to explain how 3rd formers needed to be creative in balancing both socializing and social distancing. She said she would spend time in the library, where she would often find a group of 3rd formers playing games and watching movies in the library.

3rd former Mia Jacobs said that her first few weeks at Hill were really exciting and that she loved meeting new people.

She added that her prefects, teachers, and others at the school made it easy for her to meet new people. This was a relief to her considering it was a completely new school.

Jacobs explained how, as time went on, students were able to begin solidifying their friend groups and getting more comfortable with each other.

 Fifth former Annika Nordhoy said she would make an effort to reach out to 3rd formers during her after-school activities to make sure they were doing alright.

Dave Mullen, associate director of admissions, currently has multiple 3rd formers in his Advisory, and one of them has still not been able to get to Hill’s campus because of COVID. 

Mullen said that he got lucky with the students in his Advisory and that they are very social, so making friends for them wasn’t the challenge. 

 He also had some advice for third formers, or really anybody, trying to get to know people around campus. He said that people shouldn’t have to push to make people your friend, just be yourself and it will happen naturally. 

Amanda Dougherty, senior associate of admissions, said one of the big challenges was getting day students and borders to meet each other. This was such a challenge because at the beginning of the school year the rules were very strict due to COVID-19. The rules prohibited boarders and day students from socializing but were resolved by virtual events such as meetings and games.

 To integrate virtual students during the H-term break, the third form advisors organized game nights and played various games such as Kahoot. This was done so that virtual 3rd form students and boarders could come together and see each others’ faces while doing something fun.

This also had challenges though, because not everybody would join as it wasn’t a required event. However, Dougherty said that a good amount of students would join when they would do these events.