Struggling with senioritis

Sasha Binder ‘24 OpinionsEditor

As seniors approach graduation, some struggle to stay motivated and keep up with the many responsibilities they have at this point in the year.

This struggle is also known as senioritis, and here at Haven, some students have been experiencing it for a year or more.

The root of senioritis varies among students. Some share that their senioritis started prior to their senior year. Others note that it stems from stress related to exams, applications, and thoughts of the future.

Counselor Marlena O’Kane says that she sees senioritis often beginning at the start of second semester, but spiking after spring break.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they’ve solidified their post secondary plan, whatever direction they are going in—work, military, gap year, college, or whatever that looks like,” she said. “[Seniors] know what their plan is and that just makes it harder for them to keep up with their responsibilities in school.”

However, extreme senioritis might impact those future plans.

According to reporting from NYU, many seniors think their college admission is locked in after an acceptance letter arrives. Yet many colleges include a clause that allows them to rescind their offers if senior year grades drop, according to College Board.

Since many colleges don’t receive final grades until June or July, students may find they’ve lost their spot if their grades reflect an extreme drop.

Haven seniors were open about their struggles.

Senior Sophie Kersun shared that her senioritis shows up in the form of arriving at school late. Kersun said that waking up in the morning has become increasingly difficult as the school year comes to a close. She has also struggled with finding motivation to complete assignments.

“I’ve been late, like a lot. I have math first block and my math teacher already emailed my parents twice about being late because I just really struggle to get up in the morning. And waking up for school has always been hard but it’s especially hard now,” Kersun said.

For some, senioritis started much earlier than spring of 2023.

Senior Claire Lowry shared that her senioritis started abnormally earlier compared to her peers—specifically, sophomore year.

“When did my senioritis start? Honestly, sophomore year,” Lowry shared.

Senior Nick Cardi has also struggled to stay motivated through the end of the year.

“At this point I‘m just doing what I can and getting as much as I can done. It’s really just about getting the work done even if it’s not the best you could’ve done,” he said.

Cardi shared his appreciation for the teachers that acknowledge and validate senioritis.

“I really appreciate how, here at Strath Haven, teachers recognize Senioritis too. The other day one of my teachers pulled me and a few other students aside just to thank us for trying our best, so I feel like there’s some level of acceptance of Senioritis here and I really like that,” Cardi added.

According to O’Kane, senioritis is considered a rite of passage for seniors, and teachers are aware of it and how challenging it can be. Her advice to seniors struggling to motivate themselves is to focus on what’s ahead without losing the work you have put in for four years.

“Keep reaching for your goal. You’ve all done great here,” O’Kane said. “You deserve a fun end of your senior year, but keep motivated to get to the finish line.”

That finish line is a motivating factor. Senior Gianna Umile says her main motivation is “the light at the end of the tunnel.”

What happened in science this year? Major breakthroughs, innovations, and news.

September 26 | NASA crashes the spacecraft DART into an asteroid to see if we can move potentially dangerous asteroids in the future.

October 3-5 | Medicine, Physics, and Chemistry Nobel Prizes awarded.

November 30 | Chat-GPT is released (becoming popular late January).

December 12 | Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California achieves a breakthrough in nuclear fusion: the energy the fusion reaction created was more than the energy required to power it.

January 11 | The James Webb Telescope discovers its first exoplanet (a planet that orbits a star outside of our solar system)

February 4 | A Chinese air balloon is shot down by the US military.

March 24 | A chemical spill from a Bucks County plant gets into a source of Philly water: the Delaware River.

April 5 | The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that Co2 levels are at their highest compared to the past 3.6 million years.

May 5 | WHO declares that COVID is no longer a global health emergency.

Kaitlyn Ho ‘26, Health & Sciences and Copy Editor

One senior successfully bred and experimented on live fish for her independent study, facing losses and creating new life.

CJ Chen ‘24 Reporter

Senior Imogen Sharif’s semester-long independent study on evolution and fetal alcohol syndrome in zebra danios will conclude with a final presentation at May’s end. With a strong push into the curiosities of evodevo (evolutionary developmental biology) first introduced in her AP Biology class, Sharif set out on a journey with the quick-hatching, active swimming, stripe-patterned zebra danios.

“I found a book that I read for my independent study called ‘Your Inner Fish’ by Neil Shubin. He discovered Tiktaalik which is the in-between species from fish and walking-onland [organisms]. And I was just like, this is super interesting. I want to do more with this,” Sharif said.

Sharif had a lot of support from her advisor and junior year AP Biology teacher, Ms. Katie Shepard, who already had the supplies Sharif needed to conduct the experiment. Her preliminary research included reading existing papers on evo-devo as well as online college courses that served as an aid to design the experiment. Sharif set up two tanks, one for males and the other for females, ensuring that each tank was at the optimal water parameters for the zebra danios.

“I was like, oh my gosh, these are actual living creatures that I have created. Zebrafish are a really great model organism for this kind of experiment where you’re observing development because it [is] so quick,” Sharif said.

Biotechnology teacher Mr. Timothy Styer first taught Sharif in one of his past freshman environmental science classes, and was particularly impressed with Sharif’s growth as a science student. He is one of many teachers that attended Sharif’s final presentation.

“Zebrafish are a really great model organism for this kind of experiment where you’re observing development because it [is] so quick.”

-Imogen Sharif ’23

“I am doing an experiment with live animals. I want to be as humane and safe as possible and I don’t want to stress them out. That’s my biggest concern,” Sharif said.

Many unexpected obstacles arose during the breeding process, which required Sharif to persist and change her methods with each trial.

“First round I did everything that I got in a little book that Ms. Shepard gave me. She’s like, ‘Nobody’s ever gotten this to work before,’ I’m like, ‘Great. I’m gonna see if I can get this to work’. It didn’t work. I was like, okay, that’s an issue. I definitely cried a little bit,” Sharif said. Thankfully for Sharif, after some additional research, she adjusted the water temperature and other components to encourage successful breeding and finally received viable eggs for her experiment.

“I just took a step back and realized that it’s part of the process of doing an experiment. Things aren’t going to work and you have got to find something,” Sharif said.

The best moment for Sharif was watching the embryos develop. Zebra danios hatch within three days, so each day held exciting changes.

On May 31, Sharif held her final presentation in Room 305 during fifth block. All were welcome to this presentation which contained a detailed look into her research question and the process of discovering its answer.

“[I talked] to them about the process of my experiment which is seeing how the development is affected under conditions such as ethanol,” Sharif said. “So I use ethanol because you got fetal alcohol syndrome in humans. And I’m like, how would that affect these fish? And I got some pretty cool results.”

Anyone can stop by Ms. Shepard’s Room 305 and visit the fish before they leave for school’s end.

The roller coaster ride of designing and performing a science experiment has proved to be a priceless experience for Sharif as she plans to continue in scientific research in college. She encourages others with a curiosity about a topic outside of Haven course offerings to pursue it.

“All the teachers at Haven are going to support you. If you just are interested in something enough, and you really push towards it, and you think this would be cool, you can do it. You just have to remember that you can do it and if there are any roadblocks, those exist for a reason, and you got to find your way around them,” Sharif said.

Styer echoes this same sentiment, hoping to see more students explore their curiosities, especially in science.

The science field is all about discovery and innovation, and “new ideas always come from the high school and college classrooms,” Styer said.

“I hope people can learn to embrace the mistakes that come out of science because no scientist has ever said, ‘I’m going to conduct this experiment’ and get it right on the first try,” Sharif said.*