COLLEGIATE ALUMNI PANEL

by Steve Naumann

Every one of us is different… Together we are Spartans. We see these words on banners around campus, in email signatures, mission statements, and posters - words to live by and an accurate reflection of who we are. One of the truest manifestations of this mantra presented itself in the Galachia Auditorium on the morning of January 5, 2023, when a group of college freshmen and sophomores sat in front of the stage and shared their stories with an audience of current high school parents.

For the audience, made up of parents of current and future high school students, the fear of the unknown was a palpable sentiment. The looming transition of their children from the familiar routines and support systems that have come to feel like home at Collegiate, to the greater world of higher education and beyond was obviously feeling like a daunting experience for these families. “What if my student isn’t prepared for what’s to come?”

Enter the alumni.

The overwhelming sentiment from this diverse panel of recent Collegiate graduates was that the experiences they had here prepared them in ways far superior to that of their new peers in college. From Lawrence to Los Angeles to Miami, these students came back to Wichita to share that they are succeeding in college and that they have Wichita Collegiate School to thank for it.

Here are some key takeaways directly from the mouths of our recent alumni.

Skills developed during their time at Collegiate that have proven most useful in college:

• Relationships with teachers: Take advantage of the opportunity to get to know and, more importantly, understand how to communicate with the teachers and the other adults in your life. The small size and communal nature of Collegiate helped cultivate this skill. The payoff in college: Capitalize on professors’ office hours and know how to communicate and develop relationships with them. Charlie Nolan ’22 (University of Arkansas) found that the professors in college are just as approachable as Collegiate teachers (in spite of first impressions) and can lead to many connections.

• Study skills: Developing a system that works for you while the stakes are relatively lower than in college has been one of Celine Khalife’s ‘21 (University of Kansas) keys to success. *Nod to AP Chemistry with Mrs. Harris for helping with this as she pursues a pre-med track at KU.

• Time management: The demands on her time at Collegiate, both academic and extra-curricular, helped Sabrina Wilson ‘22 (Univerity of Miami) keep herself accountable and stick to a schedule when she got to college and there was a lot more “free” time. Similarly, Celine Khalife learned what times of the day she functions the best.

• Follow your passions/do what you love: “You’re going to have to defend your resume and justify what you spend your time doing,” says Sam Agustine ‘22 (University of Southern California). It’s OK to experiment, but doing things just for the resume’s sake is not a good reason to do something. You will be grilled in interviews about what you spent your time doing/what extracurriculars you were involved in/which extracurricular you grew in the most.

• The ability to write a good email: The payoff in College: Sarah Chocron ‘21 (University of North Carolina) has gotten multiple internships just by “cold emailing” someone, introducing herself, expressing interest, and asking for opportunities.

• Being able to answer the “why” questions: Skills learned in humanities and psychology classes at Collegiate have found their way into the day-to-day college life of Clay Gagnon ‘21 (Kansas Wesleyan Univeristy). “Being able to defend papers, back up any argument, and answer ‘why do people think this way, why is your perspective correct?’” has proven to be one of the most useful skills Clay developed at Collegiate.

Advice to parents (from the alumni)

• Defining a healthy standard of success: Parents being able to let go a little and let their students try and fail has proven to be a consistently important element of all of these alumni’s last years at Collegiate. Some parents were more readily receptive to the idea of letting go of their fear of their children not maintaining “their” standard of success. It can be a difficult conversation but was supported with resounding support among this panel of students. This group unanimously championed the idea of being able to experience small failures and learn how to get out of their own messes before the stakes are higher in college. “It’s going to happen in college. You’re going to fall on your face and you’re going to have to get back up,” shared Clay Gagnon.

• Setting goals with parents: Set goals of growth, not purely achievement, with the idea that if you keep growing, you’re eventually going to get to the point where you wanted to be.

• College visits can be very important, but maybe not for the reasons you think: “Getting a feel for how my life is going to be after high school…” was a more impactful sentiment for Celine Khalife than “...just trying different places and figuring out where I was going to end up.” For Charlie Nolan, the way that The University of Arkansas was able to pivot and handle tours and showcasing their school during COVID, became a deciding factor in his becoming a Razorback. “Visit as many schools as you can, because there is a learning curve in terms of getting the most from a tour and asking meaningful questions,” says Sabrina Wilson. “Sometimes you know from the moment you step on campus whether a school is or is not going to be a good fit.”

• Address the dream: Be open to the idea that the “Dream School” may not actually be the dream fit for you.

Sarah Chocron speaks of her decision process: In spite of feeling like Carnegie Mellon was her ideal school, after attending a summer program there while still in high school, the realization of wanting a large public school, with lots of research opportunities, and flexibility in majors, led her to UNC, in spite of never actually visiting.

• Talk to people that go to the school you’re looking at: Get an idea of what kind of person goes there and what drives people who are there. Ryder Walsh ‘22 (Princeton University) encouraged reaching out to any Spartan alumni, even if you don’t actually know them well, about their school to get an inside perspective.

• Be honest: Parents and students need to have a very open and honest conversation early in the college search process about finances. It’s awkward, but the benefits are far greater than the discomfort. Sabrina Wilson and her family came to “lovingly” refer to their college cost analysis document as “The Spreadsheet of Doom.”