[PART I] Two Years In: How Our Class of 2023 is Navigating the Academic Transition to High School

Debbie Woo
Apr 16
7 min read

Updated: Apr 29

Clockwise from upper left: Carlotta, Tenzing, Shane, Sidney, Rocco, Payson & Piper

We recently caught up with seven students from the Marin Horizon Class of 2023 to hear about their transition to high school and how they’ve grown academically, socially, and personally since moving on.

Three of our alumni—Rocco T., Tenzing L., and Sidney F. —are now at Marin Academy in San Rafael, one—Shane C.—is attending The Branson School in Ross, and three—Payson B., Piper B., and Carlotta C.—are attending Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley.

Despite their busy schedules, they took the time to share their experiences with us. Some joined us in person back on the Marin Horizon campus, where they were excited to reconnect with former teachers, while others spoke with us over the phone. It was fantastic to hear their reflections and insights!

We’re thrilled to hear that they are all enjoying their high school experience, and there are a number of themes that have emerged:

The academic transition from MHS to high school is a fairly smooth one, with all students valuing the skills and knowledge they gained at MHS.
Going from a small to large school has its bumps, but our alumni have handled it with aplomb. In addition, our former students are not shy about getting involved in all manner of activities - from journalism to music, drama, and athletics.
Our MHS graduates continue to advocate for themselves and to take creative and academic risks. And, with the benefit of hindsight, they have some advice for rising freshmen from MHS.

We have so much to share from our alumni interviews that we’ve decided to break this blog into three parts. You can enjoy the first installation below, and look forward to more in the coming weeks.

Part I: The Academic Journey

Part II: Navigating the Social Transition

Part III: Self-Advocacy in High School

Part I: The Academic Journey - Transitioning from Middle to High School

How was your academic transition from middle school to high school? Do you feel MHS prepared you for this transition?

Rocco:

I was feeling overwhelmed at the beginning with more classes and more independence, but at Marin Academy (MA), they don't have grades the first semester of freshman year to help you adapt. So, that really helped me settle in from the school standpoint.

Honestly, I felt very prepared [academically]. Sean [How]’s accelerated math class really prepared me. We’re doing quadratics in math and I really feel strong because I learned the intro to that; I have prior knowledge. The first couple months of geometry, honestly, it actually felt like a breeze.

For history and English, there were no real differences from MHS. I felt prepared and I felt confident in my writing. One thing I noticed—the note-taking from MHS really helped me. History is a lot of notetaking and I really think I’m stronger because of what I did in eighth grade. We did Cornell Notes, and it’s my preferred way of taking notes.

High school is such an environment shift and there are some things you can’t be prepared for. I would say that Marin Horizon really prepared me in all of the academic parts of it.

Piper:

[Freshman year], I just took Algebra 1, and it was super light. I understood everything, and MHS provided a good foundation for that.

I love writing, it’s my favorite class for sure. Right now I’m taking a class called Non-Fiction which gets you ready for journalism, because I’m going to do journalism next year and maybe in college. Jesse [Pearson] definitely influenced me. His classes were so fun—I always looked forward to them and he triggered [an interest] in writing. Jesse’s way of teaching definitely set me up for high school. I feel like not very many middle schools taught you how to write essays regarding books—how to find quotes, how to annotate your books so it’s easy to go back to find certain passages. That definitely helped a lot. Next year I want to do the school paper.

Shane:

Academically I'd say there's definitely a shift just because you don't know any of the teachers and you have to learn [their] expectations. I feel that [with some of what I learned at] Marin Horizon with English and Math class, I was able to jump in pretty well. You have to figure out what the new teachers expectations are, but I feel I was pretty well prepared for that on a good amount of fronts. Some people are more prepared for some things than others for sure, and a lot of that can be determined in placement tests if you're taking honors.

[At Marin Horizon] I was in Accelerated Math because I've always really liked Math. Sean [How] told us what to do for the placement test and I went into Geometry Honors freshman year and it actually worked out perfectly. I feel like I knew everything I needed to go into it. There's like the right amount of challenge. A couple things that we did learn that year I feel like I actually had already learned from Sean. I'm in Algebra 2 Honors right now.

I like science. Freshman year at Branson, you take Physics. It's a little difficult and I'm also in honors for that. I'm in Chemistry Honors right now. There's definitely difficulty, you need to get used to that.

Sydney

Academically I think I transitioned very well and it didn't really seem like that big of a jump. Because the first semester of freshman year is gradeless, it really helps the students focus on just adjusting to high school and the new teachers and the environment and the workload. And then you will get progress [reports] back so you see if you're doing well or if you need more support.

I was in the Accelerated Math for seventh and eighth grade at MHS, but I just tested into Geometry, not Geometry Honors, and then this year I'm in Algebra 2 Honors, so I went back up. The honors class is definitely more challenging, but it's doable and I think that I definitely see lots of the stuff I learned in Accelerated Math in eighth grade being brought back in honors [at MA]. It provided kind of a nice foundation, and I think that all of the students from MHS that were in the accelerated class that came to MA are in honors right now.

I know a few of my friends from [a nearby public school] felt unprepared for high school and they talked about it. They just felt like the workload was a lot different and the curriculum was harder. And we have a belonging circle for people that had public schools before MA, and I think what they focus on is like the transition and how to get help if you're feeling like you’re struggling with the workload. So I feel like MHS compared to other schools, I feel like we're well prepared.

Tenzing:

From a work standpoint, it was pretty surprising at first, but I think that’s the case for everyone. But I felt knowledge-wise, MHS prepared me very well for academics, and socially, the transition felt pretty seamless as well. I think a lot of people agree at MA, the workload has actually been increasing in the past few years. So that was kind of a surprise, but after the first few weeks you get used to it.

I took Sean [How]’s Accelerated Math, and it's funny, a lot of the topics that he taught us about in eighth grade, they're teaching for the first time at our school this year. So a lot of it I already knew, which was pretty cool. So I tested into Geometry Honors my freshman year, and now I’m in Algebra 2 Honors. I'm on the honors track.

I had Mo [Poxon] who I think is the best science teacher I’ve ever had. I think one of the things I think MHS does best is it just kind of inspired a passion for learning for me, it got me just super psyched about science and learning. And that passion’s helped me do really well in science and math at MA. So at MA, the track that you pretty much have to take is Biology freshman year and then Chemistry sophomore year, and then you can start taking electives the next two years, which I'm really excited for. But it’s all felt pretty easy because Mo and the MHS science program just made me really excited about it, so it doesn't feel like it's like work for me.

Payson:

Overall, MHS was pretty good [at preparing me]. My best subject is Math, and I’m now in Honors Algebra 2. I plan on doing honors Pre-Calc next year and I’m going to do Intro to Engineering and Physics classes senior year. Mo’s class was really good, we got a lot of hands-on activities and one of the really helpful things was we did Cornell Notes in Mo’s class. Knowing how to do Cornell Notes going into high school is really helpful because we use those all the time in every class.

Carlotta:

[The transition} was great, honestly. Freshman year, I’d say it was the same level of difficulty as MHS, if not easier. Socially things were more difficult, but academically that was not an issue. I felt like I could relax more that year, and then prepare for this year— academics are definitely harder this year. It was really smooth academically because I learned so much at MHS that made it easier for me.

Math is my least favorite subject; I got a lot of support at MHS for math. If it wasn’t for MHS, I don’t know where I would be in math, honestly. I didn’t go into advanced math, I just went into classic Algebra 1 freshman year. I already knew a lot of things from Math at MHS. It actually wasn’t that difficult, but I”m really not a math person.

English, I was great at English. I had Jesse—he was incredible, such a great teacher. He taught us a lot about the structure of how to write things. He got everybody really passionate about what he was talking about. I remember when we did debates, and it was definitely a difficult assignment because you had to think of rebuttals on the spot. I learned how to write an argumentative essay, and to dive deeper into a concept. I already knew how to write a pretty good essay going into high school.

Part III: Continuing to Self-Advocate in High School