Mill Valley is not adaptable for transfer students. With the biggest freshman class since the opening of the school, an additional 55 transfer students to the freshman class alone, and an average of 70 transfer students per year, there is a clear need for a revised system.
Moving from Florida, where I was born and raised, to Kansas as an incoming sophomore was a big change for me. Starting over at a completely new school with over 1,300 students was intense, especially compared to my isolated high school with under 500 students and no senior class. I looked to the school as a place where I could find familiarity, comfort and where my education would be valued. However, that is not exactly the environment provided.
My counselors quickly informed me that my entire high school transcript would be altered. Any out-of-state high school credits earned before ninth grade would not count towards my GPA and would be removed from my transcript, dropping my GPA.
New graduation requirements put me in freshman classes, making it even harder to make real friends, and no clubs or organizations were introduced to me or any other new students, eliminating the opportunity to get involved without knowing anyone. When I started speaking up about my challenges, I found that I wasn’t alone in my dissatisfaction and bad experiences.
Many students agree that there is a need for more AP classes and elective classes offered to make the school more inclusive for transfer students. For example, the lack of AP Seminar/Research, AP World History, forensic science, economics and other standard classes offered nationally makes it difficult for transfer students to correctly transfer their credits to their Mill Valley transcripts.
Additionally, athletic programs get the most support, funding and promotion, making it difficult for non-athlete transfer students to find their people. More promotion for a variety of clubs can help integrate new students into the environment.
With an already cliquey social environment, the school needs to stop striving to be individualists in the school system. The need to be “better” than other schools prevents our community from adapting to the standards of other schools, neglecting the possibility of creating a better experience for a large group of students.
Even after over five meetings with a plethora of school administrators, nothing has been done for me or the many other transfers. The school’s teachers, principals and administrators need to be actively working towards creating a better system for the integration of transfer students. Mill Valley should not be striving to be superior, but instead striving to be inclusive.
