The town of Rhinebeck is small but nowhere near as small as our tiny school system. If you’ve gone to school in Rhinebeck for most of your life, you all know the same people, the same faces. The same students who you went to kindergarten with are now in your chem class. The same faces, year after year.
I don’t know about you, but I’m always anxious to meet new people, I pray that each year, new kids will arrive to change things up.
If you’ve wished for the same thing, then I have great news for you. There are fifteen new High School students all together this year. Your prayers have been answered!
Excited to meet the new students, I sat down and interviewed four new members of the Class of 2021 about what their last school was like, how it was different from Rhinebeck, and got to learn a little bit more about them:

I: What school did you come from and what was it like there?

Robert: FDR. It was Rough, actually, my last school was terrible. Fights left and right and teachers don’t care.

Emma: Coleman High School. It was nice, very small but friendly.

Quinn: Poughkeepsie Day School, it’s really small. Only 12 people in my grade.

Samaira: My last school was an online school for two years, before that I went to Taconic Hills. It was a huge school compared to Rhinebeck.

I: Please describe in three different ways how Rhinebeck is different from your old school?

R: The people are nicer. I feel respected and nobody talks trash to me.

E: Basically everything is different here. there are more than 100 people.

Q: It’s way bigger, There are actual grades, and the classes are taken more seriously.
S: Rhinebeck is very different than before. The school is super small compared to my old school. The town is also quite small. The teachers here are also very sweet compared to my old teachers. The teachers here actually seem to care.

I: What most surprised you about Rhinebeck?

R: How well people behave. Everyone is respectful and they have good food.

Q: Nothing was that surprising!

S: The amount of sweet and kind people I have met. I didn’t expect that many people to be so welcoming to me.

Since Emma is a returning student, who’s been to Rhinebeck I decided to ask a different question:

I: Emma I know that you are actually a returning student since you were at Chancellor until 5th grade. Are you happy to be back in Rhinebeck?

E: Yes, I actually am happy to be back!

I: What brought you to Rhinebeck?

R: We found a new house in Rhinebeck and heard it was a great district.

E: The school closed and my mom said I had to.

Q: I wanted to try something else

S: I had recently got back from Sweden. I moved in with my grandmother so my mom made me go to school here.

I: What’s your favorite thing to do outside of school.

R: Playing the guitar

E: I like to hang out with people and play the piano.

Q: Watch soccer

S: I enjoy writing a lot, gardening, just taking walks and enjoying nature.

I: What, if anything, do you want people here to know about you?

R: That I like to make friends.

E: That I like it here.

Q: That I play soccer.

S: I’m super friendly so feel free to talk to me whenever, or if you need to vent about anything.

Lastly and most importantly, I asked the students what their favorite ice cream flavor was. (Your taste in ice cream, as we all know, can reveal a lot about a person.) Here are their different answers:

I: What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?

R: Either Reese’s peanut butter cup or birthday cake, but I also like vanilla.

E: I like mint!

Q: Fish food from Ben & Jerry’s!

S: My favorite ice cream flavor would have to be Vanilla.

I was personally quite surprised after interviewing the students. I hadn’t known much about them at all, but now I feel like I have an understanding, an appreciation of who they were and why they had come to Rhinebeck. Despite Rhinebeck’s unintimidating size, everyone here knows each other, their lives are intertwined, and trying to find your place as a new student, can be challenging. So I urge you to reach out to the new kids or any student you don’t know. New people will remind you to step out of your comfort zone and remind you to be more welcoming.

(Caption for photo)
Quinn Simaitis, Robert Macdermott, Samaira St. Clark and Emma Dentico all new Juniors pose for a quick photo!