HW Sibs — a program intended to support new students as they transition into our community, build collegiality among all grade levels, and provide a space to ensure that every student is known, heard, and supported — was implemented a year ago for students to attend once a month.
“Having a need for students to interact with one another, especially students new to the school, was really evident,” co-creator of the HW Sibs program Alex Ras said. “We thought it would be important for students not just new to the school to have an adult who they could meet with on a basis that wasn’t graded with comments associated or assessments going on. It’s just a place where students could exist and meet each other in an environment that is not a classroom or a club.”
Students have a range of opinions on the HW Sibs program, from feeling that HW Sibs only needs to improve slightly to feeling that HW Sibs is just completely pointless.
“I think it’d be great if first of all there was an equal number of kids from the same grade in each HW Sibs group,” Noah Koo ’27 said. “Mine is mostly 9th graders. I think maybe three 8th graders and like three 7th graders.”
Some even expressed their negative feelings for the HW Sibs program because they felt no grade-level bonding was actually happening even though they thought building these bonds was the point of the program.
Many also felt that they could be making better use of the time used for attending HW Sibs.
“I feel as though HW Sibs misses the mark on what it’s trying to do,” Davis Fried ’27 said. “Instead of being excited for HW Sibs, I usually dread it or just am not excited to go to it. I don’t find HW Sibs to be of much value and find that clubs or socializing during break is a better use of the activity period.”
However, some students feel more neutral. One of the reasons many felt neutral was due to the variety of activities and the amount of friends in their individual HW Sibs groups. “I’ve started liking HW Sibs more because I have friends in my HW Sibs group, a couple of ninth graders, and we do board game stuff,” Alex Lee ’25 said.
Another reason students felt neutral was because the personality of the people in their HW Sibs groups balanced out the fact that they could be using their time to be doing other activities, such as participating in clubs. This seems to support the fact that many students felt strongly negative about HW Sibs due to the unbalanced number of students from each grade level in the different groups, forcing them to interact with people they are not familiar with at all.
Teachers participating in the HW Sibs program seemed to have more positive in their experiences with the program, compared to the students.
“I think that last year was a tough start being on Zoom and starting a new community,” history teacher Mark Nelson said. “But now, in my group, kids in different grades interact with each other well. My hope is that HW Sibs continues to grow so that students feel HW Sibs is a home base on campus.”
All teachers and almost all students seem to agree that the HW Sibs program has massively improved from last year, when the program was executed on Zoom meetings.
“HW Sibs was definitely falling short last year for me and my group, and we’ve been very open and honest about how much of a disaster it was, just because of COVID-19 and distance learning,” math teacher Gregg Ross said. “And the difference so far, this year, has been amazing.”
Teachers also believe that the HW Sibs program provides opportunities for students that they usually wouldn’t be given in a normal school setting.
“I think this year, so far, it’s certainly been a place where students have met each other who wouldn’t have otherwise seen or heard one another,” Ras said.
In general, the teachers look forward to what this program could really be.
“Having a program or a day where we’re proud that we’ve reached every single student and many of the faculty and staff would be great,” Ras said.
“I think there’s a lot of promise to the program,” Nelson said. “And I want to make sure that all students feel that it’s not a chore.”
When interviewed, almost all of the students asked to be anonymous, indicating hesitation in voicing their opinions about HW Sibs. Many students seem to feel that HW Sibs could be massively improved so that it’s worth attending, even if they feel neutral about it. The teachers, on the other hand, are more hopeful that HW Sibs can be a program that provides a place where students truly feel safe.