East Brunswick High School alumni Katie Ranish (l-r), Maria Bakshiyeva and Katherine Kadletz visit a classroom to answer questions from seniors on Jan. 6. PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT staff EAST BRUNSWICK — Preparing for college can be nerve-wracking for high school students, but on Jan. 6 East Brunswick High School seniors had a few old Bears around for help.
More than 80 members of the school’s class of 2011 came back to their alma mater last Friday to participate in Alumni Day, an annual event that aims to help seniors learn what to expect when they head to college. The alumni, representing 45 colleges, worked with the students through in-class presentations and question-and-answer sessions.
Seniors have already completed their college applications, said Guidance Counselor Rory Rosenwald, and are now deciding where they want to go to school and preparing for challenges like registering for classes and dealing with roommate situations.
Students listen as graduates share their experiences. But having alumni, who just last year were in their same position, around to answer questions and prepare them for the challenges of college can certainly help, Rosenwald said.
“It can be a process, so it helps them ask questions about things they are nervous about, and they can kind of get an idea from people who are doing it,” said Rosenwald, who organized the event with fellow guidance counselor Alyson Calvello.
And it didn’t take much prodding for the returning students to open up about everything from Facebook etiquette on campus to the endless joys of the Rutgers University buses. But with so much freedom and so many social temptations, alumni warned the seniors that learning time management would be one of the biggest challenges they would face at school.
“Your first semester, it’s a really hard transition,” said Brandon Grumet, a freshman at Rutgers in New Brunswick. “If you live in a dorm, there is going to be a lot of social interaction. People are going to want to hang out every night, and you gotta keep with it and do your work.”
Madhoo Rao (l-r), Rebecca Panitch and Jade Lewin, 2011 graduates who returned to East Brunswick High School for Alumni Day Jan. 6, listen to opening remarks in the high school’s media center. JEFF GRANIT staff The alumni laid down a few roommate rules as well. Katie Kadletz, who attends Long Island University C.W. Post campus, told students to never room with someone you may know, for problems are just bound to occur.
“You are just going to hate them,” Kadletz said.
Maria Bakshiyeva, who commutes to LIM College in Manhattan, doesn’t have roommate troubles, but noted that commuting has both positives and negatives.
“I love sleeping in my own bed at the end of the day,” Bakshiyeva said. “But it is definitely hard because I don’t get to hang out with my new friends that I have made at school.”
Bakshiyeva also told students that applying for the hundreds of scholarships that are out there and filling out the free application for federal student aid are extremely important, given how expensive college can be.
“It’s a huge help, because every penny counts,” she said. “Take advantage of all of them.”
Bakshiyeva told students in the classroom she visited that she felt East Brunswick helped to prepare her well for some of the rigors of higher education.
“We are all really lucky to be alumni and to have been East Brunswick High School students,” she said. “They teach us a lot of good stuff here that is going to help you out in the long run.”