Students ready for classes, not laundry |
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The week before she came to the journalism program at the National High School Institute, Libby Henning was “really freaking out.” The cherub from Cincinnati was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to handle the college-level work and that everyone would be smarter than she was. “I tried not to think about coming because I was so nervous,” she said. “You’re going to Northwestern. It’s really prestigious-sounding.” But after completing the first assignment, Henning realized she was better prepared than she had thought. She takes accelerated classes and typically gets top grades, so her high school experience equipped her for the pressures of cherubs. “After the first day, I realized I could handle the work,” she said. Henning was one of several cherubs who said they came prepared for college life at National High School Institute. They found it easy to adapt to the pressure of the cherub program because they were used to similarly-intense high school curricula.
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Natalie Stumpf, of Piedmont, Calif., took three advanced placement classes last year. She leads her school’s mock trial team and edits its newspaper. Only one aspect of cherubs challenged her.
“I had to do the laundry,” she said.
Katie Wells, of Arlington Heights, Ill., said she expected students at the program to be high-achieving and self-motivated.
“I don’t think anyone here has the intention of slacking off,” she said. “I know I tried to give it my best.”
Jennifer Pritchard, of Cooper City, Fla., said she already knew how to juggle work and recreation after three years of rigorous high school classes. At cherubs, she made sure to take breaks so she wouldn’t get stressed out.
“You need a little breather once in a while,” she said.
Sarah Zager, of Albuquerque, N.M., said the most important thing for cherubs to do was ask questions of their instructors. She was already in that habit from high school, she said.
“The responsibilities here are similar in a lot of ways to what you have in high school,” she said.
But students who don’t come to the program with all the skills they need shouldn’t worry. Instructor and former cherub Elia Powers said he learned many of the skills he needed for college while he was at cherubs.
“It helped me speak out in front of a group,” he said. “It definitely helped with time management. It was a good intro to Northwestern.”