Many students from the Pascack Valley Class of 2023 have been in college for a couple of months. During this time, they have been able to determine how their time at PV prepared them well for this new phase in their lives and ways in which they wish their time here had prepared them better.
Multiple graduates have said that PV’s teachers helped them prepare for college.
“[Hinrichsen] talked us through a lot of college stuff and…the whole application process,” PV graduate and current Northeastern University freshman Danny Schwartz said.
Some students found certain organizational tools that they learned at Valley helpful in college. For example, PV alum Nolan Wasserman said that how his teachers taught him to write notes was very useful in his economics class at the University of Maryland. On the technology side, PV graduate Jimmy Shea felt that using Canvas in high school was useful because it is used at his college, Virginia Tech.
Many graduates found that their ability to build relationships with their teachers in high school was useful in college. PV graduate and Penn State University freshman Ryan Campanella finds that building relationships with your teachers in high school can make you feel more comfortable going into office hours and communicating with your college professors.
“I think PV did a good job of showing that you can build a relationship with a teacher,” Campanella said. “Being able to become close with your teacher and going to extra help…can help prepare you for college.”
Others said that the PV faculty’s teaching methods prepped them for college, especially when it came to writing essays.
“I’ve been writing more essays than I’ve ever written before,” PV graduate and current Penn State University student Gianluca Fiorillo said. “The essays I wrote in high school are pretty similar to the ones I’m writing now.”
PV graduate Eleanor Kahl also thought that the English Department did a good job preparing students for college.
“I find myself doing really well in a lot of my writing classes,” Kahl said. “A lot of people [at Elon University] for some reason just don’t seem to know how to write very well. I had Phillips [and other English teachers], who… prepared me really well for English and writing essays and how to format [essays] correctly.”
Members of the Class of 2023 also found that PV taught them skills that are very valuable in college.
“I learned a good work ethic, and I learned how to balance my work… with everything else,” PV graduate and current University of Georgia freshman Alexis Ban said.
Even outside of the classroom, PV graduates found skills learned in highschool useful.
“I think PV did a really good job at preparing us for community involvement,” PV graduate and current University of Wisconsin student Jayden Rosenthal said. “I think that is really important for college.”
PV graduate and current Pitt University student Michal Criscuolo said that the personable skills that he learned in high school transferred to his college experience.
While there were many things PV did well in preparing its alumni for college, there were some parts that the graduates wish were done better.
Some graduates wished that there were more resources available to help them during the college application process.
“[Guidance makes] sure they do a one-on-one meeting…with you,” PV graduate and current Quinnipiac University student James Palermo said. “I wish they [had] that meeting more than once… [and that] they did a recap of it if you needed another benchmark.”
Danny Schwartz mirrored Palermo’s sentiments, saying that he appreciated the Guidance Department but wished that he had more meetings throughout the college process.
Another graduate reflected on the idea that it would have been beneficial to be exposed to more schools.
“I wish [guidance] had told me about other schools than just the ‘PV Schools.’ PV has a group of colleges that I sort of think they just push on everyone,” Kahl said. “Those are good schools…everyone likes them, and obviously there’s a reason they like them, but I think [that] there are a lot of other schools out there…that I just never heard of.”
Another graduate discusses that the PV curriculum could have provided more chances for students to explore their interests and to take classes that are more closely related to their future majors.
“I think what [PV] did poorly is…not having a lot of options for discovering what you want to do in college… having other options outside of like STEM,” PV graduate and current Elon University student Ella O’Reilly said.
Schwartz wished that there were more business classes offered at Valley. Since O’Reilly and Schwartz graduated, PV has added various courses to its curriculum, including new business classes like Honors Marketing and Merchandising.
Another alumnus found that he wasn’t as prepared for some classroom differences between Valley and college.
“[I wish there was] a little more group project work [at Valley],” Criscuolo said. “I feel like I work a lot with groups in college.”
Apart from academics, Fiorillo expressed that PV could have better prepared him better for the free time that you get in college and had taught him more about time management.
PV alumni looked fondly on their experiences in high school and generally felt prepared for college, but they recognized that there is still more work to be done for Valley to set its students up for success.
