By Sabrina Cassano and Lily Conklin
Elective Night is a great opportunity for incoming Freshmen to preview electives and see what Warde has to offer. On February 9th at 6:00 p.m., 8th Graders matriculating into Warde from Fairfield Middle Schools were able to visit and take advantage of such a chance to explore their interests.
The COVID pandemic has changed many aspects of school life, and Elective Night has too been impacted. As one of the many people in charge of this night, Ms. Drexel shared that “-[Elective night] changed a bit when COVID hit as before parents and incoming students had an opportunity to see a business class presentation and visit the woodshop. The night was more hands-on and interactive.” Despite the changes and its absence from the class of 2025’s 8th grade visit, it returned for the first time in 2 years, running just as smoothly as ever with some minor adjustments. Instead of having presentations class by class, elective night has transitioned into a more general scope to give both incoming freshmen and their parents an idea of the school and its classes.
Elective night is both meant to excite and educate future students about their classes and to create a sense of ease in their transition from middle to high school. The evening is especially important for parents as Ms. Drexel said, “It’s hard for parents to not physically enter the school where kids are going.”
Elective night not only provides opportunities for the incoming freshmen but for the current Warde students as well. “It’s a lot of different programs working together, tour guides who are called ‘mustang mentors’ including seniors, juniors and the occasional sophomores, along with volunteers from the key club,” says Ms. Drexel. Both groups act as guides, and individually walk the incoming 9th graders and their parents through Warde in a specified order from a given map. It first directs them to Townsend, from Fitts to the Business Hall, Tech Ed, Family Consumer Sciences, World Languages, with a final destination of the College and Career Center.
If welcoming younger students to Warde sounds appealing, Ms. Drexel asserts that “Mustang mentors in the spring every year put out an application of interest looking for applicants.” If the application process seems intimidating, Ms. Drexel reassures prospective mentors that “It used to be a more selective process but now we’re more focused on diversity and want these incoming 9th graders to see people from different backgrounds and academic ability, not just the student with straight A’s.”
Elective night brought together a new class of students and parents to ensure that the incoming freshmen have all the resources they need to make their course selection decisions.