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c. May/September 2023: "This school slaps" but was it worth it? 

 

From former Star-staffer Layna Pham in September of 2023, "New ASFA students say adjustment to fast-paced schedule is a difficult, overall positive experience" polled new students in various ASFA departments to gauge how they were holding up at the beginning of the school year. The takeaway? There are costs (the pace, the multiple [confusing] bell schedules, all that climbing of stairs!) and benefits (the people, the people, the people!), but overall it's worth it to embark on the ASFA journey.   

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That said, we found it interesting to compare/contrast that perspective to the somewhat more nuanced (mostly nostalgic but not necessarily sugar-coated) reflections shared by the senior class of '23 a few months earlier, in this retrospective piece by former Star-staffer Kyra Richardson: "Was it worth it? ASFA seniors reflect on their tenure on eve of graduation." In the end, for those seniors, it was also the people that mattered most.