In 2024, the United States welcomed more than 1.1 million new students from other countries. The US sees students from all over the world with diverse backgrounds, different cultures, and stories. Moving to a new country is not easy, because everything suddenly feels unfamiliar. Adapting can take anywhere from a week to a month or even years.
At WHS, students meet and connect with new students often. Some students may come from a neighboring town, state, or even the other side of the globe.
Cassey Sioson, a junior at WHS, started her new American high school life earlier this year. Sioson had recently moved to Waterford from the Philippines a few months ago, and she has experienced many similarities and differences.
When comparing a typical American school to others around the world, it can be seen that schools in the United States are easier than ones found in Asia or Europe because of fewer workloads, stress, and homework.
Sioson said, “There are lots of differences that I’ve noticed from the past few months. The biggest one is the amount of workload given. In the Philippines, we would have quizzes for every class, almost, if not every day. The time given for due dates is very much shorter, and activities and projects are tripled, if not more than what I do in this school.”
Another difference Sioson had found between WHS and her old school back is that the schedules are very different compared to each other. At WHS, students have 4 classes each day, with about 86 minutes per class, with lunch broken into three 30 minute periods.
Sioson, describing the differences, says that, “Students that are in junior high school (7-10th grade) [have the options to choose to go to] AM or PM class, with AM starting from 6:00 – 12:10 and PM class starting at 12:30 – 6:00. I attended the AM class. With Seniors (11-12), it starts at 7:30 am until 2:20 pm in the first semester and 3:30 pm in the second semester. We go through six or seven classes every day.”
Sioson has also expressed that she misses her friends and family back in the Philippines. She also says that “it was difficult for me to adjust as it was the complete opposite of what I was used to, but friendly people came up to me to talk and became friends with me on my first day of going to this school.” For Sioson, she misses her home, but seeing how welcoming WHS is has made her less nervous about this big transition.
Moving across the world isn’t easy, but Sioson has been overcoming challenges and adapting to her new life in Connecticut.
