June Ye

Being the youngest child in her family, Ye’s siblings had all gone through Huron High School and loved it. So naturally, that’s where she planned to continue her education. But when Community staff and students visited her middle school, she felt like there was no harm in applying.

During the application process, she talked to her teachers at Scarlett Middle School and asked for their opinion. They told her to go for it and take the opportunity and risk, believing that CHS would benefit her. They also reassured Ye that if she didn’t like Community, she could always go to Huron.

Making the decision to accept her spot at CHS was fast and scary. Ye and her family hadn’t known that she had gotten into CHS until the school called her home to remind them that she needed to decide. This left them  with only a few days to make a decision. The decision process included discussions about the perks of both Community and Huron, but most of all, Ye’s parents wanted her to take classes that interested her and that she could be successful in, regardless of which school she chose to learn at. 

“I was really on the fence about coming to Community,” Ye said. “I didn’t know if I would like it more or less [than Huron].”

While she ended up accepting her spot at CHS, she also aslo decided to take classes at Huron as a split-enroll student. During the first two weeks, Ye has split her time taking and taken classes at both Huron and Community. Ye found that she prefers the smaller school vibe and being able to connect with more students and teachers on a deeper level.

So far, Ye has enjoyed her time at Community, slowly figuring out high school. She enjoys her classes and teachers, and is proud of her decision to come to CHS. She can’t wait to see what else she can accomplish at CHS.

Yuval Rosenberg

Yuval Rosenberg is a freshman who got into Community High School only one week before school started; a last-minute decision caused Rosenberg stress as he was set on going to Skyline only a couple of days before. He appreciates the relaxed environment fostered at Community, especially regarding phone and headphone usage.

“It’s interesting, at my old school, if you had your phone out, you would get in trouble right away. Here, it is more laid back,” Rosenberg said. This flexible approach to tech enhances Rosenberg’s focus, allowing him to be more concentrated on his school work and dive deeper into his studies. 

Recently, he has taken the bold step of joining the jazz program. Rosenberg plays guitar and the ukelele and had first learned about our school’s vibrant jazz program from attending his older brother’s concerts. So going here, he knew he wanted to join, too.

Though his taste in music may drift from the jazz tunes he plays, Rosenberg delights in the freedom to experiment with different sounds on his guitar and ukulele. 

“It’s just fun to mess around and see how things sound,” Rosenberg said.

As Rosenberg navigates this new chapter at Community High, his passion for music and insatiable curiosity will hopefully lay a solid foundation and readying him to embrace every moment of his high school experience, one note at a time.

Caitlin Cho

During her first day at Community High School, Caitlin Cho was filled with nerves. She was unclear about where to go in the morning and how the day would play out, but once surrounded by fellow students and teachers, Cho’s nerves started to dissipate and her first-day-jitters were soothed.

Cho was introduced to CHS through family and friends. Her sister goes to Huron, and one of her teammates on the field hockey team is a student at CHS. Seeing the potential fit, her sister introduced the two, convinced that CHS would be an excellent school for Cho. Intrigued by what she had heard, Cho decided to enter the lottery. Because her sister has been at Huron, Cho felt that she knew from stories and attending some of her sister’s events what kind of school it is. She knew that it was a great school for her sister, but she felt it wasn’t the school for her.

After spending a few weeks in high school, Cho has already noticed certain aspects of CHS that she loves, believing she made the right decision. One thing that drew Cho to CHS was the environment.

“Community is a really accepting school,” Cho said. “You don’t get judged here.”

Cho feels comfortable and confident enough to express herself through the clothes she wears and the activities she participates in. She believes she couldn’t do this if she were at Huron, her home school.

Not only does Cho feel she has freedom in how she expresses herself, but she also has experienced a sense of freedom in her classes. In her Intro to Literature class, they have choice reading, where Cho is able to choose any book she wants, or one she’s currently reading outside of school, and read more during every class.

Cho has begun to experience the positives of CHS, from meeting new people to self-expression to growing her confidence to finding what interests her.

Eva Edwards

Eva Edwards, a freshman at Community High School, was hesitant to come to CHS because it meant leaving her friends and starting life at a new and unfamiliar school. But after she got to CHS she realized there were lots of opportunities to spend time with new people and become a part of the community

“But I realized I still get to see them at football games and homecoming because Community offers you to go to the other high schools [events],” Edwards said. “A lot of people also split enroll.”

Forums are another specialty of CHS. They’re a community within Community, they’re the crowd you get to know and bond with throughout your entire time at CHS. Forums are the “Homerooms” of CHS, but they’re also more. They’re a place where students can learn about clubs, events, their teachers and the upcoming PSAT test. They also can give an opportunity to make friends throughout all grade levels by including students from every grade in each forum, and they organize activities like community service, forum trips and CHS’s field day.

“I really like forums because we do a lot of fun experiences,” Edwards said. “We have forum days, and you go on trips and everybody’s really nice.”

To attend CHS, students have to enter into a lottery from which their numbers are picked at random. Because of this lottery system, students can’t start at CHS until their number gets chosen, this sometimes leads to students switching schools during their second semester of freshman year or even later. In this case, Edwards didn’t find out she got into CHS until about one week away from school starting. She hadn’t chosen CHS as her number one school, but she went anyway, and once she found her classes, she found CHS to be a positive and welcoming environment

“I feel like you just have a lot of classes, and you make a lot of friends in them,” Edwards said. “And the teachers are really nice.”