AMBLESIDE TO FHS: ELIJAH JUNKER

Caitlin Tatsch

Can you imagine having to go from 26 kids in your entire high school to over 1,000? This challenge was put in front of senior Elijah Junker as he transitioned from Ambleside, a private school, to Fredericksburg High School, a 4A public school. 

“The biggest difference I’ve experienced between the two schools is the class number for sure,” Junker said. “There are more people in each class at FHS than in my whole high school at Ambleside.”

At Ambleside, Junker only had six students in his entire class. Now, he has over 30 times that amount, with 223 fellow students in his senior class. While the number of students was a new challenge for Junker as he moved schools, campus size proved to be even more difficult to adapt to. 

“Campus size was the hardest part of my transition,” Junker said. “All of my classes at Ambleside were basically in two classrooms, and they were about 20 feet apart.”

Navigating a new campus tends to be overwhelming for a new student to FHS, including the task of finding your classes. 

“It took me about two weeks to find all of my classes,” Junker said.  “On top of that, I got my schedule changed about a week after school started. Although I had most of the same classes, they were in a completely different order.”

Another noticeable difference was the contrast between dress codes. At Ambleside, students are required to wear business casual outfits, whereas, at FHS, students can wear whatever they like as long as it adheres to the dress code.

“Wearing business casual every day wasn’t that bad because I wouldn’t have to think about what clothes I was going to wear every day,” Junker said. “I’d have the same outfits every day, so I’d just wear those. Now I have to go get clothes because I have no clothes to wear.” 

Although a really strict dress code takes away the anxiety of picking your clothes every day, it could be overwhelming, like it was at Ambleside. 

“There were specific things at Ambleside that they would dress code you for. For example, a logo on your shirt couldn’t be over the size of a quarter,” Junker said. “The girl’s dress code specifically was super strict.”

Compared to Ambleside, FHS has many more options not only in terms of dress code but also in terms of course selection.

“At Ambleside, classes were a little bit harder since there was no AP, Dual Credit, or any of that,” Junker said. “Everyone had the same level of learning, which was advanced, so you didn’t have the choice of whether to take a hard class or not.”

Despite the sometimes difficult transition of moving from a private school to a public school in his senior year, Junker keeps a positive attitude as he enjoys being a senior at FHS.

“It’s a transition for sure, moving from six people in a class to 223, so that’s crazy,” Junker said. “I already had friends at FHS before I came, so I felt like I fit right in. In my opinion, FHS is the best place to spend my senior year.”