Fenger Freshman Shares Top Reasons to be Excited for High School

Najariah describes herself as a student who is always ready and willing to support others. If she finishes her work early, you can expect to see her helping out her peers. Now that she’s in high school, this year is all about adjusting to a new environment at Fenger High School. But she explains that the level of trust that she’s quickly built with her teachers is motivating her to start off her high school experience as strongly as possible.

“I feel like our teachers have been very supportive and helpful so far,” she said. “The activities that we do during school make you excited to come to school, and, as we go further into the curriculum, I’m more and more ready to come to school every day.”

Inside the classroom, she notes that reading is her favorite subject but that math has been growing on her as of late as well. Her class is currently reading through speeches made by Abraham Lincoln. If you want to know the story behind her favorite book, you’ll have to go all the way back to third grade. She loves Bud, Not Buddy, the story of a boy who escapes foster care in search of his father.

Computer science is the subject that she anticipates being most challenging, so she’s been refining her study strategies to help her excel.

“With computer science, I like technology, but I feel like it’s going to take me a while to adjust and learn the ins and outs,” she said. “That’s why I’m making sure to read over everything carefully and use context clues to figure things out.”

While growing academically is important to Najariah, growing socially and emotionally is also one of her top priorities for her four years at Fenger. She wants to come out of her shell more by staying true to herself and building relationships with peers who share a similar mindset as her—to stay focused on the importance of education.

“It’s important to know the time and place to do something,” she said. “A lot of students don’t know the right or wrong time and place to talk or play around or get serious about academics.”

Fenger Principal Mescha Lammy encourages all students—but especially freshmen—to “trust the process” as they move through their high school years, noting that the school has many opportunities and resources that they can take advantage of to make their experience great.

“We want to make sure that students aren’t letting negativity get inside their heads and are able to truly become part of the Fenger community,” said Principal Lammy. “They can get involved in the various clubs we have here and can even suggest ideas for new extracurricular activities.”

Najariah’s interests include track and working with kids. She’s also excited to support her friends who join Fenger’s various sports teams by going to games and even supporting friends who join extracurriculars like debate.

After high school, her goal is to attend a Historically Black College or University (HBCU), potentially Howard University in Washington D.C., with the aspiration of becoming a nurse. She explains that the COVID-19 pandemic has made that career even more captivating than it was already because of her passion for helping people. She’d also like to own a fashion boutique as well.

Though those dreams may be many years away, Najariah knows that preparing for them starts now.

“Now that I’m a high school freshman, I feel like I’m starting a new chapter in my life,” she said. “This chapter is really up to me, and I’m creating my future at a really young age. And I like that.”