WOODBURY — Students, young adults, people, all from different walks of life are unified all due to their education. With or without the intent of doing so, students at Nonnewaug socialize and collaborate with people they may not typically do so with, and in turn, create a learning environment that’s incredibly unique.
I wake up every Monday through Friday and prepare for my 20 minute drive to school, knowing that some of my classmates prepare for a 35 minute car ride, but why would students want to travel so far everyday for high school? Well, the answer is clear, the agriscience program at Nonnewaug offers courses that draws students from 11 sending towns, aside from the two in district towns that can also apply for the program.
Students choose to come to Nonnewaug because of the many career options they may pursue while attending school here. Some of the classes in the ag program include mechanics, landscaping, natural resources, aquaponics, floriculture, vet science, horse management, and ag production.
Different career possibilities draw so many different types of people to this school. Not just the traditional kids for each career path, but also kids that possess so many different characteristics, but commonly want to have a similar experience.
“I remember when I interviewed to work here, I asked about the dynamics about this being a public high school for two towns and it being an ag school,” says biology instructor Toby Denman. “Now 20-something years later, I don’t really think about it, or it’s cool to see how different people have met each other.”
I feel like it’s good to have to collaborate with different kinds of people throughout school because that’s what life consists of. There will never be a time in your life where you will collaborate with only people like yourself, everyone is different. As for Nonnewaug, this is why students have such a wide variety of friends.
“It’s a positive thing,” says Denman. “It’s pretty rare for someone in life to just deal with one type of people, from a student perspective it’s a good thing to mesh with students from different communities and backgrounds.”
Students don’t tend to recognize how much high school prepares students for the real world, something as simple as interacting with different people helps with any future job or responsibility that comes with collaboration.
“Our student body has all different types of people that although don’t seem like they’re similar, really are,” says senior class president Madison Willis. “It has given me my best friends, and I really like how it gives the opportunity to have different types of friends.”
Not just because Willis is the senior class president, but simply because she is a student here has opened the doors to many new relationships.
Coming to Nonnewaug not only helped me gain skills that I will use in the future of my career, but it has given me a much wider perspective on people and friendships. I can easily say that the majority of the people I call friends have already passed through Nonnewaug or are still here now.
“Students from all over the place come here,” says junior Dan Rybinski.
When most people are asked to describe the types of students that come to Nonnewaug, that is the typical answer: Nonnewaug, collectively, is multitalented. From sports teams to welding projects, students can really do it all.
Without the agriscience program, there wouldn’t be half the kids that come to this school. One day, if you haven’t realized it already, it was a good thing that you came to Nonnewaug.
“I was here last night grading stuff talking to the couple night custodians saying that the kids here are pretty good,” says Denman when reflecting on the unique student body that comprises NHS. “They’re overall a good group.”
This is the opinion of Chief Advocate reporter Walker Stanton, a senior at Nonnewaug.
