First Impressions of d.tech: Accounts from Freshmen

Tessa Martin | tmartin25@dtechhs.org and Abram Clarke | aclarke25@dtechhs.org

Olivia Moody | omoody22@dtechhs.org

Over the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has kept students from going to school. The pandemic also kept Freshmen from being able to see d.tech before they started the first day of school. These students say that Design Tech is not what they expected it to be before they came here. 

While discussing the differences from middle school to d.tech, Freshman John Nix says, “Middle school definitely felt less organized, d.tech has this sense of formality that [middle school] didn’t.” Other Freshmen agree that d.tech feels a lot more organized than their middle schools. 

Many Freshmen say that the most different thing at d.tech from their middle school is the inclusive environment and atmosphere. While these freshmen were able to look into the school beforehand, they were unable to experience the campus or culture in a formal tour. This includes Freshman Gabi Ryan, who says “I visited d.tech before school started, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go”. They said that they heard that d.tech’s community was not very good. They were pleasantly surprised when the year started, finding that the culture was kind and inclusive.

The DRG was a huge hit amongst the freshmen. Freshman student Niko Kompella says “I never thought I would see so many items and machines in one room in my life, but that was before I walked into the DRG”.  Many students had never experienced something like the DRG, which is unique to d.tech. Many were also enthusiastic about the Independent Work Times, or IWTs. They agree that it has been a great time to catch up on work, talk to teachers about assignments or missing work, and is overall a great stress reliever for assignments. 

Freshman Skyler Peterson says that he likes the class schedule at d.tech. He says, “3 classes at a time is really nice because you don't have to juggle that many assignments and they aren't too long”. In addition to Peterson, WYN time and the freedom it brings was positively received from lots of freshmen. Despite this, a few did state that sometimes it can be difficult to get into clubs due to the limited number of students allowed in at one time. While d.tech may not be what many freshmen expected, it is a change, for the better, from middle school.