All the New in Seisen

In the span of a few months Seisen had made a vast amount of changes and additions to its community. These changes vary from big and glamorous to small and refined.

The first major addition to our community are the new students. The students come from a variety of different places and schools, and here is an insight into their opinions of Seisen.

Pichayapak Boonthanom (10) and her twin sister Pichayapa (10) moved from Sarasas Witaed Saimai School in Thailand to join our 10th-grade girls. The biggest difference between their old school and Seisen is that Seisen is an all girl’s school. Pichayapa said, “I like Seisen a lot mainly because being surrounded by only girls is a new and fun experience.” Her sister adds on by saying, “I like that Seisen uses technology as their many tools for education. However, I wish we had less work to do because we rarely have time to rest at home.”

Agreeing to Pichayapa’s opinion on the all-girls school system, Patsachol Akanitvong (11) says, “I like the all-girls atmosphere at Seisen and that the school is so much smaller.” Patsachol moved from Triam Udom Suksa Public school in Thailand and joined the 11th-grade girls.

Mana Kitazawa, one of the twins’s classmates also joined seisen this year. Mana moved from Nishimachi International School after she graduated 9th grade. When asked about the differences between the two schools, she stated, “The big difference between Nishimachi and Seisen is that Nishimachi is a co-ed school whereas Seisen is an all-girls school.” She joined this year’s volleyball team and seemed  She also added, “One of my favorite things in Seisen is the “sister” system in the volleyball team. I think this is a great opportunity to bond with students from the upperclassmen and also learn from them.”

Most high school students will agree that the new homerooms are another one of the biggest changes of this year. Lani Ogawa (11) commented, “The new homeroom’s themselves aren’t bad but we are now even more restricted to our houses and rarely have the chance to interact with people outside of our houses. “ Nina Fukui (11) adds that “The homerooms are now even smaller than they were last year, with only about 8 people in each homeroom. This is something I am not very fond of as I do not have many of my friends in my class.” Claire Flochel (10) offers a different perspective on this matter stating that “The tenth graders share their homerooms with the ninth graders which for me personally is not ideal. In homeroom, I usually study for my tests or do homework and I usually want to do it with someone who takes the same classes as me. However, this is harder to do now as we only have a few tenth graders per homeroom.” Risa Homma (10) agrees with Claire’s statement but adds, “I do enjoy seeing the ninth graders because prior to this change I never really had a chance to talk to them.”

The last major change of this year is the longer class periods. Seisen used to have a traditional 40minute period but it got extended to 1 hour. Erika Saito from 11th grade voices her opinion on this stating that: “40-minute breaks were a lot nicer than the new periods because even if we had double periods we had a break in between. Now we have to work for one hour straight and we need a break. “ Erika Robottom (11)  adds on saying, “Especially towards the end of the day it gets really hard. Our brains start shutting down and we really need breaks but we aren't given any. The five-minute breaks only gives us enough time to walk to our next classes without being late. I think we should, therefore, move the ten-minute break to the afternoon.” Many other Seisen students have brought up this argument saying that our new break is way too early in the day and that moving it would be a lot more beneficial.

In the summer of 2018 Seisen made numerous changes, some greatly appreciated and others less appreciated. Overall the students of the Seisen community have adapted to these changes and are excited to enroll into another thrilling school year.