By Dylan Torre
As the 2022 school year comes to a close, many Branford High School seniors prepare to graduate and move on with their lives. But before they can do that they have one final task – the senior exit interviews.
These interviews were first done last school year and they are designed to truly evaluate seniors as they enter the real world, school officials said.
“These interviews are replacing the [Capstone Project] and are meant to be low stress and are better designed to evaluate the students and what they have learned over their four years here,” Assistant Principal Joe Briganti said. “We don’t want anyone to be worried or feel like they won’t graduate.”
In years past, BHS had a senior exhibition, or Capstone Project, which required that students plan and develop a learning project on their own and present their findings to the faculty at the end of the year.
Briganti said the new exit interviews will be with three teachers or authority figures and they will just ask questions relating to four of the pillars of the SPIRIT program – Social awareness, Personal involvement, Integrity, and Resilience.
The questions in the interview are designed to question students about how they have grown in these areas during their time at Branford High School. Like last year, the interviews will be conducted remotely over Google Meets.
“I think it won’t be that hard. I don’t worry or dread it,” said Senior Kevin Lee.”I’m just going to be myself and relax.”
Many seniors share Kevin’s mindset. However, numerous students were not fully familiar with the interview requirement or are stressing out about it. In interviews conducted by The Buzz several students had no idea what the exit interviews even were and a few didn’t know anything specific about it. Details of the interviews have been part of the school’s Hive homeroom program.
The school has released information about the interviews and the homeroom teachers have discussed what they will be about but during the interviews it seemed like the seniors didn’t pay any attention or really care the details about them
Many students said they are hoping to learn more about the specific requirements of the interviews in the coming weeks.
“I just want to know what I’m heading into,” said senior Dylan Dupre. “I’m not nervous, just curious is all.”
The general consensus of the senior class is that they just want to graduate and are excited to complete their senior year!
