Just weeks after starting at Parker, I applied to go on a trip to Houston for a conference discussing AI. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really have big hopes of getting selected to be an attendee, nor did I have huge aspirations in relation to the conference—I just wanted to try something new. That’s when I realized how lucky I was to even have the chance to apply to travel for something I was still on the fence about, since I knew I wouldn’t get the chance elsewhere. Ultimately, I got selected to go on the trip. For someone still adjusting to the start of freshman year, going was a sudden and jolting experience, but definitely not bad.
In Houston, I got the chance to attend a variety of different panels that helped me clarify my opinion on AI. Some Parker students use AI for various purposes: studying for tests, homework help, and unfortunately, even cheating, but there are plenty who are against using it at all. There were upwards of 200 attendees at the conference, and from those, we were broken up into smaller groups of about ten. One of the sessions I attended was on AI’s place in education, which made me consider Parker’s subscription for students to Flint AI. To me, that’s an amazing resource because even though not everybody uses it, everyone has access to it. In my past, that’s not an opportunity I would’ve gotten, and I’m very grateful to find it here.
That’s not the only thing that came to mind because of that trip. On my flight back from Houston, I realized what a unique opportunity this was. For middle school, I went to a Selective Enrollment CPS school, and almost went to a CPS high school of the same sort like many of my old friends. While I don’t doubt that I would’ve still received an amazing education like I did in elementary school, I’m certain I wouldn’t have the chance to participate in opportunities like the AI conference. I’ve found that Parker is an incredibly well-connected, flexible institution whose resources are unmatched: the grade retreats, the upcoming ecology trip to Belize, and what I think is most important, the connection between administration, faculty, and students’ families.
Perhaps one of the most important and impressive things to me is how much Parker values their students’ time and commitments. A prime example of this is the homework assignment policy, where homework must be posted before 5:00 p.m. If it’s posted later, it doesn’t have to be completed. This is incredibly mindful of athletics, extracurriculars, and other after school commitments—students don’t have to trade off what they enjoy for homework and sleep. Parker is a small enough school, specifically the Upper School, that such a rule can be effectively communicated to everyone. In a school with a student body over a thousand, there are simply too many people to manage a policy like that or similar.
With that being said, there can be some downsides to a small school, especially coming in as a new student. When I transferred, the majority of people in my class already knew each other, having come up through Lower and Middle School together. Initially, it was difficult for me to get to know others because of how tight-knit most people already are, and I feel that in a larger school that issue wouldn’t be so prominent. Despite that having the potential to be a problem, to me, the opportunities at Parker give new students the perfect chance to adjust.
