During freshman orientation students are told by their gradeheads that high school is an opportunity to remake a name for themselves, but that is rarely the case. 

Nepotism is prominent within Parker’s walls, yet is only recognized in certain aspects of the school. Students are well aware of the nepotism which occurs throughout various Parker organizations including Model UN, “The Weekly,” Student Government, and others alike. Although not always, members and heads of these groups are frequently the siblings of past members and heads or will likely have a sibling who will follow in their path. 

While students focus their attention to the more talked about, organizational side of nepotism, they turn their heads to the nepotism regarding people’s character. 

People are often judged based off their sibling’s characteristics. In other words, freshmen with highschool siblings will already be associated with their sibling’s behavior and are judged based off of actions they did not personally do.

Although one’s initial impression on others in the high school are their sibling’s characteristics, there is room for change. Once students get to know one another, their opinions about one another are more so based off of those interactions rather than their siblings. However, when people are automatically given a bad reputation, people are less likely to get to know them. Then the problem arises where people are associated with inaccurate traits and others are unwilling to change that. 

As nepotism persists  between students, it also occurs between students and teachers. When a teacher has a student for the first time, they are likely to have preconceived notions about that student based off the type of student their sibling is. However, the difference between student to student nepotism and student to teacher nepotism is that a teacher is forced to get to know their students and their students can prove who they are for themselves. 

Last year, I sought help from a teacher to clarify a concept I was confused about and was nervous that it would appear on the final. Their response to me was not what I wanted to hear. “You got this, the teacher said. “Your brother was good at this class.” These words did not help me, and, in fact, made me feel worse because I am not my brother so I was still confused and more frustrated than before because I felt like I should understand the material, but couldn’t. 

Nepotism isn’t just a line of siblings being Model UN captains, or Student Government Cabinet members; nepotism is also judging people based off their siblings.