By Gabriel ‘28
When I first applied to Harvard-Westlake, the notion of academic support was unheard of to me. I did not like asking a lot of questions, and felt dumb for asking about something I did not understand. In elementary school, I did not need to ask very many questions or get much support, as the academics were often very easy and it was not hard to succeed in my coursework. I thought that when I got here, it would be no different and I would just be expected to excel in all of my subjects completely on my own. That was far from the case.
My fragile 12 year old ego was in utter shock when I walked into my first KITS class. The name stands for Knowledge Integration and Tools for Success, and is an information literacy class that all seventh graders have to take. In a certain lesson they began teaching us about time management and all the different ways to utilize the available academic resources. As a seventh grader, I thought I already knew how to manage my time and that I wouldn’t need any of the resources. However, this wouldn’t last long, as early in the school year, I received an email from my KITS teacher. She said that she wanted to meet with me because I forgot to turn in a homework assignment. I wondered how it could be when I already had good time management skills, but I realized I had a lot to work towards and grow from. Though something as mundane as a homework assignment was fairly easy to finish with a little bit of help from my teacher, I spiraled. I thought that I was in massive trouble, and shouldn’t have even gone to Harvard-Westlake in the first place. Looking back, this thought scared me because of my own fixed mindset. I thought I was already good at some things and bad at others, but seeing that I made a simple mistake and had to learn from it shocked me, and caused me to adopt a growth mindset. Though panicked, I tried to keep calm walking into the meeting. We pulled up the homework assignment I had missed, and my teacher asked me what I wasn’t understanding. It took a lot of courage, but I told her exactly what I wasn’t understanding, and we reviewed it and in ten minutes, I got what I was missing, and was out the door.
All of a sudden, I felt calm, but I was still embarrassed. That was until I saw another student meet with their teacher. I looked around and saw other offices filled with students reviewing material and talking with teachers, and a realization hit me that I still remember to this day. I realized that at Harvard-Westlake, asking for help is not taboo the way I thought it was. In fact, it is a necessary part of life here. Previously, I had seen teachers as authority figures; they tell us information, give us tests and grades, and if we didn’t understand something, then we had to figure it out somehow. It was at that moment that I realized that teachers at Harvard-Westlake were actually there to help you, and wanted to see you grow and get better at your schoolwork. Throughout my first few classes, my teachers had been saying this exact thing, but it was only now that I was asked to have a meeting that I started picking up on what they were saying and asking for help when I needed it. When I wasn’t understanding something in my classes, I emailed my teacher, met, and reviewed what it was that I was struggling with.
My newfound confidence in meeting with my teachers and asking for help led me to getting better grades in all of my work. I now knew how to be proactive about my learning, and started exploring other resources for help on my work. I started spending more time in the learning center, which allowed me to concentrate on my schoolwork and ask the learning specialists questions when I needed help. As a freshman right now, my transition from middle school to high school was made a lot easier with my use of the academic resources available to me, and I know that I have become a better student thanks to it. The confidence I gained early on to advocate for myself and ask for the help I needed has allowed me to succeed in school.
