Traditional K-12 education often requires young people with their creative spirits to sit for hours, day after day, for about 15 years. This experience can be offputting, or even traumatic for students. A lot of Hampshire's learners arrive to college ready to leave the past behind, with the hope that everything will be better here. We hope that many of the confines you might have had in high school like grades, testing, strict gender roles and dress codes will be minimized at Hampshire, if not gone, but you might find some of the struggles you experienced then, will come up here too.
It can be daunting to realize that there are many skills you will need to be successful in college that your past schooling hasn't taught you, like self-advocacy, finding balance, and navigating identies. Hampshire is a great place to get messy with your learning, it is a four (or more) year long journey. Like any journey, you will learn plenty on your own, and it can also be helpful to have a guide show you around. Consider this a place to pause and reflect on how your past informs your present and future, so you can use self-knowledge to figure out where you want to go, and how to get there.
And please note, it is never too late to do this work!
Contact Holistic Learning Alumni Fellow, Cat/Milo Bezark at HLP@hampshire.edu with any feedback on this guide, or to request a guide like this on another topic.
