Rider’s juniors made plenty of memories over the past three years.
But the Class of 2025 won’t be graduating as Raiders, and that brings out different emotions from the juniors.
One emotion they have is excitement because they are getting to help shape the Legacy and Memorial activities.
Junior co-president Georgia Bindel said she will miss Rider-Old High week, the traditions and the cheers, but she’s excited for what will be happening at Memorial.
“I’m kind of excited so we can set the tone as the first seniors at Memorial,” Bindel said. “I feel like it’s definitely going to be a hard change. Because I’m so used to Rider having to figure out the building, how everything works.”
The other co-president is Ben Fernberg, who will be going to Legacy. Fernberg said he isn’t nervous about changing schools and feels “pretty good” about being in Legacy’s first graduating class.
“I’ll miss the old traditions probably because they’ve been here so long,” Fernberg said. “Definitely Rider-Old High week is my favorite. It’s just so fun.”
Ella Watson, who plays the flute in band, has been planning for the new schools as well. She will miss the traditions and the teachers who won’t be able to go to Legacy. But Watson is also excited for the new things.
“I’m excited for the facilities, they’re going to do a bunch of new stuff and I’m going to get to meet a bunch of new people,” Watson said.
While traditions will be missed, the incoming seniors are looking forward to making new ones.
“I hope we have a real homecoming dance next year. We can do homecoming king and queen,” Bindel said.
“I’m going to miss some of the teachers that won’t be going to the new schools and just getting to know all the people and stuff,” Watson said.
Although the Class of 2025 did not get to choose what high school they could graduate from, both Bindel and Fernberg thought the juniors should have been able to decide. However, Watson understands why they didn’t.
“I feel like it could’ve led to issues just with the size difference,” Watson said. “Probably not because of the issues (with that).”
Everyone thinks about what is happening with the sports and organizations at all three high schools, but not many people think about how this will affect class ranks.
For some students, their rank could change depending on how students are aligned.
“I am kind of nervous for GPA and class rank because all of our class ranks are getting mixed up,” Bindel said. “So we might not be in the same spot we were in last year.”
