I came to Drew Charter School during the second half of Kindergarten and from what I remember from my previous school, it was different. At my previous school, I can only recall learning a language and and playing, but nothing else. As for my siblings, their time there wasn't the best— this was part of the reason why my family switched schools. There was a limit of what could be taught. If you were ahead of the rest then you were to remain there and do makeup work in order for the rest to catch up because you were unable to move any farther.

During first or second grade, I was invited to learn with the upper class so that I could continue my math skills. Even though I turned it down because that environment with so many older kids initially felt uncomfortable, I realized how different it was from my old school. I was offered the chance to advance my knowledge and that was enough.

My elementary years consisted of the integration between creativity and learning through the gifted program. It was creativity-driven and very encouraging. Class time was spent solving puzzles, playing brain-stimulating games, and thinking out of the box. At the time, it didn't seem like we were learning anything because we had so much fun, but we did.

The after-school program that the school provided offered a variety of electives: chess, math, gardening, soccer, robotics, art, and many more. We stayed in these classes, ate snacks, played outside occasionally, and waited for our parents to come and pick us up from the school. It gave parents time to pick up their child while also ensuring the child was never bored while learning.

My middle school years went by in a flash; one moment I was in sixth grade then I was an eighth grader about to move on to high school. I cannot remember much of what was taught but I can recall how it was learned. Science class was filled with various projects and activities to keep us engaged and learn at the same time. Time in ELA was spent reading new books, determining the lesson behind them, and learning about the types of literature. Social studies class was one of the few times we sat still and learned our history and about the world. Math was and still is one of my favorite subjects in school. I really enjoyed algebra and our somewhat self-taught class. Art was more school-based at the time where we sometimes focused on projects that would be hung up around the school (Contrary to middle school, my ninth grade year was more focused on individual projects). Class of 2022 was the first class(seventh grade) to try learning Spanish before high school to see if it was beneficial to do before the normal Spanish class in high school.

The transition from middle school to high school was not as drastic as I assumed it would be. I believe Drew prepared me to able to handle the tasks from high school since middle school. Although I was saddened that there was no longer recess when I went to middle school, this was also the reality for high school. The difficult classes and homework from middle school also have aided me in being able to handle the rigorous classes and content for high school.