Confusing schedules, foreign halls, scary seniors.

The first day of high school is enough to intimidate even the most confident of freshmen, so it’s tough to imagine how eighth grader Ashley Chen felt when her time to brave the first day came a year early.

Taking part in an advancement program that allowed her to skip sixth grade English, Chen has extended experience being the youngest person in the room.

“I didn’t have a lot of time to be nervous about high school,” Chen said. “I was kind of shocked, I guess, but I was okay with it. It was just going to be a big change.”

After taking an advancement test in the sixth grade, she sat in class with seventh graders. Then in seventh grade, she sat in class with eighth graders. Now in eighth grade at Fowler Middle School she’s sitting with ninth and tenth graders as the youngest student enrolled in Humanities II.

“I was a little concerned that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with the workload and also be able to transition back and forth between her home campus and here,” pre-AP English teacher Elizabeth Evans said. “But despite the fact that I was concerned in the beginning, [Ashley] has really adjusted well, and is doing very well in the class.”

However, Chen has long since proved herself capable of keeping up with her elder classmates, as her road to Humanities started in fifth grade.

“The counselor in fifth grade was kind of like, ‘you know you guys are kind of good in this area’ and asked us to take a test,” Chen said. “It wasn’t like a big deal or anything. It was just like if you make it, you make it, if you don’t, you don’t.”

Out of the three students who were asked to take the test, Chen was the only one who passed. And while she may not have been nervous about entering high school this year, that certainly wasn’t the case back in sixth grade.

“I remember walking in and being like, oh my god,” Chen said. “I was all, ‘why are these people so big’ and just so shocked.”

Fortunately, her nerves were anticipated by her teacher, who worked to make a pleasant experience for Chen.

“I was hyper aware and diligent in ensuring that she was in a safe environment,” seventh grade ILA teacher Rene Madden said via email. “I believe that because the makeup of our class is with students and peers who process and think in an heightened ability, that there was less concern for such nonsense as bullying.”

Evans seemed to share these beliefs about bullying in gifted classrooms.

“I really wasn’t as concerned with her socially, especially since she was coming into a G.T. program.” Evans said. “We tend to kind of support one another.”

So while Chen doesn’t have to worry about teasing, she admits that there are other struggles in taking the class.

“I’m in band, athletics, and Girl Scouts,” Chen said. “So sometimes when you have a lot of stuff with you, and you get back to the middle school, you have an instrument, athletics bag, and your backpack. It’s tough because you can’t take it all to class.”

Yet, Madden believes that these extracurriculars might be beneficial to Chen, who otherwise wouldn’t have interactions with students her age.

“Considering that Ashley still had classes with her 6th grade peers, I don’t think that she necessarily missed anything,” Madden said via email. “Since she was able to still have peer interaction with 6th graders, I think that she had the best of both worlds.”