With the new Frisco ISD school year starting out on a virtual platform, Flight School for all incoming freshman follows suit, taking place on Tuesday. 

“Everything is 99 percent virtual, except for a small F2F (face-to-face) occurrence where students will pick up their Chromebooks and T-shirts,” CTE Department Chair Kandy Stevens said via email. “We are having to eliminate the majority of rotations that are usually included in the orientations.”

With Flight School taking on a new mode of communication for the first time, some are worried as to how the orientation will pan out.

“I’m disappointed and worried for the incoming freshmen that they will not be fully acclimated to the school environment before it starts this year,” junior Aanvi Krishna said via text. “Flight School was monumental for me in terms of meeting teachers that I wouldn’t have been able to get to know otherwise. The fact that the freshmen don’t get a chance to really see for themselves where everything is going to be is unfortunate because that helped me a lot going into my freshman year. I think that incoming freshmen learn about their surroundings the most from Flight School, and it may be a little overwhelming to get accustomed to everything online.”

Even though some students feel there are downsides to having the orientation online, they believe the pros outweigh the cons. 

“There are a lot of things to consider,” junior Clarke Deardorff said via text. “Timing might be more flexible online and for most people it’s easier to access as it’s straight from the comfort of their own homes. Due to the global pandemic, it’s definitely safer this way, otherwise, there could potentially be lives at risk.”

Incoming freshman Zikra Mohammed believes that this alternative is for the best even though she’s upset to have to miss out on the experience.

“I would have liked to go the in-person route but I can understand why it’s online,” Mohammed said via text. “I was really looking forward to meeting some new people and to have gone through the experience that all the other years were able to go through. I’m really sad that I’m not able to meet new people and see my old friends as well. All in all, starting high school itself is exciting, so I’m just happy to start.”

Both staff and students seem to share the same perspective when it comes to the experiences of Flight School.

“I look forward to the genuine interaction that I get to have with the new students every year,” Stevens said. “They will not have the opportunity to openly ask questions of current students, nor will they be able to have their own Freshman class pep rally welcoming them to high school.”