This year at DePaul Prep, a new and reformatted FRESH foundations, better known as FRESH, schedule was created. The new schedule consists of meeting three times a week — Monday, Wednesday, and Friday — for a total of 79 minutes each week. Students are with their assigned advisory groups and FRESH teacher three times a week. The goal of the new schedule is to make FRESH a more persistent and community binding part of school.
Anthony Powers, the program’s new director and coordinator, explained that the new schedule resulted from the desire for stronger communication and more meaningful conversations and connections within students at DePaul Prep.
“In past years, advisory met every other week or even less,” Powers said. “We wanted students to have more touch points per week- to bond more, learn life skills, and engage in traditions.”
Every day of FRESH focuses on different topics and lessons. Monday, known as Mindful Monday, allows students to check in with faculty and their peers in order to plan their week and stay organized. Wednesday is structured for organized lessons and discussions that are often focused on personal growth or for seniors, college planning. Lastly, Friday, known as Fun Friday, if the name doesn’t speak for itself, is centered around team bonding activities with classmates, strengthening relationships while having fun.
Powers explained that feedback so far for this new schedule has been “mostly positive,” especially concerning the more meetings that occur this year.
“I’m hearing that students like the fun Fridays,” Powers said. “We’ll be collecting more formal feedback at the end of the semester to see what’s working and what isn’t.” He emphasized that FRESH is still evolving. “It’s our first year in this new format, and we’ll keep improving it based on student and advisor input.”
Nicolas Gross, who teaches IB Physics and co-leads the Robotics Team, said that he likes that the structure has evolved and is more organized, favoring the needs of students.
“I like that we get to meet more often. It helps build community,” Gross said. “There’s a little more organization now, which gives students something to build toward.”
He noted the program helped him connect more with students he doesn’t teach. “It’s nice to see everyone across grade levels,” Gross said. Along with that, Gross explained that he finds the new format more beneficial. “I think it’s definitely more beneficial. We’ve used Wednesdays to meet with counselors and work on college-related lessons. That kind of time during the school day is valuable.”
Gross’s favorite day of FRESH is Fun Friday. “We’ve only had a few so far, but they’re great for bonding,” Gross said. “When we played Mafia, everyone got involved. It’s a good break in the week.”
While there is a lot of positive feedback about this new program, there is always room for improvement.
Senior Zoe Perez shared that while she doesn’t mind the schedule overall, she believes that FRESH is “sort of useless.” In her FRESH classroom, she explained that she doesn’t do many beneficial activities.
“It just feels like extra time added to the day. If we didn’t have it, we could get out earlier and avoid traffic.”Perez said.
Perez compared this year’s format to last year’s. “Last year we actually had more meaningful discussions and took action on things,” Perez said. “This year, at least in my FRESH, we mostly make slideshows or play games. The only helpful part was when we talked about college.”
Even though she held this opinion, she still admitted that Fun Friday’s were her favorite part of FRESH. “It’s more chill and feels like a break,” Perez said. “We usually play games or color, and even though it’s not that deep, it’s still kind of fun.”
Similarly to Perez’s opinion, not many underclassmen are happy with the FRESH structure this year either. Freshman Tomas Cuervo explained his view, saying, “This year, I think that FRESH is a waste of time.” He thinks that it isn’t as beneficial as last year as “most of the time we’re just sitting around instead of really doing stuff.”
Cuervo also said that he doesn’t notice the difference between the designated themed days in FRESH. “I don’t feel like we do any different activities based on the day. We normally just do the same thing which is sitting around.”
Even Fun Friday’s, which are supposed to consist of fun and active activities, felt mediocre to him. “We really don’t do anything different on Fun Friday either. It’s just the same every FRESH,” Cuervo said.
Because of this, when it comes to building community, Cuervo felt that this program didn’t meet those expectations. “I feel like my FRESH does not make me feel closer with my peers because most of the time we’re just listening to the teacher instead of doing any of the activities.”
Despite the mixed feedback, students and faculty at DePaul Prep all agree that FRESH is a work in progress. As Mr. Powers put it, “Each year, the idea is to get better than the one before.” No matter if students see it as relevant or just a waste of time, this year’s format has sparked conversation which is the first step to the connections the program desires to achieve.
