More Than Just Grades: The Story Behind the Struggle
I want to inspire people through this story and make them feel like they're not alone and will always have someone to help them through tough times.
Part 1: A Personal Story
We’re going to begin by talking about my (Alexis Reyes) story. In the beginning of 9th grade I was an A and B student, but suddenly on April 3rd of 2023, my father passed away during mock regents week. I didn’t go to Algebra mock regents and missed the whole week of school due to going to a funeral home, church, and the cemetery where we buried my father. At the funeral home a lot of my family members were there, but they started placing a lot of expectations on me. They said: “you have to be just like your father or even better.”
I was only 15 at the time and I was still in shock of everything going on. I went back to school like nothing ever happened and didn’t tell anyone except certain teachers, though my grades started to get worse.
In my sophomore year, my grief toward my father’s death reached a new low, and I started only passing my classes with C’s and barely any B's. Due to that I sadly had to drop out of Honors Algebra 2. I kept quiet until December, when my landlord decided to shut down the light, electricity and heat in my apartment. I decided to tell my teachers everything about my mental health, and what happened back at home. My advisor Ms.Diverio let me stay after school to get my work done and gave me snacks. I started to catch up in my classes and started to do therapy and found out I had moderate depression. Doing therapy helped me, as I finally had someone to talk to and no longer had to hold my feelings and emotions back anymore. My mental health started improving and I finished the year with C’s and B’s.
In my junior year I was still passing with C’s and B’s, but I ran out of sessions with my therapist. So I decided to talk to Ms. Diverio a lot more about my problems and we formed a really close bond, which helped me, since I knew I had someone to talk to and rely on. Juniors and seniors were allowed to go to Six Flags, and some of my friends were able to go. We went on rides and ate together and I really enjoyed my time there which helped me improve my mental health a lot more.
Then, I joined an internship called Learn and Earn, and later got into a program called Spanglish Vocas, where I was able to be a part of CSH News. I talked in front of a camera and made new bonds in the program, and I was also able to write some scripts for the news which made me discover a hidden passion for writing. I had groups to work with and started smiling and laughing a lot more. We were able to go out with everyone and during my summer break we continued to work more. We had lots of fun and when we finished our program we had a little party and invited parents and CSH staff and showed them all the work we’ve done. My mom was able to attend and she was proud of me and how far I had come. I was featured on the cover of a flyer for Comp Sci High and my mom saw it and took pictures with me next to it and took it home. I was proud of all the work we did, which just brought me tons of joy.
Now, in the beginning of my senior year, I had a good start with A’s and B’s, but in October during the Day of Dead I started to feel a deeper sadness, and I didn’t go out for Halloween. Since I always went out with my father, I didn’t really feel like doing anything that day. I started missing him more and felt like not doing anything in general and lost motivation to do anything productive. Then I unexpectedly got a really bad fever for a week and missed school which made me fall behind a lot more in my classes with F’s and C’s.
When I got back I stayed after school and started to gain motivation again to do all my work. I ended the trimester with C’s and B’s still, but was disappointed at myself since I was really trying to get better grades. But the real disappointment was due to the fact I wasn’t holding the expectations that everyone was holding for me, and I felt like a failure. Now in my 2nd trimester, I have all A’s and B’s and have been doing all my work since I’ve gained motivation again. I want to finally be somebody and keep my promise to my father, which was to work in NASA as an aerospace engineer. I will keep that promise to be someone everyone can look up to and be proud of.
I want to inspire people through this story and make them feel like they're not alone and will always have someone to help them through tough times. If you’re going through the same thing as me or similar and kept quiet, I would suggest talking to anybody you feel comfortable with instead of staying to yourself.
Part 2: The Problem of Poor Grades
Poor grades are often seen as a lack of effort, but Alexis’ story, as well as interviews with CSH students and teachers, reveal the deeper truth: one of mental health struggles, family pressure, and silent pain. One of CompSci High's main goals is to make sure every student is passing their classes with A’s or B’s. However, when students don’t meet this expectation, it makes teachers wonder: Why?
Students struggle with so many things in their daily lives. Although we may not be able to see them, it is hidden deep down which is affecting the way students perform in their academics. Students don’t feel like doing well in their classes since they just have so much on their mind. Family issues, friend issues and even issues in themselves are some key factors to this.
What Comp Sci High seems to not always notice so much is how much effort students put into just showing up to school. School can add an extra stress to student lives which causes them to not attend. But, just to improve on their studies, they attend. In addition, not showing up to school can cause even more stress later on when you need to catch up on everything you missed.
To get more in-sight on the lives of students, we conducted interviews with CompSci High students to learn more about the struggles they face and how it has affected them deeply in their academics. Our questions consisted of learning about the personal problems they face, how it affects them academically / mentally, ways they fixed these problems / if they worked and if they spoke about this to their teachers or parents and if they didn’t then why.
The first person we interviewed decided to stay anonymous which we will respect. The personal problems they face that affect them academically are family, friends and social life issues. These issues cause them to have less motivation in their school work which relates to their bad grades. However, some activities they do is play basketball and sleep. These are just some ways they try their best to fix the problems they face. They try their best to do anything that can help them motivate themselves through their hard times. This helps them put more effort into doing their work. The student spoke about how they told their parents about their issue since they know their parents will always have their back and will be there for support. However, they never felt comfortable talking to their teachers about what they were going through. Especially since they don’t talk to their teachers so much.
In addition, we spoke to Alison Arenas who spoke about her struggles since 9th grade. Ever since the 9th grade, deaths have been a huge issue for her family. This is something that really affected her. However, what caused more of a decline in her mental health, was when her father left in her junior year. This caused her to have depression which only added to the decline in her mental health. Her relationship with her mother was going well for the first 6 months until everything broke down. This only caused her to be more hurt. All of this happening caused her to lack more in her grades and her energy to do anything.
What really helped her was having a therapist. She was able to open up more to what was going on in her life which helped her so much. When she first started her therapy, her sessions were around an hour and 30 minutes but now they are around 30 minutes. Her therapist would ask her how she was doing and if there were any ways she could be able to help her. In addition to therapy, attending check-ins allowed her to hold herself accountable.
It was actually Alison's mother who noticed the change in her behavior. She never felt like going out of bed, didn’t eat and stopped putting the effort into showing up to school which caused her mother to tell a social worker at school. It wasn’t until 6 months later when she decided to open up with her teachers about what she was going through. Her teachers were confused as to why she never opened up to them before. She felt like she just realized that teachers can actually help you with what you are going through. They can be there to support you through your academics.
We spoke to Ms. Diverio, who is Alexis’ Advisor and his 10th grade Biology teacher. Ms. Diverio remembered Alexis in 9th grade as a student who was always on top of his work and he always had support throughout his classes. He had such motivation that she still sees today. After the passing of his father, she noticed that he kept being more and more absent. Before, he always came to school on time and everyday but now it was different. It wasn’t the fact that he didn’t want to come to school, it was just the circumstances he was in that made him feel exhausted. As Alexis' advisor, she was always there to support him. She tried her best to give him all the help he could get, but she soon directed him to the social work team since she knew that she couldn’t provide him with the correct professional help. Alexis didn’t want this support at first since he felt like he didn’t need it. Ms. Diverio noticed that Alexis was improving himself by recognizing that he needed help. In 10th grade, he told her that he was going to start doing therapy. Although the old Alexis won’t be fully back, he was starting to become his new self: someone who knows what he wants to do in life.
Ms. Diverio wants students to know that if you have someone that you are comfortable with, try your best to talk to them about what is going on. If you don’t feel like telling them everything, you could only tell them the things you feel comfortable talking about. They will always be there for you and direct you to the right support. She knows that one of the hardest things for students to do is find a teacher who is there to support them and not feel let down by them. But, teachers never feel let down by you, and would rather lift you up through your tough times.