Student Spotlight: Morgan McCrory

Many CB South students can agree that that the transition from middle school to high school can be challenging. The much bigger building, block scheduling, and older students have the ability to come off as overwhelming. When placed in a new environment, people usually need time to adapt.

Sophomore Morgan McCrory not only transferred from a middle school to South, she also made the switch from a private to a public school freshman year.

McCrory attended Saint Jude Catholic School, which is a Catholic elementary school of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The school, located in Chalfont, opened in 1963 and is run by the Sisters of Mercy for children in pre-k to eighth grade.

McCrory was a student at St. Jude for eleven years. “We had smaller classes than what other people might be used to, so everyone knew each other really well,” she said.

Looking back, her favorite memory was graduation because her class celebrated their years together, but it was also a sad day because “everyone was going their separate ways.”

The following school year, in which McCrory was going into the ninth grade, she transferred to Unami Middle School. Unami educates students in grades seven through nine, which meant that McCrory would spend one year there before transferring again to CB South High School.

Morgan McCrory chose to go to South over a private school for a specific reason. “My sister went to Jude the same amount of time as me, and when she graduated she went to Archbishop Wood. Later, she transferred to South and told me there were more opportunities at South,” McCrory said.

Unami allowed McCrory to meet most of her good friends. Her favorite memory of going to Unami was meeting those people and “painting a mural on the hallway wall because even though I was only there for a year, I was still able to leave my mark.”

Even though she made wonderful memories at Unami, McCrory said, “The transition from Catholic to public school was one of the most difficult things I had to do.”

Morgan McCrory said that she wasn’t able to sleep the week before school started, and that first couple of weeks she constantly felt “anxious” and it was “exhausting.” All of Morgan’s friends from Saint Jude chose to go to a different school than she did, and she had to “make the move alone.”

“It was hard to find new friends and fit in because everyone already had their group of friends, but I managed to meet some wonderful people, and it’s okay now,” McCrory said. “The hardest thing was for sure was fitting in.”

Morgan said that Saint Jude and Unami are “drastically different.”

“The only similarity is the way that classes work; they are just such different places,” she said. “The students behave so differently in the way they talk to teachers and act in a classroom.”

Morgan McCrory explained that at the Catholic school she attended, students were not allowed to have on necklaces, nail polish, or have more than one piercing. “Obviously the way everyone was dressed was very different, and it took a while to remember that I didn’t have to wear a uniform anymore,” said McCrory.

McCrory said that she thought the transfer from Saint Jude to Unami was a harder transition than Unami to South, but both took her awhile to get adjusted to her surroundings. “Both places are bigger than Saint Jude, and each is different from the other,” she said.

McCrory isn’t sure if she prefers private or public school more, but said she is “leaning towards public.”

“Public school, especially South, has so many opportunities and wider varieties of things. Also, I like having so many different people in my classes,” McCrory said.

McCrory said that she is looking forward the new experiences and memories to come from attending CB South. “I’m trying not to focus on the past and who I was three years ago. I’m trying to focus on who I am becoming and enjoying the school I go to right now.”