With every commitment comes attendance and hard work. At NDB, the majority of the students are involved in a school-related activity. Whether it be a sport, club, internship or board, they all come with grave responsibilities and time commitments. Unfortunately for many students, these time commitments happen to fall during the second half of lunch, disrupting their ability to take their well-deserved break from the natural stressors of the school day.
Students who are involved in multiple commitments, including myself and many other seniors, find themselves struggling to equally distribute time to them all. Many times, club moderators or board members tend to push the meetings and events to the earlier days of the week, in order to get it over with earlier. However, this proposes the issue of too many meetings during one lunch period. The overlap causes students to prioritize one over the other, which in many cases is not easy to do.
Senior students, in itself, are posed with a greater challenge. Being knee-deep in college applications coupled with the greater leadership responsibilities that seniors naturally gain, time is already limited. With many of these meetings being scheduled for the allotted lunch hour, seniors are incapable of meeting with teachers for letters of recommendation or college counselors during the only hour we have off.
The system NDB upholds for releasing classes for lunch also disables students from getting their food before the lines get too long. When your particular class is scheduled to be released last for lunch that day, it leaves only five minutes to make your way from your class, wait in line for your food, then head to your meeting. Many students simply opt not to eat lunch when in this time crunch, not wanting to risk being late for their meeting.
Mia Muzzi is a very involved student at NDB, being The Catalyst Editor-in-Chief, Link Crew Co-President, Fund-a-Future board member, Tiger TV Producer, and a college-bound senior. She attends meetings every day at lunch between all of her many commitments and leadership roles.
“I love being a part of so many things in and out of school, however it can get busy being in and out of meetings,” Muzzi shared. “Sometimes it would be nice to sit with my friends, close my computer and take a break during lunch.”
This leaves students overwhelmed and hungry, the perfect storm that adds even more stress onto an already busy school day. Without the natural break that lunch time gives to students, there is a lack of focus in the classroom when they return as they didn’t get the satisfying hour to talk with friends, feed their bodies and refuel for the second half of the long school day.
All of these lunch-time meetings are equalling out to be an 8th block in the school day. Although the student-involvement on campus is heavily reciprocated at NDB, the student workload can be unbearable when not given the lunch hour to take a break.
