From the moment they enter UPrep, students begin to prepare with their teachers, advisers and college counselors to successfully move on to their future once they graduate. 

Most UPrep students believe they have almost every resource possible to help them prepare for college. School teaches them the fundamentals: how to write, read, test, speak in public, manage their time and ask for help. 

Additionally, UPrep heavily emphasizes activism and social justice. They dedicated a week of community time this year toward the subject and have continuously implemented it into various physics, English, history and language classes.

UPrep’s motivation is evident in its mission statement. The school is “​​committed to developing each student’s potential to become an intellectually courageous, socially responsible citizen of the world.”

However, students lack one vital resource: access to a wide range of opinions given by students unafraid to speak their minds. According to UPrep’s 2023 Authentic Connections survey, 49.3% of students said they don’t feel like their school “is welcoming towards all people regardless of their political views.” Additionally, 249 of the 612 students that answered the survey said they either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that “opinions from opposing political/social views are generally given equal airtime or respect” at UPrep.   

It is common for the school to exemplify the same perspectives time and time again, leaving other opinions out completely or only mentioning them briefly. UPrep graduate Talia LeVine (’23) describes the school’s social homogeneity well in this issue’s cover story.

 “I think that at UPrep it was my understanding that we all had similar perceptions and understandings of the world,” LeVine said. “And I would have liked a little bit more…It’s a very valuable skill, to be able to completely understand another point of view.”

  In some ways the lack students’ ability to express their different opinions at UPrep disadvantages them when they move on to things after high school, making it more difficult or jarring to encounter perspectives different than what they are used to. In this way, UPrep’s statement that they strive to prepare students to be global citizens seems to be more hopeful than true. 

Whether or not UPrep has students with truly diverse thoughts and opinions, it just doesn’t facilitate an environment where people feel like they can speak up if they don’t say the same thing as everyone else. So if UPrep wants to fully prepare its students for their future, it needs to find a way to support them in expressing the diversity of opinion that may be right under its nose.