Students transfer for their senior year

Senior, James Sipowicz is a student who previously went to Westwood High school but after three years, decided he was ready to leave. Although he’d be leaving his friends behind, he decided to move when he learned his parents would be moving out of district over the summer.

“[I] couldn’t imagine spending another year at Westwood,” Sipowicz said.

Sipowicz knew other students from a youth group he frequents, and his first impression of the school came from his friends at talking about how great the school is. Sipowicz said friends back in Westwood viewed the school as ghetto and less fortunate due to it being an intercity school, but Sipowicz chose it for the Fine Arts Academy.

“It felt as if [I] could find every type of person here,” Sipowicz said. “Since McCallum is a magnet school, kids who are really artistic don’t have to feel alone in their regular high schools, and they can go to this conglomerate of artistic nature.”

Sipowicz sees new opportunities for himself in his transition.

“[I] feel like I can meet all these new people and make friends here,” Sipowicz said.

As a varsity soccer player, Sipowicz said he looks forward to the opprotunity of playing alongside a new team.

“I’ve had an open mindset about the whole school and I look forward to this school year,” Sipowicz said.

Danny Tinworth is another senior who’s entering McCallum for his final year. He comes from Camelot Academy in North Carolina and has attended two high schools before his transition to McCallum. His family decided to move schools when his step-dad got a job as the CEO of the Thinkery in Northeast Austin.

“I didn’t care much about the moving because there’s a lot of new people to meet and I’ve never gone to a public school,” Tinworth said, “It’s quite the experience.”

Being from out of state, Tinworth hadn’t heard much about the school except that it was a pretty good place with a lot of students, but when he got here it seemed to be like most schools.

“Filled with a bunch of typical teenagers,” Tinworth said, “and absolutely enormous.”

Coming from a school of about only fifty people means the difference in diversity is striking to Tinworth. Among other big changes, Tinworth spent his first weeks at McCallum adjusting to the block schedule. His old school only had eight classes every single day and started and ended an hour earlier.

“At Camelot the teachers were there all the time to support you” Tinworth said.

Here at McCallum, Tinworth feels as if most teachers aren’t as involved. This schools dress code has also been a big change. His old school wouldn’t allow having dyed hair or even open toed shoes, and those who weren’t up to code were sent home for the day. Tinworth looks forward to finding a place to fit in and he’s very happy to be close to completing high school.

“Everybody already has their cliques and their own people and approaching strangers is always hard,” said Tinworth.