Photo by the class of ’23 senior advisors: Class of ’23 shows off their school spirit before a pep rally.
By Sophia Brunetti ’23 & Azariah Smith ’23
We asked a diverse group of Derby High School seniors a series of questions about their experience at DHS and their perspectives on graduating. Here in this article, you will hear from DHS seniors including:
Logan Burke
Jinayla Reyes
Angel Lopez
Jamirh James
Val Dickinson
Sophia Duarte
Kameron Vereen
Sean Fearnley
Kayla Soto
Sophia Brunetti (Moderator)
Azariah Smith (Moderator)
Our focus group was awkward at first because it was a diverse group of students — not everyone in the group talked to each other normally. But then we got comfortable, started making jokes, agreeing with each other, and noticing similarities. The environment was friendly, welcoming, thoughtful, and open.
First, we asked students about their perspectives on the future. There was general agreement about being excited for graduation and moving on to new things, but fear about being on their own.
Are you excited about graduation?
Multiple people: Yes! Yes!
Angel Lopez: Thank god!
Why?
Jinayla Reyes: Gettin’ out this hole.
Angel Lopez: Leaving!
Logan Burke: It’ll be nice finally hitting our goal, what we’ve been here the last thirteen years for. Getting on with our life. Being more independent.
Are any of you going out of state for college? What made you make that decision?
Angel Lopez: Getting the hell out of CT.
Sean Fearnley: Just what I’m studying, it was more available somewhere else.
How do you think you’ll feel once you are out of state for as long as you will be?
Angel Lopez: So much better.
Sean Fearnley: I’m nervous, but it’ll be good. I’m nervous to go, but I’m excited to be there.
Logan Burke: I enlisted; I’ll be in Oklahoma. My routine every single day is going to change, which is weird.
Are you guys scared to grow up?
Jamirh James: Uh, yeah!
Logan Burke: Scared and excited, I feel. You can’t sit in the same spot forever. I’m not going to live in my parent’s basement forever.
Sean Fearnley: I think the best word combination is excitedly terrified.
What are you scared for?
Sean Fearnley: I’m scared to pay taxes!
Sophia Brunetti: Yeah, literally!
Jinayla Reyes: I’m scared that we weren’t properly taught how to be an adult. A lot of us were not properly taught how to be an adult. A lot of us were set up for failure.
Val Dickison: Swierb’s classes really taught a lot about that.
Logan Burke: I think the scariest part is being in Oklahoma and Texas for six straight months and not seeing my family at all.
Angel Lopex: Just up and leaving, it is definitely interesting.
Jamirh James: Yes, but no, I’m scared mainly for adulthood, but I’m not scared because I’ve always been independent. I have my family and things, but I’ve just always been independent since a child, so I feel like I’m ready.
Kayla Soto: I’m so co-dependent on my parents!
Azariah Smith: I’m ready in certain aspects. I want to live on my own, but I can’t cook! I don’t know what the hell bills are. How do I pay a bill?! I mean, taxes?? I can’t cook meals every day of the week!
Logan Burke: Just cook eggs, it’s easy and it’s good for you.
Angel Lopez: I’m excited to make the mistakes I’m gonna make in my life. I know I’m gonna make mistakes but I’m excited to learn from them and hopefully be able to teach someone else those kinds of mistakes where my parents or friends couldn’t help me learn from those mistakes.
Logan Burke: Making mistakes is how you learn. Believe it or not, I’m not perfect. It’s only a mistake if you make it once. I want to make mistakes so I can pass on what I’ve learned to my kids.
Then, we began to ask them how they are leaving their mark at the school since we had a few artists, musicians, and athletes within the group. There was an agreement that they all felt good about leaving their positive marks and helped the school improve throughout the years.
How are you leaving your mark on DHS?
Logan Burke: I feel I’ve left a positive mark, especially in athletics. I try to leave a good impression on people to try to get the most out of themselves. I go here, so of course I”m going to make it the best I can. I love Derby, I’ve grown up here my entire life.
Jinayla Reyes: I think a lot of us are very opinionated, we all voice how we feel. I think we all had an impact on our school one way or another whether that was middle school, transitioning into high school.
Sean Fearnley: For Sophia, since she won’t say it, she has murals on every other wall, so I think that’s self-explanatory.
How do you feel about that?
Sophia Duarte: I think it’s good to leave an impression on the school, especially the part of the school that’s not really looked at that much. It’s a way for part of the school to be more welcoming, so I’m glad to be part of that.
A few of the students had mixed opinions about the culture at DHS: some thought there were a lot of cliques, and others felt it’s not cliquey if you’re friends with multiple people in different groups. Everyone agreed that it’s easy to know everyone since the school is so small.
Do you recommend DHS to other high schoolers?
Logan Burke: Yes. I’ll explain my opinion. I don’t know about you guys, but when I was in 8th grade, everyone was like, “I’m going to Emmett, I”m going to Platt.” They just think Derby sucks. It’s like, dude, I’ve enjoyed my years here.
Jinayla Reyes: I think kids at a technical high school have an advantage, but I wouldn’t recommend it because there is no diversity. There is no culture of color, so I wouldn’t recommend [a technical school]. I don’t really feel like this school had too much to offer, so I feel like if you had the opportunity to go to a different school with more diversity, I would go for that. Here it’s too cliquey, it’s too small.
Val Dickison: I agree. I came from Trumbull, and I also came from a vocational science program. Covid hit us so hard that we had to move. It’s very different, and I just, in parts of recommending it, Trumbull had its major downsides but upsides. In short, yeah, Derby is better, but I had more opportunities in my other school if I were to graduate and the bias against Derby… I hate it.
Logan Burke: Yeah, everyone thinks, Dirty Derby. People give the whole Valley a bad deal. I can say that I’ve noticed Derby adding more AP classes. In my freshmen year, there was nothing… now they’re finally starting to add on. They’re seeing an upward push for advanced placement.
Azariah Smith: I would recommend to have fun. I’m friends with almost everyone here. I think it’s easy to get involved in stuff because it’s so small.
Kayla Soto: If you’re not in a clique you feel left out a lot. There’s a lot of quiet kids here that I’ve never heard them speak.
Logan Burke: That’s some people’s personalities, you know?
Angel Lopez: It’s probably on you for not asking.
Kayla Soto: They don’t talk, I don’t want to go bother them.
Sean Fearnley: This just relates back to the whole social thing. You know, small schools.
A lot of students had regret that DHS can’t offer career-based classes and job opportunities, but most are understanding as to why DHS can’t offer those things, essentially because of the school’s small size.
So you guys wish Derby had more things to offer?
Val Dickison: Yeah, but you can’t blame them for not offering it because they don’t have the tools.
Angel Lopez: Yeah, it’s so small.
Kayla Soto: Yeah, I’m going to college with no work experience because of Derby High School.
Sean Fearnley: I was gonna say, I guess if you did recommend the school to others, you should look for outside resources to get different experiences. A small setting is good, but you should look for extra stuff too.
Logan Burke: I remember I was looking at the 1986 yearbook, and I was going through all the classes, and there was Allied Health, and they would work at Griffin, a ton of different things. Where’d this all go?
Sean Fearnley: I remember looking through yearbooks and being like, “Where did that go?”
Logan Burke: Even in the 90s, it’s like, “Dude, did that just disappear?”
Kayla Soto: It’s because students are losing the motivation to do anything, so if kids aren’t signing up for these programs, they’re not going to pay for them.
Reflect on your last four years of DHS. What stands out to you?
Angel Lopez: Probably the groups of people. The friendships that get made here. They’re pretty close when it comes to specific things. Talking about feelings, anything like that, I feel like the friendship groups are pretty tight.
Sean Fearnley: I was gonna go a little bit against what Angel said. I feel like I’ve seen so many people and so many different groups change entirely. I’ve seen so much of it the past four years.
Val Dickison: It’s hard to determine what is actually high school behavior and what is Derby High School behavior because they are very different. What stuck out to me is that it’s very community-based. Teachers actually know your name!
Kayla Soto: For me it’s athletics. Teams become a family, the coaches follow you and push you to try harder in everything you do.
Logan Burke: I definitely agree with that. I decided to give football a shot for the first year as a senior… Coach Clark is someone I really look up to now, and Coach Grillo. After this season, he was one of my biggest mentors. And kids like Jaylen Titus, I didn’t know him before but he’s one of my best friends now.
We also wanted to see what teachers have had the biggest impact on students. Clearly, the school has many different support factors and students can go to anyone they feel comfortable within the building.
Who was your biggest supporter of DHS?
Jamirh James: I feel like all the staff were my biggest supporters. I can go to anyone for anything and they’ll just help me, in a sense.
Angel Lopez: Ms. Bartone, even though I didn’t really talk to her that much, she would always check up on me. And Mrs. Ostrosky. And Ms. Cornish. She was probably the best guidance counselor I’ve ever had., she was helpful with everything.
Val Dickison: Abelli. I’ve tried to connect with teachers before, and he was the first one to welcome me, and then when we actually got to know each other, he was really there for me.
Sophia Duarte: Ms. Bruce, my biggest supporter. She’s the art teacher and that’s what I want to do when I get out of school. She helped me a lot even though I was only fully here this year and last year.
Kameron Vereen: I would probably say Mr. Wojo. Not only did he help me with academic stuff, but he also helped me with other stuff.
Sean Fearnley: Mine has changed so much. Ms. Lupiccino, and then Mr. Brookes, but this year quite a bit changed. Now I look at a bunch of different staff members. Ms. Shea, Ms. Moff, it’s all one big family.
Kayla Soto: Definitely Mrs.Ostrosky, then I started talking to Ms. Bartone, Ms. Ali, Wojo.
Jinayla Reyes: I think it just depended on the year and the teachers I had. For a large portion, it was Wojo, Ms. Bartone, and a few others. Last year and this year was Swierb.
Logan Burke: I’m in line with Sean. It changed around a lot for me, but if I had to narrow it down to one person, I’d have to say Mr. Diluggo. He’s the first person I knew in high school since I was eight. He’s helped me become mentally stronger and pushed me to my limits. I almost think of him as a second father. I can come to him for anything.
Sophia Brunetti: I’d say Wojo because of how long we’ve known him for.
Azariah Smith: Mostly all of the staff here have supported me in all different ways.
If you could go back to any year in high school, which would you go to and why?
Jinayla Reyes: Definitely freshman year. I don’t think we really got to experience freshman year because it was cut short. I would say after we came back it was never really the same.
Logan Burke: I agree with that, I honestly wish I could see what it would have been like had we had that freshmen year, had we had that spring season. I tried to look upon it; for me, sophomore year was weird. Half the people were at home so I saw almost nobody. I’ve loved this year.
Kameron Vereen: I feel like the first half of freshman year felt like high school was what freshmen year was supposed to be, but sophomore year was trash. Junior year was okay, and senior year was cool.
Kayla Soto: I would go back to senior year so I can graduate as soon as possible.
Azariah Smith: Senior year felt the most normal to me.
Logan Burke: I agree. Once the masks came off last year, it started to slowly come back to normal.
Azariah Smith: Personally I would go back to 8th grade and not go to MBA. I would go straight to Derby rather than transfer.
Sophia Duarte: I agree, transferring is tough. If I was here all 4 years I think it would have been better.
Angel Lopez: I can say that going from Ansonia to here was definitely a much better change. It’s better here. The friendships are a lot closer.
Azariah Smith: I definitely enjoy having a small school. You literally know everybody.
Angel Lopez: Yeah, I definitely made a lot of friendships. It’s good to know everybody.
We also asked about feelings about mental health: students’ mental health changed a lot, especially because of COVID. Almost everyone in the room agreed that they would want to go back to freshman year to live a normal high school experience without COVID.
Throughout your four years of high school, how has your mental health changed?
Kayla Soto: I’m medicated now!
Logan Burke: Does everyone remember freshman year, they just decided to give us months’ worth of work due in five days? I was so stressed out. That was bad. But after that… I get stressed out once in a while with work, but I found ways to be resilient.
Jinayla Reyes: I feel like a lot more people should have came together during certain time periods. High school is a very stressful place, I don’t know, I feel like we should have started a group or something!
Logan Burke: One thing I can say is that because it’s such a small school, you can really easily reach out to staff. There’s people I see every single day willing to help.
(Agreement)
Angel Lopez: Last year I was in a pretty tough place and I didn’t really know what to do. I wish I had known what to do at that time because I didn’t know what to do. For anyone looking to transfer into Derby, there’s people here to help.
Azariah Smith: There’s a lot of resources here. At my old school, I didn’t even know my guidance counselor, so I came here, from almost failing sophomore year to having lots of resources here to help. Especially my brother, too.
Logan Burke: I noticed friends from other schools, especially Trumbull, no one knows the guidance counselors, it’s weird.
Our last question was about the student’s future plans since we all have different goals and ideas. Most of them were relatively the same, all deciding on stuff relating to some sort of schooling that can further their education and hopefully further their future careers.
Future Plans
Sophia Brunetti: I’m going to college for computer science and use that major to become a data analyst for hopefully a big company. They need them right now. I wanna get my master’s.
Azariah Smith: I’m going to go study criminology. I want to be a private investigator or a lawyer, but a lawyer is out of the door… the first mock trial I did, I cried.
Jamirh James: I’m going to criminal justice to become an attorney. Defending criminals.
Angel Lopez: I’m going to study psychology because I want to be a therapist and kinda help people in tough spots. I can confidently say I know what it’s like to be in a spot that you feel like you can’t get out of. I want to help anyone, but more targeted towards teenagers that just feel alone and who don’t have a light at the end of the tunnel.
Azariah Smith: I hope you become a great therapist. All the therapists I’ve seen suck.
Val Dickison: I want to be a biotechnologist to research ethical cures for cancer. That’s what my internship is for.
Sophia Duarte: I’m going to go to Hartford University for illustration. Not one of the most stable careers, but…
Sophia Brunetti: No, Sophie, you got it. Your art is amazing.
Kameron Vereen: My actual dream, my passion is I want to get into music. I’ve loved music ever since I was a kid, so that would be kind of a dream.
Sean Fearnley: Well, depending what I do for majors and classes, I’m either going to end up working with animals in the zoo, or animals in the government or military.
Kayla Soto: I haven’t committed yet and I’m undecided.
Azariah Smith: Guys, she wants to do something in the math world.
Logan Burke: I enlisted in the national guard in December. I’m going to be a medic. When I come back from boot camp, I’ll have a lot of time until school starts, and I’m going to go to school for nothing, because the military pays for it. I want to go for business management. During the time between January and the fall, I’ll probably work as an EMT. Then go for business management, probably at Southern, then hopefully be a police officer.
Angel Lopez: You got your whole life planned out!
When we first sat down with this group, we thought we would be very different, but this conversation helped us discover our similarities. As a whole, the senior class has been friendly faces around the hallways throughout all four years at DHS. This group just shows grit, constantly participating in things and helping out the underclassmen and even the class of ‘27. We had an amazing time interviewing these students, and we are excited to see what they do after high school.
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