Samantha B.

My Experience:

Hello! I'm Samantha Babcock and I'm currently a junior at Ridge High School. Student lack of sleep has been present all around me since I first moved to Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Having lived in another city in New Jersey as well as California, Texas, Florida, and New York, I've never seen students as sleepy as the ones at Ridge High School. Even though I was younger when living in the other states, I still meet up with friends and cousins there, and talking to them reaffirms the statement.

The academic pressures are high at this school and the counselors push you to challenge yourself as much as possible by taking some of the 27 offered AP courses and 37 honors classes. Having indulged in them myself, I've found that through the years I get to bed later and later. As I juggle working two days a week, activities, and homework, I never get as much sleep as I would like to. Even as a morning person who wakes up at 7:00 am normally, I find that getting up at 6:00 am each morning is incredibly difficult.

It's not just me as well but everyone around me. Seeing dark circles under other students' eyes and watching them spend hundreds of dollars on cafeteria coffee is what calls me to show our Board of Education that action must be taken. I know that pushing back the school start time has been on the table for a while and now that my group has figured out how to implement it, the process can be facilitated with minimal costs. As a junior, I also got to experience the week in health class devoted to the importance of sleep and it honestly really helped me. My teacher even had us keep a journal of how much sleep we'd gotten, how we were feeling, and what level our stress was. Reflecting upon the journals guided me to get to bed by 9:30 pm and has since made waking up in the morning less rough.

Completing this project made me realize that making a difference in the community isn't as difficult as it seems. I definitely care much more about what goes on in the school district and Basking Ridge as a whole now. In fact, we've already been able to talk to the Superintendent and Board of Education, which I thought would never be possible considering their busy schedules. Initially, I thought this project wouldn't end up being useful but I've now comprehended that we actually can help change the curriculum and school start time and make the change as easy as possible.