As Rocklin High School entered its second semester we received a few new students. Some transfer from other districts, but a lot of transfers have come from Whitney High.

New students come from everywhere and for their own reasons.For Whitney transfer Izzy Laber, sports and old friends bring her to Rocklin during her sophomore year.

“I moved because I like the people from here [Rocklin] more and missed all of my old friends that I used to go to school with at Granite Oaks. Also, because cheer/stunt because the Rocklin program is one of the best.”

Switching schools at the end of a semester is a big decision to make, especially where you have to figure your way around a new school. For Laber, she sees this change in a good and bad way.

“I think it was good and bad in different aspects of it. Bad because I left all of my friends at Whitney and the Whitney cheer program. It’s good because I was able to reconnect with all of my old friends from Granite Oaks, and I am also on the stunt team.”

So far at Rocklin High, Laber’s experiences aren’t that different, since she was still in the Rocklin Unified School District.

“The people are way way different from Whitney people and the classes are similar, but there are some that I was completely lost in. Also, sports are taken more seriously here.”

A big contender for why she switched was the stunt team. Asked if she thinks the stunt team at Whitney was affected by her absence, she responded, “I don’t think it affected them too much. Since I am so inexperienced in cheer I don’t think I made a huge impact on the Whitney stunt team. I was awarded most valuable tumbler at the end of season last year, so I think me leaving to go to their rivalry school was also a little surprising.”

She doesn’t have to sacrifice much because she definitely thinks that she has more opportunities at Rocklin than Whitney. “Yes, especially for stunt since Coach Oka has connections for colleges for scholarships, whereas at Whitney there weren’t as many opportunities.”

Overall, changing schools isn’t always easy, but for Izzy a new school reconnects her with her old friends and grant her new opportunities.