Mahathi Sudhakar found herself clueless and confused during her first week of high school, as typically most freshmen were. Like many others, she had known about the school's more competitive attributes and had prepared herself to take on the amount of workload that had been described to her. However, she found herself overestimating the amount of work, and was pleasantly surprised.
Sudhakar explained “I think last year [my] teachers kind of made it seem like it'd be really hard so I had high expectations for classes, but they're honestly not bad.”
She also went on to mention the Dougherty Valley school spirit and rallies. A notable transition from the rallies at her middle school, she had stated. Sudhakar found to appreciate the culture at DV that celebrated football games, and went all out for spirit days and rallies. It added an aspect of joy while adjusting to high school life.
Another huge help for Sudhakar was having an older sister who previously went to the school. Her situation is similar to that of plenty of students at the school, who found the resourcefulness in having their sibling(s) already experience Dougherty culture and the academics too.
Overall, Sudhakar was able to find her footing in all her classes and adjusted to the school environment with the help of friends, family, and the excitement of school spirit.