Newcomb Central is certainly one of the most unique places to get a primary education in the state of New York. Students are able to experience one-on-one teaching, small classroom sizes, and a diverse learning environment with little cost to themselves or their families.

If you click on this link, you can read about Newcomb in more detail. This article lists 12 signs that you have attended, or currently attend, this tiny school district in upstate New York. For any alumni who happen to be scrolling through this article, this will hopefully be a nice reminder of the good old days that you experienced at Newcomb High. For current students, sorry, you will be seeing all of these signs in less than two months. Have fun!

1. There are less than 20 students in your grade.

My senior class nearly reached the 20 student mark, but the number was a bit inflated due to the international student program. At graduation, I threw my hat in the air with eight other students. I was amazed that my class was able to grow as much as it did. I started out in pre-Kindergarten with two others, so we commonly referred to ourselves as “the original three” right up until graduation. After 14 years, we reached nine. This is quite the common occurrence across all grades at Newcomb.

2. The graduation ceremony is surprisingly at least two hours long.

One would normally think that fewer students mean a shorter graduation. Oh, how wrong that is. The speeches are lengthier, the musical performances last longer, and the time drags by at a tortuously slow pace. Also, there is a senior video that continues to be a long-lasting tradition at commencement. Each senior provides pictures of themselves, from infancy to senior year, that get put in a long video for the audience to cry over for an hour.

3. You know the first and last name of every student and teacher at the school, and maybe even a middle initial now and then.

This goes with the addition of birthdays, pet names, favorite foods, favorite movies, eye color, and much, much more. After all, Newcomb reached its peak in number in 2014 with around 111 or so students. You see the same people every day and there is a good chance that you are friends with most of them.

4. Drama and news spread like wildfire.

There is really no need for announcements as word of mouth will never work as efficiently as it does in Newcomb. Drama, which happens in every school, spreads throughout the halls like a crazy Arizona wildfire. Secrets are also rarely kept within the confines of a small friendship. One person will eventually tell someone else and the secret will be out in minutes. This is nothing to be ashamed of either. Newcomb is small, so it is natural for students to get creative to keep things exciting.

5. It is not easy to fail a class.

The teachers at Newcomb really do care about your success, even if they get a little annoying about it sometimes. You have to admit that they are all great teachers who do a good job working together to ensure that students can reach their potential. If you happen to be failing a class, chances are the teachers will be all about helping you get your grade up. They communicate well with each other. If you happen to ever find yourself failing a class, I am sure that every teacher in the building will about it and will be ready to help you in any way they can. Success is a strong value at Newcomb Central.

6. You know that the phrase “trip projects” means bad news.

These projects do not involve a fun field trip somewhere. They are actually called T.R.I.P. projects, with the acronym standing for Thesis Research Investigative Project. For outsiders reading this article, T.R.I.P requires each student to do research on a specific topic, arrange the research into a full research paper, create a creative art piece based on the topic, and present the project to the entire student body in a PowerPoint presentation. This project sounds like a terrible two months in school (and for some they might be), but they do wonders in preparing each student for college-level research projects. Every student learns how to correctly cite work, which is a skill that I have had to teach a number of my college friends who have never heard of citing work before.

7. You were, or are, heavily involved in the Youth and Government club.

This may not be true for all students, but a majority of students get involved in Youth and Government. The club involves a trip to Albany for the weekend, where students present bills, lobby bills, or defend court cases in the state capital building. This club dominates January through March at school. It involves a ton of work, but the weekend trip to Albany is worth it enough for more than half of the high school to get involved. If you did not do Youth and Government, you might remember how deserted the high school is on the Friday of the weekend after everyone leaves. You may have had four gym classes that day.

8. You lived for “Barrier Ball” in gym class.

This game was always a school-wide favorite. It is a dodgeball-like game that involves protecting bowling pins and getting as many of the other team out as possible. There are gym mats to hide behind, which always served to prove who had the guts to get out in the open and who was too scared to leave the safety of the barrier. The real MVPs were the students to stand in front of the pins and get out if it was necessary to save the game. That was what I always did.

9. Snow days are extremely rare.

Newcomb probably averages 0.5 snow days a year. Some years we may have none and some years we may have two. We tend to see more two-hour delays than anything else. Oh, all schools are canceled around the area? Newcomb probably has a two-hour delay. There have been times when a foot of snow was not enough to cancel school. This can get frustrating when a snow day seems inevitable due to weather. Newcomb always has a way of surprising students.

10. You probably played, or do play, a varsity sport.

A small school means a small sports team. Newcomb is actually small enough where it has a combined team with a nearby school district. Also, there are no tryouts for any of the teams. I was able to play two years of varsity soccer and varsity basketball, even though I was not good at either sport.

11. You did a ton of sports-related traveling.

The nearest match-up for sports is a 15-minute bus ride. The farthest could be over an hour away. Because two schools are consolidated into one team, one school has to travel 20 minutes to practice each day. For athletes at Newcomb, traveling gets old really quick. However, the experience of playing on a varsity team makes it well worth it.

12. You have friends from all over the world.

Newcomb has a great international student program that has hosted students from over 20 different countries. I can legitimately say that I have friends from all over the world, including from Russia, South Korea, Thailand, China, Serbia, and many others. This is a quirk of Newcomb that makes the school really unique.

Newcomb is most certainly a unique place, and I'm glad this is where I got to experience my education. I hope that other alums feel the same way I do, and I hope that those who will soon leave Newcomb will look back and enjoy the same memories I do.