For Fieldston students deciding what colleges to apply to, there are so many choices that one must decide what they are looking for in a school academically, socially, geographically and culturally. For Fieldston alumni Sophia Gutierrez (‘23) and Emma Siskind ( ‘22), Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism was the answer.
Siskind shares, “No matter what major you are, what you’re interested in, we kind of have it all. I know people who are engineering majors but also theater majors. People who are in a cappella groups…all these different things. So I think Northwestern really has everything you could ever want and also a taste of home with so many Fieldston kids here.”
Gutierrez commented on the University’s many strengths. “I think this is both of the things that make it a great school and also one of the things that disadvantages it. It is a top theater school, a top music school, a top journalism program, a top engineering school and a division one big ten sports school in proximity to a major U.S. city. It’s also got a party scene and Greek life and it’s trying to have a lot going on all at once, and it succeeds sometimes, and I also think it fails sometimes.”
Siskind draws parallels between the atmosphere at Fieldston and that of Northwestern, describing it as encouraging a “progressive learning model” with a “comparable liberal mindset in the community.” Just as Northwestern has much to offer, Siskind describes her time at Fieldston as much of the same. She highlights how she was constantly encouraged to “join a lot of clubs and dip my foot into many different things.”
Gutierrez emphasizes that there is no shortage of Fieldston alumni to contact as around a dozen ultimately attend each year. She shares how her best friend now is a Dalton alum and despite attempts to escape it, many of her other initial friends were all from New York City independent schools. She describes the transition as “both stunningly different and stunningly the same” saying, “I’ve grown up in working-class neighborhoods, diverse neighborhoods, filled with immigrant communities, people of color…what have you. I’ve always had a kind of nice balance of diversity in my personal life and in my academic life. So I think coming from Evanston, Illinois, which is very white, and then coming to Northwestern University, which is white affluent…It’s very big, midwestern mansion houses, like white people, like everywhere…It’s definitely a shift in environment, but Northwestern feels very similar to Fieldston in the sense that it’s a bit contrived when it comes to diversity, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I think that’s just a reality you need to confront.”
Siskind discusses the rigorous academic mindset of the Fielston education, describing the many ways in which it prepared her for the college experience. Siskind recalls, “The essays I was writing and the frequency by which I was writing them for Mr. Montera. It was the notorious weekly 20-page history paper during my freshman-year history class that I think really prepared me for Northwestern, especially as a journalism major where a bunch of my assignments are very writing intensive.”
Gutierrez adds, “The standard that Fieldston teachers hold you to is the level and standard that college professors at tier one schools will hold you to. And I came to college and I’m really lucky because it’s not a problem for me to bang out a 10-page paper. It’s not a problem for me to do a close analysis and be a critical thinker. It’s not my first time hearing the names of these really important philosophers and political theorists or encountering great literature because I went to Fieldston and was taking Modern European Literature with Mr. Montera and reading Euripides in 10th grade. I mean, the fact that that’s the standard and that’s just like a given is insane.”
Northwestern, along with a few other select universities, runs on a quarter system, meaning students are expected to take four to five new classes every 10 weeks. Gutierrez emphasizes the intensity, sharing, “The pace is really intense, and it burns a lot of people out. Some people just can’t handle it.”
While these Fieldston alumni believe their high school education has prepared them well for the intense academic environment at a top university with a “strong pipeline from the Fieldston News to the Medill School of Journalism,” Gutierrez shares how she had a humbling encounter during her first day freshman year. She shares the story of when her professor asked students to raise their hands if they were the editor-in-chief of their high school newspaper. As Gutierrez proudly raised her hand while surveying the room, she quickly discovered every other student was also an EIC. Gutierrez reflects, “Oh my god, I am so unspecial. This is crazy.” She then goes on to share that at a college with a world-renowned undergraduate journalism school, she was surrounded by students who already had an op-ed posted in the Wall Street Journal or went to journalism magnet schools in Los Angeles and were winning Scholastic journalism awards since sixth grade and a whole host of other “crazy” things. She emphasizes this, not in any way to discredit the Fieldston News, but rather to say, “We’re progressive, we’re collaborative, we’re very much like just try your best and that sort of thing. But the rest of the world is not like that…At the end of the day, we’re all kind of united by the love of journalism and are interested in our passion for media and storytelling at its core. Yet, there definitely are undertones of competitiveness because it’s Medill, and the kids are crazy.”
The benefits of such a strong program are endless. Siskind shares how she’s learned a lot through her peers, stating, “I’ve read their work, and it’s all by other such great writers, but I think that it really just pushes me to continue getting better…to be a better journalist. The program is really teaching you how to go out into the world and be a good reporter, one with integrity. Today’s climate is so different than it was 10 years ago, and 10 years before that.” Siskind adds how the classes she’s taking are very in tune with modern times taught by professors who have worked at renowned newspapers, describing them as “career journalists.”
Gutierrez describes a class called Journalism 390, Democracy and Covering Donald Trump, taught by a New Yorker staff writer named Peter Slavin, who’s “very famous for his coverage of Trump and specializes in this really interesting field in media research called post-truth politics.”
Gutierrez describes her desire to pursue journalism as having stemmed from the “sage wisdom of Bob Montera, my beloved faculty advisor of the Fieldston News. Just me having an interest in journalism in the first place was born out of the Fieldston News and born out of learning that journalism is a thing that I can do.” She describes some of her fondest high school memories, sharing, “I lived in 112 and was single-handedly kept alive by Bob Montera, I think, probably and his many runs to the tiny diner and Rolen Bagels. That man was my main source of nourishment physically and now spiritually.” She adds, “Mr. Montera likes to say I came into high school 35 and I left 18. I think that’s a really apt way to describe my journey at Fieldston.” She describes her journey from wearing suits to school as a freshman, referring to herself as a “communist,” and then having purple hair senior year.
She later adds, “All the humanities [at Fieldston], in general, totally rocked my world and showed me that there was so much more than I have known. It’s made me realize that I love writing and storytelling, and journalism is kind of the ideal medium for those things while also being a space where I can pursue and satisfy the political aspects to me that make positive change in all those Fieldston, ethical things that also instilled in me that sense of morality and a passion for social justice, human rights and all those things.” With that, Gutierrez shares how she is interested in pursuing something related to documentary filmmaking.
Siskind reflects on the transition from high school to college, stating how, “It’s always hard. I think that specifically coming from a high school where everyone is so close and so connected with each other and teachers. It does make it a little bit harder to go to this, you know, new place, new state, new city with people that you don’t know.” Siskind emphasizes how lucky she feels having grown up in such a big city and then going to a suburban campus with her best friends from Fieldston. Looking back, she states, “That was a hard change, but you know, it’s kind of always hard.”
Gutierrez adds, “You will be shocked by how fast the time goes for you, so soak it up. Soak it up. And that’s not to say I peaked in high school. It’s only up from here, but I think every stage in life has merit and beauty in it…It will really blow your mind how radically different your life will be after senior year happens, and you’re in this weird middling part of life where you’re not quite an adult, but you’re not quite a kid either. You’re something in between, and it’s quite awkward because you really can’t sustain yourself, definitely not financially and stuff like that.” She describes the moment as very “coming of age and very messy, but it’s beautiful and filled with lots of joy. You definitely need to revel in that I’m enjoying being a student, but it’s weird to look back on my time from Fieldston as an alum and refer to it as over because I still think, in the back of my head, I’m going to wake up and go back to school tomorrow…I’m still going to take history with Mr. Montera.” She adds, “It’s weird for me to think that I’m just getting further away from it. Like not closer by any means.”
Siskind shares how she thinks “any Fieldston student would be well suited here because I know so many different ones…We all kind of thrive, and I think that’s why Fieldston’s so comparable to Northwestern. You don’t really realize how driven we are in high school, and I think that one great thing about Fieldston is that it really helps foster a community amongst students and teachers. I think that alone really prepares students to adjust to Northwestern because they do want to seek out a community, and there’s so many different ones at Northwestern.”
Finally, Gutierrez offers some advice: “What you don’t get told by these college counselors and by the very oppressive culture that is, elite, higher education in the United States of America is that you don’t need to be some cog in the machine or robotic straight A person-thing to succeed in life, to succeed in school and so on.” She describes herself as a very intellectually motivated person, “auditing genius senior level electives as a freshman at Fieldston…I’m a voracious reader in my free time. I take my humanities very seriously and I am just motivated on my own. I think all of that showed through with my letters of recommendation, my essays. I think going to SEGL definitely also helped because it also just showed how committed and dedicated I was to politics, ethics and political philosophy and all those kinds of stuff.” Gutierrez emphasizes that college admissions counselors see you as a person outside of your application, one with interests and aspirations, and one who will ultimately contribute to the school and its culture.
For students like Gutierrez and Siskind, Northwestern has become not just a world-renowned academic institution but a school where students can make meaningful connections and explore a diverse range of interests, just as Fieldston offers. The high school to college transition is never seamless, but with Fieldston’s rigorous academic program, students easily find their place within the university. As Fieldston continues to produce highly motivated and well-rounded students, Northwestern remains a top choice for many.
