(June 10, 2001) — It is 7:30 on a pleasant Tuesday morning when sophomore Elaine Suh walks onto the Clark campus for the first time. Accompanied by her friend Sharon Joo, she seats herself in the amphitheater with the rest of her new classmates, all clad in polo shirts and khakis. She watches cameras surround principal Doug Dall as he cuts the green ribbon after his speech. Soon Suh and the rest of the students are ushered off to their classes as the new school year begins. Senior Ivan Mora was most impressed by how welcoming the school first felt. “I didn’t expect high school to be friendly… I thought, I could get used to this,” he said. The school was still far from perfect in its first year. When Mora first saw the school under construction the summer before he enrolled, he said he thought, “That’s it?” In contrast, Karen Davison thought the school “looked more like a college campus” rather than a high school campus. One thing everyone did expect from the school was the latest in high tech equipment. “The way the school was designed, technology wise, was very impressive,” Suh commented. The anticipated high academic standards especially encouraged Suh and Davison. However, Davison felt disenchanted after realizing the access she would have to the technology. “We were given the impression that we would be able to check out laptops and that there would be computers for each of us in every classroom,” she said. Davison also remembers disillusionment when signing up for classes her first year in the school. She recalls being made to choose a “strand” that she wanted to have throughout high school. She expected a specialized program throughout her high school years to result from the specific strand she chose. To her disappointment, nothing came to fruition. But if they had the choice to do it again, Suh, Mora and Davison all agreed they would have again chosen to attend Clark. Both Suh and Davison said, “[We] would have come to Clark for educational reasons and for [our] friends.” Mora’s reason was different. “I would definitely come back,” he said, “because Hoover’s too crowded.”