The Likes and Dislikes of NSA Students and Staff- A Survey

When it comes to the students and staff at NSA, the views are very flexible. Many people have a negative connotation of the school, especially this year's graduating class and the class of ’26. The years after that, 27’ and 28’, have a more positive disposition about the school. The complaints tend to be less about how people act and more about the school building.

'Likes' are on the left side of the charts, and 'dislikes' are on the right.

The recent alumni and the senior class of 25’ have similar complaints, mostly about the school building and some people who go and/or teach there. Getting answers from these classes was somewhat difficult. When I asked, some people said they liked nothing and they had nothing to say, but after some persuasion and thinking, they all came up with good and useful answers.

The Juniors and Seniors did not have many similar factors, aside from the people being high on the dislike portion of the graphs. The Juniors struggled with the likes portion of the questionnaire.

The Freshmen were the easiest to get answers from by far. I suspect this is because they just

came from middle school and didn’t know the freedom, so it was easy to notice how much they have here: a safe space, and a place where they can be who they want.

The staff’s answers seemed “cookie-cutter,” like they were scripted. Even though they were not specifically named, certain teachers thought that they might get blowback from it. All the results put together are very intriguing.

With the information gathered from everyone, the community and freedom seem to be the best aspects of NSA, while the building and the staff are among the most disliked. When asked, most struggled to find an answer easily. Having to dig deep and think about ‘what do I truly like about NSA’ and ‘what is there to dislike’ seemed to be more challenging than they expected.