It's a big leap from middle school to high school and for the past four years, to help freshmen students make the transition, Batavia High School has conducted a special orientation day the day before classes officially begin.
For the class of 2015 that was today.
Of the 198 students in the frosh class, all but three students showed up for the orientation that began at 8 a.m. with a dramatic welcome by faculty and administration in the gym -- lights turned down, spotlights turned on and music playing loud, the students are welcomed into the gym like a championship team.
"We tell them up front that there will be some corny stuff," said Joe Hussar, one of the faculty organizers. "It's a little over the top sometimes."
The goal is give the students an introduction to BHS without 800 other students around.
"It gives them at least one day where they can take their time and figure things out," Hussar said.
Like where their locker is and how to open it, and how to get from history class to English class.
The students also meet some of the upperclassmen who act as mentors during the school year.
More than 100 upperclassmen applied for the program and the 53 selected went through three days of training over the summer. Today, after the initial gym meeting, they led small groups of students in exercises to help them learn each other's names, how to communicate better and just get to know each other so at least on the first day of school there will be a few familiar faces.
Tomorrow, all the mentors will wear bright pink T-shirts so they can be easily identified by any freshmen who can't find a class, have a question or otherwise need help.
"It's awesome that so many of our upperclassmen are taking the lead," Hussar said.
To further assist the freshmen, the upperclassmen leaders have lockers strategically positioned among a group of freshmen lockers -- for about every seven or eight frosh lockers are two mentor lockers. The arrangement will last throughout the year.
After the small group exercises, the freshmen were given a tour of the school, had a break for lunch and then did a modified version of their class schedule -- 10 minutes for each class so they can learn how to get from room to room with less confusion tomorrow.
