By Jack Barbeau, Class of 2026
This article is a part of a series of student stories of growth curated for the 2025 One Event. If you enjoy this story, please donate and tell us which student’s story inspired you to give.
Before I talk about my time at One Stone, I need to discuss where I came from before coming here. For most of my life, from elementary through junior high, I attended public schools. While these schools had some great teachers who are a big part of why I am who I am today, they were not the best learning environments for me—especially once I got into junior high. Kids were disrespectful and distracting in class. This meant that most of our time in class was spent with the teacher trying to get us settled and ready to learn instead of actually learning.
As someone who loves to pursue knowledge, class felt unproductive when I had to wait for everyone to calm down and listen. I felt like I spent very little time actually learning. The environment also often felt unsafe. There were frequent fights, the bathrooms were filled with the smell of vapes, and I felt like my personal space was often violated. Our solution was to move to a private school, and I ended up at a Catholic school. The school felt much safer and didn’t have the same issues with learning. However, I didn’t really feel like I fit in, not being Catholic, due to differences in both religious and political beliefs. My old Catholic school doesn’t hide the fact that they want you to adopt their beliefs, and if you don’t, they encourage you to change. Add to that the fact that the classes were rigorous and monotonous, and I began to dread going to school every day.
During my time at Catholic school, my home life was also becoming more difficult, with my mom divorcing my stepdad. I reached a breaking point and fell into severe depression and anxiety, which caused me to struggle in school and my grades plummeted. I didn’t want to stay in that environment, so I moved schools again, finally coming to One Stone. In just one semester, it has been the most enjoyable and accepting time I've had in school, and I’ve felt more accepted than ever before. At One Stone, I’m surrounded by people who share similar interests and curiosities. I’ve developed friendships with many people, to the point where I now have multiple friend groups, something I never had before. I used to have just a small group of friends. For the first time, I truly feel accepted in a school.
This sense of belonging has encouraged me to try new things and explore areas I never thought I would, such as a sport called HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), which involves fencing with European martial weapons like longswords, greatswords, and polearms. Coming from environments that wanted to mold you, rather than genuinely help you grow, the support at One Stone has made all the difference. I’ve already explored game design, both tabletop and digital, as well as robotics, and more.
From junior high through high school, it often felt more like surviving than truly living. But now, I feel like I have the chance to grow and discover who I really am. Although I don’t have it all figured out, I have a much clearer sense of direction than I did six months ago. To be honest, the people here have been a huge part of that. The friends I’ve met at One Stone have inspired me to push boundaries and step out of my comfort zone, and I’ve tried to do the same for them through collaboration and discussion.
Another example is our immersions, which are two-week periods where we dedicate ourselves almost entirely to one thing. For instance, a few of us worked together to develop a basic video game. Most of us, including myself, had never used a game engine before and had no coding experience. I teamed up with a friend to create the game. I found resources to help us learn how to code and use our preferred game engine. Throughout the process, we bounced ideas back and forth about what we wanted to add to the game, and we worked hard to develop a solid base for it. We both pushed each other, and as a result, we performed better than we originally thought we could.
Being able to come here to One Stone has been such a great change. Even in just one semester I truly feel like I’m growing and learning who I am. Especially when coming from a public school and Catholic school. I can’t wait to continue my time at One Stone and I hope I can keep on this pace of growth.
