Photo by Victor Beck | Jack McGrath ’20 and Sifraz Shah ’20 pull into the south lot before morning rush hour.
By Peter Warner ’19 and Victor Beck ’20
THE ROUNDUP
Carpooling possess positive and negative qualities, and creates bonding among students on campus.
To be able to park on the Brophy campus and get a parking sticker, students are required to have a carpool. Therefore, carpooling is a very large part of a students commute to school.
“This year my carpool is close in distance and we get along,” said Sifraz Shah ’20. “It does not add distance to my drive.”
“We figured out we both live close to each other so we decided we’d carpool together because it would be easy to,” Jack McGrath ’20 said.
“I used to carpool earlier in the year, and only when it is convenient for the other person,” said JD Karanik ’19.
Many students are only carpooling because of the requirement to have one in order to receive a parking sticker.
“I would not have a carpool if it was not for Brophy,” Shah says.
McGrath continues on the requirement, saying “I started to carpool because I was required to by Brophy, so that I could park on campus.”
“I have become closer friends with the person I carpool with,” Shah said. “It is a little inconvenient when it comes to schedules when sports come around.”
Carpooling does build community through the development of relationships between students who drive together.
“I have built community through carpooling, I have gotten much better friends through the program,” McGrath said.
“It takes me 20 minutes to drive to school everyday with traffic,” Shah says. “I drive from Paradise Valley.”
Karanik has a farther driving distance, having to create a schedule to account for the long drive.
“I drive about 40-50 minutes, on average 40 minutes every day,” Karanik said. “I drive from Anthem everyday, I take the I-17 South to Bethany Home Rd. to Central Ave.”
Carpooling and driving to school, especially the driving distance, effects time students have for homework.
“When I want to do homework in the morning, and I have to drive, I can’t,” Shah says. “A couple of times I asked my carpool to drive me so that I can study in the morning. It has affected my schoolwork a little bit.”
“I like to get to school early, so the drive might actually affect me in a positive way. I get to school with 45 minutes before class, I can get homework done in that time,” Karanik said.