Within FHS, students are constantly surrounded by high expectations through factors such as rigorous AP classes, competitive extracurricular activities and the pressure of college admissions in the younger generations. While thousands of students appear confident and accomplished, a growing number quietly struggle with a feeling that they do not truly belong. This could be due to insecurity and lack of self confidence. This haunting experience, known as imposter syndrome, is more common across FHS students than it seems.
Imposter syndrome refers to the persistent belief that one’s success is undeserved, often accompanied with a fear of being exposed as a “fraud.” For some FHS students, these thoughts surface in the context of academic settings where comparison plays the role as the thief of joy.
“I have feelings [that] I don’t deserve my achievements,” FHS junior Aadhya Badrinath said. “Sometimes I feel like I only did well because I got lucky. When I look around and see everyone else doing so well, I start to question if I’m actually capable.”
Certain classroom and student communities can intensify these feelings. These doubts often have impacts beyond academics and can affect mental health.
“It’s very common [amongst] many [students], at least in my observation,” FHS English teacher Chary Salvador said. “Some signs I’ve seen are lack of participation, lack of socialization, lack of comfort in speaking or answering questions in whole class situations.”
This sense of isolation is one of the most harmful aspects of imposter syndrome. Even though many students experience it, few openly talk about it which reinforces the stigma that they are alone in their doubts and troubles. The competitive environment at FHS often proves to further amplify these
feelings rather than alleviating them.
“There is this competitive mentality among students that was either ingrained from home or from being in an environment like Silicon Valley, where a lot of people value education,” Salvador said. “They value education either in status, or they value education in terms of access to opportunities. And so I think it contributes a lot. I particularly think kids are constantly second guessing themselves on if they should be better or good enough. Also, what’s in the back of a lot of kids’ heads is admission into certain colleges, elite colleges, which perhaps their family feels.”
This pressure creates a cycle that is difficult for students to escape. The more students achieve, the more they feel like they need to prove and the less they allow themselves to have the ability to feel proud of their accomplishments. Success becomes something to justify rather than prove.
“It’s really you’re constantly overthinking everything about your grades, how you sound in class, how you compare to other people,” Badrinath said. “Even when I’ve studied a lot, I still feel unprepared, and that stress just builds up over time. I think the hardest part is feeling like you’re the only one going through it. Everyone else looks like they have everything together, so you don’t talk about it, and that just makes the feeling worse.”
At its core, imposter syndrome at FHS is not just about individual insecurities. It reflects a culture that equates worth as performance. In a system where students are constantly measured, ranked and compared, it is easy to compete for validation rather than enjoying the process of growth.
“Ultimately, kids need to feel comfortable in taking risks and being okay with receiving feedback and being okay with making mistakes,” Salvador said. “So whether it be grouping, whether it be assignments, whether it be the way you conduct your class, to make it safe, to boost confidence, it’s like a main way to do it. That’s at least how I do it. And it’s also in combination with watching kids again [with the] way they interact.”
And perhaps the most unsettling part is that students who feel the most like impostors are often the ones who are working their hardest. They are often the ones who stay up late, push themselves and chase a version of success that still does not feel like enough to them. If an entire generation of capable, driven students can look at their own achievements and still feel undeserving of them, then the issue lies in the environment that taught them to question and doubt themselves in the first place.
“I think parents and families could truly and communities could examine how they perceive mental health and actually take a step back,” Salvador said. “I, myself, tend to connect with students because I, too, went through that system, and I know what the pressure is like at home to perform.”
