From drawing Lewis dot structures to photographing football, my senior year schedule is exciting to say the least. After taking eight classes each for the past three years, I decided to relax my agenda and take six in an attempt to avoid senioritis. 

1 – AP Calculus AB – Roughton

Though it is my first AP math, calculus AB is structured like most of the math courses I’ve previously taken. We get templates for all the notes, which makes it easy to keep my binder organized. Roughton is very thorough with her explanations of topics and I like that she often plans activities for us to do after notes to reinforce our learning. I actually don’t mind having calc first period, because it means I get tests and quizzes out of the way first thing in the morning and have the rest of the day to spend on homework.

2 – Newspaper – Stamp

Clearly, I loved yearbook so much last year that I wanted to get involved with VHS Student Media as much as possible. The Voice staff consists of some of the friendliest, most welcoming people at our school, and I always look forward to seeing them in class. Writing stories and creating infographics has pushed me outside of my comfort zone, especially since they’re published to the public. Not only does newspaper give me a creative outlet, but it is an opportunity for me to improve my writing.

3 – AP English Literature – Russell

While English is not my favorite subject, I still decided to take AP Lit because I enjoyed AP Lang so much. So far, lit resembles sophomore year English much more than Lang. I don’t enjoy literary analysis as much as rhetorical analysis, but the class is set up with projects and group work that make it more fun. I really like my table group, which makes the class enjoyable even if I don’t like the content much. It’s also a pretty calm class to have for the end of the day, which I appreciate.

5 – AP Chemistry – Edgar

Out of all my classes this year, this one was the most hyped up for difficulty by my peers. I enjoy Mr. Edgar’s style of teaching greatly and his philosophy is especially helpful. Before we received our first test back, Mr. Edgar went through his failing chemistry grades from college, ranging from 68% to 35%, to show that his scores didn’t prevent him from pursuing a job in chemistry. This little speech from him really helped me switch my perspective on a single bad tests, and how these grades should be used as motivation rather than discouragement. In addition, having chem fifth period is nice because I have all day afterward to work on my homework and I’m usually most focused right at the start of the day.

6 – Yearbook – Stamp

I love yearbook with all my heart. This is my second year on staff and I am the Senior Ads Manager. We have a very “work hard, play hard” mentality in yearbook and in general it is such a lively environment in Ms. Stamp’s room. I spend most of my time in the back room, designing ads and communicating with parents, but I also love taking photos and interviewing. It’s a nice break in between my AP classes, and I feel most in my element there. Furthermore, it teaches me important skills that will help me in my future career like meeting deadlines and client management.

7 – AP Government & Politics – Wylie

Unlike past AP history classes I’ve taken, Gov lessons feel more like conversations than lectures. Mr. Wylie does a fantastic job at keeping the content engaging and finding ways to connect topics back to us in a relatable way. The class is also different from history because it involves current issues. I’m excited by the prospect of debates and campaigns later in the year. This is definitely a class I recommend to future seniors because it is pretty laid back and the grading policies make it easy to earn high grades.

By choosing classes I am more passionate about, it has been much easier to find motivation to study. Taking fewer electives has allowed me to stay on top of my school work, put in more hours at my job, and spend more time with my family.