summer scholars

Students discuss summer school experiences

Summer school can seem like a dreaded task for students. Many of them believe summer school is just for making up credits after failing a class. Though for some students, these courses can help them get ahead in their academic career or take more electives.

Sophomore Natalie Green took world history over the summer so she could have room in her schedule for more electives during the school year.

“It’s not like in the movies where you sit in a hot, sweaty school,” Green said. “My [summer school] experience was pretty chill. [We] kind of just get stuff done when we can.”

CSISD summer school only offers 4.0 classes, which may be a drawback for students who are pursuing advanced credits. The fact that students can only sign up for one semester course at a time can also hinder some of their goals.

“We only let students sign up for half credit at a time,” counselor Paul Hord said. “Since our students are paying and they only have a four-week window to complete the credit, we don’t want them paying for credits that they may not be able to complete.”

Summer curriculum is taught online through the educational platform, Edgenuity, and all courses are self-paced. Students can complete it at College View High School, but many students opt to do it online.

“I procrastinated a lot,” senior Holden McBerty said. “My goal was to finish it in two weeks because I had a trip coming up. It was stressful, but I was very glad to be done with it.”

Green did eight hours of school a day, but she notes that if she didn’t wait until the last minute to start, she could have easily done an hour a day for the allotted two weeks.

“[The website] had a meter that showed overall progress,” Green said. “It mapped out how [many] hours were [recommended] to do in a day, [and] how many days you’re behind.”

Hord says he has seen some students do three half-credits — or 1.5 credits — but it’s rare and they have to be really motivated. Every once in a while a student won’t finish their course, but a vast majority of them do.

“It’s kind of hard to fail [summer school] because [students] can retake tests, quizzes, reviews, etc,” Hord said. “But if they don’t complete a course, then there’s no record of it ever happening — it doesn’t go on their transcript at all.”

While Green and McBerty did summer school to have extra time during the school year, Hord notes that it is generally evenly split every year between students who failed and students who are just taking it to get ahead.

“Even if the course is taken online, [students] still have to go to the school to have tests physically proctored to them,” Hord said. “Then, when they are ready to take a test, they can communicate with their teacher and let him know what time they’re going to the school.”

McBerty took English IV in order to have two off-periods during her senior year. She noted her surprise with the coursework.

“I didn’t have any reading assignments,” McBerty said. “People I know who took [English] during the school year did more than I had to. It feels like they just took three units and crammed it all into one.”

For students who are unable to attend summer school, Consol offers night school from September to May, utilizing the same program, Edgenuity, that the summer program uses.

“During the school year, we have night school every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,” Hord said. “The hours vary each year, but in the past, it has been from 4 to 6 p.m.”

Going into something students are not familiar with can be daunting; however, the new experience may just be something they enjoy.

“[I was hesitant] because I didn’t really know what it would be like,” Green said. “But once I completed a semester, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m doing that again.’”

“What do you think will happen after high school?” I ask my best friend during our art period.

We are both only sophomores, but the year is coming to a close and I feel as though it all happened too fast. Who’s to say the next two years won’t happen even quicker?

“You’ll be lonely for a long time,” she responds after a moment, looking down at her artwork.

That’s not what I want her to say, but I nod because she’s right. I’m a dreamer, and something in me wants her to tell me that we’ll stay like this even after our high school years.

Reality, though, tells me that adulthood will hit us hard after graduation. Reality tells me that she’ll come on us like the biggest wave at high tide, dissolving the remnants of the sand castle we spent the day building. Reality tells me that life will tear some dreams of my youth apart and let me have the rest. I have no idea which dreams she’ll let me have, including the ones where my friends and I never lose touch.

I often wonder what it is about growing up that frightens me. Is it the change? Is the feeling of losing innocence? Is it having to mature yet still feeling like a child inside?

It’s all of that for sure, but it’s also the feeling that the older I get, the lonelier life becomes.

Soon, I’ll have to think like this: What career will I pursue? How will I make a living?

I, I, I… the older I get, the more my life depends solely on me.

It’s a thing of freedom, because with freedom comes more responsibility over my own life, and with that comes loneliness.

I think I’m scared of being completely alone in life and having to face everything on my own. It’s an unrealistic fear, but it’s a fear that haunts me more and more as I grow up.

Never Alone

Student reflects on the complexity in growing

aliza jacob section editor

I hate College Station.

I grew up in College Station. I’d play with my action figures or play board games with my parents. I mostly stayed at home all the time. At the time I didn’t mind living here, but now that I’m a teenager, it’s hell. It’s just a stupid college town where the only thing to do is go out to eat or go drink alcohol, which as a 17-year-old I can’t do.

I spend most of my time either playing on my Xbox or going outside and hanging out with my friends. But by the time I get out of school and finish my homework, it’s already too dark to go outside, so when it’s too dark out, my friends and I try going somewhere but we never know where to go. We decide to am than I’ve ever been. Consequently, there’s been a small trail of loneliness following my growth.

There are times when I feel like I have to figure things out on my own, and times when I just want to talk to someone.

I ask my best friend about loneliness, and we talk about how it seems to be an artist’s curse. I think that’s true, but I also think it’s a human thing.

We’ll never be rid of loneliness.

But loneliness would never matter so much if love wasn’t there as well.

There’s no guarantee that my best friend will be my best friend in ten years. Yet, there are certain things I won’t be able to look at without thinking of her – sunflowers, roses, the sun, and the moon.

Without my parents, my family, or my friends, who am I? I think that as I grow, I develop a firmer position on who I am as an individual. I figure that’s why growing up is lonely in a way because we learn to be who we are on our own.

Even this year, I’ve felt like I’ve grown a lot. My priorities, my focus, the things that I love – they’ve gotten more clear. I’m more sure of who I go drive around for 30 minutes burning gas, and then we end up going somewhere to eat just to spend more money. When we get bored of doing absolutely nothing, we all go back home and I just sit there — still doing nothing. Most of the time, I don’t even want to get on my Xbox because I’m so burnt out from playing it too much. I try to find other things to do but nothing ever really interests me. I often spend my time at the park throwing a football or playing Wiffle ball, but that just gets boring after a while. Then I just try to find something else to do that you know you’ll be over in a week or two but there are only so many things you can do until you have to go back to other activities you’ve already done.

I still can’t go very long away from home without missing my mom. My family will never be too far away to come back to. I see my cousins once every couple of months, and every time, they remind me that I’m not at all alone. It makes me think of my past moments of loneliness and how they have passed.

People will always surround our lives. That’s why we feel a sense of blue loneliness so heavily when we feel like we’re on our own, even if we’re really not.

We will always be lonely, and we will always have love. They go hand in hand, flanking each side as we grow up.

College Station just makes me feel like I’m stuck in a cycle, repeating the same thing over and over. Each day is the same with minor differences within.

I’m ready to leave — to go anywhere else. I just need to do something different, go somewhere interesting.

atticus johnson section editor

Hometown Blues

Junior contemplates the value of his town

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