Cat Levine, Executive Editor
@catcourant
For the past three weeks, 83% of the senior class has been out doing exciting new tasks on their internships. However, the thirty seniors still at NCHS have also experienced new changes in their classroom settings. Along with having smaller classes going to as low as one person, the administration has also brought in speakers with interesting career stories and experiences.
Senior Aurelie Moutran explains that even though she’s in her second semester, she is still busy at work in her classes doing projects, reading books, and engaging in discussions. “I’m doing a variety of things in my current classes, ranging from learning about global marketing and the labor issues with factories in Asia, reading Pride and Prejudice, to designing a mathematical model to find the best seat in a movie theater,” she said.
Aurelie has thoroughly enjoyed listening to the speakers that the administration has brought in to inform the remaining seniors on various career paths. “I am very grateful for the time the speakers have put into coming to talk to us about their careers and opening up about their successes as well as failures, and teach us valuable lessons about life beyond high school and college,” she said. “The variety of professions represented is wonderful because it allows all of us to hear and think about different fields we might be interested in all the while staying opened to discover new ones.”
Senior Tommy Root has also found the speakers helpful in hearing more information about the career path he is interested in taking. “I thought the speakers were pretty helpful. All of them have had pretty interesting stories,” he said. After Rhone Apparel CEO Nathaniel Checketts spoke to seniors, Tommy said, “The last guy I liked a lot because he worked with the NFL and then started his own company which I thought was pretty cool.”
When looking back on his decision to stay at NCHS, senior Tim Russo is happy with his choice not to go internship. “I didn’t want to spend my last couple of weeks of high school doing something that I have no interest in doing. I didn’t want to be stuck in an office somewhere doing a task I had no interest in doing in the future,” he said. “I would rather stay in school and say goodbye to everyone then sit in an office with people who I will never see again and be in a field in which I will never pursue.”
While she understands the importance of internships in giving seniors experience, Aurelie wanted to stay at NCHS so she could get more one-on-one time with her teachers in small classes. “Internships, whether they be getting coffee for my coworkers or doing actual work for free, are the kind of things that I have the rest of my life to explore,” she said. “However, the opportunity to be in a very small class with my very knowledgeable teachers and learn super cool things in a setting much more relaxed than usual was one that struck me as extraordinary.”
Although he has enjoyed his past few weeks at NCHS, Tommy feels that an internship is a great opportunity for seniors to take. “In December I didn’t think I’d really want to, but as May rolled around I kind of regretted it,” he said. “If I could redo it, I would’ve definitely gone on internship because getting up at 6:30 everyday is kind of tiring and then pretty much just sitting around most of the day gets pretty boring so it would’ve been something to keep me busy.”
Tim suggests that the administration should offer another option that isn’t going on internship but not necessarily going to normal classes. “The classes are so small that it’s hard to focus on what’s being taught,” he said. “I think the administration should try to incorporate an independent study or independent work into the curriculum so you don’t have to go to class, but you still have to do the work.”
