Today, a freshman course fair will be held to help incoming freshmen prepare for their high school years. Session one will be held from 6:30-7:00 P.M. and session two will be from 7:00-7:30 P.M. Parents and students will meet in the 5 Star Building, where they will spend their first year of high school. They will get to meet some of the teachers and learn about returning and even new courses offered for the upcoming school year, including the Early College High School Program.
A couple of returning courses include Journalism, Diving, German, Principles of Business Marketing & Finance, Child Development, and Water Polo.
Journalism
Journalism is, for many students who love to write or want to try something new, a fun way to share different topics, like school events or real-world issues, in whichever way students choose to express themselves. Some different things they learn about in Journalism are photography, news writing, editorial writing, features, interviewing sources for the stories they choose to create, creating podcasts, and the list goes on! They get to meet many new people and possibly even make long-lasting friendships. Who knows, maybe they’ll find themselves making Journalism their future career.
Diving/Water Polo
Diving is one of many returning courses many students enjoy taking. They teach many of the basics and help prepare student-athletes for regionals, they get to compete and travel to different schools, and build not only just a team but a family once into the sport. Another sport that is available and goes hand-in-hand with diving, not only for rising freshmen, but any student interested in joining, is Water Polo. Water Polo is such a great way to try something if students aren’t interested in any other sports or want to consider a new elective- Water Polo is the choice. It is a team-based sport where students and their teammates rely on each other to win, like soccer but in water.
German
If many are interested in learning a new language other than the ones talked about a lot, German is a good class to take to get those foreign language credits done. Though it is different from the usual talk about languages, it is similar to many other languages which makes German easy to learn.
Business, Marketing and Finance
An elective many students enjoy taking is Principles of Business Marketing and Finance. It helps teach, if students plan to create a business, how to run a business and how to promote the things being sold to gain traction and have a successful business. It helps build entrepreneur skills, budgeting, and advertisement- everything anyone needs to know for business. It also not only helps with creating a business but even for real-world problems and situations many can come across.
Mac United-ECHS (Early College High School)
For students interested in the business or education field, one of the newest programs open specifically for incoming freshmen is the Early College High School program which guides students through their freshman year a bit differently than others. For the ECHS program, it helps students, not just in NEISD, but all over San Antonio get their Associate’s Degree while they are in high school and by doing so, they do have to go through a process of enrolling at San Antonio College to get the dual credits for both high school and college. They go through the freshman and sophomore years getting college-prepped by taking dual credit classes like going to summer school (for free) to get all their high school credits out of the way while taking the dual credit classes, which varies based on the choice of either business or education and gain team building and communication skills so they are ready for their junior and senior years. Once the students become juniors, the teachers will have the students meet at MacArthur in the mornings, then send them off to San Antonio College where the students will get to learn more about the Business and Education fields they chose to pursue in a real college class with a college professor to help them out. Once they finish and follow through with the program, they will be able to walk the stage at SAC before they will even walk the stage at MacArthur. This program is one of the best to take if students know for sure if they want to go to college or to have some form of degree when they graduate, which saves lots and lots of money.
Child Development
Last but certainly not least, another elective that is well-liked among students is Child Development. It goes beyond what other courses go through, like the depth of how certain things affect the child’s brain and the different stages of a child from the prenatal stage to the ending stage of their childhood, trust vs. mistrust and more. It is a highly recommended course to take if students plan on doing anything within the social work field and child development later on in the career pathway.
Of course, there are tons of other classes students can take as a rising freshmen to explore more different career pathways, and that’s what the course is all about. It gets to greet and help many transition into the next part of their life and assist them in planning for their future, although it is okay if some aren’t too sure yet. That’s why the course fair is here to help.
