The SES Option (article final draft)

As the registration process for classes next year at Eastview ends, some students decide what classes they will be taking here while other students will be starting at an entirely different school next year. Juniors and seniors in District 196 have the option of going to the School of Environmental Studies. Approximately 200 juniors in the District decide to take a chance at this new school each year.

Among those 200 new students planning on attending SES next year is Taryn Halterman. She is choosing to go to the School of Environmental Studies for her junior and senior year because “They have core classes that are environmentally based so it will tie my classes together and give them more propose.” Taryn wants to become an aquatic animal trainer or a marine biologist so going to SES will help her to focus on classes that are directly linked to her career like the marine biology class and animal care class. Most students that attend SES love the fact that everything is hands on. Students also love the opportunity to be able to go on trips called field studies. One popular field study is going scuba diving in Curacao and seeing all the marine life. Students don’t only love the trips Kelley Polum who is a junior at SES now, says that her favorite thing about SES “Is that we discuss what is happening in the real world rather than useless facts and use what we learn instead of blowing it all away on the next test and forgetting about it.” Also another one of Kelley’s favorite things about her school is “The fact that despite us working on huge projects constantly, it usually ends up being worth something.” SES has a very different approach to teaching. There are more projects and fewer tests.

Some students like Shelby Gadke are choosing to go to SES simply because they need a change. “Eastview is not the school for me, I don’t like the cliques. The School of Environmental Studies will make me be happier and make me like school more and the art program is better there.” Shelby says. Most people believe that this school is only for people who want to have a career with animals or related to the environment, but often students go there for the art program (like Shelby). Other students go there to just change up their learning experiences.

The School of Environmental Studies and Eastview have many differences. One of the biggest is the number of students. Kelley says one of the reasons she chose to go to SES was because “I didn’t want to be just a number in Eastview’s large school population.” Many students like the smaller classes because the teacher will be able to help them more. The schools are even set up very differently. SES has houses similar to our clusters but there is a single big room in the middle. On the sides of that are “pods” where 10 students have their own desks. One of the biggest differences that Kelley Polum states is that “Teachers definitely expect much more out of you at SES in the fact that they don’t tell you what to do but you are forced to take leadership upon yourself and use your time wisely. The whole idea is to get us to grow up and be ready for the working world, where people won’t always tell us precisely what to do.” The mission of the School of Environmental Studies is to be a community of leaders learning to enhance the relationship between humans and their environment.