Here at Mckinley, seniors are only allowed to have an off campus/free period if they are actively working. Mckinley senior students that have all their credits in order to graduate, should be allowed an off campus/free period rather than automatically being put into an elective.
Providing senior students with the option to have an off campus/free period allows them to maximize their time. Entering the last year of highschool, seniors are often filled with many responsibilities and tasks on a day to day basis. While scholarships for different backgrounds, ethnicities, and education requirements are abundant, scholarships take a lot of time to apply for. In the article “How Much Time Does It Take To Apply For Scholarships”, by Bridges EDU Scholarships, it concludes that scholarships requiring essays tend to take a couple hours to apply too. Being able to have a free period or off campus pass can allow the students to maximize their time by searching for scholarships. Due to most high paying scholarships requiring an essay, students can use the free period in order to create a well written essay. The extra time the student has in order to add on to the essay, can be the difference between winning or not winning a large sum of money to help relieve college funds. For the majority, many seniors at mckinley are in some way involved in an extracurricular, may that be band, sports, clubs, etc. Participating in events like these, takes up alot of your time in order to show commitment. For example, if a student was participating in a sport, it can easily take up 4 hours of their day. Here at Mckinley, girls on the varsity volleyball team practice for around three and a half hours every Monday through friday. This doesn’t include the time an individual might spend training on their own, as well as preparing themselves before a game to reduce any chances of injury. By allowing students to have a free period instead of taking an elective class that you don’t need the credit for, is beneficial to help a student. Instead of doing all their homework when they arrive home, they can be allowed a head start to catch on homework, projects, and studying. They are able to maximize their time by completing schoolwork before attending their event afterschool.
Having an off campus/free period allows students more opportunities outside of just their classes. Seniors that strive to become valedictorian and obtain different honors are involved in large projects that take up alot of time. These projects and honors, for example the CTE project and STEM honors, require hours of research and experiments in order to qualify and create a well graded project. Participating in CTE is a year long commitment that the majority of students decide to complete their senior year. If seniors were allowed to have a free period, in which they were able to work on projects like these, it would ensure that they would be able to complete the project confidently after being allowed the time to research and create quality work. This provides the student to be eligible for more opportunities like STEM honors. At the age of sixteen in Hawaii, a teenager is allowed to apply for their work permit in order to have a job. Seniors tend to be already seventeen through eighteen, which means they are eligible to work. Having an off campus/free period right off the back when school first starts, allows the student to look for the right job or internship. Rather than rushing before the school year starts to find a job in order to qualify them for an offcampus/free period, the student has time to find the appropriate job that fits their schedule. Students in their senior year enjoy working in order to have spare cash, help out their family, and to save for college. Attending college can be a big financial burden if the student is not able receive any financial relief. While the state provides some money to help alleviate funds off of students’ tuition, many struggle in finding money to pay for the fee, having to resort to borrowing money from the bank. Allowing students an off campus period at the end of the day encourages them to start working, as well as giving them the time to find the best suitable job. It allows students who wish to work longer hours in order to make more money, achieve their goal. Working before graduating high school gives the student work experience, this is helpful when applying to a job for a bigger company in the future. Working during high school helps to create and build your connections outside of school, that can leave you with lifelong knowledge and relationships, providing the student with more opportunities in the future.
Admin should allow senior students the opportunity to switch out an unneeded elective course to a free/off campus period to help them maximize their time as well as to be exposed to new opportunities.
