Course selection is upon us, and will be coming to a close in the coming weeks. With the extensive list of classes and electives available to Warde students for the upcoming school year, it can be stressful to make choices on what classes to enroll in and how to narrow down our lists to just a few. As a junior myself, this is my third – and last – year of course selection, so I’ve become accustomed to the practice. I thought I would share some of my favorite electives that I’ve taken over the years to give some inspiration to those of you struggling to make a decision or looking for some class recommendations.
I’ve taken electives ranging from human anatomy, to graphic design, to business classes. Electives are a great place to show your true personality and interests, which can help embellish your high school transcript to tell your personal story and demonstrate your passion. If you’re interested in going into a business major in college, working in advertising, orenjoy general creative work, I would recommend Warde’s Marketing class. This was a full year class that I took as a sophomore. I really enjoyed all the creative freedom and liberties we were able to take with every project. This class was very project-based and allowed for students to work in groups often. I believe that this was such a good experience because it prepares you for all the collaboration that you would be doing with others within the corporate world. Group projects and activities also allowed for greater creativity, which made the class very engaging and something that students looked forward to attending. Some of the projects that we completed in Marketing included making our own superheroes, as well as creating advertisement campaigns for them, designing new consumer products, creating seasonal advertisements, three-dimensional store fronts, and making up our own businesses. Students learn about how customers perceive products and what types of advertisements can be effective for specific products and services. The prerequisite class for Marketing is Intro to Business (also a full year course), an introductory course that covers a wide range of business-related education, including how to create detailed business plans while also implementing creative projects, like designing our own restaurants. This class is very similar to Marketing in that it allows for a lot of creativity and group collaboration. It’s another class that I would definitely recommend to students interested in beginning the business track.
Going in another direction: If you love science, there are some amazing course offerings as well. As a sophomore, I took Science of the Cosmos and it was one of my favorite electives. Astronomy is something that I’m genuinely interested in and that made this class the perfect fit for me. Science of the Cosmos is a half-year course, and it discusses very interesting topics beginning with the history of different astronomers and ending it with creating our own planets that could fulfill all of your science fiction dreams! We created presentations to share with our classmates about recent astronomical discoveries and got to engage in labs to help us better understand the universe around us. This class is definitely one to check out before you graduate! Continuing on the science theme, Human Anatomy & Physiology is a great class if you plan to go onto the pre-med track in college, but also a good option for those just interested in learning more about the structure of the human body. As a junior taking this course, this class taught me more than I would’ve ever imagined. I walked away from this class knowing all of the bones in the body, understanding how muscle contractions worked, and knowing how to identify types of joints, as well as knowing the inner workings of the nervous system. This class had many labs that provided students with hands-on experiences, giving us new perspectives and a better understanding of the human body. One memorable experience was when our class dissected chicken wings. The lab gave a very clear demonstration of how tendons and ligaments functioned within the body. This is a half-year course that would be perfect for anyone interested in STEM.
The last set of classes I want to recommend to students are the graphic design tech classes! I took Graphic Design Tech as a sophomore and I’m continuing on that track with Graphic Design Tech II this year as a junior. Graphic Design Tech gives students great proficiency in using the Adobe Suite. The suite is a collection of softwares used to create graphic design elements such as vector and raster image products, as well as assembly and organization in programs like Indesign. In Graphic Design Tech I we used Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign, and in Graphic Design Tech II we continue developing those software skills as well as adding in the use ofPremiere Pro. Graphic Design Tech classes give you a lot of freedom as a student and let you do lots of independent work in a lab that has millions of dollars worth of equipment. There are endless possibilities in the lab! Some of my favorite projects that I’ve worked on so far were creating custom decks of cards, vinyls, notebooks, and calendars. Students also have the opportunity to create customized dye-sublimation projects which let you print images onto fabrics, mugs, and a variety of other mediums.
I hope you found some of the recommendations helpful in your course selection endeavors! Remember to schedule your course selection appointment with your guidance counselor for the coming weeks!