By Paloma Swick
If you are a high school student who is planning to stay at ASUPD and you are not a senior yet, eventually you will need to take Senior Seminar! I find this class interesting and helpful because it allows you to prepare and take important steps towards your future. It will walk you through things from scholarships to applying to college, and overall will help a lot with preparing for college! The reason I am choosing to spotlight this class is because I think it is a class that may not have been spotlighted before, and I also want to give a glimpse into the class for anybody who is going to go into Senior Seminar in the future.
Senior Seminar is a class that aims to prepare students for college and for their futures. Some of the work for this course involves doing things to prepare for you future, volunteering, writing in a reflective way, etc. In this course I learned how to apply for scholarships and colleges, and I gained experience in collaborating with others and reflecting on myself. It is a required class and I think that is a good thing because it can really help guide someone in preparing for their future in things that they might have had difficulty with on their own.
To gain more insight into this class I interviewed one of the instructors of the class, Mrs. DuSel. The first question I asked her was, “ What do you like the most about teaching Senior Seminar?” What she said she liked about it was helping students relieve stress and hearing about the students dreams. “ I just know how daunting a process it is,” she said to me during the interview. I find what she likes the most very admirable. The next question that I asked her was “What Advice Would You Give Anyone Who Is Taking This Course?”. The advice that she gave was to complete all of the assignments, even if it seems like you would be exempt from needing to complete it. She also recommends keeping an open mind while completing all of the assignments in the coure. The third question I asked her was, “ What topic do you think students in this course tend to like the most?” Her answer was that students tended to like the assignments where they applied to scholarships the most because they learn of options for scholarships that they did not know were available before. She also mentioned that Dr. Gaines was good at helping people with problems related to scholarships referring to her as a “wiz at scholarships.” Lastly I asked her if their was anything else she would like to add. She answered by suggesting that student in this class attend live lessons or listen to the recording if they can not make it. She mentions that the live lessons are interesting, not to demanding, and also feature guest speakers on them.
This class impacts my life in several ways. For one it pushed me to gain more volunteering experience. It also inspired new goals for me, such as applying to a certain college. My teacher has helped me a lot in this class, if I am stuck on any assignment or need help with anything I can text her and she will help me with it.
If you want help with your future and are going to attend ASU your senior year, then I would say to look forward to this class. If you keep in touch with your teacher it can help because your teacher’s are there to help you and guide you along the right path when your feeling lost. Overall, this was a very helpful class!
