I am more than half way through my junior year here at A-West. I have already had my junior review where I talk with my counselor about my future and what credits I need to graduate next year. The review was helpful in the sense that I could discuss my future with someone who is there to guide me, but not helpful in the sense that I found out I only need to fill three more credits in order to graduate. In order to get to this point, I have sacrificed my off blocks for my sophomore and junior year, taking extra electives in order to earn credits needed for graduation early. I only need three credits to graduate, yet I must fill up ten classes my senior year. This seems pointless to me.

In Jefferson Country, a student must pass 23 credits to graduate.  This seems like a lot of credits until you are halfway through your junior year and only need three more credits before you graduate. I believe that 23 credits are not hard to complete if you are motivated and driven. I have never had below a 4.0 GPA in high school, so it does not make sense to me why someone who actually cared and tried hard in high school must fill up all of their classes senior year electives just to ensure that they have five classes per semester.

A lot of people tell me I should just graduate early,  but I like high school overall;  it’s just that I  would rather not waste my time taking classes that do not pertain to my career of interest. Graduating early does not seem that great because I would not get to fully experience being a senior. I would like to be a senior and be a part of all the festivities that come with it, like assemblies and prom.

Though I do not want to waste my time with taking unnecessary classes, that does not mean I just do not want to attend school. Instead of making me take seven credits that most likely will not benefit my future career or graduating early, I wish the school and the county would push their students to spend their time doing more useful tasks that will be valuable to their future career.

Some ideas of this would be to help us find internships, jobs, or college classes that could prepare us to thrive in our future career. Jeffco has plenty of opportunities like these, such as Warren Tech, Teacher Cadet, and Executive High School Internship. The problem is not the lack of opportunities; it is that students typically have to find out about the opportunities by themselves rather than from their counselors.

The only opportunity that pertains to what I want to when I get older is Teacher Cadet, and  I went through the whole process of applying and getting accepted into Teacher Cadet by myself. Teacher Cadet was not mentioned to me by my counselor until the due date for applications.

Though my junior review was helpful, it was not all it should be. All too often, I feel like I am cut short of my potential because I must fill my time with what feels like “busy work” instead of taking a class that will truly help my future. As a county, Jeffco offers some amazing opportunities for graduation credit requirements, but the  communication is falling short. The county must realize what truly would benefit their students’ futures, rather than just having us fill our time in high school with classes that will not truly benefit us in any way.