When the Google form regarding IMPACT course design was sent out, it piqued the KO News Editorial Board’s collective interests—we began brainstorming ideas for experiences we felt the student body was lacking at KO and found that we had a lot to say. While we were a little too late to actually submit the form, we still wanted to put in our two cents and propose some modifications to after-school activities to KO.
After school sports is a common stressor for a significant portion of the KO community. While many students enjoy balancing their day into forms of both physical and mental activities, many others have little interest in sports or specialize in one activity, often struggling to find after school activities that fulfill their fitness and group credit requirements. This challenge is made even more difficult by recent changes made to after school activity credits; for example, theater tech crew (both during the fall and winter musical seasons) no longer fulfills a group credit. Not only does this strip away any incentive to join such an activity, it also forces those who want to participate in theater tech to immerse themselves in equally as time-consuming and hard work during the fall and spring seasons.
Students with other after-school commitments may also find it difficult to fulfill their fitness and group credits; those with part-time jobs, music lessons, club sports, or familial duties are stretched thin while attempting to meet credit requirements that oftentimes double their time spent on one activity. For instance, students who play club soccer are not exempt from playing at KO, and often end up with multiple practices on a given day and a handful of games each weekend. This restricts these student-athletes’ abilities to make connections in their community in the form of service learning, internships, and independent research projects.
Additionally, finding internship opportunities to engage with as a KO student is slightly difficult; the school does not promote or encourage students to apply for internships in the area, leaving it up to individual students to search for and research internships or be helpfully pointed to certain opportunities by teachers. Although KO’s annual SPACE fair brings representatives from many regional organizations to share with students their work, this event only includes summer programs and initiatives. This poses a challenge for students who seek to balance their schoolwork with a supplementary experience outside of the classroom, such as a job or internship, as there is little to no guidance in this domain. Upperclassmen in particular look towards their futures and worry about their lack of experience in “the real world,” a pressure that could be easily relieved by providing support to these students in the form of filling preexisting needs in our community.
One idea we propose to help accommodate these issues is for KO to offer internship opportunities within the school for upperclassmen. Juniors and seniors could apply to become a teacher’s assistant for Middle School or freshman classes, or “intern” for faculty members such as School Librarian Nancy Solomon, Technical Theater Director Michael Bane, or Director of Technology Daniel Bateson. Students involved in Shield & Dragon could also take on slightly more responsibility, such as offering tour slots after school, to replace an afterschool activity for a season.
However, if school “internships” aren’t a possibility, KO could also partner with various local businesses and organizations to offer internships outside of school during after-school hours, or volunteering opportunities for students to involve themselves in philanthropic activities and practice the KO core value of “care beyond self.” This way, students could truly get a feel for what the workforce looks and feels like, and explore different careers and ways to give back to the community. These types of internships could count as a group credit or fitness credit, depending on the demands of the job. Additionally, those with part time jobs might also be exempt from a season or two of after school sports; while students’ enrichment might be a concern, we believe that getting experience in the workforce and participating in the community is both fulfilling and necessary to one’s personal growth and should be recognized as such.
The current system for after school activities severely limits students who might not gravitate towards sports and does not encourage involvement in the community. We hope that the suggestions we have proposed to adjust the system, not overhaul it, will be taken into account and hopefully implemented to broaden the student experience at KO and better prepare them for life after graduation.
