If I had the chance to improve Juanita Sanchez what would I improve about the school?   Being a student in Juanita Sanchez  I ask myself this question a lot,  but I could never really answer it considering that I’m in the school 5 days a week especially after school, and never thought I could do anything about the school to make considerable changes.  Mr. Moreau asked me what I could do to change the school, make it better, improve it, from small to big from large to small.

So I thought more about it, then thought when I’m walking to my class I always look around at the walls, the halls, the stairs, the classrooms, the gym, the lunchroom, etc… and I look I try to find something I would change in the building but in doing so I don’t think I would change anything physical because I can’t do that.   JSEC wouldn’t be my ‘Juanita’  if we made too many changes to the building itself.   I like  the way the building is built, it’s history, the mural, and the background of how the school began.  It started as two small schools, then became one larger school, and just last year they turned it back into 2 smaller schools.  So while I can’t change the history of the school I am hoping that I can play a small role in transforming a couple of things about the classes and opportunities that we get as students.

As I’m sure many of you heard we had a Youth Empowerment Day Forum here at JSEC a couple weeks ago.  The day was packed with youth empowerment activities and included  lots of guest speakers and workshops. I was able to speak to a lot of the students in the school and ask them how they felt about that day and a lot of students agreed that we need to have more days like in the future.  They loved the fact that speakers were brought in from the outside world and we were not just stuck in a classroom all day.  Each workshop taught us about things we are going to use in the future, which I found very valuable.  The workshops proved very beneficial and it was a fun and educational day for all.   The recommendation I would strongly make is to do more of these workshops, as it changes up the routine and sparks teen interest.

Graduating  high school requires we earn 21 course credits: 4 credits in math, 4 in english, 3 in history, 3 in science, 2 in foreign language, 2 in physical health, 2 in electives.  After reviewing JSEC’s  course requirements I’ve noticed and keep thinking about the importance students finishing up classes on time.   It seems like many students are concerned about all classes  except english or math.  I asked myself why are so many so students not worried about these  classes when Math and English are key to most careers and professions.     Also it seems like those students who are not in their right grades are not worried at all, it seems like they do not worry about graduating on time.  Many say ‘well just make it up in Credit Recovery’.    My recommendation is for guidance to keep records and immediately enroll students into Credit Recovery as soon as they fail certain courses.  I would recommend a plan is made to keep students in their correct grade level and that credit recovery takes place immediately after the class is failed.  This way they will have at least some of the information related to that class in their heads and it will make it easier for them to pass a 2nd time.

Yes we’re being teached for 90 mins in the classroom but that doesn’t mean anything, kids do get bored sitting in a sit for 90 mins so there mind gets lost or they just take a nap, studies show ! One thing is that the teachers are giving us worksheets that we can search up online get the answers from, kids decided to search it up because we ain’t getting enough help or they just don’t understand it.  I would recommend a plan is made to keep students in their correct grade level.

We have 4 different pathways in JSEC which unifies us and our Guidance Counselors help us choose the pate that is most suited for us.  They wait until the 10th grade to give them the opportunity to join one of the pathways and personally I feel this should be done earlier, as in 9th grade.  We should be talking to the 9th graders about careers, the pathways, and which should be our focus early on and we shouldn’t be waiting till the end of the year to ask them what they want to take for 10th grade.   In a perfect world the middle schools would do this so 9th graders could start fresh into their pathway on the first day of high school.  During that time maybe some high school students could visit the middle school and let them know middle school isn’t like high school.   I think we should go talk to the 8th graders in the middle schools and talk about the many different opportunities high school has to offer and also share with them what JSEC is like.

In closing, I ask you all the question: Are we willing to make a changes to improve JSEC and help our students?   If so what will be your part?  We can each take a role to promote our school, the education we get, the sports we play, and the events and activities we are part of.   We have a really great school here, and we need to keep in mind many schools do not offer what JSEC offers us here.   I will close by quoting Gandhi: ” Be the change you want to see in the world”.

To become part of positive changes at JSEC please consider joining a club, a committee, the Principal’s Leadership Council, the Yearbook, a sport, the Newspaper, a Hub Afterschool Program, etc…..The only way you can make changes is to become involved.