
By Peyton Dauley
Last Thursday, students entered the library to find exactly the opposite of what they’re used to: handshakes, interviewing, and frantic last-minute resume-printing. If these students were not seniors, they may have been confused as to why their couch was occupied by a local business owner. But seniors were, quite literally, on the job.
As a part of the senior curriculum, 12th graders were required to participate in two mock interviews. They were graded based on performance and had a week to prepare their responses and attire--even required to take online courses regarding how to interview and what preparation should look like.
Last Thursday, students entered the library to find exactly the opposite of what they’re used to: handshakes, interviewing, and frantic last-minute resume-printing. If these students were not seniors, they may have been confused as to why their couch was occupied by a local business owner. But seniors were, quite literally, on the job.
As a part of the senior curriculum, 12th graders were required to participate in two mock interviews. They were graded based on performance and had a week to prepare their responses and attire--even required to take online courses regarding how to interview and what preparation should look like.
Mock interviews are just one element of what characterizes Senior Seminar. This course, an alternative to School-to-Career, is meant to transition seniors into their post-graduation plans by preparing them with important skills and having them plan a usually massive senior project.
“Senior Seminar is a class designed for students to demonstrate all the skills they have learned over the years,” Mrs. Reynolds, who teaches one of the four senior seminar classes, wrote in an email. “It also allows students to study a topic of their own interest.”
Every year, students prepare to present a huge project of their own design. These projects range in topic and intensity, but almost always take months of preparation through the careful curriculum of Senior Seminar.
However, some seniors believe the volume of work may just outweigh the benefits. Worried students have expressed their stress over meeting the hour count for projects (20 hours for C.P. classes, and 40 hours for honors), while others feel the same stress balancing this work with making their post-graduate plans. Additionally, a sense of general unpreparedness has haunted seniors laboring over their 4-year plans all year, this stress worsened by the massive, looming projects.
Senior MHS student Katiebeth Clark discussed her own worries regarding senior seminar. She has already finished her senior project and emphasized the lack of further assignments to complete. “I also feel like it needs a lot more structure,” she said, additionally detailing her concern with meeting the honors hour count.
Kaylee McCarthy, also a MHS senior, elaborated on this feeling of stress. “[Senior Seminar] puts on more work than my other AP classes,” she stated. Kaylee also mentioned the possibility of making senior seminar a half-year course, and dedicating the rest of the year to important post-graduate skills. Like Katiebeth, she also mentioned the disadvantage of being ahead of the game, with her college applications already in before senior seminar focused lessons on college research.
With a growing number of students ahead of their work in this course, there may be room to assist seniors further. While Senior Seminar is undoubtedly an important course, students like Kaylee and Katiebeth are worried about their readiness for life beyond Mashpee High. Changing tires. Taking out loans. Eventually renting an apartment. While many students anticipate what the future holds, it is also impossible not to imagine all the skills we will need to learn before graduating to the “real world”. These range from sewing, to cooking, to investing in stocks. Some are lucky enough to have taken Culinary or Economics and Financial Literacy as their elective course at some point in their high school career, but most haven’t.
Unpreparedness for “adult” life may just be one source of stress for MHS seniors. But this isn’t a phenomenon known only to Mashpee students. According to a 2015 YouthTruth survey on College Career Readiness amongst high school students, only 44.8% of students feel “positively about their college and career readiness.” The data also found that students are more likely to agree that their school prepared them for college, rather than for a career.
So what could Mashpee do more to prepare these seniors for life outside MHS’s halls? While relative readiness and preparedness for post-graduate plans is not totally dependent upon the school, it is worth exploring the role MHS could play in remedying unease. Learning how to interview and plan a massive project are definitely useful skills provided by Senior Seminar. But some students agree that more skills need to be added to the curriculum: whether it be a part of senior seminar, or a new sidelining program altogether.
"Adulting" programs, a modern (and way less sexist) spin on Home Economics, can provide beneficial results for students worried about transitioning into their future plans. Even as a sub-unit of senior seminar, or just a set of workshops, these lessons could provide the crash course of “adulting” to students, and serve as an introduction to college or alternative post-graduation plans. Learning how to cook basic food can make the difference in a meal plan for students with dietary restrictions, as well as provide graduates with jobs some cheap alternatives to eating out. Financial skills, like starting a checking account or creating a budget plan, can help with debt and encourage students to save up-although these skills are covered in part by Mashpee’s Credit for Life Fair, hosted in the spring for MHS seniors.
It doesn’t even have to be a full course! Some schools have dedicated just a day to “Adulting Conferences,” and found immense success. The USA Today reported on a school in Kentucky last year that dedicated a full day of class to teaching high school seniors different skills. There were eleven workshops total, and each student attended three. These ranged from changing a tire to lessons on personal finance: all of which are useful attributes most seniors don’t know a thing about.
So why not introduce these workshops and lessons to Mashpee High? Whether this may be through a semester-long class, or just one day of learning, these skills are undoubtedly essential to adult success. Learning them in high school can ease our transition into the real-world, and make us feel more prepared along the way.
Additionally, this may introduce skills to students that they never had the chance to explore prior. Not everyone had the opportunity to fit culinary or fashion design into their schedules at MMHS, and even the smallest focus on skills in these areas could uncover passions students didn’t even know they had. It also introduces new fields to students, like auto mechanics (through learning to change oil or jumpstart a car) or other trade skills.
This proposal isn’t meant to demean or take away from Mashpee’s Senior Seminar class. Mrs. Reynolds emphasized that there are important skills to be learned in this course as well: including self-reflection, communication, and other significant skills. These will prove essential to students no matter their post-graduate plans, and certainly matter in the education of prospective graduates.
Mrs. Reynolds also made clear the resources available to MMHS students--many of which may not be offered at other schools. These include guidance for those enrolling at universities, meetings with military officers, dual enrollment opportunities, the Credit for Life Fair offered in spring, and various certifications available through the CTE department. “There are many opportunities students have offered to them, but they have to be open to those opportunities,” said Mrs. Reynolds. “Overall I do believe MHS gives students a strong foundation after graduation.”
Although senior year stress isn’t a problem specific to Mashpee High School, it is one that can be eased through curriculum reform and seniors’ feedback. Hearing back from seniors on what they need to learn in their final year of high school may just make Mashpee a headliner in successful graduate outcomes, as well as make students feel more prepared for the rest of their lives. As many other schools don’t have resources like Senior Seminar or School-to-Career, it is simply a question of how we want to address required courses for seniors, and what we want involved.