Ermila Mazariegos
Staff Writer
With the 2023-2024 school year coming up very quickly, counselors have begun to meet with students to help them choose their schedules for the next school year. For many students, choosing their new classes is very exciting and important, as these classes may influence their future career choices. This year, students may notice a few new course options that are coming to Alexandria City High School.
The main new course that is making its way to ACHS is American Sign Language. “There’s a new course, American Sign Language, which is awesome! We are excited about that and I think a lot of students are too.” said Tracie Jackson, a counselor from Academy three. This new elective will only be offered online for now, “but that could change in the future.” Since ASL is going to be an elective, it will be one full credit.
Students who choose to take creative writing will now have the opportunity to take this course year-long. “[Creative Writing] is not necessarily a new class, we have always had creative writing but it used to be broken out into semesters and now it is going to be a full year-long class. Which is good because it is pretty popular with students,” said Jackson.
A new STEM pathway will be introduced to the incoming freshmen class of 2026. “It is a joint program between us [ACHS] and NOVA, NOVA has some sort of agreement with Washington Gas where students will go to our STEM program. They will start at Minnie Howard and there are specific electives that they will take once they get here. Some of the [courses] will be Dual Enrollment classes with NOVA and once they leave here they go to NOVA and I think they finish one more year. They get a certification and everything that they need so that they will be licensed and able to do some STEM-related positions with Washington Gas,” said Jackson. Since this pathway is brand new, it will only be offered to incoming freshmen.
Jessica Gilbert, a counselor from Academy 6, spoke about possible Career and Technical Education courses. “There’s talk about construction and there is also talk about some other type of health course as well,” she said. Students should keep an eye out for these possible new courses that could be added in the future.
New courses bring many different opportunities for students. Specifically, the new ASL course. “[American Sign Language] has been one that many people have been wanting so it just expands greater opportunities for students. Not only to take something different that we haven’t had but also maybe to explore something that they might want to do in the future. There’s a lot you can do with American Sign Language in terms of career-wise,” said Jackson.
For now, no electives will be taken away for the 2023-2024 school year. Jackson explained the process of choosing what electives stay or go, “Sometimes if there is a particular elective where we don’t have enough students signing up for it, that [elective] might leave.”
The schedule for most students is eight classes, four classes on a red day and another four on a blue day. This schedule may change for the next school year, “Based on the student’s workload and teachers’ workload, we have many people saying that it might be more beneficial to go back down to seven [classes],” explained Gilbert.
Featured photo by Chloe Yokitis for Theogony
