Preparations are already being made to welcome next year’s class of incoming freshman. Campo students and counselors visted local middle schools, Stanley and Joaquin Moraga, to present elective options to current 8th graders. The visits took place on February 4 and 7, respectively.
The trips involved a total of 45 high school students, with 25 visiting JM and 22 visiting Stanley. They appeared before 8th graders for brief presentations on the various electives offered at Campolindo. These presentations detailed the content and perks of the various classes and encouraged students to get involved around campus next year.
The main goal behind these visits, according to counselor Susan Kjorlien, is to help incoming freshmen picture themselves at Campo and get a better idea of what their options are. “It makes a difference because they may have heard about an elective, but I think seeing a student talk about it in depth kind of makes them envision themselves doing the elective. Maybe they hadn’t thought about, say, journalism, or engineering and drawing, and they see a kid that seems like them who likes it. So I think it brings what’s on paper to life,” she said.
Co-yearbook editor-in-chief Laura de Crescenzo was one of the students who missed several periods of school to promote the Yearbook elective. According to de Crecsenzo, she approached the presentation with the goal of encouraging incoming students to think about the big picture, and what they ultimately want to get out of high school.
“We really wanted to get through to the 8th graders that while it feels like a sort of insignificant thing, we really wanted to stress that students should look into the next 4 years in their high school career overall and see how the electives they take contribute to the big goals they want to achieve or what they want to get out of high school,” she said.
She believes the middle schoolers can easily find this experience in Yearbook. “Yearbook can really give you an opportunity to dedicate yourself to something for multiple years and invest enough that you get a lot out of it,” she said.
Instrumental music representative Newton Kwan had a similar approach, aiming to instill an interest in pursuing musical passion. “When I was in 8th grade, when the people from Campo came and played for us. It inspired me to go on and play at Campo. I was hoping to do the same thing, hoping that some people in band who were sitting there were inspired.”
The 8th grade class was divided into 2 groups, and while one group heard elective presentations, Campo counselors went over logistic and registration details with the other group. This informational session included scheduling meetings with their counselors to choose their classes for next year.
According to Kjorlien, the counselors also encourage students to look at the big picture. “We often go through a typical 4-year plan just to show them what credits look like and how many choices they have as they go through school here,” she said.
