3 Campo seniors petitioned for the college schoolhouse map to be moved from the College and Career Center back to A Hall on Monday, May 13.
While working in the library during class, seniors Emily Doherty, Annie Guo, and Hae-Lin Kim realized that the college map had been moved to the College and Career Center. Feeling dissatisfied with its new location, they decided to petition to have it returned to its original location in A Hall.
Doherty and Guo want the college map to be moved back because the board had resided next to the Main Office for many years. Students who walk through A Hall looked at the schoolhouse board and were interested in it, according to Doherty and Guo. They believe that the board’s relocation to the College and Career Center prevents seniors from showcasing their pride for the school they will be attending the following year and from seeing their peers’ colleges in an easily accessible place.
“It is a Campo tradition to have the schoolhouses in the main office. We’ve all been looking forward to is since we were freshman,” Doherty said.
Guo has enjoyed seeing the schools other students were attending and dreaming about adding her own schoolhouse to the board someday. “I’d always looked forward to having my own and to see where other Campo students were heading to college.”
Doherty believes that the schoolhouses should be placed in A Hall in order to showcase student achievement in a more relevant location. Feeling that the board was tucked away in the library, she wanted the board moved back to the Main Office, so that students’ schoolhouses would be more noticeable. “We do not believe that college success was adequately showcased in the College and Career Center. We do not want the college map to be put in the back corner where no one will see it,” she explained.
“I think it’s a good way to showcase how hard Campo students have worked. It’s also interesting and inspiring for underclassmen and parents to see the schools these students will be attending,” Guo said. According to Guo, the location did not facilitate student and parent access.
“I think it’s being proud of the work that you’ve done and showing school pride in the one you will be attending,” Doherty explained.
“People should be proud of where they’re going,” Guo said.
The petition gathered approximately 200 signatures.
Doherty attributes the success of the movement to the traditional background of the schoolhouses and students’ memories of admiring the college map while walking through A Hall as underclassmen. “I think that a lot of us have looked forward to getting our school house, decorating it, and putting it on the board,” she said.
It was moved to the College and Career Center due to lack of participation. Last year, so few students submitted schoolhouses that there was discussion of not having a map, according to College and Career Counselor Gwenly Carrel. “Over the past several years, the number of houses has declined. Not as many have been put up. At the end of last year there was a question as to why that was,” she said.
As college application becomes more and more competitive, it is likely that an increase in disappointment from college choices has led to the substantial lack of houses in comparison to past years.
“The admissions process has changed and for some of the students that didn’t get into their top choices, they feel like their college choice is something they don’t want to share,” Carrel said.
Therefore, at the end of last year, the board was relocated to the College and Career Center. Carrel does not believe that the area in which the board is placed has any effect upon the spirit of putting up a schoolhouse. “The tradition still continues, just in a different location,” she said.
The seniors who came to Carrel with the petition surprised her because she did not believe that the relocation would be of any consequence to the senior class, as the move was prompted by the decline in interested students. After hearing their reasoning for moving the college map back, she was happy to fulfill their request.”Feedback is important. If you have a voice, use it,” she said. Carrel placed the board back in the glass showcases in A Hall the next day.
Carrel explained that the significance of the board is to showcase where students will be attending college, studying at a vocational school, traveling the globe, interning for a company, or joining the workforce. “Let us know where you are going to be, it’s not about what school you are going to. It’s a chance to show where you’ll be after graduating from Campo,” she said.
Carrel encourages students to participate in putting up schoolhouses. “For those students who want a place to celebrate their achievement, they can put a schoolhouse up,” she said.
