Through four years of hard work, Wauconda has had students with several accomplishments. Whether you walk through the entrance door, or the events hall door, there are plenty of medals, trophies, banners, and plaques signifying the hard work of student athletes, prodigies, or overall talented teenagers.
On daily announcements we hear about these said achievements, but what does it take to get to the point of success? How are students able to balance school work along with their passions? Isaac Feryance, a senior at Wauconda, states “A Lot of the supports from teachers and staff and just generally the support of the environment has been helpful to encourage me to do better and to try harder and just give me the ability to put my skills and knowledge to use” Isaac Feryance is apart of the Youth advisory club, and that club won a blue ribbon award meaning he, a youth sector, got to go to the white house to receive the award. By doing that and “Being exposed to… alot of different things and a lot of different people allows me to understand better how the world works and what I can do in the future. Being able to, as I said before, going to the white house gets you exposed to different kinds of things and different kinds of people that you may not have been able to do just on your own”
It is important for a student to explore their interests and expand their horizons to what they are interested in and capable of doing. By doing a sport or club in high school, you can learn a variety of skills like sportsmanship, communication, and knowledge depending on what you do. Learning new skills can be fun but can also allow students to increase their academic performance. For sports, nfhs.org informs readers that “Participating in high school athletics has long-lasting, definitive benefits, especially when athletic leaders create an environment that challenges and rewards the growth mindset. When participants are supported in this way, they develop lifelong habits that transcend high school (Amaro, 2020, p.1).” On the other hand, for joining a club, nces.ed.gov states “[club] activities offer opportunities for students to learn the values of teamwork, individual and group responsibility, physical strength and endurance, competition, diversity, and a sense of culture and community. Extracurricular activities provide a channel for reinforcing the lessons learned in the classroom, offering students the opportunity to apply academic skills in a real-world context, and are thus considered part of a well-rounded education (Extracurricular Participation and Student Engagement, 1995, p.1).”
Having school activities and clubs can set a student up for the right path because school allows students to explore different interests and sports. This is why it is important for a high school to implement classes like Culinary, different science based classes, and AP classes. Isaac Feryance also says, “Throughout high school I have been able to learn some skills that definitely help me out in the future like…in my engineering class, PLTW (Project Lead the Way) I’ve managed to get a CNC licnese which if you don’t know, that can get me jobs straight out of highschool and i think that kind of thing will help me after.”
Trying new things in highschool is a good opportunity due to the four years of exploring the different areas a school opens a teen up to. Medium.com let’s teens know that “Every time you choose a new experience over fear, you build courage. You show yourself that you’re capable of more than you thought. As you get older, each new experience will come easier than the one before. You will conquer fear and live an amazing life (Bockius, 2017, p.4).”
In conclusion, if your an upcoming senior, go out and try a club, sport, or academic activity because, who knows, it might just be something you’ll end up loving and setting a bright future for. If you want to know about past students, check out Megan Burns article “Alumni and their successes”
