Like many other high schools, North allows its students to leave school during certain hours of the day. A lot of this can include grabbing lunch, finding a good place to study, or catching a break during a FLEX Period. However, many programs like Early College, EIP, CNA, among others, may require students to leave during the day for a certain amount of credit hours. 

   “I go to Metropolitan Community College for my college classes because I’m an Early College Academy student. My classes are at Maple Woods, and I have two classes Monday & Wednesday and then two other classes Tuesday & Thursday,” senior Salome Conteron said. 

   Different programs can have specific ways of altering a student’s schedule at North. Senior Adrianna Hudnall is in the Certified Programs strand of Northland Center for Advanced Professional Studies. Hundall describes how it affects her schedule as she studies to get her medical assistant certifications. 

   “I like how it’s at the beginning of my day. I’m in my internship 1st-3rd Hour. So I start my day there and then go to school for my last few classes,” Hudnall said. 

   Internships take up space in students’ schedules, however. Senior Philia Mereb, in the Certified Nursing Assistant program, has encountered these scheduling issues. 

   “I wanted more classes but couldn’t because I needed to implement FLEX. If I were to have other classes, it would’ve maybe been French or some Fine Art class,” Mereb said. 

   Even with potential conflicts, many students find their internships worthwhile in the end with how it affects their schedules. Bryce Folkers in the Digital Media strand details how his schedule benefits him with the NCAPS program. 

   “What I like about my schedule is that I have time to go home and relax for a minute before I go to the NCAPS location. It’s really amazing because you can either do almost all morning or afternoon strand depending on what your schedule looks like,” Folkers said. 

   While these programs are attainable for many students to do, it is important to many that students should be more involved in these programs due to their intended benefits. 

   “They send emails that say ‘Go to Area Career Center or Northland or do Early College’. I really think they should do a presentation on it saying, ‘You should really get into Early College because you can get your Associate’s in two years and it really won’t be that difficult whatsoever’. I really think that it should be more pushed,” junior Juliana Stigler said. 

Austin’s Experience with Real-World Learning

Senior Austin Syler:

I was selected from 6 people in our school district as a Kuaffman ambassador to promote RWL (Real World Learning). We go downtown once a month to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. When we go down there, we talk to other schools around the KC Metro area, learn about RWL, and promote ideas for RWL. We have two events coming up where we will be able to promote RWL. The first is “Get On The Bus,” where we will go to Union Station and talk to administrators and district employees all over the KC Metro area. We also have the RWL conference, where we will talk to educators and leaders about RWL and MVAs (market value assets). We not only learn and promote RWL at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, but we also bring back what we learn and promote RWL at our schools. We do activities like setting up tables at lunch and meeting with district advisors to talk about RWL and how we can improve it. We also interview people about their RWL opportunities and how they found out about RWL. We do this so we can share their stories and make improvements to RWL in our district.