The age-old question: what do students do after school? The vast majority of responses can be summed down to three answers: either students do sports, have a job or do nothing. But with modern times come new ways to spend your time and these answers change. There are new opportunities to add to the mix: internships, college and more.
“I work once a week and take classes at Montgomery College (MC) twice a week,” WCHS senior Lana Abuoaid said. “I work as a tutor at Kumon so I can have money to buy things for college. My classes are for General Education college credits so I do not have to worry about that in the future.”
Taking college classes after school has become common for many WCHS seniors at Churchill. Many simply do a half-day, which is four class periods at Churchill, then go to MC for a class. Abuoidad is taking the Science of Psychology and Communications. However, there is a wide range of classes students can choose from: from English Literature to Economics and Computer Science.
“After lunch, I start driving to MC,” Abuoaid said. “Then at 1:45 I typically drive back home, do homework for an hour, then at 3:30 I drive to work as a tutor and end at 6:15. I have a pretty good schedule and balance it well with school and life.”
Another option many Churchill students have started taking up is an internship. WCHS senior Isabel Ginsburg is volunteering at Rosie’s Farm Sanctuary in the afternoons, a non-profit farm animal sanctuary in Potomac, Maryland. Just like Abuoaid, she takes half-day classes.
“At Rosie’s Farm, I help with the animals, feed them and work with the supervisor,” Ginsburg said. “I like working with animals because I want to be a marine biologist or a veterinarian in medicine, and this helps me expand my knowledge and skillset outside of school.”
Ginsburg works at Rosie’s Farm three times a week from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. She takes scuba classes bi-weekly virtually on Mondays, with a non-school affiliated organization. She also participates as a member of the Backstage Crew for school productions and musicals. In addition, she works at a local synagogue as a counselor in the mornings. All in all, it adds up to a pretty unique, decent-sized balance of extracurricular activities.
“I want to be a marine biologist or a veterinarian,” Ginsburg said. “I worked at a marine biology internship over the summer, and now I am working with animals. I feel like this internship is helping me understand what I want to do more and commit to it. Even though it can be a lot, I can balance it because of good time planning and the fact I only have four classes, which are easier to balance than a full course load.”
But internships are really a large commitment. Can a student really balance it all with their workload? On top of a school day, homework, a social life and other commitments, time starts feeling pretty claustrophobic.
“I work for four periods, go home, do homework and go to my internship,” Ginsburg said. “But I still feel like my workload is manageable and balanced.”