The Gamut February Issue 5 Part 1

Oxford Academy Vol. n 5 Issue N 4 February, 2009 o.

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Gamut

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Oxford Academy Vol. no. 5 Issue No. 3 dec, 2008

pg 3 The Dreaded Deadline

senior portfolio early by four months

pg 5

Photojournalism

all the different faces of a protest

pg 7

2008: A Year in Review

a mull over the serious and some of the strange

pg 9

Presidential Collectibles

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ecently, a friend of mine invited me to attend a lecture by the playwright Edward Albee. Born in 1928, the weathered writer, winner of several Pulitzers, author of the Zoo Story and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, was set to speak at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Saturday, February 7th. His theme for the night: art as a catalyst, the dangers of complacency, and the need for an active seizure of consciousness in order to make our lives, unlike those of his characters, actually worth anything. Neither of us attended (she was tutoring a friend in AP Government; I was grounded, and, after finals, didn’t have enough in me to put up a worthy fight). Though we’d both spent weeks devouring Who’s Afraid..., fearing Martha, pitying George, learning the difference between working in the history department and being the history department itself, we decided it’d be easier not to go. The distance was too far, the contracts were binding. In the battle between our love of the play and disinterest, disinterest slouched into first place and our love of the play, no less undying, bobbed off to the sidelines. This, for the most part, seems to be the raspy cri de coeur of the Oxford student. Seniors have given up doing homework. Juniors have stopped caring. Sophomores and freshman look ahead wondering, really, if they’re in this for the long haul, or if they’d be much better off joining their cohorts at Cypress and Kennedy, getting the A’s they otherwise couldn’t, struggling through one of their APs here. With only three months left in the school year, it’s too easy to give into our inner vagrants and leave our teachers with little more than rooms of blocks, silent, staring, wishing they were somewhere else. There’s time, still, to rediscover learning, to spend nights on the town, because high school is meant for us. As Albee said: “What could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn’t lived it?”

obama craze hits the ebay listings

pg 14

Why Not Whitney?

this year’s homecoming lacked the rivalry of past seasons

staff Allen Tran Alison Shawver Anh-Thu Tran Charlie Fierro Cory Hansen Diana Elazem Dominique Zamora Grace Yoo Guadalupe Ruelas Jessica Ayunani Jessica Lim John Hogan Julie Nguyen Katia Barron Mai-Anh Ha Medha Raj Min Lee Mousumi Shapna Islam Priya Chakrabarti Sarah Kim Thy Vo Vaibhav Birda William Trinidad

Adviser

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Hiba Taylor

positions Staff Writer Illustrator / Layout Staff Writer Sports Editor Staff Writer News Editor Editor-in-Chief Staff Writer Staff Writer Staff Writer Staff Writer Opinion Editor Staff Writer A&E / Lifestyle Editor Special Features Editor Staff Writer Associate Editor Staff Writer Financial Manager Layout Editor Staff Writer Staff Writer Staff Writer

FEBRUARY

Monday, 16 - - President’s Day (no school) Tuesday – Friday, 17-20 - - 9th, 10th, 11th Grade Registration Deadline Friday, 27 - - CEO Play; 8th Grade Regidtration Deadline Monday, 12 - - Spanish Trip to LACMA

MARCH

Wednesday, 4 - - FBLA Guest Speaker Friday -- Saturday, 6-7 - - OA Singers Broadway Show Tuesday – Friday, 20-23 - - Class of 2009 Activity at Medieval Times Tuesday – Wednesday, 10-11 - - VE Grand Opening

Front cover photo credit: “War is Kind”— Dominique Zamora

Administration implements new finals week schedule news

Students now receive a maximum of two final exams Allen Tran a day in an effort to reduce stress

Hoping to ease student stress and helped students both in terms of improve scores, the administration time management and preparation implemented a new bell schedule specifically designed for finals week, previously tested last spring semester. According to Principal Kathy Scott, the plan originated “from parents and students who had expressed concern over the excessive number of finals” in a single day during the block format. Students received two days of instruction in each class during the week, with the exception of seventh period. The first day, which lasted 60 minutes, was designed as a review session for students, and the second, a period of 90 minutes, was extended to permit time for full completion of the exam. Several teachers have supported this deviation from traditional block structure, but with some reservations. “Normally, in a block schedule, the maximum amount of tests I would [have needed] to write is two,” English teacher Kasey Spencer said. “With the Juniors Brandon Shinosky and Joanne Yuan finals week schedule, however, [I final. had] to write more tests in order to prevent the same information for the college exam structure. from appearing in two different “I [liked] the plan. Since this periods.” is a college preparatory school, we Others, however, believed it [were] able to mirror the college

exam format,” Spanish teacher Susan Stephan said. “Also, I think we were

use the given cluster time to prepare for

told enough in advance to avoid the problem [of shorter class time].” While teachers expressed mixed opinions on the fixture, students

widely embraced the change, enjoying additional study time and

a nice break on Monday,” junior Brandon Shinosky said. The new format especially appealed especially to the students who had firsthand experienced taking the maximum of four finals in the old block schedule. “Although the number of times you see a class is [decreased], at least the tests are evened out,” freshman Grace An said. “I remember in seventh grade there wasn’t a schedule, so some people would have up to four finals on the same day. It was a nightmare; it was not only stressful but impossible to study all the required information.” A suggestion students have brought up, however, is moving Enrichment prior to the finals to use the period for studying. “I [didn’t] like how we had [cluster] after the class with finals for that day,” junior Judy Park said. “It would [have been] better if we could study right before the test instead of after, but I still liked [the assurance] of not being bombarded with more than two their AP English Language and Composition finals each day.” With general support for the finals week proposal, Scott is confident that it will continue to reduced testing burdens. “I [liked] how it separates the be implemented from this point classes and since I [didn’t] have a forward, with adjustments to it if seventh period anyway, it [was] necessary.

Fundraising ban for non-academic Clubs that do not support a certain curricular are now clubs: unsure of their future budgets Priya Chakrabarti

Due to the recent auditing of two district schools, criteria banning non-curricular clubs from fundraising is now being enforced by the administration. All curricular clubs function through ASB accounts, which allow ASB Technician Donna Smith to keep records of their transactions. Noncurricular clubs have less accountability in their finances, the auditing of the other two district schools showed. Information regarding the schools and their audit remain undisclosed. “[Superintendent Joseph Farley] told [the principals] to ‘get your school in shape,’” Principal Kathy Scott said. “We’re in better shape than most other schools but we might get

audited.” If the school does get audited, a lack of clear transaction records for noncurricular clubs could pose potential problems. This is communicated to the clubs “when students complete the club application paperwork,” Scott said. Curricular clubs such as Math Club, Environmental Science Club and the Class Committees, support certain curricula (Math, Science and ASB, respectively). They have the right to fundraise because they “have an impact back to the school,” according to Scott, but “non-curricular clubs’ purposes should be to meet [only].” Because of this, the application

to create a curricular club is much more in depth; it requires an active adviser, a meeting place, a meeting time, a mission statement, whereas the application for a non-curricular club simply requires a name, an adviser simply to manage the room and a purpose. “The school must guarantee a right to assemble,” Scott said, but it “does not have to guarantee funding.” The enforcement, however, has come at an inopportune time for many clubs. Most already had planned their budgets for the current school year, expecting to fundraise in order to put on activities for the students.

The Character Education Officers (CEO), for instance, were not informed of the change until they had started planning their Family Game Night, which was postponed due to scheduling issues. “[Assistant Principal Ron] Hoshi told us we weren’t allowed to [charge money] in general and because of that, we couldn’t fundraise,” club president Jessica Avila said. “We decided to make [Family Game Night] free. The food would have had to come from funds we already had but most of the money that’s left is from last year,” Avila said. Other clubs with less roll-over funds do not have as much leniency. “[Gay-Straight Alliance] will now

be running completely on donations,” Alli Lindner, senior and co-founder of GSA, announced at a meeting on Dec. 19. Although clubs have approached the administration to William Trinidad ask for reconsideration, “schools are considered a captive audience,” Scott said. “We have to be careful since many non-curricular clubs are singleinterest and can’t be promoting [their cause].” Other information regarding the schools and their audit remain undisclosed.

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news

Fast forward the senior Earlier deadline confounds the portfolios majority of students and teachers

Anh Thu Tran and Allen Tran

As a result of the senior portfolio deadline being moved up from May to Jan. 29, seniors hastened to compile their folders in time, to the frustration of students. Reviews of lackluster performances from the 2007-2008 school year prompted this four month acceleration. “The reason for the change was to lower stress later in the year during AP exams and senior activities,” portfolio committee member Kasey Spencer said. “It also gives seniors a chance to reflect and revisit when their presentations are due in May.” It seemed to have the opposite effect, however. Students felt the additional stress as the date approached, with finals and college applications looming around the corner. “Making the portfolio due in the midst of finals is really straining our schedules,” senior Emily Yu said. “Teachers have told us that it would be due ‘sometime around the end of first semester,’ and that we’ve had a lot of time to prepare in advance, but the fact remains that there were college applications to worry about before the finals.” Measures had been taken to ensure this change would be well publicized. According to Spencer, “the committee informed all teachers of the adjustments at the first faculty meeting and did ongoing reminders through email and announcements, making the communication lapse between students and the faculty puzzling.” As stated in the guidelines on the Oxford Academy website, the senior presentation demonstrates academic growth

and achievement. In order to do this, students typically select their best assignments for their reflections, but this has proven insufficient for the panel. “The presentations have not been what I believe OA students are capable of overall,” Spencer said. “Those that truly look back and identify what they have put in and taken out enjoy the process and present honest presentations.” Another hurdle for the portfolios besides the time crunch was the apathy or hostility towards the process. “There has been a sense from students that this is a ‘hoop’ we are trying to get students to go through but the reality is several schools do something similar and it is valued by the entire staff and student body,” Spencer said. This modification was implemented not only to help students but also the panelists who will utilize this extended period to prepare. “The earlier deadline allows Diane Erickson, a senior cluster teacher, joins the portfolio committee this year along with other senior cluster panelists to have more time as teachers for the first time. well to review the portfolio, giving them an opportunity to really find out The lingering frustration for some “The end of February [just would have] about the person, enhancing the presentation seniors was that the same goal could have been a much better time,” senior Edwin Ng experience at the end for both parties,” been reached without the deadline’s collision said. with finals week. Spencer said.

California budget crisis brings about more cuts

Anh Thu Tran

School and district look to make small changes to accommodate

Already faced with an estimated $41.6 billion state budget deficit, the Anaheim Union High School District is working to find solutions that would minimize the impact of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s additional proposed $5.1 billion reductions in programs, staff, and the school year. The biggest change, though likely unsustainable, could be the shortening of the 180-day school calendar by five days. However, “there have been a few proposals that have sustained themselves and have some legitimacy,” Principal Kathy Scott said. “The main one [is] categorical funding. The governor has freed us from the restrictions on them and allowed us to put it in the general funds.” This freedom could alleviate some of the burdensome costs by allowing money that was previously allotted only for a specific area such as Visual and Performing Arts to be used to “pay bills and meet basic needs,” and spent however the school sees fit.

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As unlikely as inducting a shorter school year is, the district is prepared to fund the full 180 days and continue operating despite rumors about not being able to make payroll in a few months. “Our district has been really good at maintaining their reserve,” Scott said. “Every district is supposed to maintain a certain percentage. Our district has done that faithfully so if for some reason our district were to run out of money, [they] can at least do payroll…through this school year without any trouble and hopefully by that the time, the state has worked out financials.” Yet the problem still remains that more costs will have to be cut across the board in addition to the $17 million saved through personnel cuts last year. According to an update from Supt. Joseph Farley, the state has said the district needs to cut $37 million within the next two years. “We’ve already cut 17 [million] so they’re looking this year how to take out about $11

million and next year $8-9 million,” Scott said. “[They are] looking at it line by line to save some expenses.” Further complicating the situation is how the budget cuts may compromise the block schedule and enrichment periods that are costing the district more with Oxford teachers being paid the same amount for less instructional time. “I think the next step is [the district] will either meet with me again or they’ll actually meet with our staff and give us some options,” Scott said. “My goal is to keep the block schedule and maintain cluster and enrichment.” As additional time is needed to work out the issue, the district has made efforts to streamline the budget cuts by looking into each department and asking where unnecessary costs can be eliminated. “Just in [Farley’s office] alone, he said we can save $50,000. That’s not even one full teacher salary package but it’s at least a bit and

if everybody did that, it adds up,” Scott said. The district has also initiated changes such as blacking out schools that are not summer school sites. In previous years, the electricity was still running in every building, allowing teachers to ask for a key and work in their classrooms during the summer. “If you do that in 22 schools, you’ll save thousands of dollars. That’s what’s good about our district,” Scott said. “They could easily say we’re going to cut personnel one more time, but they’re being very thoughtful about where we’re being very careless in our expenditures and that’s probably in electricity, our utilities.” Despite the numerous anticipated cuts that will affect the school, Scott and the district are confident there will always be funds available to keep the school running. “It’s…uncertain times, but if we just keep focused on what we’re supposed to be doing, we’ll get through it and make it the least painful as possible for everybody,” Scott said.

Fieldtrip engages seniors’ sports medicine knowledge

news

Sports medicine students learn outside the classroom The sports medicine class, which explores the biomechanics of the human body as it relates to athletic training, took a field trip to Chapman University on Jan. 15 to learn from undergraduates pursuing careers as certified athletic trainers.      Athletic trainer Cory Hauge has been teaching the sports medicine course for the past three years and taking students to Chapman University for the second time this year.       “It was an experience to enrich the students beyond the classroom,” Hauge said. “They got to see a first class athletic facility including an athletic training room with features that we don’t have at this school.”       The workshop began Senior Jesus Quintana and a Chapman Univeristy undergraduate demonstrate to the group how to use the TENS unit. with the seniors learning how the Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) unit works to but you can’t control your hand,” Cameron what preventive measures athletes take temporarily treat acute pain by placing the Haygood said. “I got Taylor [Jacobsen]’s hand in order to avoid common injuries such as electrodes on a partner’s skin. to curl inwards.” the tearing of the knee’s anterior cruciate The setting on the TENS unit can get high       The second part of the Chapman ligament (ACL).  enough that “it [feels] like the arm [is] asleep, University workshop focused on learning “We actually had to exercise, which

News-in-Brief

Talent Show M. Shapna Islam The annual talent show hosted by ASB Senate, entitled “Viva La Talent,” will feature performers ranging from ballet dancers to instrumental groups. The two ballet solos will be performed by junior Christina del Carmen, to Frank Sinatra’s “Ring a Ding Ding” and eighth grader Sophia Morgan, to “Swan Lake.” “Christina and Sophia’s performances are both ballet but their styles are different,” Hoang said. “Christina’s number is jazzy and Sophia’s is classical.” Freshman Phoebe Kim and junior Roger Bian, have a piano medley duet. “They auditioned with two keyboards side by side, but we hope to bring in grand pianos for the actual show,” ASB VicePresident Victoria Hoang said. Another group consists of juniors Alex Ung, David Kim, Jonathon Kim, Chase Hetting, Christopher Leon, Brian St. Claire and Joseph Bulone who will perform “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder with a multitude of instruments. “That group has a saxophone, trumpet, drums and different electric guitars,” ASB Senate member Christine Alvior said. “Seeing them all together on stage at their audition was really interesting to watch.”

M. Shapna Islam

nobody thought would happen,” Jessica Ly said. “I wish we could have been told earlier because then I would have worn a more comfortable shirt.”      The day ended with the students practicing how to place injured people on spine boards.      “Even though we did that last year with Mr. Cullinane, we realized that it’s an important skill because the football players could injure their spine or neck and need to be escorted off the field,” Megan Blumenthal said. “It was interesting experience for me since I want a career in sports medicine.”      The field trip cemented the students’ knowledge of human anatomy. Also, the idea of college and career became a near reality.      “I had never been to a college before and seeing college students eating, walking, and working on campus got me realizing that that’s going to be me in a few more months,” Lauren Cantu said.

Positive character emulated through commemorative award to keep alive her memory in the award: Proposed hearts and minds of Oxford students Priya Chakrabarti

Judy Nguyen, member of the class of 2004, was killed in a car crash in August 1999. Her memory remains a part of Oxford’s history, but a Judy Nguyen Award would ensure she is not forgotten. French teacher Ann Powell-Cordon plans to sponsor, or propose, the Judy Nguyen Character Award to the administration in the near future. Known as a “very kind person,” according to Powell-Cordon, Judy Nguyen was also “an exceptional student.” In order to keep her memory alive, “we should have a Judy Nguyen award recognizing the good qualities of this wonderful child” that are exemplified in other students at Oxford, Powell-Cordon said. Such an award, given to someone who demonstrates the pillars of character, would create an overall positive atmosphere. “The Judy Award would [go to] someone, not necessarily the most vocal or outgoing […] but someone who exhibits positive actions in their daily life,” teacher Jenni Jensen said.

Furthermore, the award would remind students of the impact they have on both the learning community and the outside worlds they participate in daily. “Even if you are not physically present you leave behind a legacy - for Judy it was her amazing heart and her genuine positive caring personality. Students may stop and reconsider their behavior,” Jensen said. The summer before Nguyen’s eighth grade year on the way home from a vacation, Nguyen and her mother were asleep without their seat belts on. When one of the tires blew out, both were thrown forward and killed. For those that knew her, “it was devastating. It messed them up for the whole year [because] they couldn’t accept that she was gone,” teacher Bruce Stevens said. Nguyen had hopes to write novels. Even after her death almost ten years ago, her family made sure that her love of books lived on at Oxford. To commemorate her life and dreams, Michael Nguyen, Judy’s father, “donated

$25,000 to Oxford Academy so she could give her classmates the world’s great literature,” said columnist Paige Austin in the OC Register on Mar. 2, 2002 in “Sad tale fills library annex.” A decade later, what has come to be known as the Judy Tree still lies directly in front of room 503. Originally planted as Oxford’s first Christmas tree, it was renamed after her the next year as a tribute to her memory. Judy’s death taught students “life is truly a gift and each day should be lived as though it were the last,” senior Kimly Phamvan said. Even with the Judy Tree and the plaque in the library that recognizes both Nguyen’s dreams and her father’s generosity, few students remember the person for whom the tree stands in the quad. The Judy Award would remedy that. “[The award would recognize] a young girl who is still in the minds of [the original] teachers. It would keep her memory alive, recognizing an Oxford student that characters dignity, integrity, and perseverance,” Powell-Cordon said.

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opinion

All the Different Faces Mai-Anh Ha

Photo Credit: Dominque Zamora

It’s hard to describe a protest. Suddenly, everyone cares. People clump, feel all the better for it in the shared warmth of their breath: “yes, yes, I agree.” They speak earnestly, each word firm, each word reverberating with emotion. They protest police brutality, wish for peace, scream for support and aid: they carry signs. They are Arab. They are Korean. They are Communist. They are insane conspiracy-theorists. They are children, teenagers, adults. They are all the different faces of a protest. They might be wrong. They might be right. Their priority, however, is

to convince the passerbys, the world that the fighting must stop, people are dying, too many. I know, because I asked, wandering on the street, recorder outstretched, looking at them, listening to them, asking them questions. I admire their resilience, their willingness to stand after dark, posters up while I’m tucking the recorder into my pocket and heading home. I shrug off strife half a world away in Gaza, in any of the small or large tumultuous places so distant from the shuffling papers of school, not because I don’t care, but because what can I do? Not much, but standing in the cold, they’re willing

to take the time, to bare themselves and their message to the world. They connect, these jumble of people who are immigrants; second, third, fourth-generation; students (there are always students); completely insane; entirely too sane and grave, knowing of horrors or just imagining them. Right now, they speak of Gaza, elsewhere they murmur over same-sex marriage and in yet another place they’re changing the world one voluntary hand and mind at a time. They’ve jumped off the fence, faced the bull, and charged, inflammatory posters in hand.

Oh, the Humanities!

John Hogan

Before the Cold War heated up in the 1950’s, most students in the United States experienced a decidedly light homework load. In 1948, American high schoolers were doing an average of 3 to 4 hours of homework--per week. Just 35 years before that, Ladies’ Home Journal, that paragon of housewife sensibility, waged a campaign against homework, getting parents and doctors to say that it damages the health of children. Even the government was on board, with several states, including California, passing anti-homework laws around the turn of the century. But the Red Scare of the 1950s changed the minds of those politicians, parents, and PhDs, who started to believe that if the United States wanted to defeat the Soviets, American children had to work harder. Given that all this work was in preparation for a shooting war with the USSR, in which bombs rather than books would play a key role, the Cold War not only marked the ascent of

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homework, but also catapulted math and science to the top of America’s educational pantheon. Today, math and science still occupy this lofty position, due to the dual threats of an increasingly educated Chinese population and global warming. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) says that “winning the challenge of China and India will require profound domestic transformations, especially in math and science education” and that “we should experiment with paying students for taking...math and science.” Such an attitude of favoritism for the sake of the country exists on both sides of the aisle with President Barack Obama stating he will “prioritize” math and science over other subjects. The result of this trend are schools like Oxford, and that’s not a compliment. If you want to take an advanced math class as a sophomore, then there’s no problem, yet only one semester of economics is available, and the curriculum

of that semester seems geared more toward toddlers than young adults. Where’s AP World History and Psychology? If we have the time and the funds to teach calculus, a subject that goes beyond the math requirement for graduation, then we have the time and the funds to teach sociology. Not providing social science and humanities electives is essentially punishing a student because his academic interests don’t align with the nation’s academic interests. Quoting Mark Twain, “this is irregular. It is un-English; it is un-American; it is French.” It is placing the collective above the individual, the very antithesis of American political belief. We cannot herd students towards the maths and sciences when they are more adept at the work of social science and humanities. Trying to force a square peg into a round hole inevitably breaks either the peg or the hole. Either way, society loses.

Sexting, Can I? As the evolution of the cell phone has progressed, it has changed from a barely mobile device few possessed has changed into a calculator, calendar, phone, computer, and camera all in one. But there is a new use for the cell phone now and, as some Pennsylvania teenagers can attest, it may bring the police bearing down on you: sexting. Two teenage girls were caught sending nude pictures of themselves to two teenage boys after one boythe recipient’s teacher confiscated his phone. While Not just an obnoxious portmanteau, the practice of sending nude pictures with text messages is a felony and considered distributingon of child pornography. The arrest of the Pennsylvanian girls brings questions of self expression to light which should be investiagated. Child pornography laws were created to protect children from stranger danger, not prosecute those willfully displaying their bodies. While this it may sound crude, thies arrest is demonstrative of the repressive fetishization of the human body and the incessant double standard presented to teenagers: – be seen but not heard while acting adult – , to a point. The teenagers were not sending the photos to adults nor were they coerced,. iIt was a voluntary activity, but because they teenagers are noweren’t of the “age of consent,” they automatically lose any rightthe

right to express themselves. The expectation is for teenagers to behave as adults, but only so far as they remain within the box of appropriate behavior ascribed to kids: – un-sexed, docile

and pure. This is not just an isolated incident, either; according to the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, twenty 20 percent of teenagers are reported to engage in

opinion

Cory Hansen

sexting. The arrest of the Pennsylvanian teens demonstrates a law out of touch with societyreality. The overzealous police law enforcementare prudishly restricting the behavior of a large percent of the population, but since because the law makers are adults and the law only pertains to child pornography, the cops and teacher may send photos of themselves to whomever they please. Because of this,, the disconnect between youth culture and laws affecting teenagers may be inevitable. Were this law and the prudish assumptions it upholds further enforced, those twenty percent could be arrested and taken to juvenile hall and labeled sex offenders. But unlike the rest of the people in juvenile hall, those teens would have not harmed anyone but merely been experimenting with their sense of self, a natural part of growing older. The repression of sexting is society’s white whale, and stigmatizing it will only further compound the problem. The issue is not a couple of kids sending pictures to each other, but the way sexuality is automatically dismissed as an important conversation. The birds and the bees are a little outdated for the new hi-tech world. Sexuality has gone viral and shouting “felon” isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Working a Year Off Guadalupe Ruelas

A grand tour of Europe was long considered a prerequisite for young British aristocrats entering a university. After World War II, the British see the gap year, or taking a year off before college, as a means to further world peace and even today, roughly 100,000 British students delay college. But the gap year is often regarded with apprehension here in the States. Living for an entire 365 days without entering a classroom, especially after twelve years of faithfully reporting back to school at the end of every summer, is seen as time ill spent. Students and their parents, however, fail to understand that the gap year is not without purpose. Especially in these declining economic times, the gap year can save doubtful students thousands of dollars by allowing them to explore career options before investing in college. For most seeking a career, college and students loans are inevitable, but being sure about what direction you want to take in life, even if it means taking a year off to make that decision, is better than meandering aimlessly through

college, flitting from major to major. Hesitant students enter college with vague career aspirations. They flirt with various options, dabbling in philosophy for a year, medicine the next, before finally settling on a major. Statistics for the National Center for Education show that 65 percent of students entering a four year college will not graduate in four years and 43 percent will not graduate in six years. With the average price for a private four-year private college currently at $23,712 per year, loss due to indecision is not minimal. However, soaring costs are less to blame than students’ inability choose a career. The root of the problem is the decision itself. Students do not know what their career aspirations are, or how to reach a conclusion. With 18 years of limited experience, it is difficult to come to a choice. A gap year allows students to explore their options. Volunteering at an orphanage can inspire a student to become a pediatrician, a social worker, or even a teacher. Working at a hospital can allow a prospective doctor to discover his queasiness of blood before he invests

money into a medical career. If volunteering is not an option, students can work during the gap year. The average graduating senior accumulates a loan of $29,000 for private universities; more if an undergraduate education is pursed. Consider this: if you wait tables for sixty hours a week at minimum wage for a year, you would have earned $5,760 before tax deductions. Although $5,760 might not seem like a lot, that is approximately one-sixth of the average loan. Also, employers generally consider students who take a year off to work better-rounded than those who do not. While the gap year is not tailored to the needs of every student, it allows the undecided to explore their interests before investing money into an increasingly expensive education. The essence of a successful gap year, however, is to keep active, whether it is gaining experience at a hospital or earning money to pay imminent student loans. Taking a year off is no longer a luxurious rite of passage for aristocrats, but something we can all now afford.

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