As the first semester of the school year comes to an end, seniors have started to look forward to the future. Many East Grand Rapids graduates will go on to a university next fall, some will go into the trades, and others might join the workforce. Or, in other words, they’ll join “the real world.”
It’s no secret that East Grand Rapids is one of the more prestigious high schools in Michigan when it comes to education. The district consistently sends several students to the U.S. News’ top 25 colleges each year. The school places in the higher national percentiles in SAT standardized testing scores as well. East Grand Rapids helps foster impressive students thanks to top-notch resources and teachers, including on-campus tutors.
For the core curriculum, I think East Grand Rapids does a really good job of preparing students for the future. We offer many AP courses, the IB Diploma Program, and tons of honors courses. These are all supported by high-quality teachers and staff. This high-level core curriculum is one of the many things that helps give students an advantage in the college application process.
On the other hand, East Grand Rapids lacks the vocational and technical education that some bigger schools, specifically larger public schools offer. However, we do have KCTC programs that help suffice in these areas that lack certain skills.
Something else that, nationally, we have seen a decrease in, is classes such as cooking or typing. In the past, those were two classes that were offered at many schools around the nation.
East Grand Rapids also offers many college counseling and general counseling resources, especially now with the new “Zen Den”. These allow students to find the necessary resources they might need as they navigate through high school and life beyond high school without needing to go to a third party.
East Grand Rapids also offers a lot of extracurricular activities and clubs, which allow students to find and follow passions that they might have outside of the classroom. It’s also relatively easy to create a new club in the high school, meaning there are endless opportunities for students to get involved.
East Grand Rapids is also tough on its students. The courses are in general pretty rigorous and give students insight into what the real world will be like. Students are taught to handle adversity, something they’ll face for most of their lives, especially in the workplace. I think this is an important aspect of school. Education is more than just the facts and cold, hard information. It’s also about developing life skills.
All in all, East Grand Rapids does a good job of providing a well-rounded educational experience for its students. This helps prepare students for their future beyond high school significantly better than most students at most schools across the country.
