Editor’s note: This Letter to the Editor was contributed by students out of COMM:110

Students at Superior High School are offered Advanced Placement classes, dual
enrollment courses through local colleges and universities and multiple student activities,
although, how often are students being offered to leave the school and find new experiences?
We offer classes that cover careers and give us insight into who we wanna be in the future, but
often we don’t get to know the true experience of how our classes we take now will lead us into
our lives within the next decade.

Advanced Placement science courses are given the
opportunity to go to Chicago to explore science museums, which gives students the opportunity
to explore the class outside of the building. Superior High School offers a few dual enrollment
classes that allow students to receive college credit during their high school years. Many of
these dual enrollment classes are in the Language Arts Category, and to my knowledge there
are no field trips that take place with these classes. Through communication with other students,
we learned that many of these dual enrollment students would be interested in seeing what
these classes actually look like at universities. We have the opportunity to see these classes
with so many local colleges and universities around us; including: University of
Wisconsin-Superior, Northwood Technical College, Lake Superior College, St. Scholastica and
the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Many of these institutions offer classes that are the same, if
not similar to the classes offered here, but many feel they would benefit from being able to
connect with other students, and see how dual enrollment courses actually look like at an
institution.

Similar to dual enrollment classes, Advanced Placement classes are also offered at
the highschool. Each of these courses are heavily demanding, and show students what it is like
to be a college student. Superior High School takes pride in its academics, and acknowledges
the importance of the students who choose to take the challenge with these heavy courses.
Many students feel that with the already heavy course load, that some sort of field trip is
deserved that gives insight into the class. Whether that is exploring a university and seeing what
that class looks like in the institution, going to museums to explore the past, or exploring outside
of the high school what this class could lead to for a future career. When we come to the topic of
adding more field trips, the problem arises; who is gonna pay for these fees? For our sports at
the highschool, we do multiple fundraisers to lower the cost of fees and to fund transportation.
This includes the Hour-A-Thon, Spartan Cards, Gift Cards and Certificates and other fundraisers
that raise money for the activity. To help lower the cost of field trips, students in the designated
classes could do these fundraisers to fund the trips. In conclusion, students feel that adding
more field trips would be beneficial for themselves and to give insight into who they could be in
the future.