The Electives Dept. continues the College-Ready tradition by offering subjects which support core classes while also offering students an introduction to college-level coursework in various
academic disciplines (see this link for any and all of the things you can study in college).
Currently, this amounts to classes offered by the
Art Department and the
Spanish Department as well as other specialized courses which address the interests and needs of various academic disciplines, including
The Arts,
The Liberal Arts, the
Social Sciences, and the
Technological Sciences.
THE ARTS
Art II (prerequisite Art I, taken with Venegas): This is a drawing class, primarily, and focuses on students who are considering Art as a ajor in college. Students will craft and create an Art Portfolio to distribute to prospective colleges and universities for admission into their Art Program.
Associated Academic Disciplines, Careers, & Professional Organizations
ArtGraphic DesignVisual ArtsArt HistoryHumanities
Filmmaking / Yearbook (requires Department consent): This course centers largely around creation of the school's annual yearbook, with some additional emphasis on film and sound editing, and the creation of a music video.
Associated Academic Disciplines, Careers, & Professional Organizations
FilmArt
Visual Arts
Art History
Graphic Design
Humanities
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
AP Spanish (requires Department consent)Associated Academic Disciplines, Careers, & Professional OrganizationsSpanishLinguistics
History
Spanish III (requires Department consent)
Associated Academic Disciplines, Careers, & Professional OrganizationsSpanishLinguistics
History
THE LIBERAL ARTS
African-American & Latin American Studies
Do you want a clearer understanding of the history, culture, and reality of these two peoples of color and their American experience? Would you like to learn more about the impact of these cultures on American reality, and of the history of discrimination they have endured within its patriarchal, predominantly White power structure, a topic that is often left out of mainstream textbooks? Do you wonder where these two groups are headed, what hurdles and victories still await them, and how they will further integrate their perspective into the larger American mythology and culture?
Associated Academic Disciplines, Careers, & Professional Organizations
African American StudiesLatin American StudiesCultural StudiesHistorySociology
Peer Mediation Do you want to learn how to stop arguing with your parents (or anybody, for that matter) by the end of the first class? Do you wish you could help
others stop arguing so much? Are you interested in a career in Psychology, Law, Social Work, International Relations or Peace Studies (to name just a few)? Are you curious about how our emotional landscape, and our ability to control the way we talk to and interact with others, affect how calm we are from moment to moment? Do you wish you could just escape all the drama and focus on the stuff that really matters?
Peer Mediation is grounded in an exploration of Ethics, from the Greeks to 20th Century Social Ethical perspectives, and then progresses through various approaches to conflict resolution, explorations of the causes and prevention of group conflict, and ultimately allows graduates to develop a skill-set that enables them to successfully mediate conflicts amongst their peers.
Associated Academic Majors, Careers, & Professional OrganizationsPsychologyLawPeace & Conflict StudiesSocial WorkCommunication StudiesPhilosophySociologyInternational RelationsPolitical Science
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Psychology
This class will focus on ideas of the mind, emotions, and cognition. What is memory, what is thinking, and how do we learn? What are dreams? How does our brain affect our motivations, and what guides behavior? How do we understand and interact with others, what is personality, and how do we treat psychological imbalances?
This course is an introduction to scientific exploration of human psychology and behavior. The course includes a survey of the historical, physiological, and social influences on behavior, emphasizing development, learning, motivation, perception, cognition, mental health, individual and cultural differences, as well as the cause, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders.
Associated Academic Majors, Careers, & Professional OrganizationsPsychologySociologySocial Work
