Students speak at College Board Forum

McKenna JensenStaff WriterSeniors Emily Getoff, Leah Artenian and Esme Levy traveled to San Francisco on Friday, Feb. 25 to present at the AP College Board’s Western Regional Forum to discuss the implementation of a post-AP exam project, accompanied by English teacher and College Board Academic Chair of the Western Region, Pete Barraza.The “AP Challenge” is an assignment that takes place after the AP exams and allows students to devote their time to a community project. Samohi is one of many schools beginning to incorporate the project into AP curriculum.  Last year in Barraza’s class, the students dedicated their efforts to saving the elementary school music programs in the district, as well as illustrating the relationship between playing music and academic achievement. When presenting to the forum attendees, the students outlined the project, showing the effect it has on both the students and the community.“For the Western Regional Forum, we created an hour and fifteen minute PowerPoint presentation discussing the importance of going beyond the AP exam, and how we applied the skills we learned in Barraza’s class to reach out to the community in the form of the AP Challenge,” Levy said.According to Artenian, the students conducted the presentation in front of nearly 40 college board members, including the one of the board’s vice presidents. They provided details about their specific project, as well as the importance of implementing similar programs into other high school courses.“The skills you learn in an AP class are valuable outside of the classroom,” Barraza said. “Although the idea stemmed from AP courses, the goal is to expand to other [classes] as well, and to take advantage of the skills taught in AP classes in larger scale situations.”When they were not preparing for the conference, the students had the opportunity to explore the city.“We went to the Museum of Modern Art, and we got to go to City Lights Bookstore, which was a famous hangout for Beatnik writers like Allen Ginsberg,” Getoff said. “It was an amazing trip - so much fun and really empowering.”Barraza has participated in these conferences over the last few years because of his position on the Academic Committee of the Western Region, but he decided to ask students to accompany him this year in order to most effectively convey the importance and impact of the Challenge. Levy believes that her contribution to the conference will aid the College Board in improving the AP curriculum, and expanding the courses to include real-world elements.“I came out of the presentation feeling slightly more at ease about the future of AP classes,” Levy said. “We let the College Board know that there is much more to education than tests — without applying the skills we learn in our classes to the ‘real world,’ the purpose is lost.”mjensen@thesamohi.com