Enrolling In The Best: A looking inside staffers favorite electives East has to offer

Approaching the halfway mark of my junior year, I’ve experienced the class-enrollment-stress three too many times. Deciding which electives to take can be overwhelming, and I always end up asking upperclassmen for advice on what electives they found most interesting and beneficial in the long run. 

Their advice helped me navigate my way through the many classes East has to offer. Here is a look into some of my favorite electives I’ve taken at East with some tips to help you make the decision when enrolling for next year. 

FAID

Marking my enrollment sheet for my sophomore year, the Fashion Apparel Interior Design (FAID) class caught my attention from the description which outlined the creative aspects of the class. I’ve always had an interest in fashion and design but have never known how to pursue that interest — besides bingeing season two of America’s Next Top Model in a 48-hour period. 

Walking into the classroom on the first day I felt the anxiety of seeing all new faces and not knowing anyone — the perfect opportunity to make new friendships. As class periods flew by throughout the year at the “blue” table, I continually became closer with my classmates, discussing topics further than art like what we all did that weekend or how we’re all drowning in our Chemistry homework.   

FAID became the class that I looked forward to during the day as every other class inched by — it was an escape from my unwritten english essay that allowed me to expand my creative abilities. 

I expanded my art portfolio by learning to use a sewing machine,  understanding how to match fabrics by using patterns and the different shades of colors. It almost felt like I was gaining more knowledge from simply studying design elements and fashion trends than I would with a regular core class.

If you’re in need of an art credit and interested in expanding your knowledge of everything fashion and style, you should definitely put FAID down on your enrollment sheet.

PAINTING

I was hesitant to follow through with my sixth hour painting class once realizing it was going to be completely virtual for the time being. I was a little bummed because of the limited projects due to being at home, but curious to see how the painting teachers would make the class fun but also beneficial. 

The class was better that I had initially expected even for the limited time spent in it. After doing trigonometry in CAT and almost falling asleep learning about rhetorical analysis in english, painting gave me the opportunity to finally sit down and relax — it was my window of freedom from the weighted stress of junior year. My teacher, Jodie Schnakenberg, or Schnaks, encourages everyone to have as much creative room to explore and paint anything that interests you — with guidelines of course.

Schnaks gives us overall rules and assignments but allows creative freedom when deciding how to go about projects. When the painting becomes a reflection of what I love, whether that’s the sunset or pretty pastel colors, the hour and thirty minute class feels like it flies by. 

And Schnaks didn’t stop short when it came to remote learning. She made sure we still got to learn the basics of how to add a shadow to your painting or draw a still life.

I became very familiar with how to work with different watercolor techniques and enjoyed the relaxation painting brought to me. 

I definitely recommend trying painting if you’re looking to put your mind at ease and get in touch with your creative side. Painting allowed me to discover my newfound love for watercolor — resulting in a new hobby. 

HEALTH

Okay, I’ll admit it. My main motive when signing up for Health sophomore year was to get one more graduation requirement out of the way. I won’t sugar coat the fact that this class is far from entertaining unless you really have a niche for everything health related, but I ended up somewhat enjoying it.

I didn’t mind the PowerPoint notes or the projects highlighting different diseases and going into depth about physical and mental health. I was interested in learning the valuable information I’ll take with me in life like how to cope with mental health and how to perform Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.

Occasionally, we would have guest speakers come in and talk to the class, which was my personal favorite aspect of the class. One speaker, an East alum, came and told his story of alcoholism and how he just made it out in time to save his own life. The conversations we had with the guests speakers were very eye opening and helped me relate what we were learning to real world scenarios. 

Even though some people dread checking off Health as one of their electives, I definitely learned many lessons such as nutrition facts and how certain substances can harm your body. 

Conclusion

I can relate to a majority of the student body when saying enrollment is one of the dreaded tasks that approaches faster than preferred. But, in my personal experience, these classes lightened up my day and surprised me with material I was interested in learning.