Once a month Corona del Mar High School hosts Student Voices to give students the opportunity to voice their opinions on different issues that the student body experiences. The topic of choice lasts two sessions. The first session is used to brainstorm and pinpoint certain issues lying within the topic. While the second session is used to come up with ways the student body can work to help solve the issue, whether that be through panels or pledges. The grades are separated between middle school, freshman and sophomores, and then juniors and seniors with each grade receiving a different topic to discuss. The junior and senior topic for January and February is “Choosing The Next Step”. The meeting on January 25th was the first session of the topic and the students collaborated to decide what choosing the next step meant to them and their peers.  These student representatives will then come back together in February to discuss action to mitigate the issues pinpointed in Tuesday’s session.

The first half of the meeting was spent discussing what exactly choosing the next steps looks like to each student. For senior Ryleigh Snow choosing the next step is, “right now, college. Just thinking about how I’m going to spend the next four years of my life and what that will look like.” This sentiment was common in the room, with seniors feeling stress about which college or pre-professional path to choose and juniors feeling stress as to what steps they should be taking in preparation for college applications. As well, life skills such as cooking and time management were brought up.

Overall, the student representatives came to the conclusion that there needs to be on-campus action to help students mitigate these fears and anxieties about choosing the next step. Senior Kelsey Williams expresses, “I wish that I had more help with learning how to fill out college applications. That would’ve helped a lot.” Hopefully, the student representatives are able to brainstorm and implement change to help alleviate these stresses for future juniors and seniors.