Outreach benefits prospective high school students
The number of students that attend a high school determines factors such as the size of faculty and the amount of funding it receives. Peninsula, as well as many other high schools, makes efforts to reach out to younger students with the hopes that they will eventually enroll. Many extracurricular programs host several events that involve middle school students. This introduces potential Panthers to high school at an earlier age, overall benefiting both the school and future students.
Recently, Peninsula’s football team experienced a decrease in the number of players interested in the program. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) rules forbid high schools from approaching incoming students with any intent of persuading them to attend a specific school based on their sports. Aside from the annual open house for eighth graders, specific teams cannot be advertised at intermediate schools and specific middle school players cannot be approached based on their abilities. This is to ensure that athletes are not attending a school simply based on its sports programs. However, general programs like youth camps are allowed.
“We held a youth camp last year so there is definitely an awareness of that out there,” head football coach Michael Christensen said.
Recently, the lack of healthy players and potential injuries led to the premature cancellation of the season. However, if certain restrictions were lessened so that Peninsula coaches or students could go to the middle schools and talk about their specific sport experiences, this could encourage more students to join these teams in the future, reducing the likelihood of a similar situation.
“It is not just football,” Christensen said. “I think we can be both [academic and athletic].”
Other extracurricular programs have seen success in the past with various types of events encouraging involvement from middle schools. For example, the marching band invites the middle school concert band to perform with it at the homecoming game, as well as teach them basic formations. The jazz band also performs at the middle schools during lunch. These programs expose younger students to the various music programs that are available at Peninsula, which contrast the middle school concert band or orchestra.
“Students feel inspired to take a music class after watching and listening to the band,” senior Blake Pilger said. “Also, it helps students who are not completely sure whether they want to take a music class in high school to make a decision.”
Another program that works closely with its intermediate counterpart is the debate program. Debaters at Peninsula earn service points by volunteering at various events and locations. Specifically, students go to Ridgecrest Intermediate School where they judge practice rounds and help the students prepare for tournaments, as well as teach them the fundamentals of debate. The hands-on approach that debate takes towards reaching out to younger students has influenced their decision for enrollment.
“I knew that in high school I wanted to continue debating and competing in tournaments,” sophomore Sonali Loomba, who was a part of the middle school debate program, said. “Peninsula has such a strong debate program with wonderful coaches so that really helped solidify my choice of which high school I would be attending.”
The various methods that extracurriculars employ to bring students in to programs helps both that program as well as the school. Reaching out to middle school students early can get them involved in Peninsula programs. Outreach towards middle school students assists them through the difficult task of adjusting to high school.
