by John Le and Elise Tran, Staff Writers and Photographers
Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) offers many courses available in the summer for students. The three options that the school offers include course remediation, chemistry, and health.
Any course for FVHS students is available for students that need credits in order to graduate high school or earn the A-G requirements for admission for a California State University (CSU) or a University of California (UC). A student cannot earn credits if he or she receives a D or F grade in the class. Generally, course remediation is taken by upcoming juniors and seniors. There is a fee-based and free summer program as well as an online and in-person classroom setting. The type of class setting is discussed by the student and Marilyn Wong, the counselor at FVHS, to determine the best choice for them.
“This is the first year our Huntington Beach Adult School is offering certain classes such as biology, art and Spanish and in the previous years they have never offered those classes,” said Wong. “So, I’m really excited that they’re giving those students opportunity to make up those subject areas.”
FVHS only offers one course, chemistry, for course advancement to Advanced Placement (AP) chemistry. The course can be taken at a select few community colleges over the summer that the school has approved. The student must also pay a fee in order to be enrolled in the class.
Students must talk to their counselors in order to receive an application for the certain college they would like to go to. Any student is applicable for the course, but in order to be accepted into AP chemistry the student must show the grade they received in the course to their counselor. Chemistry is the only course offered by colleges that could fit the curriculum that high schoolers take. All the nine months of chemistry are packed into six to eight weeks of summer classes, and it is really not recommended for students.
“I personally would not recommend other students to do what I did because a sophomore in AP chemistry is like a recipe for disaster. I struggled so hard and those weekend labs eat up your time,” said Taylor Nguyen (‘18), “I’d only recommend this if you really want to be a chemist or something. That’s really the only reason I can see anyone benefitting from this.”
FVHS offers health over the summer for students who couldn’t fit it in their schedule. There is no charge, because health is a mandatory class in order to graduate high school. Students can take both an in-person class or an online class. However, the online application process is more strenuous, according to Wong.
The online health course, offered by Pacific Coast High School (PCHS), is from July 3 through Aug. 11 and the deadline to register is Apr. 3.
For the application or any further questions, stop by Wong’s office.
