Community Building Day Reflection- Angie

At first I thought that On Track Academy would be more of an alternative high school and somewhere that generally students wouldn’t be proud to say they attended. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is not like the stereotypical alternative high schools where some of the teachers don’t really care as much about their students and don’t push them to work harder, and try and achieve more. In our time there, every single one of the teachers talked about helping the students find out what they wanted to do and really work on career planning, which even many of the high schools are not at that level of career preparation!

I think that the idea of On Track Academy is really important and I wish there were more schools that had similar philosophies. Although I was homeschooled, and then did Running Start, so I never attended a public high school, probably the number one complaint of my public school friends was that they did not feel like they had enough help with deciding on a career path and getting help once they decided.

The Maker Faire was amazing! Although it is not really what a lot of people would consider “school subjects” I thought that it was a lot of fun. It really helped with creative ideas and bringing together STEAM concepts in a fun way to introduce students to what may otherwise seem a really challenging subject. Through projects like this, I’ve learned that what I am best at is one-on-one or small group leadership rather than large group leadership, and while I believe that working on weaknesses is important, I think using strengths is even more important. Honestly, I did not expect Community Building Day to be that enjoyable and rewarding, and I would love to go back to On Track Academy to volunteer and help with other projects in the future.

~Angie~