Every student, from sixth grade to eleventh is required to learn the grammar, cultures and customs of foreign countries. Even when the requirement ends, over 80 percent of the student body opts into a senior year of language. However, despite the high enrollment in senior year languages, over half of the school reported disinterest in learning Spanish, French or Chinese for that final year, according to a survey conducted by the Puma Press across all four grades.
“It’s the whole class slot for a year that it’s taking up,” sophomore Katie Knobbs said about their Spanish Class. “That’s two electives you would be doing instead.”
Even though Knobbs has taken Spanish at UPrep for two years, they would prefer to not take a language senior year.
“I’m not taking a ton of computer science classes because that’s not something that I’m super into learning,” Knobbs said. “So it’s a similar thing for languages. I’m sure they’re taught perfectly fine. I just am not interested in that.”
Despite their disinterest, Knobbs plans to take Spanish in their senior year.
“Everyone around me is like, you should, even if you technically don’t have to, because it looks good for colleges,” Knobbs said.
All three college counselors recommend four years of language. As a former admissions officer, Director of College Counseling Kelly Herrington wants students to understand the potential benefits of sticking with their language.
“If we were having a committee and we were discussing candidates, and one had pushed themselves a little bit harder in a language, we were really going to read that student more favorably,” Herrington said. “We really appreciated students that were fluent or nearing fluency with a language.”
College counselor Britten Nelson wants students to grapple with the potential rigor of collegiate level language programs.
“Part of why I encourage our students to take that fourth year here is I think it’s going to prepare them a lot better for college language,” Nelson said. “Because I was not prepared. It was so hard. There were so many verb tenses that I had just never been exposed to, and it was assumed I knew them, and I really struggled in college Spanish.”
Senior Karsten Stuyt is in his fourth year of French at UPrep. Originally taking Chinese in middle school, he switched to French in order to learn a language that some of his family knew.
“[I also took it] to make sure that, if there’s a language requirement for college, then I could hopefully clear that out of the way,” Stuyt said. “If I had taken four years of a language and I got a certain grade for that four years that I could waive that requirement in the future.”
“Expanding that student learning of a very different language, different culture, will expand their vision, change their perspective, and help them see a very different part of the world,” Yang said. “I think that is important. If you are only limited to your own vision, you won’t be able to see the whole picture.”
Junior Sonya Carter is choosing to continue her French education for her senior year.
“I’ve been taking French since kindergarten,” Carter said. “It just makes sense for me to finish, and it’s possibly something I want to study in college.”
Junior Noah Roth describes improving his Spanish as the “main motivation” for taking more Spanish classes.
“I think getting another level of finished Spanish can’t hurt,” Roth said.
Ultimately, Nelson believes that senior year language study will be beneficial for the students she advises.
“I would encourage all students to be open minded about taking that fourth year of a language,” Nelson said. It’s worthwhile in the long run, even if maybe they’re not as excited about it in the short term.”
