This year, B-CC will not be offering any non-credit courses over the summer. In previous years, these classes have included college essay workshops, classes to help jumpstart projects for the upcoming year and complete summer assignments, helping students prepare for high level mathematics, and courses where students could explore their creativity. This year however, due to budget cuts, all of these options are gone.

“I understand why these cuts were made, but it is really upsetting that they had to happen,” says junior Olivia Romano, who both took and volunteered for Sine Me Up for Precalculus Success the past two summers. “I feel like Sine Me Up for Precalculus Success helped me a lot in preparing for precalculus, and when I assisted Ms. Bilo in teaching it last summer it seemed like it helped many others gain confidence in their math skills as well.”

These math courses helped to walk students through the skills they would need for the upcoming year in their classes. Math is a skill that builds on itself each year, and there are times when students do not grasp a concept or two, but do not want to retake the whole class. Courses, like the one Romano took, helped these students relearn and revisit these concepts without having to retake the course. It helps with reviewing these skills with a teacher there to help you.

“I am really upset that all of the college essay workshops are gone this year,” says junior Sienna Green. “I do not really know where to start and the essays are such a big part of the application process, I feel like they would have really helped me to actually start my essays and figure out how to write them and what to write them on.”

The college essay workshops provided students with help on the supplemental essay prompts, such as “Why Our School” and “Why This Major”, and the college essay that responds to the Common/Coalition essay prompts. These essays are regarded as one of the key factors in the admissions process. It allows students to tell admissions officers who they are and gives students the opportunity to personalize their application beyond what grades and test scores they got.

In addition to these classes, courses for creative writing, journalism, and personal branding for social media have also been cut.

*this article can also be found in Spanish here