CHS student takes learning into her own hands

Article by Gabby DeMaria, News Editor

March 23, 2021

Starting in January, CHS sophomore Brianna Bashore worked over a series of a few days to put together an online class, hosted through Google Classroom, on criminology and criminal profiling.

This class works just as any other proper class would, with assignments that get graded and due dates for each of them. All of the research for the assignments is conducted by Bashore herself, which she compiles into an essay for her students to read. She also creates questions based on the material she provided.

The class currently has 73 students in it, four of which are from CHS, but many more are from around the world.

“I made an ‘About You’ section on the Google form to enter the class, and one of the questions asks where everyone is from,” said Bashore. “From the responses, I know there are people from Iowa, California, England, Ohio and quite a few other places. There was even someone from Australia. That one surprised me.”

Most of her students take the class very seriously as well, being sure to submit their own well-thought-out responses to the questions in a timely manner.

“One of the assignments had a word count of at least 300,” said Bashore. “But many wrote close to 1000 words. It made me feel as if the people in the class actually cared about the things I was presenting.”

Sophomore Jilianne Pellot-Cardona, like others, has an interest in the field of criminology and is very thankful to Bashore for providing her a place where she can learn more about her interests.

“The class is well-thought-out and made,” Pellot-Cardona, “Brianna cares a lot for her students. The assignments are helpful when one is really interested in the topic.”

Annabel Pyne, a Northampton High School student, also finds the course to be useful and intriguing.

"The class was something I found really interesting,” said Pyne. “I had always been intrigued by criminology, so this class was something I found to be perfect for me."