photo courtesy of iStock

By Gabriella Moceri

“I know that the classes are mostly after lunch.”

“Is it tutoring?”

“They come to school on Mondays … I think.”

“There’s a program of Independent study here?”

These are responses I got after asking students and teachers what they knew about the CHAMPS Independent Study program (IS). They surprised me at first, but after some investigation, I realized that IS is rarely mentioned. The words “Independent Study” haven’t even appeared in a CHAMPS email this school year. 

Why is this the case? Why are students virtually unaware that IS exists?

To find out, I first talked to my sister Ana. She was in Independent Study as a 9th grader. She defined it as “a flexible learning option that allows students to pursue outside interests while also attending a traditional high school.” 

From her, I knew that IS only held class once a week, and the rest of the time students completed work on their own. Also, each grade met with their teachers on a different day. All of this didn’t explain why Independent Study is so unrecognized.

To learn more, I dropped by Ms. Fedenko’s 5th period, which is an Independent Study elective. 

One of the students in the class was Adora Sheikh. She’s a working actress and joined the IS program so she could travel and act while still going to school. She told me that since she doesn’t go to CHAMPS full time, she gets to observe CHAMPS drama from a different point of view. “It’s like I’m on the outside looking in,” she laughed.

I also talked to Sam W, the only other student in the room. He was originally enrolled in another CHAMPS academy before switching to Independent Study for mental health reasons. The freedom of IS has given him time to apply for a job. He plans to join Vocal academy next year.

Both of them agreed that a downside of Independent Study is communication. It can take weeks for their teachers to answer questions, since they mostly talk to them via email. Adora also added that there aren’t many electives to choose from.

Finally, I decided to go straight to the source and find the head of Independent Study: Mr. Sean Humphrey. 

When we talked, he told me that Independent Study is unknown for a reason: It isn’t designed to replace a 4-year high school education. 

In fact, it’s difficult to get all the credits you need through IS alone because of the lack of electives, so most students don’t spend all four years in the program. 

This is intentional. According to Humphrey, it’s “mostly used for students who want to pursue other activities and not so much school [such as actors, competitive athletes, etc]”. The school isn’t trying to advertise it because it’s only a good option in specific circumstances.

In the end, what I learned could be boiled down into one sentence: Independent Study is a small but mighty program that lets students continue their schooling if they can’t commit to five days of classes a week. 🐾