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Taking a Step Into Our Futures... Comsewogue's New Career-Based Electives
by Lucia Simonetti & Hayley Villani
Over the summer, while students were enjoying their break, the Comsewogue high school staff developed new courses for students. These new courses are called Career-Based Electives. The purpose of these courses is to help students prepare for a specific career path and thanks to the new nine-period day, students have room in their schedule to take these electives. Some of these classes include Business Law, Broadcast Media, Sports Management, and Introduction to Teaching. We’ve spoken with a teacher who teaches one of these classes and an underclassman who is currently thinking about which career-based electives he would like to take when he’s a junior and/or senior.
These new career-based electives provide a different environment for both students and teachers. While many teachers that took on these courses were very excited, they were also challenged in their preparations for their new course. Broadcast Media teacher Mrs. O’Hara said, “Taking on the course was definitely a challenge. I am very excited about it, but it was a lot of work to get things going. I’ve never taught a class like this before, so I spent a lot of time researching this summer on how to make the class the best it could be.”
Teachers put in an ample amount of time and effort in order to create a setting that gives students an idea of what these careers are truly like. The Broadcast Media course replicates the atmosphere of a newsroom where so many things are going on at the same time; students will be creating an online newspaper, broadcasting morning announcements, and much more. When explaining how this course may help students in future professions Mrs. O’Hara says, “Students will have a chance to see what a newsroom is like and how you have to juggle a multitude of things at the same time.” This is just one example of a new course here at Comsewogue High School, but they all ultimately have the same goal- to provide students with an environment that will show them what these careers are really like and will help them if they choose to pursue these careers in the future.
High school students at Comsewogue are now able to prepare for their future careers early on in their education. While a good majority of upperclassmen are taking these elective classes, the underclassmen get to think about which courses they would like to take in the future. One student, Matthew Piazza, who is currently a freshman, shares the type of career-based electives he is looking forward to taking when he becomes an upperclassman, “I’m excited to take electives based on business management.” When asked how he thinks the business courses Comsewogue will help him in his future career he replied, “It will help me manage anything I want to do in my future, such as if I started a business it would help me process and get started quicker.” The business electives Comsewogue has to offer gives students the opportunity to create a base for their future careers. All the electives are a great starting point for different professions and career paths.
Each year, Comsewogue high school works to prepare students for their life after graduation and the career-based electives are perfect for that. Both teachers and students enjoy these courses and are looking forward to any future classes that may be offered.
Photo property of Hayley Villani
Video by Lucia Simonetti
Warriors Start the new year with a Nine-period day
Warriors Start the new year with a Nine-period day
by Jacquelyn Cervini & Jason Chen
This year starts anew, the Comsewogue Warriors began the new school year with a nine-period day. The nine-period day has brought in many new classes students can choose from. The students and teachers are excited but also nervous to start this new school year with the nine-period day.
Personally when I heard about the change that the new school year was going to be nine periods instead of eight periods I was bummed out. I thought that adding an extra period would make the day even longer than it already was, but fortunately, it wasn't the case and it actually shortened the periods to add the 9th period. The nine-period day gave us the chance to take new classes. This was a big change for the school.
We’ve asked the fellow Comsewogue students, Jack Montoya and Anjali Sooknanon how they’ve felt about this big change. Jack Montoya (12th grade) said, “I was annoyed because I thought the day was going to be longer and we were going to have a lot more school and a lot more work, but when I found out that the periods were going to be shortened and they weren't going to be that much longer then I didn't really care”. This was a big change for him since he had gone through high school with 8 periods and now his senior year he gets a period added and new classes to choose from.
Anjali Sooknanon (9th grade) was excited to start her high school years until she got the news that there was going to be an extra period. “ I was like really upset because I was excited to just like go into high school and not worry about any more classes and then I had another period added onto my schedule.” Though she was also excited because there were new courses added because of the nine-period day.
The nine-period day is definitely different than how we all imagined it to be. Instead of being longer, it's only longer by two minutes. Students are definitely relieved and a little happy because the day isn’t that much longer and we get more classes to choose from!
Photo property of Jacquelyn Cervini
Video by Ryan Flaherty & Sharismel Tavarez Peralta
Image property of Sophia Arredondo
Video Property of Sam Bruno
NEW ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
NEW ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
FROM PERMANENT SUB TO ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
by Sophia Arredondo & Gwyn YutigThis year, Comsewogue has a new assistant principal, Mr. Cherouvis. On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, we had the opportunity to sit down and ask him a few questions to learn more about him and what he has to offer for our school.
An assistant principal, also known as a vice principal, plays a significant role in making our school flourish. Their responsibility for administering our day-to-day lives shows the hard work and dedication they put into all they do. According to our own assistant principal, Mr. Cherouvis, his day-to-day responsibilities include things like “enforcing the attendance rules, recording and responding to disciplinary actions, parent meetings, phone calls, hiring, keeping the building safe and let it function, so your teachers can deliver instruction.”
Mr. Cherouvis isn’t new to this field of education. He’s worked in administration for 8 years and in education for about 14 to 15 years. “Time flies when you put it into perspective… time goes quick,” he says. As someone who is interested in pursuing a career in this rigorous field, the amount of time and diligence that goes into just getting this degree is astounding. Mr. Cherouvis has done a lot prior to today. In 2008, he started here at Comsewogue as a permanent sub. He then went to the South Bronx, where he taught math at a high school/prep school for two years. From there, he went to Queens to teach at a middle school as an ICT math teacher, while being a part-time dean. For the next seven years, he worked as an administrator at Miller Place. From starting off as a teacher to becoming an administrator, Mr. Cherouvis has left a positive impact at each location he worked at. When asked what led him to move to administration from teaching, he mentioned how he tends to “get a little bored in certain worlds pretty quick” and how he is always looking to “take on the next challenge”. Overall, his major push into this higher position was to “have a bigger impact on a larger group of people”.
The education field can get meticulous at times. When he said, “It’s not my first rodeo. I would like to put my roots down and stay and be comfortable, but, you know, going from school to school it’s like new rules, routines, and new customs.” It’s not guaranteed that you will find a position right off the bat, but the different environments that a person experiences during this time of their lives build them for this very job they settled for, in this case for Mr. Cherouvis, it was COMSEWOGUE. He really emphasized, “Comsewogue offers so much for you guys….in this case, the things that this district provides for you guys is astounding… And that’s just from what I’ve seen compared to like the Bronx, compared to Queens, compared to Rocky Point where I grew up, compared to Miller Place where I worked prior.” Our student body should be very appreciative of what our school has to offer because our administration is only trying to help better our high school experiences. I mean look at the abundance of new electives available to us this year.
It’s important to have a clear set of goals when beginning a new chapter at Comsewogue High School. We students enter each school year with intentions and aims to accomplish. Likewise, Mr. Cherouvis’ main goal revolves around student involvement. He enjoys the student leadership here and would like to increase participation in it. He is working with other administrators to “get the other part of the class that doesn’t really get involved, to get involved”. He hopes to have a positive, healthy impact on the school. One where students can enjoy coming to school because of what it has to offer.
Mr. Cherouvis works hard both inside and outside of Comsewogue High School. He is a proud father of three little ones. (Two five-year-old twins and a recently turned one-year-old.) He spoke about his family with genuine joy and care while having pictures of them all around his office. His time outside of school, rather than being occupied with sports watching, has been taken over with watching anything from Sesame Street to Spongebob, whatever his kids are watching.
We learned a great amount after talking with our new assistant principal, Mr. Cherouvis. Throughout the entire interview, he spoke with a smile on his face and with a prominent sense of optimism. We are confident in saying that we can trust him with the future of our school. And are excited to see what he has in store for this 2022-2023 school year. We wish him the best of luck and hope that he can share his stage while guiding us in growing our student involvement in the school to make it the best it can be.
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