Saugus students seek higher learning

SAUGUS – Saugus High School freshman Kayla McKinnon may have another four years until college, but that hasn’t stopped her from planning for her future.As one of 27 freshmen in the school’s new Academy for the Advanced Program of Studies, McKinnon is hoping four years of demanding advanced placement classes will pay off.”It’s definitely going to help with college,” said McKinnon. “With the amount of AP classes that we’re taking, there’s the possibility of entering college as a sophomore or a few semesters ahead of the other kids. That will help us with costs.”This school year marked the first year of the program, which is open only to incoming freshmen. Students have the option to take two tracks, one in humanities, and one in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.High School Principal Joe Diorio said students will stay on their track until they graduate.”We had a set program to start, but some decided they want to go more in the life skills or more in the physical aspect,” said Diorio. “So we broke the STEM program into two, one dealing with life and the other physical. There are some growing pains because it’s a new program, but the main framework is set. We broke it down so the kids can sort of follow a route.”Diorio said 39 incoming freshmen have already registered for next year’s program, including four students who tested back into the district from private schools just to take the advanced classes.”They’ve never been in public school,” said Diorio. “They qualified for the program and are already registered for next year. We want to show people the quality of the education we offer. I think we give an outstanding education and we have a great staff. It’s important to show these people that they should come back.”Freshman Ana Andrade is signed up for the humanities track, which she said will help her if she decides she wants to work in law or medicine.”There is a lot of Latin in it,” said Andrade. “I signed up for this particular track because I always pictured myself working in humanities like in medicine.”Olivia Chaves said the course load is demanding, but noted it’s not hard if you “apply yourself.””I really have always wanted to excel in school and always thought it was the key to being more successful,” said Chaves. “I’ve always loved English and languages so I thought (humanities) would be a really good choice for me.”Christian Patterson is in the STEM track, and is enrolled in classes like AP geometry and AP algebra 2, but the freshman said he’s looking forward to taking even harder classes like calculus.”Those classes you wouldn’t even be able to take until you’re in college,” said Patterson. “I’m looking forward to taking all of the AP classes and getting all the credits, plus I’ll be able to get out of my freshman year of college.”Patterson took all honors classes as an eighth-grader at Belmonte Middle School, but said there’s a lot to keep up with now that he’s in the advanced program.”I like to be challenged in school,” said Patterson, who wants to work with computers when he’s older. “I’ve never really had a challenge. This is the first year I’ve really had to try to juggle everything with playing football and hockey along with it.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].