(June 8, 2012) — When students first start high school, they usually look for guidance and direction—a safe and comfortable stepping stone from which they can ready themselves for bigger things. Students like Bianca Insigne found that some of their freshman classes provided such a foundation. Insigne, like most students at Clark, took physics with teacher Zifard Arstakis during her freshman year. “I thought the class was hard, but I think it prepared me for the workload I had sophomore year,” she says. Once she’d gotten used to the material’s level of difficulty, she felt she could better handle her other classes, and had a clearer idea of what direction she wanted to take in her future studies. “I knew not to take AP Physics senior year,” she says. Other seniors like Kevin Escobar say that they could have gotten more out of their classes in ninth grade. “When I became a senior, I realized that my college prep class didn’t help me at all,” Escobar says. He says that he wishes he’d learned more about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as well as the college application process. The class gave him some direction in terms of narrowing down career choices and colleges/universities, but he says it would have been helpful if it had focused on preparing personal statements and other sections of the Common Application. “I would have been able to turn in applications sooner; instead, I ended up turning them in last minute,” he says. Aside from college preparatory classes and physics, freshmen were required to take health and a series of technology literacy classes. Escobar found that the lessons he learned in these classes were considerably more helpful and could be applied throughout high school. “Health made me realize that I have to take care of myself more, and I learned how to do that,” he says. What Escobar learned about rest, elevation, compression and elevation (RICE) for injuries has helped him with a sprained ankle. Because she is planning to pursue a career in medicine, Insigne feels that some of the technology classes might not have been in her best interest. “It’s nice to know how to use Photoshop, but I don’t think I’ll be using it that much in the future,” she says. Escobar says that the classes helped him fix his computer on his own. “I had a good idea of what I was doing—and I didn’t electrocute myself, ” he says. But he says that teacher Bill Reyna’s class was, by far, the most useful. “Knowing how to use Excel, with all the adding and subtracting on spreadsheets, still helps me,” Escobar says. “It’s an important skill.”