With this school year starting to come to an end, the new school year is on student’s minds. New grade, new teachers, and new classes. The 2016-17 school year will be introducing several new classes to the students of Howell High School and making a couple changes to current courses.

Gaming and Application Engineering 1 & 2: Do you get frustrated when the programming on video games is bad and glitchy? Take Gaming and Application Engineering 1 & 2 to learn how to design your own video game and learn coding. Each class will be a semester long and the teacher is to be determined.

“I’m expecting the gaming one to be pretty big. I think that’s gonna be pretty popular with our students,” Principal Mr. Jason Schrock says.

Hospitality & Tourism: Do you have Princess and the Frog type dreams of one day owning your own restaurant? Luckily for you, next year’s semester long Hospitality & Tourism class covers hotel, restaurant, and airline management. The class’ teacher is to be determined.

“If you’re interested in any kind of hospitality or tourism, whether it’s planes, trains, hotels, you can check it out here,” Ms. Gigi Jackson says.

Private Pilot Training: Are you trying to fly to success with a career in piloting? HHS is now offering a new and advanced piloting class, in addition to the introduction class HHS currently offers. Taught by Mr. Johnson Mcdowell, this class will take place at Crosswinds Aviation. This class is a two hour block and will now be offered year round. It will cost $25 unless the student has a prearranged flight with a pilot.

“This class is basically an introduction into aviation careers and a chance for students to get their pilot’s license,” Mr. Mcdowell says. “I also expect that the pilot ground school will take off, no pun intended.”

Photography 2: After realizing the sharp spike in skill level required for Photography 2, HHS decided to change Photography 2 to Advanced Photography, a year long class, and add a new semester long photography class, Photography 2. The class will be taught by Ms. Kristina Vlahos.

“We made a change in curriculum to offer three photography classes. Photography One which is a semester, Photography Two which is also a semester, and Advanced Photography which is a year. Advanced Photography is for students who are really dedicated to photography,” Ms. Kristina Vlahos says.

Mural Painting: A class made for advanced drawing and painting students, students will learn how to paint, mount, and frame a mural in this two hour block. Students will also be contracted out to the community to paint murals for local businesses to help bring money into the arts program.

“They’re going to sell these [murals] to different businesses and help brighten up the world,” Ms. Jackson says.

Organic chemistry: Calling all science nerds! Your time has come. Howell High School will now be offering an organic chemistry class with chemistry as a prerequisite. The class will be taught by Mrs. Angie Kynast.

As for the current class changers, AP Study Skills will have the name changed to Study Strategies for AP Classes and the current Photography 2 class will be renamed as Advanced Photography. In other changes, AP Biology students will be working through the book Survival of the Sickest from Harper Collins Publisher after their AP exam and AP Calculus and ESL students will be receiving new textbooks.

“I think they’re gonna affect the school in a positive way. Anytime we open up new opportunities for people to explore or to go deeper in a passion, one of the best things we do for your students is to make learning relevant and these are all very relevant courses that are going to get them ready for their next step after high school,” Mr. Schrock says.