In the past, eighth graders would come to the high school for a tour before entering the ninth grade. This year, due to construction, videos about the school will be shown to the all 8th graders in the district. The videos will include clips from classrooms of a variety of endorsement areas featuring projects and activities from those areas. High school representatives from various organizations will also be going to speak with the upcoming freshmen.

Counselors are hoping that the high school students visiting the 8th graders on their campuses will help the younger students make better decisions on choosing their endorsements. They will be able to speak to high school students who are taking higher level courses in the various endorsement areas and will have the opportunity to hear firsthand about the organizations they are interested in.

“I believe that will enable them to choose an endorsement area that will be the best fit and we will have less students wishing to change their endorsement areas,” counselor Jeannie Locke said.

The construction put a large burden on the planning of the 8th grade tours, so the counselors office is hoping that this will be a way to better inform the incoming freshmen.

“We have been attempting to find a way to better inform our incoming freshmen of all the exciting things happening on our campus and help them to find their fit,” Locke said. “With the major construction going on at our campus it seemed the right time to bring the high school students to them and hopefully they will have a little more one-on-one time to be able to evaluate our terrific programs and choose the best path.”

The high school students will be at Little Cypress Junior High on Tuesday, Feb. 14, and at Mauriceville Middle School on Tuesday, Feb. 21. They will show the 8th grade students a model, activity, poster, or a project that highlights their program. This a great opportunity for different organizations to recruit new comers. If the endorsement fair is a success it will reoccur next year.

“I believe this is an event we would like to continue if it shows success this year,” Locke said.