by Laura Navarro | staff writer
When it came down to choosing her electives for high school, junior Ananda Bhatia decided on choir for numerous reasons.
“I feel like choir is almost like a family, and I love singing and doing all the different competitions that we have,” Bhatia said. “When I sing in a group, I love the harmonies, and it just makes me feel like I’m a part of something so much bigger than just myself.”
There are about 200 total students in choir, making it one of the most popular electives at Johnson. Band is another popular elective, drawing in large numbers of students.
“Throughout middle school, I made a lot of friends, and with those friends I really started to like band,” sophomore Mallory Condra said. “I wanted to be a part of something in high school, so band was the answer for me.”
In the fall, band puts together a marching show for halftime and competition.
While the most popular electives are fine arts electives, there are lots of students enrolled in other electives besides fine arts.
“I took fashion design because I wanted to learn how to sew, and I might want to go into something like that as a career someday,” sophomore Anna Grace Diharce said. “On a daily basis we usually either work on a sewing project, or we’ll learn about clothing in general or like elements of clothing and design.”
Among the foreign language electives, most students lean towards Spanish, although there are many options to choose from when deciding which language to take. In addition to Spanish, Johnson offers French, ASL, German, Latin, and Japanese.
“I’m taking Spanish because I always used to hear my mom speaking it, and I also really want to be able to learn it good enough for when I grow up so it can help me with job opportunities,” sophomore Hailey Prusinsky said.
While knowing more than one language can be seen as an asset in the business world, some opt to take foreign language electives for personal growth.
“I decided to take Spanish because I want to travel the world, and I thought Spanish would help me out a little more than just knowing English,” sophomore Katie Stone said.
Electives are popular for different reasons but some students pick an elective based on whether their friends will also pick it or not.
“I talk to my friends and see which electives we could take together,” sophomore Tiffany Roca said.
