The second electives fair held at Sequoia took place on Wednesday, Jan. 22, allowing students to explore and investigate electives. At the fair, the options cover a wide variety of topics.
Some electives provide opportunities for years of immersive learning in areas such as ceramics, woodshop or art. Sophomore Maddie Briant is currently enrolled in the popular elective Ceramics-I and enjoys the growth that the course encourages.
“You don’t need to be good at ceramics to be in ceramics. My skills weren’t very good, but now they’ve gotten a lot better,” Briant said.
Intermediate Dance, Advanced Dance and Dance Team are higher-level dancing classes, but Dance PE offers a prerequisite and beginner-level track.
“I think Dance PE is a really good introduction to dancing, and now I think I’m going to try out for intermediate dance,” freshman Lila Rowell said.
In the prerequisite to Culinary, the Foods and Nutrition class faces the common misconception that you’re only learning about kitchenware and nutrition.
“We also do cooking competitions in the class. We make a ton of different stuff, such as focaccia, pollo, sushi, and all the favorite cuisines. You also get to eat the food,” junior Sienna Bolander said.
In addition to the hands-on perspectives, electives like IB-Business offer a higher-level, academic opportunity that teaches students all things business.
“I enjoy the fact that we get to learn not just about American companies, but also international and I think that’s also a good part about the International Baccalaureate diploma, because it really broadens your sight, as opposed to just AP classes,” junior Matthew Macido said.
Along with the more traditional electives, the fair further highlighted some of the Science classes highlighted at Sequoia.
“IB [Biology] is a difficult class, but if you like bio, you’ll enjoy it, and I enjoy it. We started on a more molecular and cellular level, and then later on, we’ll expand out and eventually get to the environment,” junior Lina Wu said.
In addition to a more STEM-like elective, Java is a coding class that gives people the opportunity to learn Java and JavaScript. Beyond coding languages, it offers an open-ended final.
“This year, we had an option to learn a language of your choice for a final project, and I chose ‘C’ because it seemed interesting,” sophomore Kai Nagashima said.
These electives offer the opportunity to take a class that piques the interest of so many, given the wide range of electives. Each table was accompanied by either the teachers of the courses or the students currently enrolled in them. These students were able to share their personal experiences to give prospective students a valuable perspective.
“The drama community is very nice. The teacher, Ms. Caine, is incredible. There are so many opportunities to meet new people, learn new things, and there are fun experiences like the Lenaea Theater Festival and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. There’s so many field trips. We see shows, we put on shows, and the class is so fun,” sophomore Lucy Thayer said.
Megan Chen, a sophomore in ASB, relates to Thayer in terms of the community building offered in her elective.
“I enjoy the community in ASB and am able to meet new people from different grades,” Thayer said.
As a result of the second annual electives fair, Sequoia High School is able to bring all the diverse electives to the spotlight in order to appeal to many students and give students insight into their options prior to course selection for the 2026-2027 school year.