📓Class Spotlight📓

While most people may see the Navigator as simply a school newspaper, it is also an official elective class at NorthStar Academy.  Inside the Navigator class, there are a variety of assignments and learning opportunities for students to learn about journalism and professional writing.  From learning core principles of journalism to the specific layout of a newspaper, students can learn a variety of helpful skills that can benefit them in their future careers inside the NAVI280e class.  Through completing the various activities in the Navigator class, students are able to learn a variety of valuable skills for their future endeavors.

NSA's Pre-Professional Portfolio course (PPP100), also known as PPP, was launched in August of 2023. It is designed to allow high school students to earn credit for skill-building through instructor-led extracurricular activities they participate in. The course also teaches skills for reflection and goal-setting. A student can take this semester-long course up to eight times during high school, earning a maximum of four elective credits for extracurricular activities.

As the time approaches to sign up for the classes you want to take next year, I realized that there are probably a lot of people who have questions about the Navigator. I figured this would be the perfect time to answer some of those questions. Keep in mind as you read that I am not an expert on all things Navigator and I don’t know the perfect answer to everything, however, I will answer each question to the best of my ability. 

This year has been my first year writing for the Navigator. I’ll be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect before I decided to join. Since I didn’t know exactly what to expect, I decided not to join last year, and now I regret not joining sooner. My goal with this article is to make sure others who are hesitant to join don’t make the same mistake I did. In this article, I will tell the story of how I decided to join the Navigator, and what my experience has been like. I will also provide information about how you can experience a Navigator live session in person.

As NSA students are well aware, NorthStar offers a plethora of classes to choose from. Take Astronomy, Wisdom Literature, and Photography, for starters. What most NSA high school students aren’t familiar with, though, are the dual credit (DC) classes made possible through NSA’s partnership with Colorado Christian University, or CCU. I intend to lay out what you need to know about the dual credit program and why you should take an interest in it. Dual credit has been nothing short of a lifesaver for me, and I hope it will be greatly beneficial for you too!

Ahh, there is nothing like the ocean. At the very least, this is the response that you would get if you were to ask Mrs. Beirne what her thoughts were about the ocean.