Wherever you go, community is a big part of your success; whether your community provides you with advice, support, or a sense of belonging, community is a fundamental part of students’ lives. However, what happens when students don’t have support systems? That’s exactly what happened for the Class of 2026 at MacDonald High School (MHS).
In their Freshman year, the Class of 2026 had no Sophomores, Juniors, or Seniors to look up to when it came to educational opportunities on campus, specifically Advanced Placement classes (mAP classes). Therefore, in the Class of 2026’s Sophomore year, they were the first: to fill the emptiness that consumed our hallways; to occupy the vacant trophy cases; drink from the shiny, unused drinking fountains, and most importantly, take the first AP class offered at MacDonald High School.
It happened unexpectedly, but nevertheless the roughly 200 founding students of the newly constructed high school, MacDonald, thereby experiencing every “first” our school would ever have.
Jiya Patel, one of the Seniors at MHS who’s taken almost all the AP’s offered at MacDonald, said, “we’re guinea pigs,” which is a common description of the experiences of Seniors at MHS.
As the months turned into years, it was impossible to ignore that the opportunities offered at MacDonald were far from equivalent to those at other high schools in our district. This had an inevitably significant impact on the Class of 2026’s traditional high school experiences and academic opportunities at MHS.
While reviewing the shorter lists of classes offered at MacDonald, Ariel, a Senior at Santa Clara High School, said, “I compared MacDonald to neighboring schools but I felt unsure. I was[n’t]…going to let these circumstances [of having no AP’s] prevent me from making the most out of the situation, so I made sure to go to Santa Clara rather than MacDonald.”
However, not all students left MacDonald. Rather, they stayed and pushed forward, taking advantage of every AP class that was offered. From the first introduction of an AP class in August of the 2022-2023 school year at MHS, specifically AP European History, to this school year of 2025-2026, students have dedicated themselves to a wide range of AP’s. Whether the classes are STEM-based such as AP Biology, AP Psychology, AP Statistics, and AP Computer Science, or artistic such as AP Drawing, MHS Seniors have come a long way from when they originally had to advocate for classes to now enjoying the fruits of their labor.
The Class of 2026 at MHS has discovered that passion and commitment to pursuing knowledge would make them successful, despite their boundaries. Even though at some points they had to work harder and longer because the circumstances demanded it, it worked nevertheless. Despite the limitations students faced at MacDonald High School, students made the most of what was offered, and pushed themselves to meet the challenges it presented. In fact now, Seniors at MHS are preparing to pursue new paths and opportunities such as attending colleges and universities.
Making the most of what you’re given can be transformative. It’s a path Seniors at MacDonald will pursue in future academics, whatever obstacle they may face.
