Students wishing to acquire a higher GPA while juggling fine arts need to look no further. The Fine Arts Honors Program is a new addition to the 2016-2017 school year that will not only help students with raising their GPA, but will also provide students with an education that extends beyond what is taught in class. Students taking orchestra, band, choir or theater arts have the opportunity to take these AP fine arts classes.

In order to complete this program, students are required to write an essay based on the fine arts class they are taking, as well as do work outside of class, like auditioning for all region or attending concerts that are otherwise unrelated to school.

Because this is a new concept to the school, this year will be a test to see how the students will react to higher level fine arts classes. Students are excited to take part in this new experience and hope to achieve their best selves through this educational program.

“I want to do this program because of the weighted GPA and because it brings my rank up because I want to make the top 15%,” Pilar Campos, sophomore, said. “I am most excited to see concerts like the Olaf and writing reports on it, because I want to get more interested in music.”

The honors program has the potential of being one of the highlights of a student’s school year. The instructors and students alike have high hopes for this new program, and only time will tell the results of the students’ personal experiences.

“We probably expect around 20 students to join [this year],” Andrew Goins, head orchestra director, said. “This is the first year and it’s a little bit unknown.”