MVHS hosted its annual Elective Night on Monday, Feb. 10 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Student Union, Auditorium and Library, introducing a variety of elective courses offered at MVHS. The event included three rotations of electives, such as applied academics, fine arts and world language, where current and prospective students and their parents could alternate between each session.
The Auditorium held rotations featuring the vocal music, instrumental music and drama departments. The session began with a video explaining the many choir course offerings, such as B Choir (Esperanza), A Choir (Low Key), Advanced Treble Choir (Bella Voce) and Small Mixed Vocal (Variations), followed by a choral performance led by Choir department lead Lofn Young.
Later, Drama teacher Hannah Gould and her students presented the different levels of drama class offerings before enacting a short play. Finally, Instrumental Music Director John Gilchrist explained the different pathways for band and orchestra, concluding the evening with a classical performance of “Warrior’s Legacy” by Soon Hee Newbold, presented by the Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensemble.
Gilchrist mentions that he enjoyed watching the choir and drama presentations and felt that all of their performances sounded great. However, he feels that the Auditorium was too small to accommodate everyone, as during the initial sessions, most of the seats were completely filled. Overall, Gilchrist feels that the elective night was effective to encourage students to take a more diverse set of electives, as he has seen recent growth in the number of freshmen entering music classes due to Elective Night.
“Last year was the first year that we tried doing this rotation model where we have groups of parents rotating around,” Gilchrist said. “I think it was a very wise move, because a lot of the parents will just say, ‘Oh, I don’t want my kid to look at music, I just want them to look at robotics and STEM-related electives.’ But I think that this elective night forces everybody to go through and really look at what all of the programs have to offer, not just the ones that they think they want to do.”
