WORK SAMPLE SUBMISSION PROMPT

The 10 Best Programs for High School Students in Los Angeles. Note that our target audience is ambitious high school students in the US.

Question A) How would you go about identifying the best summer programs in Los Angeles? (What is the ‘best’? How did you decide?)

My first step is to do a general internet search on the topic (10 Best Programs for High School students in Los Angeles) and see what results are produced.

This search concluded that some of the top ranked LA county high schools are, L.A. County High School For The Arts, Loyola High School, Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School, Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School, and Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School.

The second step would be to recognize which of the top ranked High Schools in the LA county offer summer programs. There are several highly qualified summer programs in the LA county area.

This search provided the following top ranked summer courses for LA county High School students, UCLA Summer Sessions, Loyal High School, James A. Garfield High School, LA County High School For The Arts, and John Marshall High School.

To evaluate what a “best” summer program would be for a student needs to be based on student personal/academic interest, cost, schedule/courses offered, length of program, on-site/included and post resources, proximity, and educational instructors. These core factors can assist in narrowing the choices for a particular student. It’s important to note that each student is an individual. Therefore, a “one-size fits all” approach is not sufficient. It takes time and research energy to settle in on a useful program for a student. In the end, the applied work and devoted time to this process has the potential to impact a student’s life and career for years to come.

Question B) Could you please choose your top 5 programs based on the above criteria? 

Based on the collected information from this initial research, I would select the following five programs for a student,

1. UCLA Summer Sessions. Valuable courses with a global perspective. Reasonable fees. Online and lecture style courses. Precollege Institute courses. Full campus wide resources available to selected students. This is a program that can provide a student with the opportunity to connect with a varied demographic in an academically rich environment.

2. L.A. County High School For The Arts. Creative courses and a solid academic program. Located in the heart of Los Angeles, students are able to participate in a range of artistic courses while still being exposed to academic programs that resonate with a college ethic. For any student interested in the arts, this is one place to apply and visit. The parent information and blog site for the school is useful and shows a real human element of the school.

3. John Marshall High School. This campus hosts an array of courses from health sciences to environmental studies. A historic institute in the LA area, this is more of a traditional school with a summer program collaborative with the Oxford Scholastica Academy, Oxford Summer School. The Oxford Summer School provides a global approach to a contemporary educational context. Open to students from around the world ages 15 – 18, students are exposed to world class instructors, small class settings, and a sample of highly cultivated education with a flare for the modern.

4. James A. Garfield Senior High School. This is the school where dreams are made. Now a timeless classic in the education field, Garfield High School continues to provide courses in the classics while blending the rich, diverse cultures that are Los Angeles. Providing resources for multi-cultural, historically marginalized community students, the courses retain a classic approach to a high-quality education. The summer sessions echo those of a traditional year-round model so students can get ahead or delve deeper into a specific subject area. An area of focus is the student and family resources. Continuing throughout the traditional and summer sessions, these resources are much more than a campus facility. These areas are fixated on assisting students and families succeed.

5. Loyola High School. Not a typical choice but one that has the potential to spark a new direction in the lives of young men. This Jesuit Catholic education approach markets itself on the core values of faith, scholarship, service, and leadership. Their summer session – which has an unusually early enrollment period – continues to provide the same level of academic rigor couched within a spiritual curriculum, rounded off with extra-curricular activities. One feature that is not seen elsewhere is the active alumni attention and dedication to this campus. There are plenty of opportunities throughout the regular and summer sessions for students to engage with recent and past alumni that helps foster bridges for the future.

Question C) In the style of a blog post, please give a short intro to the blog post and describe your 3 favorite programs. A good template for the information we like to include is this.”

Getting ready for the next steps in life can be daunting for any one individual. A growing youth in the global-local dynamic world context, knowing where to go to school and what to study may be one of the most challenging bridges to cross. Thankfully there are resources that can help support these life altering decisions.

Here are three top choices of institutes that provide a depth and breadth of pedagogical foundation as well as creative outlets for personal expression. Take a moment to review these selections with the confidence that whatever choice is made, it’s the right one for you.

My first choice is a traditional model that comes by way of the James A. Garfield Senior High School. Capturing the diversity of Los Angeles and embracing those traditions with a timeless classic educational standard, Garfield Senior High School should not be seen as a safe choice, but rather a challenging choice. The level of hermeneutics that students will be exposed to breeds a foundation of academic success and personal growth. On the surface the campus may appear as any other elder high school in Los Angeles. It’s the core heart, soul, and spirit of Garfield High School that can propel students forward and beyond their entry level identity. James A. Garfield Senior High School is one academy worth a stroll through the historic halls as well as an evening on the chilling football field.

Another top pick that I suggest is the Francisco Bravo Senior High Medical Magnet. Don’t let the name fool too much. The school is not simply a magnet for the sciences. There’s a valuable service-learning program as well as internships, volunteer, and employment programs. Bravo prides itself on the “5 C’s,” Critical Thinking and Academic Achievement, Creativity and Innovation, Collaboration, Communication, and Culturally Responsive Community Members. Structured in a traditional high school format, the classes are designed in such a way to encourage students to look beyond the classroom and the weighted textbooks into their community to see how they can best serve those areas. Embracing a multi-ethic population, Bravo places itself with one foot in tradition and the other in the complexities of the present. Bravo seeks to reach family and community partners to aid in the development of eager minds.

My last pick is one that would otherwise not be on the radar for most. The L.A. County High School For The Arts is not just a “Fame” spin-off school. Featuring state-of-the art facilities and a world class faculty the L.A. County High School For The Arts puts creativity on an even level with academics. Students get to indulge in ethnic studies courses, law and literature, philosophy, as well as the expressive arts. Pottery classes along side poetry writing. Screen design along with applied science. These matches are something that only a dynamic and innovative school could vision and produce. In companion with the Education Unlimited Academic and Creative Arts Programs, students are able to develop both craft and scholarship year round. This addition gives students a cutting edge in building a solid artistic career founded on a driving academic trajectory. Even for those who may otherwise think they are not artistically inclined, the L.A. County High School For The Arts is worth the investment of time to research and visit. One never knows what potential lay deep down just waiting for such a creative outlet to arrive.