Sports Medicine and Link Crew were both added to the list of electives offered to upperclassmen for the 2023-2024 school year.
Sports Medicine students are able to use hands-on learning in order to develop skills useful for treating athletic injuries. Further into the school year, the Sports Medicine curriculum will include practice on live subjects. Sports Medicine instructor, Brenden Graber, is also the athletic trainer for San Marin. This is his first year instructing the class and he hopes for it to be smooth sailing.
“We want to gain interest and teach people more about what Sports Medicine is, and also get the word out for the advanced section that will be starting up next year. People who took the intro class this year can take the advanced one after, which includes a lot more hands-on stuff,” Graber said. “People will be shadowing me during football games and other sports.”
Devaki Narayan is a student-athlete in Sports Medicine. She looks forward to being able to gain experience from the class.
“In the future, we’ll be able to do peer practice to learn how athletic trainers work,” Narayan said. “We’ll also be getting first aid lessons, and I think CPR training as well.”
The class can also be used as a stepping stone for higher education and careers in healthcare or athletic training. Narayan hopes to make use of the instruction in her future.
“I feel like this class will help me learn a little about nursing, which is what I want to do after high school,” Narayan said.
Junior Sierra McNeill, another student-athlete in the class, will make use of what she learns in Sports Medicine.
“We’ve been learning about sports, specifically what to do with an injury,” McNeill said. “Sports Med gives me a better understanding of the injuries that a teammate or I might experience.”
Link Crew is made up of juniors, seniors, and outsourced students who contribute to activities. Benjamin Philpot, who has been a leader of Link Crew for several years, teaches the class. The main goal of link crew is to help freshmen ease into highschool, with the help of interactive projects or assignments.
“The failure and success rate of freshman year is the biggest indicator of graduation rate for students. It’s also a big transition, so Link Crew puts on orientation as well as follow up activities,” Philpot said.
Link Crew students can use what they learn from the class in their futures too.
“We’re working on leadership and organizational skills; it’s a great resume builder. They focus a lot on their freshmen, but also on how they can grow as a leader,” Philpot said.
Students are able to learn about leadership through conducting activities. Grace Buck, Link Crew member, thinks that being a part of Link Crew will help her gain leadership skills, as well as benefiting the incoming freshmen on campus.
“It’s definitely preparing me for the future, we do a lot of team and group work,” Buck said. “We all collaborate to help make the school year better for the freshmen”.