Let's get intense

For several years, Mercersburg Academy has offered intensive classes most recently during the spring semester as a wrap-up to the end of the school year. With policy and community changes, though, Mercersburg has decided to place intensive courses on hiatus. Suspending Intensives is a very bad idea for the school since they, besides being personally linked to students’ experiences, can help focus on opportunities that may benefit them in the future.

Mercersburg’s Intensives have had a positive effect on me, and I’ve gained a major takeaway each year. I remember as a freshman having no idea what “intensive classes” were and being eager to find out. There were many options to choose from, such as culinary classes, field trip classes, sports classes, and much more. However, one class stood out to me: Garage Band. I have a “throwback to the '90s” musical taste, or what others would call “divorce dad music.” I listen to many classic grunge bands, such as Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters, and Stone Temple Pilots, to name a few. I aspired to become a great guitarist, just like the ones in those notorious bands, and thought that this was the perfect opportunity. However, there was one problem: I didn’t know how to play guitar. Thankfully, the intensive class lasted for two weeks. 

When I walked into the Burgin Center for the Arts where Garage Band was held, I noticed that my friends all had their equipment; guitars, amps, distortion pedals, drum sets, and microphones cluttered the room. I was empty-handed. I thought I hadn’t made the right choice. The Intensive instructor, Dave Holzwarth, noticed that my friend and I didn’t know how to play an instrument and offered to teach us. I ended up not learning how to play the guitar, but rather, how to play the bass guitar, an easier instrument to learn. Holzwarth held one-on-one sessions with me, teaching me how to play the bass guitar as well as guiding me to read the tabs of each song selected for our mini-concert at the end of the course. Each day in Garage Band, I had a big takeaway: I was getting better and better at playing the bass guitar, and I had a better understanding of how to read the tabs of each song. 

Sophomore year was slightly different. Mercersburg still held Intensives, but they were cut short by a week. I decided to involve myself in new pursuits and chose the college tour option. Mercersburg’s college counselors led lower and upper middlers to New England and New York City to tour prestigious colleges such as Yale, NYU, Brown University, and Tufts. This experience educated me about schools that I hadn't considered and allowed me to tour them in person, a feat difficult to achieve in a family with a very busy work schedule.

Getting rid of Intensives is a bad idea because many students across campus look forward to a new learning experience, knowing that regular classes are done and summer is right around the corner. Intensives benefit students by sparking interests that might be pursued in the future.