By: Shelby Wells

What’s nearly every students’ first and foremost complaint about high school? The fact that very little of what one learns is necessary to or relevant to one’s future. Who wants to spend hours reciting the table of elements when one’s future hope is to be a computer programmer, anyway? 

Never fear, the school system offers a perfect solution to this dreary fate: Prosser. This alternative option to a regular seven period day is not always given deserved consideration by students, and proves to be a beneficial resource that should be utilized more often.

Prosser is a school of technology, providing high quality career and technical education for high school students throughout Southern Indiana, according to the Prosser website.

“You get hands on experience instead of sitting in a classroom all day, and you get college credits,” senior Ashley Crone said.

At Prosser, students can choose from 26 programs, some  of which being: culinary arts, cosmetology, programming and software development, and aircraft operations. Yes, one really gets to experience flying a plane.

Prosser is sometimes viewed as a cop-out option, an outlet for those who don’t plan on attending college in the foreseeable future. On the contrary, according to the Prosser website, surveys show that nine months after graduation, 41 percent of Prosser students are enrolled in college, with 51 percent already having a place in the workforce.

“You can go to Prosser and it gets you prepared for a job straight out of high school,” Crone said. “But also, it gets you prepared for a good job that you can do while you go to college so you can make good money straight out of school and while you’re there”.

Another misconception often causing students to turn away from Prosser is because they hope to receive an Academic Honors Diploma and detest the thought of receiving a Core 40. This worry is unnecessary, as the Technical Honors Diploma is offered at New Albany. This degree is similar to the Core 40 with Academic Honors. It is still of high prestige and it still requires a strong rigor of classes, the only stipulation being that rather than electives, you go to Prosser. Getting this diploma rather than Academic Honors will not hinder your chances of getting into college.

If one finds a program of interest at Prosser…enroll! Don’t let your peers’ opinions and misconceptions influence you. You will be thankful later. After four years of the same, dull, irrelevant knowledge being shoved into one’s head, one will sincerely wish they had not let Prosser’s bad reputation deter them from enrolling.