With class registration now happening at Park, many incoming juniors and seniors said they are considering taking PSEO. PSEO stands for Post-Secondary Enrollment Options, and it’s a way for students to begin earning college credit, while still in high school.

Senior Abby Baudhuin said that her PSEO classes gave her a better way to learn.

“I wasn’t really loving doing high school classes,” Baudhuin said. “It just wasn’t the best environment for me to learn in, so I decided to do PSEO because there’s more options for classes and you get more credits for it. It was more flexible and it gave me more free time throughout the day and the week to do other things.”

According to Senior Jack Mintz, it was nice to have PSEO classes for one semester because it gave him time for activities outside of school.

“I personally found it very helpful scheduling-wise,” Mintz said. “It allowed me to open up my schedule a lot more so that I could work during the school week. Being able to have more open hours and doing a full year’s worth of a class in just one semester was really helpful.”

Park’s PSEO coordinator, Laura King, said that students may be interested in PSEO for the college benefits that it provides.

“The high school scene may no longer be something that’s serving (a student) well and they may want to have more independence,” King said. “Or maybe they’re worried about the cost of college and want to get a jumpstart on acquiring college credit while it’s free to them. Some students can even go as far as getting an associate’s degree by the time they get their high school diploma.”

Baudhuin said she wishes she took PSEO sooner because it could have been more beneficial to her high school career.

“I’d say take it as soon as you can because if you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it in the future,” Baudhuin said. “But if you do like it, then it could change the way you do high school. I just did it senior year, but I really like it and it would’ve been really helpful for me in the past years — I say do it as soon as you can if you want to.”

King said colleges can offer a larger selection of classes than Park, as students can be given more opportunities by taking a PSEO class.

“A student may take PSEO if they’re really passionate about a certain subject area and they’ve exhausted our high school curriculum, maybe like an art or computer class,” King said. “There are also some courses in PSEO that they may have interest in that our high school doesn’t offer. We have programs at Dunwoody and Hennepin Tech where they can take courses in culinary arts, automotives and welding. There’s a variety of courses a student could take through PSEO.”

Mintz said that he took both online and in person classes, and that each was helpful in its own way.

“They were both good for different reasons,” Mintz said. “Doing classes online is a lot of getting work done on your own without teacher oversight, so I personally found that in person was better than online for taking more complicated classes because I had a teacher there to talk to. It’s honestly up to the individual on what they prefer. If people are really good at working on their own time and don’t necessarily want to be driving out to a college, then online class is right for them.”

Students can get more information about PSEO classes at the next info meetings during hours one, two and three March 2 and March 7, in the Student Services office.