Senior year: I’ve been waiting for it for the past three years. As a freshman, I had heard about senior hours and I was okay with doing ten, but then I found out that they had been increased by five and I, along with some of the senior class, was mad. I didn’t see the point of Senior hours, so I decided to investigate.

The class of 1998 was the first class to request Senior Hours. “We believed that it was a good way to get people involved in school,” said an Alisal alumna. Though some seniors understand the reason why it is required to do the hours, a handful of them believe they’re a “waste of time.” ASB President Jesse Garcia says, “School should be more than just coming to class, the seniors’ participation goes a long way; it is a good way to show we love Alisal.”

Not everybody feels the love.

“It’s not fair doing senior hours when we have to pay for grad night and our prom ticket,” said senior Victor Isassy. Although that might be true, senior officers Ronnie Carmona (president), Vivian Cuadras (vice-president), and Mayra Marquez (treasurer) believe that Senior Hours are important because it gets students involved in school activities such as the class meetings that are held every Wednesday. “People get mad because they don’t like what we choose, but yet they also get mad when we want them to participate,” said Ronnie Carmona.

Students are mad at having to do 15 senior hours this year, opposed to the 12 hours that were required last year. “The reason we chose to raise the amount of hours was because of the lack of participation from the seniors,” said Marquez. According to Marquez, the senior class’ participation went down and they believed that increasing the required hours was the only way to get students to participate. “Seniors think that by not participating, we’ll remove the hours; that’s exactly why we raised them.”

A handful of seniors believe that it’s a hassle doing the hours because they already completed the 60 hours of community service required to graduate. “I finished my 60 community hours my freshman year and I was mad that we HAVE to do 15 senior hours to go to Prom and Grad Night,” said Irene Vera.

Opportunities to get Senior Hours vary from attending Senior Class meetings, building the float and painting the window for Homecoming, dressing up, attending the rallies during Homecoming week (Night rally as well), and buying tickets for school dances such as the back to school dance, Homecoming, and Winter Ball.

While there are quite a handful of opportunities to get the hours, some just don’t have the time. Some have an ROP class for 3rd-4th period and don’t arrive until 12:30, “It’s not fair because I get here late and the meetings are either over or we’re not allowed to go inside,” said Andrea Calderon.

Hours should be given when students attend the rallies and participate, going to home games because it shows they’re supporting the team and showing school spirit, even being in Link Crew because they go to the meetings at 8 every Collaboration Wednesday to help out the freshman.

Many seniors believe it’s the ASB class’ responsibility. “There are enough ASB students to help with whatever needs to be done,” said senior Janette Vega. There are a lot of things ASB is in charge of such as rallies, Homecoming, and Clubs, and their responsibility is not painting windows. “That should be done by the seniors because it represents the whole Senior Class,” said Sabreena Gutierrez.

Carmona said, “Being able to attend Prom and Grad Night should be a reward for the seniors that participated throughout the year.” Carmona realizes that people aren’t happy about senior hours but he believes this is one of the only ways both he and the other senior officers can get seniors involved. “I like the senior hours, they’re great,” said Principal Ernesto Garcia. “Seniors get involved and personally it brought me to where I am.”

Most of the senior class would agree that senior hours are a pain, and though I can agree with that, I believe that the senior hours were created to benefit us, not as a punishment. Participating throughout the year not only makes the school year fun, but it also creates memories that you can carry on throughout your life.

If you think about it, in 10 years you won’t remember what you did in class, how many hours you spent studying for a test or doing homework. However, you will remember Friday night football games, chanting the Trojan Yell after every rally, going to prom, and sharing the excitement of graduating with your closest friends.