On top of the stress of finishing their last semester of high school without having too many mental breakdowns, some Powell High School seniors face the newest challenge at PHS … an Advanced Placement Government and Politics class.

Teacher Mrs. Ashley Hildebrand introduced this  course for present and future senior classes. For graduation, it is required to complete and pass a government class. With this new class offered, students now have the choice to take a more advanced course.

“I had been asked several years ago to start looking at an AP Gov class, but I just started teaching government six years ago and I wasn’t comfortable enough with the content to actually feel like I would be able to do a good job with that,” Mrs. Hildebrand said. “Plus, a lot of kids will take government at the college and as long as you pass the college class, you are guaranteed college credit, where as in an AP class, you may not get that college credit. Where they started limiting those college classes, we decided it might be a good time to implement an AP Gov class.”

The AP class is expected to cover more information than the regularly offered government class in preparation for the AP test on May 6.

“We go over the underpinnings of our government, the foundations of our government, what are the founding principles and how is it set up or established,” Mrs.Hildebrand said. “We have nine foundational documents that students have to know inside and out and 15 court cases that you have to know inside and out.

“We will, of course cover, the three branches of government. We’ll get into political behavior, and of course, we’ll look at the political parties in detail. We analyze a lot of data with regard to charts and graphs and maps and those types of things, looking for different trends, trying to analyze behavior. We will look at civil rights. We’ll look at federal bureaucracy.”

The class was designed to be more rigorous than the only other government class offered. The class contains around 20 students who agreed to take the course by signing a contract last May when registering for classes this academic year.

“I think that the level of difficulty this government class has will be fun, yet a challenging experience for me,” senior Sarah Rodriguez said. “I signed up for (AP Government) knowing that it won’t be an easy A, but I’m going to work hard everyday to get a good grade. I also haven’t taken an AP course yet so it’ll be a new experience for me. Also, the AP exam in May will be interesting as well.”

The government class that the majority of the senior class has taken or is taking currently does not go into as much depth as the AP course does, which is expected for an advanced placement class.

“I think it’s a little different from a regular government class in that regular government is about ‘How is the government set up? How does the government work?’ We’re going to get more into actual policy and how that is made and how it affects people,” Mrs. Hildebrand said. “In regular government, we look at the three branches of government, and we do talk a little bit about how they interact, but in this class, we’ll get more involved in how those three branches interact together … We’ll look at the media, interest groups, elections and how those work.”

Because the expectation for learning is much more in depth in the advanced class, students may be feeling a little more stress due to the extensive knowledge they are expected to retain.

“I’m not worried too much on the class itself but more on the difficulty of the class along with other classes I’m taking,” Rodriguez said. “For this semester, I’m taking pretty challenging courses along this class, but I’m ready to end my last semester on a good note.”

The class has received new textbooks from which they are expected to study in preparation for the upcoming AP exam. The class will help students better understand the government and the founding principles that guide their decisions every day.

“I would tell kids not to be afraid to take (AP Government) because I think AP classes are sometimes scary and kids don’t want that extra challenge, but I would encourage kids to look into it as a way to gain some college credit, but also as a way to prepare for college,” Mrs. Hildebrand said. “And, again, just become a knowledgeable participant in our democratic society.”