At John Dewey High School, there are a wide variety of trips offered for the students. Available for all grades, Dewey makes it their mission to ensure that the next four years of schooling are pleasurable. However, how many students out of the thousands that populate Dewey can actually attend these outings?
For many students, it has to do with the cost. Unfortunately, the vast majority of students are unable to fully enjoy the experiences associated with being in high school due to significant financial hardships.
In response to being asked how John Dewey addresses these issues and concerns regarding financial misfortune, Principal Heather Adelle said, “[Students] do a lot of fundraising and the Student Council, along with Ms. Escalara are always thinking of ways that they can support the students. [School administration] also does some of our own fundraisers. So there’s a lot of outlets to help support”.
Community workers such as Ms. Vanessa, the school’s community coordinator weighed in on this dilemma, saying “I understand that students and parents have financial hardships, but Dewey provides ways to help students with these problems with chocolate boxes and other fundraising [opportunities].
“As far as students not being able to go on trips, [students] can convene with [Senior Coordinator] Ms.Escalera regarding new trips and finding cheaper ones for students. There is also the Dewey Outside club with Mr.Prempeh, and the students can tag along with him to go on whatever trips if there’s ever a case where they feel left out”.
While this is true, the reality for many students is that raising money is not as easy as it seems. There are many obstacles that students need to overcome during this process.
Senior Ghazi Sharif believes that “students using chocolate boxes to provide funding for themselves is a very inefficient method, because most students don’t buy the chocolates, and if people do buy the chocolates, since they are so cheap- they aren’t making a lot of profit.
“This provides numerous problems, because if they decide to increase the price there is a chance that even more people won’t buy the chocolate’s because they aren’t a necessity.”
Most students struggle to make profit off of these boxes due to either no one having cash, or just people simply not wanting the same thing over and over again. A high percentage of students are selling the same exact chocolate boxes for the same reason. Eventually, people are going to start to get tired of it and not buy the chocolate at all.
So sure, Dewey provides outlets of support- but with seemingly limited variety. It seems that Dewey students are looking for new outlets when it comes to fundraising.
