This year there are two new classes that students can add to their schedules. Martin Rocha is teaching Dual Language Current Issues, and Pat Green teaches World Literature with dual credit.

These new classes were recently added to expand the options at North and offer new benefits to students. Patrick O’Connell, counseling department chair, says it’s around a two year process to add a new class.

“I think anytime we can add a new class, it’s a good thing. We don’t want things to get stale,” O’Connell said.

Dual Language Current Issues, like its name, is a class that is taught in two languages and focuses on current issues in the world today. Martin Rocha explains that the new elective class counts for a social studies credit.

“The class is based on, you know, for something new, something different, without the pressure of an honors or an AP class,” Rocha said.

One of the ways the class incorporates current issues is by watching a movie or documentary in class, along with a project.

“Whether it’s a movie or a documentary, how it symbolizes or represents our society for mostly in Latin America, we can actually connect with other issues around the world,” Rocha said. “They’re going to answer some multiple choice questions and how it’s connected with what’s happening today.”

The new World Literature class offers dual credit to the students enrolled. Pat Green says that class is like a college composition class, and it does have some extra benefits.

“All public universities in the state of Illinois recognize this credit as an English class. For CLC it’s called English 121, which is the college composition class,” Green said.

“It’s another way to ease the transition for students from high school into college,” Green said.

In addition to the classes recently added, there is likely to be more new classes in the future. This provides new opportunities for students at North.

“Whether it’s the internship classes that are here or that will be coming next year, to dual language, to more dual credit, anything that our students might be interested in that we don’t currently have, we want to provide those opportunities for our students,” O’Connell said.