Colleges are finally making their regular decisions for our 2024 Montclair Seniors! Graduation is coming closer and closer and Seniors need to make their decisions for the college they want to go to. 2 teachers were interviewed on the colleges they attended and their college life.

Starting with Mrs. Diaz, in room 80, attending Cal State Monterey Bay and the University of  Southern California. “I lived on campus for my undergrad at CSUMB, but I did not live on campus for my masters at USC.” One memory Mrs. Diaz looks back at for CSUMB is the class sizes being so small which led to her being able to get to know her classmates where they became a core group of study friends. One memory at USC that Mrs. Diaz looks back at is the football games. “My undergrad schedule was crazy, I had Monday, and Wednesday classes, and Tuesday, and Thursday classes. On Mondays, and Wednesdays, I would have class from 8 am until 3 pm, and I had a job so I’d work from 4 pm to 8 pm. Tuesday, and Thursday classes, I had morning classes from 8 am-12 pm and then I’d work 2 pm-6 pm.” It was really rough for Mrs. Diaz to manage both school work and work but she loves to be busy and keep moving so that she’s on track.

Next up, we have Mr. Ward who attended Cal State Northridge for one year, and Cal State San Bernardino for the rest. “I gave in to wanting to be an English major because my original thought was that I wanted to be a musician.” If you know Mr. Ward, he plays the guitar and plays it well. “There’s no money in music so I thought teaching English gives me the freedom to teach a lot of things, I can still be a musician but I get a paycheck for teaching.” Mr. Ward loves his job as an English teacher and feels like this is what he’s best at. Mr. Ward lived on campus for one year at Cal State Northridge but lived at home while attending Cal State San Bernardino. Mr. Ward looks back at a memory of having a group of friends that were in the English teaching program and it’d be fun to spend time and have fun with breaks in between because of the schedule they had. His schedule consisted of Tuesday and Thursday classes most of the time. “I tried to jam everything into a 2-day period so that I had rest of the week to work and do homework.” Mr. Ward graduated from CSUSB in 3 years because he took four classes instead of 3. There is a limit of classes to take but you have to sign a waiver to take it. While going to CSUSB, Mr. Ward worked as the mascot and the mascot’s assistant at the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. “Don’t procrastinate as much as you do in high school, high school is easier and people remind you about deadlines constantly, college professors show you a syllabus and they expect that.”