Student Voice
There is nothing more important than the voice of our students. Through our unique Advisory system, surveys and our Principal's Leadership Council, and especially our unique graduation ceremony, we create opportunities for ALL students to be welcomed, valued, respected and heard. Below is a sample of the kinds of things our students want people to know about Sunset:
"Sunset High School is a second chance if you have fallen behind. A chance to just focus on school independently, although using the word independent honestly doesn’t feel right because though you are independent the teachers here will give you more help than any other teacher I ever had. They really care about how you are doing school wise and mentally."
"As I get ready to leave Sunset, I take with me the feeling of community I found here. All of the teachers and staff I have interacted with here at Sunset have approached their jobs with love, kindness, and excitement."
"If you are coming here feeling behind or stressed out, just know that a lot of people here felt the same way at first. Sunset is different from a regular high school because the teachers and staff actually take time to help students individually and make sure they succeed."
"If you’re enrolled at this school, you’re most likely coming in after having spent some time at a previous school already. Maybe multiple. Maybe you had trouble fitting in with the people around you, maybe the workload was just too much for you to feel able to healthily control and maintain, maybe you had life problems in general messing with your ability to focus in school, or maybe you decided to come here just because it felt right in comparison to everywhere else. All of these reasons are totally okay, and you’re totally not the first. That’s the great thing about this school, you’re NEVER alone.
The smaller number of students is a blessing in many ways. Teachers are much more able to focus on you and your needs personally, and each and every one of them cares about your success and well-being. There’s people around you that are definitely going through similar things to you, even if not exactly the same. Everyone’s got their own stuff going on, but this is the school that really makes sure you have people to confide in and makes sure that you’re heard whenever you need it.
Finding your people can be difficult, but they’re totally there! With a whole bunch of clubs and support groups to look into like Art Club, Yearbook, Women’s Group, etc, there’s never a lack of support and opportunity for friendship. And the freedom to feel way more chill about your work with a lack of strict deadlines and teachers putting their trust in you makes your independence skyrocket. Just don’t procrastinate too much and you’ll be fine, I speak from a very stressed out experience.
Most importantly, just be yourself. Sunset High School is the place to be proudly weird, different, extra, goofy, whatever you WANT to be. Take pride in who you are and you’ll find people that appreciate you and want to watch you succeed! And always be proud of yourself, because you’ve made it this far, and that’s always an achievement."
