Maddie is a new incoming Freshman at STEAM Academy. For most of Maddie’s life, she has dreamed about becoming a therapist, wanting to help people from all walks of life figure out why their brains are wired the way they are. One day during the summer Maddie received an email; inside was a Google form with extracurricular classes that Maddie got to choose from to take in the Fall semester. Excited, she clicked the form knowing what her first choice was going to be, Psychology. All her friends from middle school would talk about the psych classes being offered once in high school. As Maddie scrolled through the lists of classes being offered she was confused, let down even. Psychology is an up-and-coming occupation that many students are interested in why would this one school not offer it? The demand for psychologists in the Professional world has grown massively, it was predicted that from 2023 to 2033 Psychology demand rate would grow up to 7%. This fact has made an impact on schools all around the USA with over 5,000 schools providing classes to prepare students who plan on studying the field in college. For a while, STEAM Academy was one of the only schools in Kentucky to be an exception to this. Just like Maddie, many students for a long time were disappointed that they were missing out on the opportunity to study the human mind. Rather having to focus on math and practical science studies. In the Fall semester of 2024 though, STEAM decided to introduce our new Psychology class taught by one of our world history teachers into our mix of classes in the Spring semester due to the high demand at which students were asking for it. Mr. Cunningham has a history of teaching psychology in the past. When we asked “How did you feel about teaching Psychology? Were you nervous?” he admitted that though it had been a while since he had taught the class he had no worries. We also asked him whether or not he thought STEAM would choose to expand the subject and provide a Psychology 2. He replied that he doesn’t imagine STEAM has any intentions of this. Students of the class are so far very pleased with the curriculum and studies that have been implemented, one student Kassandra Shelby Leer states, “Mr.Cunningham gives very easy class work as well as explains the subject we are learning very thoroughly. He makes the class super fun while teaching us about the way the brain works.” Now, after Maddie got to experience her first semester at Steam Academy she would admit it was pretty fun. She used hands-on learning to make subjects that she never imagined she would have an interest in fun! It gave her the motivation to come to class with a good attitude and ready to learn. But after hearing about STEAM finally getting the psychology class that she and many other students wanted, it made all the students who wanted to move forward with a psychology-related degree feel seen and allowed them to get a head start on their studies ahead of college.
