“Does it get a GPA boost?” students often ask when considering their class choices for the coming year. Whether or not a class helps a student’s grade point average (GPA) affects student choices, often more than it should. As schedule choices become relevant this time of year, many students need to consider what a class can do for them, more than just the numbers.

As 4.0 classes that often hurt students’ GPAs, scholastic journalism classes, including journalism, broadcast journalism and photojournalism, are not the most popular. Too often, students don’t consider these classes worth their time, but fail to realize just what these classes can provide.

In a science and technology school, it can be difficult to find an outlet for creativity. In journalism, ideas are welcome, and page designers for the newspaper or yearbook can create beautiful designs. The sense of accomplishment and pride that comes from the thought of “I wrote that!” or “I designed that!” can be incredibly fulfilling and satisfying. It also means that the writers or designers have something they did on their own—it is completely theirs.

The sense of community from scholastic journalism is even better. Whether it is talking with other staffers in eighth period or eating Chinese food at a work night, every passing issue brings a staff closer together, and collaborating on projects, be it articles or pages, creates bonds that last.

Although it may seem unpleasant at first, scholastic journalism forces its staffers to go places and do exciting activity whether a chic Washington, D.C. donut shop for the entertainment section of the newspaper or the Homecoming football game for sports. The experiences of journalism are educational and fun and help staffers go new places, try new things and meet new people.

No matter what the reason for joining, scholastic journalism is a great addition to the high school experience and helps its members learn and grow in ways that other students may not. More students should think twice before picking the class that is best for their GPAs, and consider what is best for their lives.