// This is a machine generated transcript. Please report any transcription errors to will-help@illinois.edu.

[00:00:00]
Brian Mackey: It's the 21st Show. I'm Brian Mackey. I want you to think about your high school days. How were they? Were you more academically oriented? Maybe you were athletic or in the band or the play or something like that. How were your classes? Do you recall that any were particularly hard? I myself am still scarred by my experience with AP calculus.

Well, imagine balancing high school classes with college-level courses. And our final guests today did just that. Heather Aldrich and Gabrielle Buretz both recently graduated from Vienna High School in Vienna, Illinois. Heather will continue her academic career attending the University of Tennessee at Martin, studying art and Spanish, whereas Gabrielle will be attending Maryville University studying music therapy and will also be on the cheerleading squad. They both join me now to talk about getting their high school diplomas and an associate's degree. Heather, Gabrielle, congratulations. Welcome to the 21st Show.

[00:01:05]
Heather Aldrich: Thank you very much.

[00:01:06]
Brian Mackey: Thank

[00:01:07]
Heather Aldrich: you.

[00:01:07]
Brian Mackey: And listeners, I should say, in order to make our schedules work, we tape this conversation on Monday, but you can always let us know what you think. The address is talk@21stshow.org. Talk@21stshow.org. Alright, I wanna begin by just asking you a little about yourselves and your high school journey. So, Gabrielle, I'm gonna start with you. What did your typical high school schedule look like? Just high school, not counting the college classes yet.

[00:01:34]
Gabrielle Buretz: Yeah, so my high school schedule on its own, I would say was very difficult. I'm one of those who does like anything and everything that I could get my hands on. So I was in multiple sports. I was in multiple clubs, as well as filling almost my entire schedule with classes. So I'd say I was definitely full.

[00:01:57]
Brian Mackey: What is your, uh, what is your like daily, you know, 7 a.m. to [7] p.m. kind of thing or more or less?

[00:02:04]
Gabrielle Buretz: Um, I would definitely say for me, because I took choir in the morning, my day started at 7:15. And I would have school that ended at 2:45. Typically, I would have practices that ran until 5 p.m. and then sometimes work from like 5 until 10 at night.

[00:02:26]
Brian Mackey: Oh my goodness. Yeah. Uh, Heather, what about you? What was your sort of typical high school schedule like?

[00:02:33]
Heather Aldrich: My typical schedule was pretty similar. I was also in choir that started at 7:15. And my classes also ended at 2:45, but I would also have basketball that ran into typically about 5 o'clock, and then afterwards I would also work. Typically until 9:30 or sometimes till 11:15.

[00:02:54]
Brian Mackey: Holy cow. When did you sleep? Um, so, maybe the better question is, Heather, what inspired you to then take college-level courses on top of all that?

[00:03:06]
Heather Aldrich: Going to Vienna, they very much propel you into success, and I had always pushed myself to work as hard as possible. And with the help of everybody at Vienna, they kind of just like pushed me, said, hey, you got all these hard classes, why don't you just take a few more, fill up your day even more.

[00:03:25]
Brian Mackey: Gabrielle, what about you? What prompted you to take some of these college-level classes?

[00:03:30]
Gabrielle Buretz: I'd say mine was definitely about the same. Our advisors work really well with us. They kind of watch us look at our schedules and see if like we have the wits to even do something like that. But also my family is all alumni from Vienna, and I've watched my cousins do the same courses. And so it kind of helped me realize that it's not too difficult because I could lean on them if I need help as well as my counselors and my friends doing it with me.

[00:04:02]
Brian Mackey: Yeah, so Gabrielle, tell me, what are some of the courses you chose to take at the community college and why?

[00:04:09]
Gabrielle Buretz: Uh, yes. So I took a couple of biology classes as well as psychology. I finished up sociology recently, and that's because of with my course, it's more of like the health route. So I kind of already have to take biology, psychology, sociology when I get to college. So I figured I would just knock that out of the way now so that I don't have to do it later.

[00:04:33]
Brian Mackey: How did the difficulty of those classes compare to what you were doing in your high school classes?

[00:04:39]
Gabrielle Buretz: They were definitely more difficult if I have to say. The pressure is definitely harder because you have a for-sure deadline that you have to finish, whereas like high school, you could easily sweet talk your teachers into, you know, getting an extended deadline for a couple more days.

[00:05:00]
Brian Mackey: That's what I wasn't doing right. OK. Uh, Heather, what about you? What are some of the college-level classes you took?

[00:05:10]
Heather Aldrich: My route goes towards more of the art, but I also did not know what I wanted to do whenever we started taking the classes, so I kind of took a little bit of everything. But one of my favorite classes was taking cultural diversity, and that one I actually took in person on a Zoom call during the summer. And some of the other classes I enjoyed was diversity in school of education. So that one kind of leads me where if I want to become an art teacher after I finish college, that would help me out a lot.

[00:05:41]
Brian Mackey: And how did you find the difficulty of those Zoom classes? Cause I'm guessing pretty much the rest of your education, maybe a little during the pandemic, you did remote, but pretty much the rest of your education had been in person, right?

[00:05:53]
Heather Aldrich: Yes, it was very different cause I would go to the high school for about 3 hours, uh, twice a week. It did help prepare me to like what a class schedule is kind of like, because I was also in a Zoom call with other people from different schools, but it was very different.

[00:06:09]
Brian Mackey: So, I guess the question I have is how did you manage to balance all that? You have your high school life, you're not only taking classes, you're doing choir, you know, sports, other activities. Uh, Gabrielle, I'll start with you. How did you strike that balance?

[00:06:23]
Gabrielle Buretz: Um, I would kind of just watch like my timeline and everything, like see when something would start, when something would end before I took something on. But I also, as you had mentioned earlier, I never really slept, honestly. There were nights where like I would be up until like [2:00] in the morning, maybe doing homework, but most of the time I would try to just watch when things would start, when things would end to make sure I could like fit it together like a puzzle piece.

[00:06:56]
Brian Mackey: And uh Heather, was it the same situation for you? Did you just not sleep for the last couple of years?

[00:07:02]
Heather Aldrich: Yeah, pretty much. I'm gonna be honest, there's not a lot of sleeping or if you do sleep, half of it's in the classes that you're taking.

[00:07:12]
Brian Mackey: All right, let me remind listeners, this is the 21st Show. We're speaking with Gabrielle Buretz and Heather Aldrich, who were recently graduated from Vienna High School in [Vienna,] Illinois. Uh, and at the same time, they also got associate's degrees from Shawnee Community College. We've been talking about how they balanced their high school lives, the expectations of the school with their college course expectations. I should say in order to make our schedules work, we tape this conversation ahead of time, but you can always let us know what you thought. Our voicemail line, [217-300-2121]. That's 217-300-2121. Gabrielle, I wonder if we can just talk a little bit about what being a high school student in 2026 is like. Are we asking too much of you and your peers, right, with all this stuff going on?

[00:08:05]
Gabrielle Buretz: Um, I, I would say it's a little difficult being a student in 2026. I feel like there's definitely more like pressure to actually succeed than there has been in my schooling prior, whether or not that's just senior year as a whole, or if it's this year. I feel like there's a lot of things that we have to start accommodating for. As we are starting to realize that things are worse than they had been before, like accommodations in schools for students who need it. I feel like just things like that start to get a little bit difficult. But I feel like overall, also being a student in this time is rewarding because you're open to so many opportunities that help benefit you that we didn't have before.

[00:08:59]
Brian Mackey: Heather, similar question to you and maybe we can drill down on like, I don't know, start times, right? You said you had to do choir. Was that 7:15 in the morning? I guess both of you did that. What when would you ideally start your school day if you could, you know, dictate that?

[00:09:14]
Heather Aldrich: I would probably say closer to 9 o'clock because scientifically, they've come up with studies where it shows that adolescents' brains really start working later in the day. So we just push it back like an hour, that could help bring up scores, and I know that in Finland, they've also had similar studies, and they start their days later and they have a lot better scores than what we do in America.

[00:09:38]
Brian Mackey: Hm, yeah, fascinating. We've actually had some experts on the show to talk about that very thing. Doesn't seem to be getting a lot of take up though, unfortunately.

You know, one of the other things I wanted to ask you both about is you are going to high school, your time in high school basically perfectly overlaps with this rise in, you know, what we're calling artificial intelligence. And I wonder how you navigated that and how you saw it playing out around you in the classroom and beyond. And, and Heather, I'll start with you.

[00:10:08]
Heather Aldrich: I can say that I've pretty much seen AI everywhere. I mean, kids obviously used it on their papers to cheat and everything. And I just, it was very overwhelming looking at everybody just type up prompts and just do their work that way instead of actually sitting down doing their work. It made it more tempting to go out and do it because it was such like an open opportunity where you could really get AI anywhere.

[00:10:37]
Brian Mackey: Yeah, do you feel like the, you know, school leaders, the teachers, principal, that sort of thing, were they understanding of what was going on or was it kind of flying under the radar?

[00:10:49]
Heather Aldrich: I would say a lot of it was flying under the radar, but they did have a lot of AI checkers for different papers and everything. But I know that the staff has used AI before. Even the higher-up staff, they've used it before. Everybody has used it before at some point, it's just navigating whenever you can use it and where it's just way too much where you can't use it.

[00:11:11]
Brian Mackey: Yeah. Uh, and Gabrielle, what about you? Did you see AI playing out the same way?

[00:11:18]
Gabrielle Buretz: Oh, for sure. I feel like also too, a lot of us like in the college class, unlike other kids, we also used it as a learning tool. Like there were times where I would be stuck on a problem or like a writing paper, and I wouldn't necessarily use it to write up my paper because like Heather said, that would be cheating. I would use it to help me like navigate an outline to start my paper. And then once I understood that, then I would actually start writing my paper because whenever you start getting into books like Shakespeare that are written in basically a completely different language than what you speak now, it starts to get a little bit difficult to understand and comprehend.

And also in our English classes, we had this one website where they were constantly, it was open like 24/7, and you can send your paper in. And it would like check it and tell you things that you can do to like make it better. It wouldn't tell you exactly what sentences to do. It would tell you like, hey, your grammar isn't the best on this paper, or you have run-on sentences. And so things like that. I feel like some use it as a learning tool, but as Heather said, most used it to completely write like a one-page paper or answer this short question and they would just copy and paste.

[00:12:45]
Brian Mackey: Well, so you're both heading off to college. Um, I wonder, you know, what you feel like, you know, compared to your peers like having done these college classes. Are you gonna have a shorter time in college? What are you looking forward to? What are your expectations? And, uh, Heather, I'll start with you.

[00:13:03]
Heather Aldrich: I can say that I will probably have a shorter time in college. The college courses helped me kind of like prepare for what my course load will be like, but it's still gonna be a completely different realm for me than what I'm used to in high school. I know that my advisor set my graduation date for 2028, so that would only be two years out because I have all of my [generals] done. But I'm looking forward to everything in college and getting out and finally like living on your own and being your own person.

[00:13:37]
Brian Mackey: 2 years, that's amazing. Uh, Gabrielle, what about you?

[00:13:41]
Gabrielle Buretz: Um, yes, I'm not as lucky as Heather is. Uh, my graduation day after talking with the head of my department at the college is set for 2029. But that's because of all the major-specific classes I still have yet to take. Um, but for me, I'm excited to get to college and experience the college life and with being a cheerleader, like getting to be at the game, supporting my school, staying active, and just smaller things like that. And like Heather said, being on my own and trying to navigate life myself.

[00:14:22]
Brian Mackey: Wow, 3 years is still pretty impressive. Uh, [Gabrielle Buretz] and [Heather Aldrich] were recently graduated from Vienna High School and also got associate's degrees at the same time from Shawnee Community College. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with us here on the 21st Show and best of luck to both of you in college.

[00:14:43]
Gabrielle Buretz: Thank you. Thank you.

[00:14:46]
Brian Mackey: That is all the time we have for our program today. The 21st Show is produced by Christine Hatfield and Jose Zapeda. Our digital producer is Kulsoom Kahn. Technical direction and engineering comes from Jason Croft and Steve Morck. Reginald Hardwick is our news director. The 21st Show is a production of Illinois Public Media. I'm Brian Mackey. Thanks for listening. We'll talk with you again tomorrow.