Desert Pines high school is known for many things, magnet programs being one of them. There are so many different magnet programs, students are able to request their ideal magnet and actually have fun in the class. 

There are 7 magnet programs here at DP: Animation, Culinary Arts, Marketing, Pre-Medical, Photography, Radio Production, and Video Production. All of these programs are popular in their own way. Two programs are quite larger than the other ones: Pre-Med and Culinary Arts. 

“There are about 40 students in each of our culinary arts periods,” Culinary Instructor Mr. Schock said.

Culinary Arts classes teach students how to cook, but also help students develop different life skills same time.

“This culinary class really helps students understand or introduce them to Culinary, which is restaurant and hotel management style” Mr. Schock said, “This is a life skills class, because it teaches them the basics to fabrication and cooking methods, those are skills that can be taken with you for the rest of your life.”

Students in the Culinary program seem to really enjoy it.

 “One thing I like about culinary is the fact that it’s sometimes hands-on cooking,” Culinary student Ania Johnson said, adding, “I get to experience cooking different things which will help me prepare for my future home life.”

Culinary Arts is currently the largest magnet program, and seems to still be growing.

“Based on the time that I have been at Desert Pines, which is since last school year, the rate of students has gone up,” said Mr. Schock. “This class is popular because it teaches you how to cook basic recipes, which is something that will always be useful,” Mr. Schock said.

All magnet programs allow students to participate in organizations and go on field trips.  They also offer many career and technical student organizations such as DECA, HOSA, FBLA, FCCLA, and SkillsUSA.

“[Magnet program] students also get to listen to guest speakers and participate in job shadowing opportunities and internships,” Magnet Coordinator Ms. Laura Denue said.

For more valuable information on the magnet programs, you can visit the magnet section of Desert Pines school website: desertpineshs.org. Twitter – @DPMagnet, Facebook – @DPMagnet.