For many Knights, Shields Up came as a sort of a shock to the schedule that students had been used to for years before. As the buzz of the new year settles across Arroyo, however, students have begun to familiarize themselves with the unfamiliar beat of their day-to-day routines and established their positions on how they feel about the new program.

As stated in the previous story, “Shields Up,” Shields Up is a 24 minute program that takes place between fourth period and lunch. During this period, students are either assigned to a study hall or a long lunch, depending on their grades from the previous 6-week grading period and attendance. Freshmen, however, are required to attend a period known as Freshman Focus.

Opinions from those who earned long lunch were mostly positive.

“I think it’s really helpful because I get to do a lot of my work during my free time and then I get to eat lunch with my friends!” exclaimed Oliver Gonzalez, senior.

Ivy Huynh, junior, also shared her opinion on long lunch, stating, “I feel like it’s a good program because it encourages people to get better grades.”
Responses from those attending the 24 minute study hall period were largely positive as well.

“At first I didn’t like it but now I feel like it does help people, who are maybe failing a class or something, because you get to do a lot of your homework during that class or if you have a test after Shields Up, you can study for it,” says Winky Huang, junior.

Despite this, nearly everybody cited specific ways that the program could be improved. Perhaps the most popular demand was allowing those with long lunch to use their extra time to get lunch earlier, on and off campus.

“There’s also a flaw to [Shields Up] because the people who are in the long lunch period don’t get to get lunch or go off campus until the Shields Up period is over. That’s a bad thing because they deserve to go off campus and get lunch early because they’re the ones who worked hard to get their grades up.” says Huynh.

The reason as to why lunch cannot be served earlier is an issue of how long the cafeteria workers are allowed to work. As for being unable to leave campus during Shields Up, the 24 minute period is considered an instructional period, making off-campus prohibited.

Other suggestions included extending the study hall period in order to foster more productivity.

As mentioned previously, freshmen are required to attend a Freshman Focus class in which they are informed on Arroyo’s culture, high school requirements, participate in team-building activities led by Link Crew, and are allowed time to study and catch up on homework.

“It’s been helping me understand what high school life is really about, like what’s different from middle school and high school,” shares Kelly Shintaku, freshman.

Most freshmen agreed, however, that the program could be more enjoyable if they were able to partake in more of team-building activities provided by Link Crew.

“[The activities] allow me to open up to freshmen that I wouldn’t usually approach, so you get to meet new people,” says Jessica Ho, freshman.