An internship program, video-game design among new offerings likely coming to New Trier High School

New Trier High School is continuing to expand its curricular offerings for students, proposing three new courses and four major course revisions for the 2025-2026 school year.

Dr. Peter Tragos, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, highlighted the proposed changes during the School Board’s regular meeting on Monday, Nov. 18.

He said the new offerings represent a “fresh perspective” on the curriculum, and he added that departments make changes to their curriculum based on a number of factors, including student feedback, potential to work with professional organizations and standards in teaching.

Among the new courses being proposed is not an actual course, but a program.

Starting in the 2026-2027 school year, Tragos said New Trier plans on offering an internship program for students.

He described it as “a capstone experience for students,” providing a “real-world experience.” It will reportedly be open to seniors and potentially some juniors.

“The course is flexible in its applications,” Tragos said. “Students would apply for an internship based on their interests and pathways they’ve been working on.”

The internship could also run concurrently with a class.

“For example, a student may be taking a computer science class and they’re actually in the class, but they’re doing an internship in computer science as well, or a related field around that kind of work,” Tragos said.

Participating students would need to complete at least 60 hours of the internship per semester and would receive mentorship from both New Trier staff and industry professionals.

While the program itself wouldn’t start for another two years, Tragos said the district would like to see it approved now so students are aware of it and community contacts can be made to provide for the internships.

Teachers are also proposing Game Design 1 and 2 as a new course.

Tragos said the purpose of the semester-long class would be learning how to design video games, and reflects current careers that may be available to students.

“I started to think of this as an emerging field,” he said. “It’s not emerging – it’s arrived.”

Students would be taught technology, storytelling and coding skills in the class. Game Design 1 would be entry-level, while Game Design 2 would be more advanced.

The third new course being proposed is aerospace engineering, which is part of the Project Lead the Way curriculum.

Project Lead the Way is a nonprofit that develops STEM courses for schools.

Tragos said the course will be a year-long course that will utilize hands-on projects and teach aerodynamics, spacecraft design, coding and data analytics.

It will not include flight simulation or actual flying, but Tragos said it may include drone operation.

There are also four existing courses that are set to undergo major revisions.

Current art classes Sculpture 1, 2 and 3, which are offered year-round, would now be offered as semester-long classes under the name Metal, Jewelry and Sculpture 1 and 2. Tragos said this will expand the offerings by diversifying the materials that students work with.

Additionally, current year-long courses fashion construction and advanced fashion construction and design would become semester-long courses and renamed introduction to fashion design and principles of fashion design, respectively.

Tragos said these courses will be geared toward students interested in the fashion industry, with the changes allowing students more flexibility in designing their schedules.

And longtime offering human growth and child development is being reimagined as foundations of teaching, “introducing students to the fundamentals of education and exploring teaching as a potential career path,” Tragos wrote in his memo to the board.

“It is an important shift many schools are making right now,” Tragos said at the meeting. “In a world with teacher shortages, many school districts are now working on a ‘grow your own’ program,” adding that this course may provide internship opportunities with the other new proposed offering.

The board will vote on approving the new courses at next month’s regular meeting.

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Subscribe to The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a subscriber? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.