School's back in session for older students

Roundabout or not, the first day of school started at Douglas High without serious traffic incidents.

Junior Ashley Smith's first encounter with the roundabout was on her bus trip to school.

"I think the roundabout was a terrible idea," Ashley said. "It caused a huge traffic jam. It will definitely hold up traffic."

Brigita Oxoby, 17, took a different route to get to classes Monday morning.

"I purposely avoided it. I chose not to go that way," said Brigita.

The roundabout wasn't a problem earlier in the day when junior Ana Paramo came to school with one of her friends.

"I go to seminary and it wasn't that bad really early," Ana said. "I go at 6:30 a.m. and the roundabout wasn't bad then."

Ana said she likes school in general, "but only two more years and then I'm going to beauty school."

Macy Hirabayashi gave her first day as a Douglas High School student a thumbs up.

"It's pretty much the same so far," Macy said, comparing Douglas to Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School. "It's nice here."

Twins Amanda and Aaron Smith, 18 years old on Sunday, moved to Carson Valley from Richland, Wash., just this summer. Amanda said the first day was overwhelming.

"This school is a lot bigger," said Amanda. "We only had around 1,000 students in our old school. The block schedule is different and the teachers seem to be more intense."

Amanda plans to participate in track and field events, discus and shot throwing, and her brother Aaron is a hurdler.

Recent Douglas graduate Dillon Barber had his first day of school at Western Nevada Community College.

Equipped with backpack, notebooks and a course schedule, Barber was getting himself acquainted with the Douglas campus. His classes Monday included an earthquakes and volcanoes geology class and algebra/trigonometry.

"Compared to high school, this campus is a very nice, compact space," he said. "It's very quiet - I'm surprised."

Barber played trumpet and was in the drama program at Douglas and plans on an associate of arts degree.

"I'll try studies here and once I get a good footing in my college career, I'll finish at UNR," he said.

Students planning on college degrees will find many schools accept courses taken at Western Nevada Community College. The community college also offers associate of science and applied science, associate of general studies degrees and certificates of achievement in many subjects.

Michael Sady's general chemistry class is one of many college level courses offered at the community college that may transfer within the Nevada university system or to other colleges and universities.

There were 19 students who started Chemistry 121 with Sady in the lecture part of the class, which also includes three hours of laboratory time.

Sady had his students ponder the molecular structures of frozen and liquid water.

"Chemistry tends to begin with something you don't understand, but you understand water," he said.