In the 2025-26 school year, San Rafael High School is offering two new AP courses: AP Macroeconomics and AP Psychology.
The new classes were brought by Dr. Evelyn Sulem and Ms. Sabrina Paiz. AP Macroeconomics is expected to have 67 students taking the class, and AP Psychology has 58 students. Ms. Paiz offered the class because she saw that many students were interested in taking a psychology class. Dr. Sulem offered the class because she felt like having the knowledge macroeconomics brings is useful for people that are joining adulthood. “Many of the decisions you are going to be making very soon in life are very much related within the macroeconomics of this country,” said Dr. Sulem.
So far, students seem to enjoy the new classes. “I like the new AP classes because it introduces more of a selection in terms of college level courses, as well as bringing more opportunities for the students that are prepared to take these classes,” said SRHS senior Nicole Lux Torres.
“If you know how to read indicators, and if you know how to read inflation, and understand how interests work, you are going to make better decisions,” said Dr. Sulem, who is currently teaching AP Government but will teach AP Macroeconomics in the spring semester. ¨We are preparing you to become better decision makers.” Often as teens enter adulthood, newfound responsibilities can seem intimidating. But having someone to teach you the knowledge needed for a new era in life can help that change feel less harsh.
Dr. Sulem makes it clear that her reasons for bringing the class to SRHS go far deeper than believed. “We have an amazing type of population in the school that would benefit from learning [AP Macro], the Latino community and new people whose parents don’t talk about these sorts of things,” she said. Dr. Sulem understands the struggles of someone joining adulthood with setbacks that commence before you even begin, as being a Latina herself she understands how challenging it can be to start new in a country that has a completely different language, set of laws, and a new system to learn.
Dr. Sulem further expresses that she has a deep desire for women to join areas that are often associated as male dominated fields, mentioning that she “would love to encourage more women to get into economics.” As a woman herself, she understands how much power knowledge holds, and how it can defend you from further harmful ideologies.
Believing that the solution to fighting against harmful stereotypes is to spread awareness, Dr. Sulem did her best to make sure that all students were well informed. “What I did is, I went to every single history year in your class to present about the [AP Macro] class, so that I could attract more students,” she said.
Ms. Paiz put in great efforts to make sure that students knew about the new AP Psychology class that was being offered. Miss. Paiz said that she “did presentations and had all the other teachers do presentations in their classes of who would want to take the class, the numbers were sky high of people who were willing to take it, that gave me the data to present to the administration saying that kids want to take [AP Psychology].”
Camila Iñiguez, a senior student at SRHS, was asked how she found out about AP Psychology. She said, “I heard about it from a Google form sent out through the school email as a future class, and I voted for it to happen.” The main reason the classes were made was because students really wanted to take the new AP classes.
While both teachers did their best to make sure students knew of the new AP classes, unfortunately not all students knew in time. Kishor Shah is the only student in SRHS who has already taken AP Macroeconomics, due to the fact that he took the class during summer through an online course that is approved by the UC system. Shah said that he “took [AP Macro] on an online platform called UC Scout” which costs “400 bucks per semester.” According to what Shah said, he did not know about the new AP Macro class. When asked how he felt about the fact that AP Macro is now just being available, he expressed frustration. He said, “I guess it’s a little frustrating, but I’m happy that they made the effort to include it, it probably should’ve been done sooner but it’s cool that it’s here now.”
Many students who heard about the new AP classes quickly jumped to the opportunity. One of them is Lindsey Vasquez who decided to take AP Psychology, she said, “I thought that it was a very interesting course to take, and I like learning new things about it.” Lindsey is mainly excited to learn about, “the process of how mental illnesses work on people.” Regardless of the reasons students decided to take the new AP classes, everyone interviewed had something positive to say, in fact, the main judgement was the fact that the classes had not been available before.
In order for classes to be added in schools, there is a process that must be followed. Ms. Paiz, “talked to and got [AP Psychology] approved by the administration,” she said. “I spent a year and a half designing my curriculum.” According to Dr. Sulem, the process of getting a class approved involves first talking to your department head, and then the entirety of the department. “After that you have to start creating the curriculum, present to the school board, talk to the principal, fill out some documents, and present twice,” she explained. Getting a class approved is a long and tedious process that requires a lot of time, dedication, and passion. According to Dr. Sulem, it also took her “a year and a half to do it.”
Because the school year just started, it is difficult to say how well students will adjust to the new classes. One thing is clear: getting the new classes approved was not an easy task, but it was something that many students hoped for.
