In high school students today, more that 49 percent feel stressed due to school. Along with those students, 26 percent has been diagnosed with depression. The stress of graduating and keeping

Students experience the stress of balancing school, work, and extracurricular activities while maintaining their social lives. Clarence Whiter and Karen Fuertes, students at North High, know of this stress first-hand.

Whitner, a junior, rarely has time for fitness activities due to his daily homework load. During the school week, Whitner is unable to go to the gym and be active due to school work.

Whitner’s weekends are reserved for personal time and time for his friends. He has to sacrifice hanging with his friends some weekends due to the amount of homework he has for each class.

“I have to prioritize and sacrifice time from my friends in order to complete all my school work on time,” Whitner said.

Whitner participates in several extracurricular activities such as College Possible and he plays football. These activities play a role in his stress and lack of social life.

Whitner gets about five hours of sleep each night.

“Sometimes it’s hard to see the end goal but I know it’ll be worth it, ” Whitner said.

Fuertes struggles with similar issues. She is a senior who knows the stress of filling out college applications along with still maintaining her grades.

Karen is in College Possible which helped her manage the stress of college. The program worked with them on applying to colleges and filling out the FAFSA.

Along with College Possible, Fuertes also is involved in German Club, MT Java, Latino Leaders in which she is the president of. All of her extracurricular activities along with school limits her from having a job.

Time management and deadlines are difficult for Fuertes. She sets reminders of the tasks she has to complete such as scholarship deadlines.

“Scholarships, they stress me out a lot,” Fuertes said.

Fuertes uses Viking Time to do homework and her missing assignments for her classes. She sets limits of how much time she spends doing homework so she can uphold her social life and spend time with her family.

Fuertes is attempting to enjoy her senior year and participate in activities seeing as how this is her last year.

“Don’t spend all your time at home and miss like your last football games, basketball games,” Fuertes said.