“Shadow Cats” is the genius project and brainchild of seniors Natalie Goins and Kylie Young, whose goal is to help incoming freshman get a true taste of what it’s like as a student of Sage Creek. Eighth graders from Aviara Oaks, Calavera Hills, Valley, and other middle schools came to experience a day in the Bobcat community.

Goins came up with this idea when thinking back to eighth grade where she shadowed a high school student at a private school in Colorado before moving to Carlsbad. For Goins, this was a “really good experience” because she was able to participate in a regular school day and feel what it was like as a high schooler.

She then decided that her and Young’s genius project would put their own unique spin on the shadowing program and integrate it into the Sage Creek community. All students of the Carlsbad Unified School District have the option to choose between Carlsbad High School or Sage Creek High School, and hopefully with this program, it can help finalize the decisions of prospective students.

Prior to shadow cats, the only way to see Sage Creek was through a scheduled tour or the annual showcase. According to Principal Morales, the middle school students now have an opportunity to get a “glance of the actual Sage Creek High School experience as opposed to secondhand knowledge.”

Morales especially loves how it allows students to truly experience Sage Creek and be able to “participate in a class, listen to a lesson, talk to students about their homework load, the different sports they participate in and the different extracurriculars like theater, band, orchestra and digital photo.”

Shadow cats has not only been an exciting experience for the incoming freshmen, but for the Sage Creek student ambassadors as well. Freshman Cierra Healy learned how to be “a good host” for the prospective ninth grader that was shadowing her. It teaches Sage Creek students how to be both accountable and responsible for the eighth grader, and to make sure they truly illustrate what a typical day at Sage Creek is like.

Lanie Call, an eighth grader from Calavera Hills Middle School, enjoys how Sage Creek is “smaller than Carlsbad High School” and how overall the staff and students are very pleasant to be around. Call was particularly impressed with her Journalism class because she took part in a weekly staff meeting which exemplified the unconventional and engaging classes that allow students to interact and discuss their own ideas.

Calvin Anderson, another eighth grader from Calavera Hills Middle School, was “blown away” by Sage Creek after experiencing a day in the life of a Bobcat, and expressed his liking for Sage Creek as it somewhat mirrors Calavera Hills Middle School.

“Everyone seems nice and you can just interact with everybody,” Anderson concluded.