When students at Galesburg High School sign up for Advanced Placement (AP) courses, many are thinking ahead to college credits, transcripts, and admissions essays. But talk to AP teachers Stuart “Stu” Schaafsma and Julie Gustafson, and you’ll quickly realize that the program is about something deeper than preparing for the next academic rung. It’s about preparing students to live fuller, more thoughtful lives.

Schaafsma, who has taught in Galesburg for nearly two decades, brings AP Human Geography to life by connecting global issues with human stories. His course covers seven sprawling units—urban development, food systems, migration, politics, culture, and more. For him, it’s less about memorizing facts than about showing students “how humans live and interact on the planet and how we’re spatially organized.” The subject matter, he admits, could overwhelm with its sheer range, touching nearly every corner of the social sciences. But in his classroom, the ideas come alive through hands-on, empathetic exercises.

Take, for instance, his Syrian refugee simulation. Students choose a handful of items to carry, then move through taped prompts on classroom walls, each decision carrying consequences: survive, relocate, or lose everything. “It’s kind of like the old choose-your-own-adventure books,” Schaafsma explains. “Students really like that.” He’s considering creating a similar scenario based on Ukraine, underscoring that displacement and survival are not distant stories but present realities. For Schaafsma, human geography is about “demystifying how the world works” and helping students discover “a lot of stuff you didn’t even know was happening around you all the time.”

While Schaafsma introduces students to the wide lens of the social sciences, Gustafson sharpens their focus on the close reading and careful writing that underpin AP Literature. Having taught in Galesburg since 1995, she sees her classroom as a place where students learn not just to read texts but to read the world. “AP Literature is skill-based,” she says. “They already know how to read and write. I’m just trying to make them do it better—more critically, more analytically.”

Her students, mostly seniors, often return to her after earlier Honors English courses, creating continuity that lets her push them further. In her words, AP Literature is about building “better readers, better writers, better analyzers in anything.” It also builds community. Many students confide in her as they polish admissions essays and shape their personal stories for college. Gustafson considers it a privilege to walk alongside them in that process.

Neither teacher sees their AP work as a narrow career pipeline. “The root of humanities is human,” Gustafson notes. Reading stories across time and culture cultivates empathy, which in turn equips students to become lifelong learners and better citizens. Schaafsma echoes this: “English and social studies prepare students to work with people, not just things.” While math and science ready graduates for technical fields, he says, the humanities help students communicate, collaborate, and connect—skills every employer says they want, and every community needs.

Both teachers also find that AP students often self-select because they want the challenge. Some take the exams and earn college credit. Others simply take the course as rigorous preparation for the future, regardless of their field. “They might take it as college prep, to push themselves,” Gustafson explains. For her, that self-motivation makes the classroom special.

Their reflections stretch beyond academics into the wider Galesburg community. Gustafson highlights the strength of having “just one unit school district that serves PreK through 12th grade,” which builds loyalty and pride, particularly visible during Homecoming festivities when “the whole town comes out.” Schaafsma, meanwhile, points to Galesburg’s resilience. Having weathered economic hardships, he believes residents understand that “we have to be a community, or you just don’t make it.” That spirit, he says, filters down into classrooms, where students are buoyed by a culture of support.

It’s easy to tally the number of AP courses available at Galesburg—English, history, math, sciences, even art—but harder to quantify the program’s ripple effects. Schaafsma recalls students who, though headed into vastly different careers—law, medicine, the sciences—found common ground in his Human Geography class. Gustafson remembers seniors who trusted her with their essays, their hopes, their fears. Both stories point to the same conclusion: AP programming is not just about advanced coursework. It’s about cultivating curiosity, empathy, and resilience.

For Galesburg students, that means leaving high school not just with college credits in hand, but with the skills and outlook to navigate a complicated world with understanding—and with heart.