On the week of the 20th of May 2024, the graduating class gave their senior board presentations.

As a final assessment of their senior projects, each senior had to present their project—what they did, what they learned, and their motivation for choosing their project, to name a few topics—to a panel of judges including teachers and community members.

As a reflection of the wide variety of different senior projects completed this year, the senior board presentations covered a lot of different experiences, including students’ experiences with mentorship, creating murals, job shadowing, and project creations.

The intention of the senior board presentations is to provide students with feedback from adults they may not know and to perhaps emulate a job interview. Overall, the aim of the senior projects and board presentations is to create a meaningful experience for students.

Mr. Atkins, the current Senior Seminar teacher here at SHS, explained that the overall goal of the senior board presentations is to provide some key long term benefits to students.

“The purpose of the board presentations is to enhance the students’ long term goals in life by allowing them to focus on something that affects them in that sense. We believe that students benefit greatly from creating projects they can connect with the community, it enhances skills and job opportunities,” stated Mr. Atkins.

Many seniors had mixed feelings about the presentations; many were stressed or nervous, but there was also a great deal of excitement in the air as seniors completed this important step towards their graduation.

Senior Dylan O’shea shared his feelings about the presentations, stating how he rehearsed his presentation a lot to avoid making mistakes on the final presentation.

“I was very nervous that I was going to mess up, I rehearsed over and over to make sure that I did not forget anything,” stated O’shea.

Senior Ellery Stewart stated that her initial nervousness about giving her presentation turned into excitement as her day to present grew nearer.

“I was nervous at the beginning, but then I felt excited to give the presentations. It wasn’t terrible in my opinion,” shared Stewart.

Many seniors also shared to what extent they prepared ahead of time for these presentations. While some prepared their presentations far in advance, others spent more time crafting their presentations and thus took longer to complete them.

O’shea explained that he completed his presentation on the week it was due because it took him a larger amount of time to finish making the presentation.

“The presentation took me until the week that it was due to complete it. It was not that it was hard, just very time consuming, not in a bad way though,” shared O’shea.

Senior Angela Lares took a different approach and completed her presentation early, allowing her to feel that she was prepared for such an important presentation long before the deadline. Even though she finished her presentation earlier than some, she still shared a feeling of nervousness about presenting to the panel.

“It did not take me too long to complete since I knew what I was doing, but I was just really nervous. I kept practicing though,” stated Lares.

All seniors were able to complete their presentations, despite their nervousness. Senior boards are a requirement for graduation, and as such, it is a significant part of senior year.