Upcoming Senior Presentation Stresses Students
Students are working to finish their senior presentation and upload it to Smart Futures.
“Senioritis” is in full swing, and Career Portfolios are due today to homerooms, with the senior presentation taking place next week on October 23.
Career portfolios are a graduation requirement for seniors, a project started in ninth grade that is a culmination of events up to senior year. To finish off the first quarter, the class of 2020 will be presenting for 8-10 minutes in front of a group of teachers next Wednesday.
With the switch this year from Career Cruising to the new Smart Futures program, seniors were addled with more stress than past classes.
“I hate how they switched, they could’ve kept it all consistent,” senior Allie Howe said. “It’s all confusing. Transferring is a hassle for me.”
Students had to transfer all of their documents to Smart Futures, which resulted in some being lost. Points are deducted from the project if there are documents missing.
“If you don’t have something, it’s like it’s ‘too bad, your fault,'” senior Ryan Magilton said.
Some students find the aid the school has provided to be lacking.
“I feel like they weren’t really proactive as opposed to the past,” Ryan said. “They haven’t given that many examples.”
For some, the aid provided has been confusing.
“There’s so much that I don’t know,” Allie said. “There’s a list, but there’s not everything we need on it. Like the job shadow is two papers, but the list only has one.”
Despite these hardships, the overall project has been beneficial for some seniors.
“It forced me to make a resume,” Ryan said. “So at least I have that. It forced me to think about life after high school.”
Even with the career prep, some students found it easier to discover what they want to do independently.
“I took business classes, I really got into hockey,” Allie said. “It led me to wanting to become the marketing manager for the Philadelphia Flyers.”
Events included in the career portfolio is the college visit in 9th; a career matchmaker, business visit, and DDL certification in 10th; a job shadow and EverFi Financial Literacy in 11th; and the second half of EverFi as well as the senior presentation in 12th.
These events seem too long ago for some.
“An issue I foresee before starting my presentation is separating and signifying what I experienced with each grade,” senior Connor Eagle said. “It’s going to be hard, because I don’t remember.”
Seniors feel both “over” the presentation and under-prepared.
“Everyone’s doing the same thing, so you can’t really set yourself apart,” Connor said. “You can’t make it as important as they want it to be.”
If seniors don’t pass this presentation, they don’t graduate. This has caused some students strife, especially those who already have jobs lined up for after school.
“It should not determine if you graduate or not,” Allie said.
Senior presentation or not, many seniors have figured out what they want to do with their lives through their experiences within BASH—whether it be from the Career Portfolio, or from classes and clubs.
In the end, the future is all that matters.
Students will learn their scheduled time for their Oct. 23 presentation soon.
Jocelyn is a graduate of BASH. She served three years in the CUB and she previously wrote for the East Observer. She was in many clubs, such as SADD, Stage...
Past Student • Oct 23, 2019 at 3:55 pm
Senioritis, it doesn’t kick in this early, it may feel like it does, but it’s not here yet. And honestly the presentations aren’t even that bad, past students have gone through the exact same thing and passed.