By Jazmin Neri and Isabel Olivas
At Minarets, we have something known as an SLE, which stands for Senior Legacy Experience. All Minarets seniors have to do a project, bigger than anything they’ve done in their entire life that leaves their mark on the community. Over the years there has been a wide variety of SLEs, including car shows, 24 hour gaming sessions, art shows, and even animal abuse awareness events. These events take a lot of thought and time, along with hard work.
While the SLEs serve a variety of purposes, Dr. Ching explained that “SLEs are the culminating experience for Minarets students. SLEs exemplify everything we want students to learn and accomplish with their time at Minarets. The SLE is built on the foundation of student interest, the Minarets Cs, where students are headed in their future and all of the skills and interests they have gained in their education. Our students have the opportunity to ‘Go Big, Go Pro, and Go Now’ with their SLEs.”
There are two major myths about SLEs: Several individuals believe that SLEs have to raise money and then go to a charity for a cause, but that isn’t the case. You can put on an event that you’re passionate about and bring awareness, but you don’t have to raise any money. As long as you’re leaving your mark on the campus and/or community you’re doing a great job. Others believe that flyers are an effective way to promote, but that isn’t necessarily true because not everyone looks at the walls while walking around campus. More effective ways to promote are posting your SLE on your social media, sending out invites to family and friends, and making a Facebook event page and sharing it to everyone you know.
Now that the proposals have concluded, SLEs will be starting soon. Its important to remember that seniors work diligently on these year-long projects and attendance is essential for their success. Even Mrs. Chacon, one our counselors, described how she loves “being able to listen to new ideas and legacies this group of Seniors want to leave behind. I love seeing the passion behind it and look forward to watching them grow individually through this experience." This year, let’s make it our goal to go to as many SLEs as possible! We’ll be covering as many SLEs as possible this year, so keep an eye out for the next article!
As a whole, SLEs are something special to Minarets and here are some of the notable ones from last year: