by Aidan Millar-White and Abby Campbell
The countdown has started! The class of 2022 has approximately five months until graduation, and approximately four months until their Senior Legacy Experiences (SLE) are due.
An SLE is a year-long project all seniors must complete to help better their community in some way.
Living Pro teacher Mikendra McCoy, who is in charge of making sure the SLEs run smoothly, stated she would describe the project as such: “It’s about stabilizing dreams through effort . . . it’s an intentional act creating a right of passage for those who participate in the community, and a method for individuals to bond and grow what matters to them.”
There has been a wide variety of amazing SLEs this year, but today we’re looking at the ones that piqued our interest the most.
Some seniors, like Mackenzie Pogue and Nyx Uribe, are doing donation-based SLEs. Uribe is donating binders to queer kids in the school who need them.
When asked about Pogue's role, she said she is, “collecting donations for babies in our local hospital's NICU – infant socks, blankets, diapers, and formulas.”
There are also some seniors, like Donovan Eniram and Eve Romano, who are doing an event-style project. The two of them have plans to create an all school carnival, where the students show off everything they’ve done throughout the past year.
“Got the idea from [an] old school carnival and how it was fun to come together as a school and show what we do at this school,”[sic] Eniram mentioned.
They plan on holding their carnival on April 14, but, due to COVID, the date is still unclear.
All seniors have until the end of the year to be completely done with their projects. It’s best to finish them by May 1st, but the hard deadline is by May 30th. As of now, everyone is in different stages of their process due to how vastly different each one is from each other. Some people are progressing quickly and are almost done with their project, whereas some people haven’t had a lot of luck and haven’t been able to make much progress due to circumstances outside of their control.
Pogue says, “I've just recently began collecting donations and finalizing everything, I have gotten the Coarsegold chamber of commerce to repost my flyer and I've also gotten into contact with the Madera County food bank operator to help donate diapers for my project. I've began receiving generous donations already.”
All she has to do now is gather the donations from her locations and donate those to the hospital. She’s scheduled to finish her project in February.
For underclassmen who are worried about their SLE or just want to get a head start, here are a few tips to help you prepare. Some seniors decided to branch off of their junior thesis as an idea for their SLE. Others had been thinking of ideas for a long time. However, if you’re transferring in as a senior and you didn’t have the chance to think of ideas like your peers, something that can help is finding something that you’re passionate about. It’s much easier to keep to your project if you actually want to do it and finish it.
For example, Uribe describes their SLE as “providing binders to queer students who cant afford them or cant buy one do to living situation.” [sic]
This is a project that Uribe is really passionate about because it pertains to them as well as helps their community, so they’re more likely to keep up with it and finish it.
Also, the sooner you can get it done, the better. There could be hiccups in your project plan that could set your finishing date back, which is difficult if your original finishing date was late in the school year. Get to work on your projects, trust me. Don’t leave it to the last minute. If you don’t know what to do to move forward, talk to McCoy and she will help you. It’s also helpful to get all of your steps organized so you always know what your next steps are.
To our current seniors, we can’t wait to see what you come up with! We’re sure you’ll do great things with your projects. Good luck!
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