Senior presentations to highlight interests

India Thieriot, Assistant Copy Editor

Monday morning assemblies will soon be incorporating three to five minute presentations by seniors on a topic of choice as of Nov. 9.

“We had some experience with students sharing about service,” Student Activities Director Devin Demartini Cooke said. “It was really nice to have that student voice be a part of our assemblies.”

Juniors and seniors had the opportunity during Elective Period last year to take a class similar to CORE, a coed leadership-centric course for freshmen and sophomores, in which they participated in seminars to strengthen the leadership skills they acquired in previous years.

“Senior presentations came from the idea of developing your whole self,” Demartini Cooke said.

While some seniors have not yet started thinking about their presentations, a few have a clear idea of what they will be sharing.

“I want to talk about something to do with my college essay,” senior Audrey Brooke said. “It’s about my sister and seeing how her modern social media world has impacted her life. She focuses a lot on what she’s wearing and what other people think of her rather than her beliefs or intellect.”

Presentations will generally focus on a topic that the presenter is particularly experienced or interested in.

“I am going to talk a little bit about some of the things that I’ve learned from volunteering at the SF SPCA,” Ántonia de Leon said. “I don’t know how many people know how special our city is and how special the Bay Area is seeing, as we have the lowest kill rate out of any city in the country and adopt out the most animals.”

Presentations can incorporate audiovisuals or take the form of an original song or dance.

“They are a cool opportunity to try a different type of presentation that we don’t do in class,” Brooke said. “It’s a stage environment at school in front of people we know, so it will probably be really useful practice for college.”

Students have the opportunity to reveal new things about themselves and to get to know each other better.

“You can connect with students and what they’re doing individually that you might not have expected,” Demartini Cooke said. “You might learn something new about a senior and a freshman could be really into that too.”

The presentations do not necessarily call for a lot of preparation, but they do require students to reflect on their experiences, according to Demartini Cooke.

“I hope the audience will take away a new understanding or a different way of looking at things,” Brooke said.