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Though many Utah high school seniors about this time are kicking back, daydreaming about Lagoon or planning graduation parties, nearly 200 twelfth-grade English students at Mountain View High School in Orem have been busy hitting the books and memorizing their PowerPoint presentations.
The school was a flurry of activity yesterday afternoon as Bruin seniors, most of them dressed to the nines in business attire, prepared for what for some were the most nerve-wracking moments of their high school careers -- not asking a date to prom or taking the ACT -- but the dreaded "Senior Boards."
An annual rite of passage for students in senior English classes, the research presentations on a variety of current social issues are designed to see how well students can gel as a team, coordinate and complete project tasks and provide meaningful service to the community, said Brett Andrus, a member of Mountain View's English faculty team overseeing the projects.
Fifty-four different projects were presented in classrooms around the school and judged by volunteers from the Orem community and Mountain View faculty members.
In Room 227, one group of four students worked with area elementary schools, including Vineyard Elementary, to help educate kids about the dangers of eating disorders and the mixed messages of body images they get in movies, TV and music. Another group of boys orchestrated a donation drive for the local food bank in Provo where they also volunteered for two days filling food orders for families, and sorting canned vegetables and peanut butter.
Friends Kelsi Manwaring, Janna Mills and Caitlin Boswell wanted to assist impoverished children in Africa and when a teacher told them about the Mali Rising Foundation, an organization that benefits Mali children through education, they knew they'd found the perfect way to help. Boswell said they learned just prior to their presentation Monday from the foundation's executive director, N. Yeah Samake, who came to see the student presentations, that Mali is the second poorest country in the world.
"The more education they have the easier it is to break the chains of poverty," Manwaring said.
The girls began organizing a benefit dance at Noah's entertainment center with all proceeds to go toward the construction of a new school in Mali. They recruited a student disc jockey from their school, rented a space for half price and mobilized an impressive publicity campaign including posters, rubber wristbands and cell phone text message blitzes to let people know about the dance and create greater awareness about the needs of children in Africa. The student council at rival Orem High even agreed to hang posters about Mali Rising and the benefit dance, they said.
Despite some hiccups (including a broken elevator the night of the dance held on the second floor at Noah's in Pleasant Grove), more than two hundred youth from around Utah Valley attended the May 3 dance that had a looped slideshow of photos children in Africa. Though admission was $5, many gave more or told them to keep the change after they learned why they were holding the dance. More than half of those at the dance weren't even Mountain View students, they said.
"That was the atmosphere of the night," Mills said. "Everyone wanted to help."
Between the dance, a raffle and other fundraisers the trio accumulated at least $1,200 for the foundation with funds still coming in. Manwaring said it was possible the proceeds total might reach $2,000.
"It's crazy that in one night we quadrupled what they [an average Mali citizen] make in a month," Boswell said.
Samake applauded the three students for their time, efforts and creativity in raising funds and creating more awareness about the plight of children in his country.
"I am thrilled," he said. "Some of these things you've done in advertising I will use for the foundation. I'd like to talk to you about being ambassadors for Mali Rising. I'm so impressed."
The girls plan to encourage next year's seniors to dedicate their Senior Boards fundraising to benefit the Mali Rising Foundation with the motivation that, if taken seriously, they're senior project could be giving an entire new school to kids in Mali.
Andrus said the presentations also teach students that they can make a difference and have an impact for good, whether it be large or small.
Kristy Acton, among an army of Orem resident volunteer judges at Monday's presentations, admired the passion of Manwaring, Mills and Boswell for their project and improving children's lives.
"I think it changed them the very most," she said. |
