Student Profile: Senior Presentation Transcript

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Card: Edwina, a deeper learner from: Asia Society

Gerardo:Just sit back and enjoy what she has to say, so Edwina! (applause)
Lower Third:
Senior Presentation
Edwina: My senior presentation, which is a tradition within our school that you're getting to tell your story, and just like your journey throughout your high school years. And then you do a presentation during your senior year where you just kind of like discuss that, and you get to be creative with it.
Lower Third:
Edwina
12th Grade Student
Denver Center for International Studies

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Edwina: A lot of people's first impression of me is that I'm either scary, I'm angry, or that I am crazy! And I kind of wanted to take the thing that decided that people decided to go ahead and define me with themself and use it to my advantage. So.
Lower Third:
Brandon Wiley
Executive Director,
International Studies Schools Network
Asia Society
Brandon Wiley: I think Edwina's final senior presentation was a masterful example of deeper learning. Her entire presentation was trying to help to think about how she could communicate to the audience how she had grown, what she had learned. There's some critical thinking involved where she had to make tough choices about thinking about her whole high school career. What are the different things that she had done that demonstrated her success?

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Edwina: The class that released it out to me was definitely Civics, and that was because we did the Project Citizen, and we were actually one of the groups who got to go to the Capital and present.
Card:
Schedule
•Intro to Literature and Composition X
•Earth Science X
•Algebra 1
•Geography
•Civics (project citizen)
•Spanish 1
Edwina: And so, I was really proud of that accomplishment, especially just for that being my freshman year.
Edwina: They kind of like give you free reign with it. You get to kind of make your own structure while following the set domains that they'll give you, which are Take Action, Recognize Perspectives, Communicate Ideas and Investigate the World.
Cards:
Take Action
Recognize Perspectives
Communicate Ideas
Investigate the World

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Edwina: In between the end of my sophomore year and the beginning of my junior year, in the summer, I went to Kenya for three-and-a-half weeks.
Cards:
•(Take action)
•Best unplanned decision I ever made
•Challenging
•Life changing
•Plane seats home, a little different this time
•I don't want to come home!

Edwina: And I had the best time of my life. And I really got to see the people and the country for what they were. It definitely changed my life, and it moved me in a way, because I learned so many things about myself. I learned how much I value human relationships and connections. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about Kenya, and that I don't wish that I was back there.

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Edwina: My experience in Kenya definitely changed the way that I think. I'm always looking deeper, and I'm always looking for like the root of what everything really is, and so I really found that that has just kind of made my life a lot more interesting, because I see things beyond the surface now.
Card:
4. Recognize Stress
•Respond rather than automatically reacting to anger/stress triggers, learn how to effectively communicate your needs, feelings, and requests.
•Expression of writing as an outlet
•It's mostly in your head, breathe and calm down
•Dancing and losing myself in music.
Edwina: The anger control tool that I really learned this year was Recognize Stress. I learned that I need to respond rather than react. So I found that what really helped me with that was writing.

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Brandon Wiley: Each student in the school is assigned an advisor, a mentor/teacher. And that teacher works with them to think about reflectively what they have accomplished over the life of their time at the school. That they're collecting work, artifacts, that demonstrate the learning and growth over time. And they're getting feedback from committee members about the other things that they should be thinking about. The whole process is governed by a rubric, and that the rubric helps guide their learning and guide what they're going to present. And that rubric is then what's used to give them feedback at the end of their presentation.
Card:
Edwina's Committee Deliberation

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Teacher: And I think she did it. I think she was able to be real and say, "I've been through some hard stuff," but at the same time, you know, being hopeful and showing how you can work through those things. Is that everything or is that...

Student: Investigate the World and Recognize Perspectives are the two.
Brandon Wiley: I think this process helps mold or guide them in their process of becoming self-reliant learners that know about themselves, but also base it on rigorous academics. You know, they obviously have to know their content to be able to talk about it publicly.

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Teacher: I want to talk about your ability to recognize perspectives. And I think the thing that really stood out to me was the empathy that you demonstrate for others.
Edwina: I'm thinking that I might go into human services and become a child advocate. My passion is to help people, and I also really love children, so I think that that's a perfect combination for me to do.

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Teacher: When I first saw you, you were just fierce. And it was getting in the way of your intelligence. But by senior year, you know, you were fighting to do National Honors Society, and get great grades. And fiercely intelligent people are the change agents in our world. And I think you presented that today.
Edwina: I think that my presentation was very successful, because it was me.
Teacher: Not only will you receive your DCIS diploma, you will receive Honors as well. Congratulations!
Edwina: Yes!

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