In The News: TigerCon coming into its own at NHS

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg  Graphic 

Senior Project showcase hits the mark in its second year as school-wide event

Back when Newberg High School operated as four small schools, it was Silver School that held the first senior project showcase, dubbed SilverCon.

The other small schools followed suit and when NHS transitioned to a comprehensive format teachers and administrators basically put together the first school-wide showcase on the fly.

This year, teachers Colin Schaeffer and Trish Beckius and assistant principal Janay Cookson were very intentional about making TigerCon a noteworthy event, hoping it would strengthen the school’s ties with the community and propel the senior project program to new heights.

With more than 300 seniors presenting their projects to a packed house of parents, staff and community members, it seems TigerCon 2016 delivered.

“I think our seniors were the most prepared they’ve been at this time in a while,” Schaeffer said. “They were really focused on sharing their projects. Early in the year I challenged them to step it up and really show off everything they’ve done with some enthusiasm. I said, ‘Let’s make this the best one,’ and I think it was by far.”

In the past, seniors that worked in groups on a single project were allowed to present as a group or have only one representative and information board at TigerCon, but Schaeffer said that prevented everyone’s voice from being heard.

Some seniors were not getting a key piece of the learning experience, public speaking, the showcase wasn’t as strong as an event and the leadership group wanted to provide a lively culminating event that students could work toward.

Schaeffer felt TigerCon 2016 highlighted how student centered the program is, noting that for some seniors who don’t especially enjoy school, the opportunity to pursue a passion or experiment with a career path can turn on the proverbial light bulb, which is inspiring.

“I don’t think even us teachers at the high school get to see that on a daily basis, but for some of the seniors where school isn’t their favorite thing, they really open up and you see that excitement for learning,” he said. “That’s rewarding.”

Schaeffer, Beckius and Cookson not only worked closely with students and advisory teachers to ensure projects had an appropriate level of rigor, but also emphasized brainstorming early in the year to help seniors find a project that would motivate and drive them.

Zach Schrage, for one, had been fretting about what to do for his project all summer, but once he found the right idea, everything fell into place.

Schrage’s father owns a local paving business and was approached by the Chehalem Valley BMX club about renovating their course, which has become almost unusable during the winter.

Schrage has worked for his father for five years, but for this project, he took the lead on planning the $16,000 project, half of which he raised by soliciting corporate donations. He is now waiting for drier weather to redo the concrete on two sections and install concrete for the first time on one banked curve, which he expects to do sometime in June.

The experience was helpful in introducing him to corporate culture and reassured him about his plan to study business at Oregon State University and potentially pursue a law degree after that.

“It makes me more confident,” Schrage said. “Now I view it as something I definitely could do in the future.”

A great variety of projects were on display, from Travis Seever’s robotic arm and T.J. Fryer’s free senior photo project to Alesha Garand and Victoria Saager’s effort to revive the school’s student newspaper or Collin Alteneder’s student drug and alcohol survey. Perhaps one of the most successful projects was Isamar Ramirez’s four-day chemistry camp for middle school students in March.

Representatives from the American Chemical Society observed the camp for one day and as a result, she has been invited to make a presentation at one of its upcoming meetings.

Ramirez said the group has even asked her to stay in Portland to help develop a program that can be replicated on a large scale, but she has not decided if she will pursue that option or follow through on her plans to attend college out of state.

Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza and school board chairman Todd Thomas mentioned TigerCon at the board meeting later that evening.

“It seems to be getting better every year, the attendance, the projects, the enthusiasm,” Thomas said. “They pulled out all of the stops.”

Organizers hope this year’s success will spur the program to become even more self sustaining, not only by raising awareness in the community, but by challenging future classes to raise the bar.

“This is really our kickoff for the class of 2017 to see what the projects look like, for them to see the event,” Schaeffer said. “We hope every year our juniors see that and say, ‘I want to make mine look even better’ and challenge themselves. I think a lot of our juniors last year saw that and that was one of the factors why this year’s was so much better.”