In The News: TigerCon continues to evolve

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic 

Parents, friends, community members learn about this year's senior projects

Every spring, Newberg High School seniors create displays for TigerCon so they can share with staff and community members what they did for their senior projects.

As colorful as they may be, visitors learn the most by talking one on one with students, making the event itself a learning opportunity in addition to a celebration of their achievements.

"Once they get to TigerCon, they only get that 30-second 'elevator' speech," culinary arts teacher Jane Eilert said. "Once they know they have that done, people may ask more questions they know they have to be ready to answer. That's where I get excited because you see some of the kids that maybe they don't have the showiest sign, but you start talking to them and their faces light up and all of a sudden they get excited."

TigerCon grew significantly over the past two years under the direction of teacher Colin Schaeffer, but this year's event also showed signs of maturation after Eilert took the reins of the staff committee in charge of organizing the event.

That included a more visitor-friendly set-up with projects more spread out in the school, which also prevented students from feeling crowded out.

"I didn't want anybody to feel like, 'They're not looking at my project because they can't get to it,'" Eilert said. "You don't want to overwhelm people. So then what we did was take up another hall and when we did that we realized we could use some of the offshoot halls."

Numerous hallways and both the East and West Commons were packed with curious parents, friends and community members, which Eilert hoped would demonstrate to students that people care about them more than they might think. Based on how the students responded when people demonstrated that interest, Eilert believes it worked.

"All the staff was here and staff from across the district who came to see what kids they had in second grade are doing now," Eilert said. "It could be mentors or people in the community who just heard about it. That's exciting."

Those in attendance were treated to a wide variety of projects, from Tristan Tuttle's taxidermy project to Trey Reohr's PVC marimba, on which he played a variety of songs to entertain the crowds.

Part of the purpose of the senior project is for students to explore career development and several students who explored photography and catering were offered jobs at the fair, according to Eilert.

Cody Joseph also drew interest from employers after showing off his custom-made gold dredger.

"We actually had kids that got job offers while they were standing there talking, which is amazing," Eilert said. "That's not our purpose to try to find them jobs, but people recognize the value of what they did, which I think is really cool."

The senior project is an opportunity for students to connect with something they're passionate about. Adrian Falcon and Abby Campbell, for instance, are passionate about working with children, so they learned how to sew blankets and put together "baby bundles" for new parents at Providence Newberg Medical Center's birthing center.

"I would do this again just for the fun of it. My mom was telling me this is something I should do every year and I'm thinking about it," Campbell said. "I loved the experience and I loved how grateful the parents were because as soon as we brought them in there was one donated."

On the flip side, Jared Grove chose to construct a much-needed concrete path so that the Newberg tennis teams would have full access to their new supply shed, and simply to explore his interest in construction.

Although he has opted to attend Central Oregon Community College to study business and become a pilot, Grove said he still found the experience worthwhile.

"I learned from this that it's a hard job and something I definitely don't want to do," Grove said. "I learned from this I don't want to work with my body, I want to work with my mind."

Eilert said she is already taking some of the lessons learned from this year's event to begin planning for next year, citing the continuing need to create connections between the school and the community.

"There are some spots that we found were really good and we'll use those again. Others not so much and we'll stay away from those," Eilert said. "I think it's an event that's always in transition and always trying to improve and get better because the more we can promote the kids and involve the community the better."