Bighorn news: Studying the state's settlers, Senior Spotlight

Senior Spotlight: Jasmin Ledesma

Never give up. That’s the advice Oasis Academy College Prep senior Jasmin Ledesma has for future students.

Oasis is the fifth school that Ledesma has attended. She started at Oasis her freshman year during the coronavirus pandemic.

“COVID affected my education at Oasis because I was starting at a new school, and I had no idea what was going on because everyone was ahead of me, and I was failing my classes,” Ledesma said. “There was a point in sophomore year where I wanted to quit school because I was so behind, and I just felt like I did not know anything and I was too embarrassed to ask for help. Mrs. Berenice De Leon was the first person who helped me get caught up and helped me feel more motivated to keep going.”

That level of support continued throughout the rest of her career at Oasis.

“I just have never felt my education was important to other teachers until I came to Oasis,” she added. “My teachers at Oasis were the best, they made me feel welcome and cared about my education and me personally. These three and half years have been the best years of my schooling.”

Ledesma has one person she would like to thank for his help and guidance.

“I would like to thank Counselor Andy Lenon,” Ledesma said. “Every meeting I had with him helped me feel more inspired to do more with my life. I feel more confident coming out of his room each time. He is like one of my friends. We can sit there and talk, and he will listen to me. He is there for his students even when he is busy. He had always made time for me even if it was for just five minutes.”

Ledesma will continue her education at Western Nevada College after graduation. She then plans to transfer to Truckee Meadows Community College and study to become a pediatric nurse, obstetrics nurse or an ultrasound technician.

“You are given this opportunity to start college earlier than many people take advantage of it. When you start failing to ask for help. Remember there’s always going to be bad times in between before you succeed in life,” Ledesma said.

Fourth graders study Nevada settlers

Fourth-graders researched and studied Nevada's first settlers with a project titled, "Who Would Move to Nevada?” Each group was assigned a group that first came to Nevada. They researched what brought them to Nevada, their lifestyles, conflicts they dealt with, compromises they made, who they interacted with, and what contributions they brought to Nevada.

Students then were required to create a diorama that showed their group's lifestyles – how they lived, worked, spent their free time, and survived. They presented their findings in an oral presentation to their classmates.

“I liked when we made the dioramas and we got to get messy with all the clay. Since I’m new to Nevada I learned things all about Nevada that I didn’t know. It was fun, I’m not usually into history, but I learned a lot,” Hadley Tippett said.

One example is a group that focused on Basque settlers. The group represented life as a sheepherder, as well as those settlers that opened boarding houses and restaurants to feed miners and those passing through.

Beyond the classroom

Balloons pop, teenagers laugh, and each side of the gymnasium develops an unspoken strategy to help their team win the game. The creative and hands-on scene described the Student Council Leadership Camp.

While the game seems fun, it served an educational purpose. Students learned how to work in-teams, communicate, and most importantly became engaged with the world around them.

Oasis Academy has a variety of hands-on opportunities to help students apply what they learn in the classroom to a real-world situation and become more involved than they normally would in a lecture or classroom setting.

Science courses utilize labs nearly every week to engage students moving, apply their knowledge to the real world, and have fun. Algebra, geometry and other mathematics courses use the help of group projects and thought puzzles to challenge students to find outside of the box solutions. English and humanities courses directly involve the students through classroom performances, diplomatic competitions, and creative outlets.

Students that continue to put more into their coursework and elect to take additional courses in agricultural science, leadership, constitutional history, welding, business, or a variety of applied sciences gain further opportunities and hands-on learning opportunities regardless of the field of study.

“These programs helped me learn to be a better citizen and they helped me complete more hands-on activities than I ever could have gotten anywhere else,” said Aubrey Vaughn, an alumnus of multiple career-technical education programs at Oasis.

The curriculum at Oasis Academy is designed for student success and works to reflect the amount of work and commitment students put in, by providing unique opportunities that extend beyond the classroom.

“CTE has been a major part of our educational model. It is important for our students to have multiple learning opportunities to help excavate their interests and create a well-rounded student experience,” added Rochelle Tisdale, chief academic officer.

To learn more about the Oasis Academy curriculum, visit oanv.org or contact Tisdale at rtisdale@oanv.org.

— Hunter McNabb