Bighorn news: Senior Night gets school year going

The Class of 2025 met to start planning for scholarship and college applications on Aug. 6 at the high school. Oasis High School Counselor Andy Lenon started Senior Night with his expectations for the students to be successful.

“The bottom line is I want students and families to feel supported with their post-secondary path after leaving Oasis Academy,” Lenon said. “The goal is for students to leave with a passionate plan, so we start with mental health. I want my kids to be sound and as resilient as they can be going through their senior year and into college.”

Lenon has already begun meeting individually with the seniors and will continue meeting weekly with each senior throughout the school year.

The class of 2024 was awarded over $2.6 million in scholarship funds so he knows the importance of starting early with the students.

“We start early, get in early, and start drafting powerful scholarship essays. Senior year is to have fun, be with friends, enjoy the process, take care of business, and take each day in because walking across that stage with family watching comes real quick,” Lenon said.

Along with talking about scholarships, Lenon also had U.S. Army Sgt. Archuleta and University of Nevada representative Stephani Price on hand to talk about opportunities the students have available.

The University of Nevada, Reno admissions application opened at the beginning of August, and all eligible Oasis seniors have already completed and submitted the application.

“Thank you to all our amazing seniors, parents, Sgt. Archuleta, and UNR rep Stephani Price for coming out,” Lenon said. “Seniors have applied and we are ready to go!! Let’s have an awesome year together. Let’s go Bighorns. And let’s go Pack.”

JUNIORS AND SENIORS START CLASSES

Oasis Academy juniors and seniors are back in the classroom as they began their school year with a three-week dual enrollment class through Western Nevada College and the Jump Start Program.

Juniors are taking Communications 101, which is an introduction to public speaking.

Seniors are taking Music 121, Music Appreciation. Music Appreciation includes analyzing styles and forms of music, discussing musical instruments and studying major composers. Both classes fulfill high school requirements and requirements for the student’s associates degrees.

“The music class I’m currently taking is very interesting,” said senior Taylynn Maynez. “It has been fun to learn how many different genres of music came about and how they developed through time. The class is very engaging and we watch lots of videos.”

Taking the classes gives students a couple benefits for their progress towards graduation.

“The ability to provide a mini-session not only allows our students to complete a regular college class in just three weeks, it also lessens their course load in the fall. So they only have to take four classes instead of five and remain on track to complete the requirements for an associate’s degree,” said Eric Grimes, Oasis academic adviser.