Southeast Middle School DREAMS eighth graders faced a hard graduation requirement called a Portfolio Defense. This presentation challenged the eighth graders to prove they can handle high school and future careers and life overall.

Every eighth grader talked for at least 10 minutes using digital slides. They show off specific artifacts like projects or essays as proof of major growth from sixth to eighth grade.

Eighth grader Kenny Terrazas said, “I chose the hardest projects I’ve done because it let me talk about them more and take up more time.”

Students also talked about Student Learning Outcomes, also called SLOs. These outcomes focused on skills like communication, collaboration, creativity, and responsibility. Students explained how projects helped strengthen those skills over time.

Many eighth graders thought the portfolio shouldn’t determine if they culminated.  Teachers have told students it does not affect culmination.  

DREAMS eighth grade student Jacobo Farias said, “I think the portfolio defense is unnecessary because only one program does it which is DREAMS but SEMS doesn’t do it with our slogan being 2 programs one school.”

But sixth grade DREAMS teacher Ms. Torres has said, “The reason why DREAMS only does the portfolio defense is because SEMS is still trying to build to be able to do the portfolio defenses since for DREAMS it took a long time for it to be able to work.”

Presenting in front of teachers and panel members felt stressful for some students. Standing up and talking about personal work took courage. Even though many students felt nervous, they still worked hard and tried their best while presenting.

Like Adam Munoz, eighth grader DREAMS student said he felt nervous before he started to present but even when he felt nervous the most he still tried his best to get a good grade.

This experience helped students think about high school and future goals. It also helped students understand that success takes effort and growth over time. Portfolio defenses showed that eighth graders at Southeast Middle School took an important step toward the future.

Christian Gutierrez, also eighth grade DREAMS said after he finished the portfolio, the person who he presented to asked him some questions which made him realize the portfolio defense is very important to be able to move on in life and high school.