Senior Defense Information
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Student Links
- Calendar for Portfolio, Defense, Coaching
Staff Links
Our Graduate Profile represents the cross-cutting skills and traits that Hillsdale High School graduate should possess:
Communicate • Read • Think • Respect • Understand & Apply Content
9th-12th Student Portfolio of Projects
Hillsdale High School students complete one or more Portfolio Projects [link to all Portfolio Projects] in each of their courses. These projects help students to acquire, demonstrate, and reflect on course content and the skills making up the HHS Graduate Profile.
Senior Capstone Project
As a graduation requirement, seniors complete an original Capstone Project from a list of options. Each project is rooted in the core themes from one of Hillsdale’s departments and requires some type of source analysis, creative thinking, and a written component. Seniors prepare throughout the year with a faculty coach.
Senior Defense
As a graduation requirement, all Hillsdale seniors participate in a formal “Defense” of their progress towards the HHS Graduate Profile. The hour-long Defense takes place before a panel of judges and frequently a group of students. During the Defense, seniors:
- Reflect on their strengths and challenges.
- Present and defend a position on a controversial current event topic. This is done after having spent the preceding 90min reading and synthesizing 4-5 staff-selected sources.
- Present their work on an original subject area-based Capstone Project.
- Answer faculty questions about the presentation.
