MARYSVILLE — Graduating students of the School Home Partnership Program at Marysville Middle School conducted their culminating presentations on May 28.

SHoPP teacher Marjorie Serge explained that her students represent a range of ethnicities, religions and backgrounds, from home-schooled students to those engaged in independent studies. She elaborated that their culminating presentations, which are evaluated by both school staff and community members, are intended to offer glimpses into who the students have become, what they’ve learned, where they plan to go next, and how they plan to get there.

Audrey Leyba, a vegan animal-lover, explained her plans to go into the cosmetics industry, or work for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Leyba is looking at getting her cosmetologist’s license from Everett Community College, apprenticing under another cosmetologist, and building an online portfolio. She showed her audience a series of photos which offered examples of her favorite makeup work, much of which features animalistic patterns. Other options listed by Leyba include the Northwest Hair Academy of Mount Vernon, and the Bellevue Beauty School.

Leyba noted that becoming active in PETA would probably result in a move to Virginia, where the organization is headquartered, and taking part in videotaped protests, at locations such as fast food restaurants and animal testing centers. If she were to join PETA, she would expect to distribute fliers and explain to people, face-to-face, the benefits of the vegan lifestyle and the cruelty of certain corporations toward animals.

Leyba added that, even as a cosmetologist, all of her makeup would be “cruelty-free,” made without testing on animals or the use of animal by-products.

Tera McKee has learned a lot about the electrician’s trade from her father, and she hopes to apply those skills toward an adult career, even as she devotes herself to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

McKee took part in disaster relief efforts for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in December of 2006, and she enjoyed working as part of a team to help rebuild demolished homes. An electrical apprenticeship requires 8,000 hours to complete, but McKee plans to balance this demanding training with committed volunteer work for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, even as she claims that she’ll be “keeping my life simple.”

McKee praised local job fairs for giving her better ideas about her options, and lauded SHoPP itself for offering an “outside the box” outlet for “self-starter” students such as herself, so that she could do things like Hurricane Katrina disaster relief during the school year, as long as she’d already completed her school work. She also sees electrical work as a better fit for her hands-on, physically oriented personality, rather than just “sitting in an office. I get to get things done, and solve problems directly.”

One of McKee’s final school projects was an electrical wiring demonstration, which wound up involving contributions of effort from family and friends alike.

Both Lucy Sherman and Alicia Martin plan to become dental hygienists, but for very different reasons. Sherman, a barista who loves the social aspect of her current job, appreciates that such a career would not just be “a desk job,” while Martin, an amateur photographer who would love to take pictures for National Geographic, is training to enter the dental field in spite of her initial feelings about dentists.

“I hated going to the dentist as a kid,” Martin said. “I had bad experiences.”

By contrast, Sherman was so eager for her own visits to the dentist as a child that, as she admitted with a laugh, “it was kind of weird.” Sherman’s mother worked in a dental office, and Sherman herself is interested in human anatomy, particularly the mouth and teeth. As for Martin, she hopes to make other children’s dental check-ups more pleasant than her own were.

Both Sherman and Martin have spoken with their own current dentists about internships. Sherman noted that dental hygienist schools are “very competitive,” while Martin added that 1,000 hours of relevant work experience are required just to take the test to become a state-certified dental assistant.

Sherman treated her audience to a demonstration of how to make orange creamsicle drinks, while Martin enlisted the aid of classmate Jake Burkett to show how molds of patients’ teeth are made, through dental impression trays.

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