O’NEALS — Minarets Class of 2016 walks on Thursday, June 2, 2016. Congratulataions to the students, families, teachers and staff who’ve all made it happen this year.
Student Rachel Hooker explains how Minarets’ graduation can be different from other schools.
Minarets High School is a project based school and does things differently than any other school that I have been to or have seen.
For example, when the seniors graduate they are driven in on Ford Mustangs in honor of the Mustang mascot. They also play a song that the each senior picks to play when they walk down the aisle at graduation.
Minarets isn’t really a high school where people ditch school because they don’t want to be at school, or get into lots of fights. Minarets focuses on the real career life that you move into as you become an adult.
Minarets can teach you how to be respectful to the people around you everyday, and can have great relationships with the teachers that you have.
Minarets High School has many electives so that you can pick your path depending what you are passionate about.
The electives can teach you how to do things that are separate from general education and could help you get a job in that field some day.
Some of the electives are floral design, Ag leadership, woodworking, and media, and there are many others.
Each and every student has opportunities to get a job in one of these fields because they learned about it at Minarets.
Minarets helps prepare people for real life.
They do this by having students make presentations to present in front of their class. In some ways it can help people to not get so nervous when they have a first time job and they would have to present a presentation in front of the staff at that job.
Students that graduate from Minarets are ready to take on life in the adult world.
In other Minarets news,
Delaney Finnegan Is California Directing Change Award Winner
Congrats to Minarets High School junior Delaney Finnegan for being selected as the 2nd Place winner for the California Directing Change Award for Mental Health Matters. “Start the Change” was submitted by Delaney and as a result she will be invited to Glendale, California for the awards ceremony where she will receive $250 and the 2nd place trophy. We are proud of you! — Michael Vaughan
Good Old Days Festival, Pacific Grove
What is the Good Old Days Festival and where is it? It’s a festival in Pacific Grove and it’s the biggest event of its kind in Monterey County.
In the festival there is a parade, live entertainment on five different stages, vendors for things such as jewelry, clothing, arts and more, booths for food, carnival rides, a classic car show, a quilt show, pony rides, a dance showcase and much more.
The festival is free to go to and it’s held on Lighthouse Ave. next to “Lover’s Point,” Monterey. The parade itself starts on a Saturday at 10 AM, and goes down Pine Avenue, featuring many different things, including bands of course.
The Minarets Marching Band has to be there, in uniform, ready to march by 9:30 AM, having to wake up super early, and if we go to the school before departing, having to leave the school by 6:00 AM. If you are driving others, you have to be up earlier to pick them up from wherever is planned between parents/students. It’s also a good idea to sleep on the drive there so we aren’t exhausted by the time we march and can actually focus.
After we have finished marching in the parade we meet back up with our drivers, and if they’re ok with it we get to stay and enjoy the festival and can go down to the beach. The food there can be a bit pricey but it’s worth it, there is very nice restaurants there if you don’t want to eat festival food. 
It’s a very good tourist attraction and the weather is usually very nice there and everything you need is in walking distance, so if you go, have fun!
Pacific Grove, Monterey Bay, April 9 — Nicholas Hunt
