Silver sword: system to go online soon

At the end of the last school year, former Aragon Academic Advisor Sue Barizon retired and passed on her managing duties with the Silver Sword Program.

In her absence, the counseling office’s staff currently faces a time of transition as they also prepare for a new online self-reporting point system. The new online system will replace the present use of forms and signatures to track points.

Academic Advisors Norma Lopez and Patricia Bruce have taken over responsibility of the program. However, since Lopez and Bruce are both still new to the program, Silver Sword Commissioners Victoria Bunarjo and Elena Roldan, both juniors, have been helping out in the managing process and in the processing of points.

Despite major changes in roles, the program still continues to track and process student community service hours and points into the Silver Sword Database like previous years.

This year differs slightly from prior years because the office staff will focus more on calculating the seniors’ points, so that those who qualify for the Silver Sword Award will receive them before graduating.

Bunarjo comments, “We are still continuing the method that Aragon has been using in keeping track of students’ community service hours and points. For multiple years, this system has not affected graduating seniors from getting their silver sword awards, so I doubt that seniors this year will be negatively affected either.”

To ensure that the Silver Sword Program continues to run smoothly, Barizon comes in periodically to check in. She also comes in to work on setting up and converting the old system to a new online program that will use a website called “One Thing.”

Created by Aragon parent Mehar Mahal and two other family members, “One Thing” is a website that aims to inspire individuals to volunteer their time in community services as it accurately logs and calculates the amount of time one contributes to community service using a point system.

With this program, Barizon explains, “We hope to achieve a more efficient and stream-lined way of keeping track of Silver Sword points that is more in keeping with today’s technology. Students will be able to report their activities and services on-line without having to fill out paperwork and run around getting forms signed. Most importantly, our Silver Sword Commissioners will not have the laborious job of keeping track of points with a card index and a deluge of paper registration forms at the end of each semester.”

Unfortunately, when the program will be introduced remains unknown due to technical issues that are currently being addressed.

On the progress of implementing the online system, Barizon says, “This process has been a bit more time consuming and laborious as we try to work with their system, which is more complex and sophisticated then our current needs require. However, I feel that the extra time and effort we put in now will benefit us in the long run.”

Though the program is not quite ready, seniors will be instructed on how to use the site and how to register their points starting in February. Once the program is all set, it will be made available for the rest of the student body.

For the remainder of this year though, the office staff will continue processing and tracking points through using traditional form submissions and entering points into the Silver Sword Database.

Even with Barizon’s retirement, Aragon continues to keep the Silver Sword alive after 50 years and now readies the program for the next step into a more modern world of technology.