Dakota Slaughter: Class President, Tiger, and Proud Alumnus

Interviewed by Kathleen Tran

Dakota Slaughter spent lots of time on the court as an Alabama basketball athlete and a Bolivia professional basketball player. He continues to give back to his community not only as a teacher, but also as a coach. Currently, he is a member of the Tigers Royals Alumni Advisory Committee that was recently formed in July 2022. 

What high school and year did you graduate?

Fishers High School, Class of 2011.

What did you do after high school? 

After graduating from Fishers, I attended college at The University of Alabama. (Well, most immediately after graduating from Fishers I got a summer job at Kohl’s.) Anyways, during my time at Bama I joined the men’s basketball team. I graduated summa cum laude in 2015 as a Marketing & Spanish double major.  Next, I played an additional year of basketball as a graduate transfer at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I graduated from there in 2016 with an MBA. In the late spring of 2016, I played basketball professionally in Bolivia.

I returned back home to Fishers over the summer and by the fall I decided to move on from the playing side of basketball. And so began the quarter-life crisis of trying to figure out what to do next. As part of that exploration, I became involved in the HSE Schools system again. Over the next few years, I spent some time as a Spanish teacher at Fishers HS, an IA at Riverside JH, and then a Business teacher back at Fishers HS. Alongside the teaching, I was an assistant coach for both boys’ basketball and football at Fishers HS. While I enjoyed my time in the school system, it helped me ferret out a different interest: I wanted to go to law school. I returned to The University of Alabama in the fall of 2019. I just graduated from UA’s School of Law in May 2022. I’ll sit for the Indiana Bar Exam in July and join the law firm of Bose McKinney & Evans LLP in downtown Indianapolis shortly after.

Who or what had an impact on you during your high school career that you still think about from time to time? 

There are too many to name all of them. My time at Fishers HS was almost cinematic, and it’s part of the reason why I poured right back into that community when I came back to Indy.

Some of the most salient:

• Coach Rick Wimmer, my football coach. Our 2010 State Championship run during my senior year was one of the best experiences of my life. Coach Wimmer taught me the value of thorough and precise preparation.
• Coach Joe Leonard, my basketball coach. Coach Leonard taught me the value of being able to relate to people and to never take myself too seriously.
• Shawn Crull, my marketing teacher. In addition to the creative freedom that was encouraged in his class, there’s one thing Crull did during class from time to time that stays with me: he called it Family Time. Essentially, on occasion he did a collective check-in with us and gave us a safe space to voice whatever was going on in our lives, not unlike a brief group therapy. It created a strong sense of community in our classroom (not the classroom, our classroom) and reminded you that life is bigger than just the work that you have to do.
• Terri Thompson-Mejías, my Spanish teacher. Señora Mejías taught me that the world is so much bigger than the 46038 zip code.
• Jason Urban, the principal. Mr. Urban taught me that those in leadership have to hold themselves to a higher standard—a standard that’s an example for others to follow.

Why did you decide to stay connected with HSE Schools after graduating?

Well, there have been a few different reasons and occasions in which I’ve stayed connected.

In the first instance, HSE Schools provided gainful employment opportunities for me both during and after college. I found the opportunities attractive for me not merely out of convenience, but because in going to college and graduating school out-of-state, I had seen the value and advantage our school system provides. Whether from the red side or the blue side, you leave the HSE School system with such a strong foundation for your next steps, whatever those may be. I wanted to give back and support the community that allowed me to be successful in my endeavors early on, and I wanted students to understand the value of the environment they were in.

The second instance involved reunion planning. As the senior class president for FHS Class of 2011, I had the responsibility (and privilege) to plan our 10-year class reunion. Given the uncertainty of COVID circumstances, by the time it was relatively safe to host an event, we had a short time frame to put something together. The Foundation and some administrators at Fishers HS were instrumental in helping it all come together in the end.

Why should future HSE Schools graduates commit to staying connected with the school district as an alumni? What benefits do they gain? 

I imagine there's a great networking opportunity here. The Foundation and the HSE School system is becoming increasingly connected with the city community and the local business community. I believe there’s a concerted effort to develop a robust alumni network, and staying in touch helps facilitate those connections.

As an HSE Schools alumni, what advice would you like to share with the students who’ll be graduating this year?

I’ll emphasize that HSE Schools will prepare you for whatever endeavor is next for you.

For most of you, that will be college. At least some of your high school classes will have been more academically rigorous than your college classes. You’re ready on that front; you just have to develop some self-reliance and manage your time properly navigating some newfound freedoms (e.g., don’t party too hard).

Some of you have other immediate plans (which is entirely fine!). Whether it’s the military, directly into the workforce, a gap year of self-discovery, or whatever: you have the critical thinking skills to navigate that as well.

Regardless of the path(s) you decide to take, understand that everyone has to run their own race. You may have a tendency to compare yourself to your peers and how they’re doing. That’s natural (especially given the prevalence and ready availability of highlights presented on social media), but I encourage you to not get so caught up in that. You have to make the decisions that are best for you in the moments that are best for you with the opportunities available to you. Not everyone’s timing will work out the same. And there’s not just one definition or version of success. It’s okay to have different goals and aspirations, even unconventional ones.