As senior year draws to an end, it is not the biggest secret that many seniors aren’t trying their hardest. After four years of intense high school, seniors routinely want to cruise more in the last few months as they fall prey to the well-known “senioritis.”
Recognizing this phenomenon, high schools have decided to give seniors an alternative way to spend those last few months that is both educational and inspirational.
It’s called senior projects. My school, Crystal Springs Uplands in Hillsborough, is among those offering seniors an opportunity to take on a project and pursue their interests more deeply in areas ranging from the arts to engineering and community service.
The projects, which are conducted in May, can include getting a work internship, learning how to play a musical instrument, or developing a research paper.
The students keep a journal of their project experience, including the discoveries they’ve made. In June, the student makes a 20-minute presentation on the project.
Last year at my school there were projects focusing on reducing our school’s carbon footprint. Another student produced a one-person play.
The seniors consider the opportunity to work on a project a great privilege, and everyone takes it seriously.
If you fail the presentation at the end of the year, you won’t graduate. Yet students generally have fun and consider it to be a good chance to learn and achieve something new.
Vivian Shao, a senior at my school, is using the project time to pursue one of her lifelong loves. “I want to explore my passion for interior design a little deeper before I go off to college,” she says. “Having this time off is a perfect way to develop my interests and interior designing abilities.”
At Menlo School in Atherton, which also has senior projects, Lexie White, a senior there, says she will use her project to create a collection of clothes she has designed. “After working as an intern in the fashion industry this past summer, I truly recognized how much I wanted to pursue designing clothes,” she says. “So I will.”
At Crystal Springs, I have not yet decided what I will do. I believe I want to intern at a local business, and gain insight into how that business is run, but I have yet to lock-down a specific firm.
I am just happy to be able to do this type of work in my last month of senior year. These senior projects revitalize seniors and give them valuable experience that will guide them through the next phase of their life. And if we also get to sleep in a few extra hours during the month of May, that will be a welcome change.
Miles McMullin of Woodside is a senior at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough.
