Schools keeping senior projects
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on May 26, 2015 1:46 PM
The graduation project is still alive and well in three Wayne County high schools.
Introduced statewide to the freshman class of 2006 as a requirement to earning a high school diploma, it was at times a controversial topic. Officials and parents debated the merits versus the capability of all students to complete the task, which included a research paper, portfolio and presentation.
In 2009, the state Board of Education announced it would discontinue the requirement. Wayne County Public Schools was among districts that chose to keep it.
Then in January 2014, the local school board reversed its decision, voting 5-2 to no longer require it. Three area schools, however, revamped and renamed the project, saying it is a beneficial addition to the curriculum.
"They are now called senior presentations," said Dean Sauls, acting assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction/athletics with WCPS. "Wayne Early/Middle College and Wayne School of Engineering and Rosewood High School all opted to keep the senior presentation in place.
"The presentation does not count as much in the senior English grading as it once did but these schools wanted to continue the research part and the oral presentation part and decided to include it as part of the senior English grade."
The results have been positive at the schools, he said.
"I was all in favor of keeping it," said Sauls, former principal at Rosewood High School, the only traditional school to retain it. "Teachers serve as mentors. It just gives (students) a confidence beyond -- I was there five and one-half years and nobody failed one time -- it gives them confidence and sends them off to college with a little pep in their step."
At the district's two newest high schools, Wayne School of Engineering and Wayne Early/Middle, which have a college prep-rich curriculum, the requirements for the project are laid out over the students' four years.
"Our kids do a grade-level project each year starting with ninth grade," said Wayne School of Engineering Principal Gary Hales. "The senior project is more the culminating project, trying to give them a career choice."
Each year, he said, students are required to do a research paper. Starting in 10th grade, there is an additional component -- 20 hours of volunteer work that first year, 40 hours the next and then 60 hours of an internship or volunteer work senior year.
"Most of them get the internship done," Hales said. "There's a few special careers of course that they can't find an internship.
"By the time they finish they have got at least 120 hours of work that they have put in over the course of four years of high school."
WSE senior Annsley Winders' experience became a life-altering one.
She had enjoyed volunteering in the hospital pharmacy and planned to pursue that career path. But then came an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Guatemala, which satisfied her volunteer hours for junior year.
"It completely changed my mind -- I want to go to medical school," she said. "Seeing those sick children and knowing the only thing I could do was change their diapers or feed them, it was so frustrating.
"I came home and I was like, 'Mom, I'm going to do medical missions.' I want to do medical missions or emergency medicine."
This school year she shadowed doctors at Wayne Memorial Hospital and Immediate Care.
"I learned so much doing volunteer hours," she said. "It was truly an amazing experience. It was a chance to pick the doctor's brain and say, 'I want to be you one day. I want to be a sponge and I want you to teach me everything you know.'"
Making her presentation afterward was equally rewarding, she said, particularly since the panel included some of her teachers.
"These are people that are educated, the teachers that taught me. I need to know that I'm speaking properly and articulating my words correctly and making sure they understand because they weren't at the hospital with me," she said.
"I'm all for volunteering, figuring out what your passion is and going for it."
At Wayne Early/Middle, the components are also spread out over all four years -- selecting a topic in ninth grade, beginning the research paper in 10th grade, which is completed by the following year, with the presentation given senior year.
And then it all comes down to seven-to-10 minutes.
Senior Arlin Castellanos, who plans to be a teacher, recently gave his presentation on "Education in America" and its decline over the years.
There to support him were classmates Geoffrey Whitley and Adrian Morse, who presented theirs back in December. Whitley's research centered around the "Eliminate Project" to eradicate tetanus in different countries, while Ms. Morse did her project on women's body image.
"Public school, they took away the project and it is in our school, which I think is good," Arlin said. "I'm glad they didn't take it away from us because it gives us a step into the real world."
Senior Rachel Howell had personal reasons for choosing her topic of cancer and treatments.
"I have had family members that were affected by cancer," she said. "(The project) helped me because I understand that happens to a family. I understand what happens on the outside but I didn't understand what happens on the inside."
Maurice Nicholson, academic adviser for the projects at WEMCH, also teaches 10th and 12th grade English. He guides his students to choose topics wisely, since they'll be spending a lot of time on it.
"Our goal here, we're different than most schools," he said. "We're trying to prepare them for college. At college, they're going to do something like this in every one of their classes."
The ultimate "product," their presentation, has to be tangible, he said, as it must have a "real-world connection."
At WSE, the project is graded pass/fail while at WEMCH it is part of the English grade. The ultimate pay-off, though, Nicholson said, is the sense of accomplishment that comes from the experience.
"Most of the students while they're doing it, they hate it," he said. "I have them write journals. In all the time that I have done it, and we're talking about seven years now, it's overwhelming -- 'I hate this, I didn't want to do it but once I did it, I realized it was worthwhile.' I have only had one student say she hated it, even after.
"It's a classroom thing but we don't do all the work in the classroom. You know what your guidelines are and you have to go out and do it. I honestly believe it's one of the more relevant things we do."