Senior Projects: Is Your High School Student Ready?by KD Brown, Brenna Carmody '05 and Kate Corvese '05 Spring 2005 The Providence Journal called it a new approach and a daring experiment (Borg, October 31, 2004). Will your high school student be required to complete a senior project to graduate? There's nothing new about senior projects at Rocky Hill School. Students at Rocky Hill School have enjoyed the personal growth and career shaping opportunity of senior projects since 1970. Rhode Island Education Commissioner, Peter McWalters, is introducing a new set of outcome assessments for all Rhode Island public high school seniors. One of these initiatives is a form of senior project. If this is a new addition to your child's curriculum, read on to learn about the longstanding tradition of the Senior Project at Rocky Hill School. What is a Senior Project? At Rocky Hill School, seniors are required to secure an internship for four weeks in the spring. Some students pursue internships that will provide insight to possible career channels. Others seek this chance to give back to the community or become involved with social or political organizations. The Senior Project is an unique opportunity for seniors to explore fields that interest them, and to experience work and volunteer environments that they would not have access to in any other context. The mission of the Senior Project at Rocky Hill School is to encourage students to stretch their abilities and to apply their skills and knowledge in new ways. Each student takes responsibility for finding an internship that will provide a learning stretch. Students are required to write a research paper, complete100 hours of fieldwork and deliver a multimedia presentation to the school community. The internships begin in April. The Rocky Hill School Senior Project has long been a part of the curriculum. In fact, it began the senior year of our Headmaster and Rocky Hill Alumnus, Jim Young. According to Mr. Young, the tradition of the Senior Project goes back to the colonial era when the exposition was the final statement that a student was ready to go out in the world. Mr. Young's internship was in a pathology lab and he still remembers his experience to this day. To Mr. Young, the Senior Project is experiential learning at its best. Students learn how to deal with others as well as explore areas of personal interest. It is an opportunity for students to challenge themselves as they grow into responsible citizens and become life-long learners. Now, with a recent grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a recommendation by the National Commission on the High School Senior Year, public school students will be able to participate in senior projects too. What will senior projects look like at your high school? East Greenwich High School plans to implement senior projects beginning 2005-06. But for many schools, it is too soon to tell. Teacher contract disputes are hindering progress in districts like Warwick and South Kingstown. Providence Journal education writer, Linda Borg, writes, McWalters acknowledges that this is hard work. It challenges traditional departmental freedoms and forces departments to collaborate with one another. It requires teachers to be mentors as well as instructors. And it demands that students be active rather than passive learners. (October 31, 2004) In early 2003, the Board of Regents in Rhode Island formed a commission to change high school graduation requirements in order to align high school graduation standards with skills essential for future success in college and the workplace. These changes include internships, as well as a portfolio and a more thorough evaluation of the student's mastering of the core curriculum. Both the Commission and the grant specify that changes need to be made in the traditional evaluation of high school seniors. According to a grant by the Manhattan Institute, 32% of Rhode Island seniors graduate ready for college. The Commission calls for moving away from a system in which the senior year is just more of the same to one in which the senior year provides time to explore options and prove knowledge and skills. The grant, announced in December 2003, builds on this to help ensure that students learn and are assessed on the high-level skills needed to perform well in college and sought by employers. Right now there are many experimental programs in place throughout Rhode Island. According to the Providence Journal, This year, high schools must choose two out of four types of assessment to measure student proficiency. They might choose a portfolio and a senior project or end-of-course exams and a Certificate of Initial Mastery. (The certificate is a multiyear project that incorporates portfolios, testing and senior projects.) Then the schools must make sure that all their students have ample opportunity -- through internships, research projects or classroom assessments -- to prove their mastery in English, math, science, social studies, the arts and technology. However, there has been some resistance. In a November Providence Journal article, concern about internships at East Greenwich High School was expressed. Parents showed up at two School Committee meetings to say that they had numerous concerns, including worry that the project -- which includes field research, working with a community mentor and making an oral presentation -- was too demanding for students already weighed down with many demands during their final year in high school. Several Rocky Hill students were asked to identify what they hoped to experience, how they felt the projects fit in with the Rocky Hill School curriculum, what they liked, and what they would wish to change. The majority of the students agreed that the Senior Project would be a great experience. According to Kenneth Lamantia of Jamestown , It is a great way to be able to do something you have always wanted to do without already having a lot of previous knowledge about it. Lauren Rosenbaum of North Kingstown, who is doing her internship at the Providence Children's Museum, reports, I think I'll become more comfortable around kids and their parents, and I'll learn a lot about how kids learn and figure stuff out on their own. Many students expressed similar thoughts about how it would affect their future as well as how wonderful it is to have this unique experience. The research paper is a large component of the Senior Project and should connect, in some way, to the internship. Lauren Rosenbaum says My paper is about teaching methods for kids with autism, which fits with my internship because the Providence Children's Museum is designed to teach kids in a new way. Throughout the winter, students are required to meet deadlines starting in early January for notes, outlines and drafts, and ending in late February with the final draft. Whether your child's school is just testing the waters of a senior project component or has a long tradition of some form of a senior project, Mr. Young offers some advice. From his own experience, Mr. Young advises all students that if they truly want a passionate experience they should take the time to select an internship they are truly interested in. He also says that work done in advance can make the experience exponentially more positive. The internship can either open doors for you or convince you to go another direction. Although not part of the Senior Project, as a sophomore Brenna Carmody writes, I took part in a pre-med summer program at Brown. That experience convinced me that I didn't want to be a doctor, something I had dreamed of all my life. I would recommend that all high school students who are either dreading the hard work or nervous about this change look at it as a wonderful opportunity. This year my friends and I have all been lucky to find internships that allow us to participate in areas we could never have dreamed of. To learn more about the program and see highlights from the 2007 Senior Projects, please Collegiate Series Articles The Grass Was Not Greener: One Student's Journey to Boarding School and Back Why Your Child Will Benefit From a Small School Community Senior Projects: Is Your High School Student Ready? The Value of an Independent School Education How
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