Senior Projects...their significance and how students feel about them today

Written by: Len Rivas 

The Senior project, on paper, seems like a great idea. A way for students to pursue a passion, utilize essential skills and to touch the community in a helpful way. However, many seniors agree that, in practice, senior projects are quite faulty, overdependent on the student’s personal time and the rules and guidelines are too rigid. 

Having students work on their senior project on their own time is difficult for many kids, especially those participating in sports or extra curricular activities. Student athlete Damien Rudy explains that he doesn’t have the time to dedicate to his senior project very often due to cross country practice on top of his many clubs on campus. Students who do not participate in after school activities such as clubs, sports or work will on average get 6 hours to cram in homework, dinner, chores, showering, and downtime, giving them little openings to add in another project and many students get less than 8  hours of sleep most nights which is below the recommended amount according to the National Sleep Foundation. 

Senior Thomas Crago wants to write stories about native folklore, and compile them into a book he would donate specifically to those of that culture. Senior Fiona Lee (the one that goes off campus and has yellow pants) believes this is a perfect example of creative freedom and community service. “Not only does this project educate our community members about historically significant cultures here, it also allows for authentic yet appropriate individual creative expression. The project is not only effective in this sense, but also enjoyable.” She says.

T Canchola also felt they were inhibited by the strict guidelines and expectations of the senior project, settling for a project they did not feel inherently excited about. According to other students, many were hoping to job shadow local businesses, however the school district is no longer accepting that as an applicable senior project. Yes, but I'd say I'd feel more excited if I had some more creative reign with it” Canchola says. “The requirements are questionable too. It's honestly not gonna take you 20 hrs to build a box.” 

The idea of a project for seniors in high school to give back to their community as well as express themselves creatively and gain experience in their passions is a fantastic concept, however how it's been executed is becoming more of a burden on students rather than creating valuable life experience. Perhaps in the future schools will make reforms to their criteria and requirements to meet students’ demands.