Senior Projects Point the Way for Some Warwick Students
For 18 years, the senior project class has acquainted Warwick Valley High School seniors with possible career paths--or dissuaded them from a direction that had intrigued them .
A cornhole tournament, a documentary on Italian police and candid photography were among the fruits of an elective course devoted to senior projects at Warwick Valley High School this spring. Eight seniors out of over 300 chose this course that allows students freedom to choose a project as long as they comply with certain requirements, which include writing a “college level” research paper and receiving “guidance from a mentor with real world experience,” said Jeanine Fogler, social studies teacher and senior project team co-leader with English teacher Nick DiLeo.
“Explore your passions. Discover yourself,” is the motto and aim of the course, they said.
Usually 18 to 25 students take the elective, DiLeo said, but numbers were less this year, as the need to make up for time lost during the Covid-19 pandemic diverted time for the elective. For next year, 35 students are registered for the course.
Kira Sarine’s cornhole tournament project was motivated by her work with the Interact Club. “She wanted to fundraise because she learned about so much food insecurity,” said Fogler.
Kira worked with two mentors to raise money for the Backpack Snack Attack program sponsored by the Warwick Reformed Church. The program provides students prone to food insufficiency with food for the weekend by putting it in backpacks left discreetly in their lockers or with a guidance counselor.
The cornhole tournament, held at the Greenwood Lake American Legion, attracted more entrants than the event could accommodate and raised $4600, DiLeo said.
Meanwhile, an Italian foreign exchange student made a documentary about the use of force by Italian police.
“She’d seen overuse of force by Italian police, so she scrutinized their use of force and found that it wasn’t always wrong,” said DiLeo. “She was affected by 9/11 and the way police helped.”
Another student learned the art of candid photography, and another learned to sew from a professional seamstress. Yet another worked on a business plan. Three others choreographed dance pieces.
This was the eighteenth year of the course. Asked if any trends or patterns had surfaced, DiLeo said, “No trends. They come to us with their ideas. A person or situation may drive the project. Or they want to delve into an area they’re considering for college.”
“We’ve had letters later from students about their projects,” said Fogler. “A girl who lost her mom to breast cancer got stores to donate pink clothes for a fashion show to increase breast cancer awareness. She went on to work in the fashion industry.”
A boy who had an antique truck in disrepair on his property found a mentor to help him get it running and drove it to school. Another boy wanted to learn to fly and took flying lessons as a senior project. Now he has a pilot license. A girl whose project was learning sign language wrote a book that she signed to elementary school students. A boy learned to design video games and designed one.
"Sometimes they find that they have an interest, or that they don’t,” said Fogler.
Community focused news can only succeed with community support. Please consider the various subscription levels.