Projects relate to the future

Homework is something many teenagers dislike because they believe that it doesn’t relate to future careers. However, in Honors English, a semester project will help them research career plans, tell them their strengths and weaknesses, and show them a bit about what the future may look like for them.

Chinelo presents how to do leopard eye shadow.

Chinelo presents how to do a dramatic smoky eye.

“This [project] gives students the opportunity to explore an area/career of interest. They use many skills we have all worked on  — research, interviewing, mentoring, bibliographies, planning, organizing, reading, writing, time management and self advocacy/autonomous learning,” Honors English teacher Judy Timmins said.

As Timmins said, autonomous learning comes into play. In fact, this was most of the students’ favorite part of the project.

“It was nice to have the freedom to choose your own topic that will help you grow in future career plans or life in general. The best thing was learning to teach ourselves something and that we had a choice in the matter,” Honors English student Amber Hagen said.

For Hagen’s project, she chose something that made her aware of other cultures. This was something many students chose.

“My project was the history of French food. I’m in French class, and when we were celebrating Mardi Gras, I thought that it would definitely be interesting to research the history behind the French food and learn why it’s so important to their culture,” Hagen said.

Freshman Chinelo Onuigbo presents what she has learned about hair and makeup styles for her Honors English project.

Though the project does teach students something relevant to their future, there is a bit of stress that comes with it.

“There’s not a lot of stress if you aren’t a procrastinator. However, the deadline does come up on you, pretty fast,” Honors English student Lauren Hays said.

And though this may be true, there are far more advantages to this project than disadvantages.

“My project was healthy food for athletes, and I learned a lot. I think that this would definitely be something that will help me throughout my entire life because I’m an athlete, so, even if I don’t choose this as a career, it’ll still affect me,” Hays said.

Chinelo presents how to do the “waterfall braid”.

This semester project isn’t just a research paper. Students needed to find a mentor that would help them learn about the area they’re researching and have a final project that shows them know what they’re studying ties to English skills.

“The best part of this project was the fact that we got an extended time. We had a whole semester. Because of this, there was a whole semester of just studying and researching whatever area you wanted to learn more about. It was an interesting project,” Hays said.

This project really broadened a lot of people’s knowledge on different topics, as Hays said, and because of this, the project will help with any plans the students have.

“[The project] has already helped the students. Over the years many students have pursued careers related to the semester project — from actors/playwrights to dentists and architects,” Timmins said.