PWHS Senior Projects: Class of 2022

The senior project is an important capstone of our students' 12 years of Waldorf education. Each high school senior is given this question, "How can my interests and strengths be manifested in the world in a way that is fulfilling to me and also benefits others?" This is what they contemplate when choosing a subject. The goals of taking on this endeavor are to:

Explore a topic they are interested in and passionate about
Experience personal growth and gain a deeper understanding of themselves, their future, and purpose in the world
Bring forth an experience that benefits the student individually as well as the greater world community.

Students are encouraged to choose topics that may be new and challenging, or they might elaborate on long time passions. Towards the end of their 11th grade year students submit their proposals to the Senior Project Coordinator, along with a planned timeline of what they hope to accomplish over the summer.

Many students reach outside of the immediate community to find a mentor who is an expert in the field or topic of their specific project. Each student has a faculty guide who meets with them weekly throughout the project, culminating in a project presentation in early spring. The senior project requires a minimum of 50 - 75 hours of work outside of school, documented research and photo journaling of their process.

Projects vary greatly from one senior class to the other. This year, projects range from making a documentary on climate change to facilitating a D&D gaming club for middle schoolers, to designing a community garden, to learning the Art of the Fugue on violin, to apprenticing in the veterinary sciences, to preparing traditional Vietnamese cuisine and more! We’ve highlighted a few projects below, read further for the full list of this year’s titles.

Congratulations, seniors. Your hard work and passion is evident.

**Alisa Nikisin**, who has been honing her art skills throughout her life and years at PWHS, chose to write and illustrate a children's book. She spent many hours crafting the right story line to express the topic of xenophobia through the lens of a fantasy tale. She experimented with different characters, color pallets and storyboards. Alisa veered away from the traditional approach of drawing and deciding to challenge herself by learning how to work with digital art. She watched many youtube tutorials (all of which were in Spanish) to help her learn the programs and skills. She found a mentor to help format and work with her through the whole process. Alisa then decided to self publish the book which will be available to buy online and in our school store soon!

**Rory Reitz** is a lover of rowing and has been competing for many years. He took his love of boats and water and decided to build a cedar-strip canoe from scratch.
Rory spent many days and many hours going over plans, acquiring all his materials, gluing, sanding, shaping, working on design patterns and applying fiberglass until he had created a beautiful 15-foot cedar-strip canoe.
Rory plans to finish the last touches to his canoe in the coming weeks as he is looking forward to taking it out on the water for its maiden voyage and possibly even use it for a sleeping vessel while on the river!

Miles Menely has been making DIY videos since he was a wee lad in middle school. He has his own youtube channel called “Make with Miles” that has quite a following.

For his senior project Miles decided to turn the camera around and film someone else making something. He worked with two mentors, Ed Jahn and Christopher Best, to create a documentary about local bicycle builder Bob Kamzelski at Bantam Bicycle Works. Miles created detailed storyboards to help plan his process, experimented with different kinds of camera shots and angles, learned how to conduct interviews and how to schedule time to film while juggling school, and spent many hours editing to complete his 9-minute documentary.

Bella Miwa

Teaching the Art of Hand Lettering

Mariam Fischer

Apprenticing in the Veterinary Sciences

Alisa Nikishin

Writing and Illustrating a Children’s Book

Rory Reitz

Building a Cedar Strip Canoe

Mina Tran

Exploring and Preparing Traditional Vietnamese Recipes

Matthew Cramblit

Making a Documentary on Climate Change: Our Hope for Tomorrow

Alicia Mendez

Designing a Community Garden

Tadan Baartz-Bowman

Learning the Art of Bach’s Fugue on Violin

Miles Menely

Documentary Filmmaking: Bicycle Building

Luther Harper

Why People Vote Against Their Own Interests

Ike Dadek

Facilitating a Gaming Club

Jasper Harrison

Writing and Publishing a Book of Poetry

PWHS Senior Projects: Class of 2022