Camas High School has asked its seniors to complete a senior project for nearly twenty years in the hopes of preparing seniors for their future careers or college. Senior projects can be beneficial in teaching a student about life after high school; senior Ashley Gerst described, “ I knew I wanted to be a dentist when I’m older, so I wanted to get more experience, so I did that as my project. Now that I’ve done it I could see myself doing it as a career,” However, they can also be very stressful for the student. Senior projects often require twenty-plus hours of a senior’s year spent working with their mentor, another ten working on the project and presentation, and countless hours stressing over deadlines. However, juniors and underclassmen should not be worried. A few seniors have given their advice about how to be better prepared to take on a senior project.
Vanessa Theumer stated, “Do something you’re passionate about or want to learn more about.” One of the most important pieces of a senior project is choosing what a student is going to do their project on. Many seniors advise that a student should find something that they are passionate about or would like to pursue as a career and pick their project with that in mind; senior Lisette Rinnen added, “I based my project off of personal circumstances in order to help a family member.” Mr. David Johnson advised, “Be forward thinking: what do you think you are going to college for? Do something there so it doesn’t just seem like a task you have to do.” By choosing a project that directly affects or interests them, a student is far more likely to enjoy their senior project and can get more out of it.
A second tip is while preparing or working on the project to set aside time for the project and work on it; Lily Burhop said “Start early, don’t procrastinate. If you think you have it under control, you don’t.” Time is always of the essence while working on senior projects, and by avoiding procrastination, a student can finish their project earlier with more time to make adjustments on their end goal, the presentation.
If seniors have the time and motivation to work on it over summer or get ideas for their project and find a mentor, it makes getting the project started much more manageable. However, if they are unable to spend any time on it over the summer, as long as they avoid procrastinating and base it of something that interests them, they should have smooth sailing through their prepping to the presentation date.
