In many schools, a senior project is required for graduation. When schools (& students!) take it seriously, there is a tremendous opportunity for comprehensive learning and personal growth. Senior projects are a worthwhile graduation requirement and a wonderful tradition.

Senior or “Capstone” projects are important because they encourage students to think outside their academic boxes while marrying their learned skills with a creative effort toward a chosen goal. Most Homeschoolers call this “Tuesday.” 🤭! However, making a big deal out of a single final endeavor in high school gives equally significant meaning to both home and traditional school graduations.

Senior projects challenge students to think critically about what is important to them, introduce or solve complex problems, and demonstrate their readiness for life beyond high school. Metrics require students to research their topic, make a plan, prepare a portfolio, write a paper, and/or give a presentation on what they did.

As homeschoolers, we do not usually follow the local schools’ practices, and life would be easier if we did not require a senior project. But the experiential learning factor in a culminating passion project is right up our alley anyway and worth doing on every level.

Sophia spent her childhood and teenage years drawing and painting – often while traveling or living on our boat. While she had amassed an impressive amount of artwork through classes and studio time at home, she had yet to learn how to mat, frame, price, advertise, and plan an art show. This gap beautifully set the stage for her senior project.

We worked together on the details, as putting on a successful show is a huge undertaking. Sophia made checklists and got to work ordering mats, frames, and invitations. We secured a location, prepared the art for hanging, and planned the food and drinks. An art show is a gorgeous, fancy party, and the entertainment is a public showing of the artist’s most intimate and personal work. It is a terrifying yet incredible and valuable experience for any artist.

Sophia completed this project brilliantly. Although her talent took years to cultivate, she chose to show artwork completed within her last year of high school. Together, we framed and hung about 30 of her paintings, most of which were sold during the single-day, four-hour exhibit. Any profits went directly into her college fund, and she benefitted by learning what goes into the ‘business side’ of an art career. The show was well-attended, and the accolades more than validated her talent.

Oliver has loved baseball since early childhood. For his Senior Project, he wanted to combine his love of baseball with a large-scale community service project.

Since 2011, Oliver has played for many teams all over Rhode Island. Last fall, he contacted past and current coaches, teammates, family, and friends, and with their help, collected a generous amount of training gear, first aid supplies, uniforms, and equipment.

The value of the items collected was $20,867, and weighed a total of 684 lbs. In January, Tony and Oliver drove 27 packed boxes to a Freight Forwarder in New Jersey, who shipped the items to the Dominican Republic. Just last week, we received a video of the gear being used by groups of teens in the DR. This project was more meaningful than we had imagined it could be.

Afterward, Oliver wrote an essay outlining his journey. He then presented his project to a panel of teachers at Portsmouth High School, a benefit of taking a few classes at our local high school.

Planning large-scale Senior Projects and taking the challenge seriously gave us a chance as a family to collaborate, support, and celebrate our graduates and their unique interests.

©2024 Lynne Rey
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