Senior year: 180 school days before a student’s high school career ends and the real world begins. While seniors worry about college applications, determining their major and applying for scholarships, they also have to bring their high school career to an end. They must pass all required courses with at least a 60 percent for the year, but that isn’t the only concern; seniors have to create and finish a senior project. A senior project is an assignment every graduating senior in Pennsylvania must complete set forth by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The Pennsylvania Code 4.24 was implemented in June of 2002. It states that “The purpose of the culminating project is to assure that students are able to apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate information and communicate significant knowledge and understanding,” according to the PA Code website. There is no set project that needs to be completed, so this is where the student gets to be creative. Many schools let the students have liberty to make the project they want set within flexible guidelines, but other schools have set procedures they must follow. In Freedom, there are multiple projects available that could be completed for the final senior requirement. Students can write a ten page research paper, job shadow, create or recreate something, organize a service project or complete a technical investigation. With every project, the senior must document 60 hours of work in a time log. That is the only requirement that is across the board for every project. According to Mrs. Giammaria, in the past, students were required 80 hours, but that seemed a little extreme, and when they had 40 hours, it didn’t seem like enough. “The best and creative technology projects were going above and beyond the previous 40 hours. It is a happy medium between the previous hours needed,” Giammaria said. With the research paper, those 60 hours are spent researching and writing 10 pages on a chosen topic. That topic can range from various subjects, and in the past, many students would take the route of writing a ten page paper. This year, only 15 students wrote a paper. Out of 127 seniors, all but 18 completed either a service project or they created something. The remaining three did a technical project. The only real mandatory element of this project, other than the page length, the senior has to have 10 referenced resources from scholarly sources. Senior April Travis said, “I felt writing about something I enjoy would make the senior project not as bad.” She wrote her 10 pages on film directing, a future goal of hers. Another popular choice is a service project. According to the senior project guidelines at Freedom, a service project is “a project in which the student dedicates him or herself to designing and implementing a service project that benefits an individual, the school or a community organization.” After finishing off the actual service project, a five page process paper and photo evidence is necessary to receive a passing grade. Many types of service projects have been done, but Senior Denym Winkle went above and beyond with his. He completed his back in October and spent over 120 hours working toward his goal. He organized and brought to life a Halloween haunted trail called SINcere Fear. He raised money for the Abby Goodrich and John Challis funds, and raised a total of $1,001. He split the money, so each fund got $500.50. Seniors also have the option of spending 24 or more of their 60 hours job shadowing. That leaves the student 36 hours to complete a five page research paper on the field of work in which they are job shadowing. Those who job shadow also have the option of supplying photo evidence during their presentation. Senior Sarah Kosela aspires to be a veterinarian or a veterinary technician after high school, so for her senior project, she job shadowed for 24 hours. She shadowed at PVSEC, an emergency animal hospital, and Five Points, an animal clinic. “This is a career I want to go into, so I figured shadowing would help me see what I was getting myself into,” Kosela said. Students also have the option of doing an exemplary project of their own creation. They are given freedom to be involved in creating something new. They also can re-create a pre-existing project. The senior is required to get an interview with a professional. That person must be from the field that the senior is creating something. For example, if the student is rebuilding a car, they have to interview someone in the mechanics field, like a car repairman. Five pages need to be written as a process paper, which includes five scholarly resources. The last available option in Freedom is a technical project. This project is selected the least often. Only three students tackled the project and completed it this year. This assignment is where the student must generate data and prove a point that follows the scientific method. The project is focused around the student investigating something in the scientific or technological fields. A process paper, one interview and photo evidence are required for this project. After completing an entire senior project, every senior must present their project in an oral presentation to a panel of three teachers. “[The grading] is out of 120 points, but it goes by the percentage that they get is their score,”Mrs. Russell said, one of the main teachers involved with senior projects. Mrs. Russell is one of the two senior English teachers this year and is so heavily involved because she has to grade her English classes’ senior papers. The written essay and presentation must be passed to meet the graduation requirements. Many schools in Beaver County have a similar curriculum to Freedom for senior projects, including Blackhawk. Ellwood City has a much stricter curriculum where they have less room to be creative. In the eyes of the beholder, Freedom has it relatively easy. Blackhawk gives their seniors the option to either write an academic paper, complete community service or create a comprehensive career development plan. The career development plan is an outline that highlights postsecondary plans and tentative goals. It then identifies the steps needed to require those goals and reinforces commitment and responsibility that the student will take charge of their career. Unlike Freedom, they don’t have as many options, but they have an equal amount of work given. Ellwood City, on the other hand, has much more work to be completed. Ellwood City’s senior project starts in the senior’s freshman year, and every year, they have another project. If a senior misses one project throughout their high school career, it could cause them to not receive their diploma on time. In their senior year alone, they have to accomplish an autobiography, a resume, a future plans essay, letters of reference, community service and a class presentation. With such a wide range of possibilities, Freedom seniors are given a higher chance to excel in their high school career. By beginning their senior projects at the end of their junior year, and almost have limitless options, they are destined to pass with flying colors.