At Avalon, the seniors are required to undertake a 300 hour ‘senior project’ in order to graduate. These projects are launched in the fall with a 3 day senior retreat where the students work together to brainstorm ideas and to start to flesh out their project proposals. By the end of October, all seniors have developed a committee of people to help them as they work their way through their projects and plan their presentations. These committees include parents/guardians, two Avalon advisors, an Avalon junior, and a community expert in the field that they are studying. The committee comes together to listen to the senior’s proposal, to give feedback and advice, and to cheer the student on his or her way. The student checks in with this committee over the course of the year, and then works more closely with them in the early spring to plan out the presentations. In general, the seniors are nervous about these projects and presentations in the fall, wondering how they will ever be able to find enough information to give a 30 minute presentation. And then in the spring, most seniors are wondering how they will ever edit their presentation to be ONLY 30 minutes! They have learned so much and are eager to share it. The spring senior presentation season is here. The topics for each event are listed on our calendar. Author statements from each senior are available at this link. I strongly suggest that if you see a topic that excites you, please come in to check out one of these presentation events!