During the second semester of the school year, seniors are given this choice in the form of senior projects. Seniors can choose to work on a project about the topic of their choice and, in exchange, drop at least one of their classes during the last part of the school year.

“I thought it would be cool to do something different and try something a little out of the ordinary for the ending of my senior year,” said senior Nina Price.

This year, eight seniors chose to do a senior project. The topics of this year’s projects vary from creating jewelry to investing in the stock market.

Students will dedicate anywhere from five to 20 hours per week on their projects.

Influenced by her love of dance and choreography, Price is taking the opportunity to study the evolution of jazz, ballet and hip-hop. She will write papers on each of the styles and choreograph dance routines in each style as well.

“I was interested in learning more about where dance came from,” Price said.

Price does not aspire to a career in dance, but, unlike her, several other students have opted to study topics that they are interested in pursuing as careers. Senior Nikhil Mysore plans to create five different portfolios with different investment strategies and to observe how his investments grow over a five week period.

“I thought investing would be a good idea to see if I would want to do it in the future,” Mysore said.

Also hoping to use her senior project to further her career, senior Kiara Maloney is working with senior Jaimie Forti to make several stranded necklaces made of gladdis yarn and beads. These necklaces will be sold at an artisan fair, and the profits will go to the Jim Griffin Fund.

“We’ll hopefully make a large inventory of different styles of necklaces, and we’ll see how much money we make,” Maloney said. “I definitely want to do something with clothes or jewelry [as a career].”

The level of research required of students is just as varied as their project topics.

Some students, like Maloney and Forti, are not doing extensive research because their projects will be made physically. Similarly, senior Sorenna Brown is creating a silent movie for her senior project, and Laura Mead and Amelia Haney are designing and creating original outfits from fabrics and clothing found in secondhand or vintage shops.

However, students like seniors Madi Brown and Price have taken alternative methods for researching their topics.

Brown, who is digging into her family history to find her connection with Civil War Lieutenant E. Elmer Ellsworth, has been studying Ellsworth’s letters and journals that her grandmother gave her.

Price, on the other hand, has been watching videos of jazz, ballet and hip-hop in order to visualize the styles’ evolutions.

All eight seniors will be presenting and discussing their projects in the Media Center on May 28 at 7 p.m. The participants’ teachers, mentors and family members are invited, and all students are welcome as well.