For most students, the last weeks of school often mark the home stretch of the school year.  The senior class, however, uses this time to complete the Senior Experience program, which is a graduation requirement.

To accommodate this mandatory assignment, Schreiber offers classes specifically for this endeavor, including Senior Options courses, Participation in Government/Economics options, and the Film and Literature course.

Those taking multiple AP classes are released from those classes after the AP exams to complete independent projects ranging from internships to smaller-scale projects.

Some students applaud how the school allows for students to fully dedicate their last weeks of school to their projects.

“I love the fact that I had the opportunity to do this project,” said senior Elana Galassi.  “I’m grateful that the administration granted the seniors release time, or else projects like mine would have been unable to complete.”

Others disagree on how these circumstances are handled.

“The problem arises when they try and blanket everyone under one set method of choosing a project,” said senior Evan Kerr.  “The guidelines for AP and non-AP students don’t work well when put together, because most of the time is spent before the AP exams, which isn’t productive.”

Medical Internship

Elana Galassi is currently completing an internship through the Weill Cornell Medical College at New York Presbyterian Hospital, under the Chief of Pediatric Neurology.  The internship involves contributing to a growing database of autistic children, and keeping track of both genetic and environmental factors for various autistic disorders.  She also has the opportunity to sit in on lab meetings and observe families during their children’s testings.

Art Portfolio

Using this time to grow as an artist, Evan Kerr decided to create an art portfolio for his Senior Experience.  This year, he took his first art class since middle school and came up with the idea to expand his practice as an artist.  While it does not have a concise focus, his works act as a method of discovery more than anything else.

The Schreiber Times Archive

Seniors Hannah Fagen, Hallie Whitman, and Daniella Philipson have begun analyzing the archives of The Schreiber Times and entering them into a computer database.  Because of the delicate nature of older newspapers, they were not accessible to students or faculty.  The students began the process after the conclusion of AP exams, and they worked with issues of Port Washington High School’s Port Weekly and Schreiber’s The Schreiber Times dating back to 1924.

“There is so much to be learned from these papers about the history of our town, and it’s also really fun to read them,” said Fagen. “It really makes you realize that not too much has changed: high schoolers in 1926 aren’t too different from high schoolers in 2013.  We still make jokes, we still make mistakes, and we’re still reporting on the same issues, even though the details of those issues have changed dramatically.”

The end goal of the project is to make these archives available to the larger public online, since they offer another perspective on the history of the town.

Novella

Sofiya Semenova is writing a novella of around 30,000 words for her Senior Experience.  Spending almost 80 hours in total writing, her release time was dedicated this.  She works at the public library and in her home for her writing.

The outcome varies from student to student, but each project contributes to the future.