Medical Lake High School seniors may notice a couple of changes to the culminating project for this year.
High school staff changed a couple of the project’s components. The culminating project was a requirement for seniors to graduate high school until last year.
Although students no longer have to complete the project in order to graduate, high school principal Chris Spring explained there are components from the project’s career planning section that can help seniors while they are completing their High School and Beyond Plan, which is a graduation requirement.
“When we started to put the project and the plan for this year together we wanted to focus on the valuable components,” Spring said.
Another reason for changing the components was because students were spending a lot of time outside of school trying to complete their project.
“There were also staff who would stay late to make sure students were completing the project,” he added.
One of the changes allows students a choice of completing a five-hour supervised job shadow or interviewing three professionals in career fields that are of interest to them.
“The reason we are allowing for three interviews is because sometimes professionals, particularly in the medical field, can be hard to get ahold of,” Lori Wilbanks, school counselor, said.
Another project change is students must provide evidence that they have been accepted into a college or job, or have at least completed an application.
“We want to make sure they have a plan for after graduation,” Wilbanks said.
For the project, students must also complete a cover sheet, cover letter, resume — with at least two community service experiences — and a letter of recommendation, preferably from a teacher.
The final item on the checklist is an exit interview. Students will schedule a time with Wilbanks or counselor Nicole Rippee, and present their project in a formal interview setting.
Spring noted that the changes for this year’s project are temporary and that the high school’s leadership team, along with parent advisory groups, will build a new format for the culminating project for the 2017-18 school year.
“We want to include more input and make sure we are unified in the decision,” Spring said.
Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.
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