When handed the graduation project proposal form in advisory, I scanned over the brief directions, focusing on the roughly ten printed lines provided to describe my project. My project idea was ambitious: to write, choreograph, and film a pilot episode of a mockumentary. Now I had to condense the hours of conversations and planning I’d had with my advisor and friends into ten lines? After a two-month wait, I was even more puzzled at the feedback from the graduation project committee: one group member’s proposal was accepted, the other required revision, and the third denied. The comments were brief, “not a graduation project“ and “do you have what it takes?”
Many Sixth Formers find the initial project proposal process constraining. Sixth Former Ronan Wood’s initial proposal, to shoot sports photography at Haverford games, was rejected for being incomplete. However, Wood’s understanding of the initial proposal’s intention was to convey a general idea of what he wanted to do, not necessarily to provide in-depth detail.
“I think it would be fair if I gave a lot of detail and they didn’t like it,” Wood said. “I don’t think you can just turn something down without having the extra detail.”
According to graduation project committee members Mr. Ator and Mr. Lengel, students are not limited by the space on the initial project form. “You can always turn the page over and write on the back,” Mr. Ator said.
While that may be technically true, administrators running the process never explained this to Sixth Formers. In a school with deliberate rubrics surrounding every paper, it is a stark oversight that there is little instruction on how students should sound out the last three weeks of their high school careers.
We need more clarity on graduation projects’ proposal requirements. Mr. Ator agrees, saying how the idea of only providing “a yes, no, or maybe is the wrong way to go about it, and instead your feedback should be the ten questions I have” in response to reading a proposal.
From a student’s standpoint, seeing just the red, indicating a rejection next to my name feels like a definitive “no” before having the chance to fully express myself.
We should be given more of the faculty’s thoughts and more positive feedback with proposals. From a student’s standpoint, seeing just the red, indicating a rejection next to my name feels like a definitive “no” before having the chance to fully express myself.
The root of students’ struggle with graduation projects is not in knowing what they want to do but rather in getting help in proposing it, especially for creative projects. Internships are approved easily because the committee knows exactly where a student will be and when they will work. Inversely, creative projects are inherently more difficult to get approved. Mr. Lengel agreed with my point.
“It is not to say that creative projects are less valuable; that is certainly not the goal. But it is to say that if you’re going to be doing something more self-directed, you need to convince the school of where the time is going.”
To solve this, we need to move away from judging the schedule and focus more on evaluating the deliverable. Ronan Wood could not provide the exact games and times he would be photographing because the spring sports schedules weren’t released yet, but he could say how many photos he planned to take and where they would be shared.
“I do think there is room to focus way more on the outcome, the deliverable…and I’m in favor of moving towards that,” Mr. Lengel said.
Graduation projects are a way for students to give one last push, a time for students to explore themselves. Given the possibility of a proposal being rejected and the time pressures placed on a student whose proposal was rejected (a four-day turnaround time for re-submission), Haverford should adopt a rolling admissions process for graduation projects. Rather than a flat-out due date, Sixth Formers should have the option of submitting initial proposals early, which would enable them to get official feedback and approval/rejection and respond in a more timely fashion.
“There should be more encouragement to go talk with your teacher, to go talk with your advisor…Let’s make this more than just, ‘Hey, seniors, go do this.’ Let’s have this be something you think about a lot earlier.”
Mr. Matt Ator
Wood followed something similar, working very closely with Mr. Ator on how exactly to phrase his essay. If a rolling process with continuous and reactive feedback were to be clearly laid out, more students would be confident with their proposals when submitting.
Creative projects should be allowed to focus on the end goal that students hope to achieve to gauge the validity of a project. In an ample period of time, students should have a more guided and responsive space to workshop their ideas and get official school feedback. From my discussion with graduation-project committee members, it is clear that they care; it is clear that they have thoughts in response to our ideas, but we need a better platform on which to express them.
“There should be more encouragement to go talk with your teacher, to go talk with your advisor…Let’s make this more than just, ‘Hey, seniors, go do this.’ Let’s have this be something you think about a lot earlier,” Mr. Ator said.
I believe graduation projects, with furthered support from faculty and students, can be the proper capstone to all of our Haverford careers.
