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- Senior Program of Alternatives to Regular Class and Senior Year Project are two unique senior opportunities.
by Amanda HillsSenior Program of Alternatives to Regular Class (SPARC) and Senior Year Project (SYP) began second semester for all participating students.
SPARC is a “supervised focused internship” which allows students to “explore a career or major of interest,” according to the 2012-2013 Course Catalogue. Participating students must intern for at least 25 hours a week and meet with a “school-based advisor” regularly. At the end of the semester, students must present a project to the school about their experiences.
Students participating in SPARC and their internships are:
Maggie Abed––Acanthus Limited, Fine Home Furnishings and Interior Design
Emily Bader––Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary
Shahar Don––Newton at Home
Ally Fuller––LF Stores
Wendy Jamari––the Wang YMCA
Pat Kelly––Newton Fire Department
Jordan Long––Charm Sciences, Inc.
Nathaly Lopera––Department of Public Health, Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs
Michaela McCormack––Greater Media Boston 92.9
Nate Menninger––Animal Rescue League of Boston
Artur Milgrom––West Suburban YMCA Fitness Department
Marina Offenstine––Massachusetts Intstitute of Technology, Audio Visual Events and Copy Technology Centers
Maleeka Pearson––Bigelow Spanish and Counseling Departments
Renae Rabb––MIT, Audio Visual Events and Copy Technology Centers
Molly Rolfe––My Gym Children’s Fitness Center
Shawn Seamans––Boston Police Department, Bureau of Investigative Services
Stephanie Serrata––West Suburban YMCA Accounting Department
Matthew Solomon––Legal Seafoods
James To––Aronson Insurance
Justin Wu––Susanne McInemey and the Mass Real Estate Team
SYP, a long-standing program created in 1985, allows students to “pursue a researchable question” and produce an end of semester project which sums up what they have learned, according to the Course Catalogue.
English teacher and chief innovation officer Stephen Chinosi, who is one of the SYP teachers, called SYP an “incredible opportunity” and “the greatest thing since the wheel.” Students engage in “hands-on research” and work towards mastery of their topic, becoming “experts in an area of study,” he said.
Students participating in SYP and their projects are:
Madeleine Aquilina––Taking modern photographs while infusing elements of traditional photography
Charlie Beers––Writing a collection of short stories and researching what dictates whether or not a book is “good”
Sam Bell-Gurwitz––Writing an adapted, staged version of a folk tale or myth using original folk underscoring
Eliot Bemis––Studying biking culture, biking as an alternative mode of transportation and bike-friendly cities, as well as constructing a custom designed bike of his own
Caleb Bromberg––Writing and producing a full-length hip-hop album based on lines and themes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Nayomi Cawthorne––Studying past social movements through an economic scope to predict where the Occupy movement is headed and to form a connection between economic conditions and social movements
Sonya Douglas––Analyzing how an identity is formed, particularly that of an adolescent woman, and the influence of photography in the media
Young Guang––Studying the biomechanics of track and field
Abby Holtzman––Forming a connection between memory, time, storytelling and the concept of home
Laurie Kamenetsky––Finding a way to bridge the gap between what teachers teach and what students learn
Same Kane-Gerard––Comparing the ideas of sampling and composition in contemporary music
Matt Kwan––Finding green energy in new places
Angus MacDonald––Reading several pieces of western literature and writing his own western novel
Anastasia Mashtaler––Examining how human psychology is used in advertisements to persuade consumers
Marina Miller––Studying the sociology of art
Arthur Moss-Hawkins––Analyzing documentary films and their purpose and objectivity, as well as creating a documentary about his grandparents
Matthew Moss–Hawkins––Building a ukulele and recording a ukulele album
Adam Mullarkey––Drawing a parallel between “Street Fighter,” an online fighting game, and psychological personality theory
Lior Percher––Creating a cookbook of economical, healthy and fast recipes for inner-city families who are short on money and time
Malik Reid-Dotson––Creating a graphic novel about an asthmatic superhero whose power source is his nuclear inhaler
Diana Seldin––Writing a full length movie script
Faris Sheikh––Studying web design, programming, business and location-based services, as well as designing his own web application
Aaron Siegel––Creating a documentary on the public reaction to art in different situations
Quinn Silva––Exploring the possibility of Mycelium, a 100 percent biodegradable substance grown from fungi, as a substitute for Styrofoam
May Singleton-Kahn––Looking at time and age through the lens of portraiture
Rosie Sokolov––Distilling scents from her home garden and researching the connection between smell and memory
Gwendolyn Stoll––Designing an interactive, pop-up biology textbook
Michael Thorpe––To be determined
Parker Veroff––Studying aquaponics, a sustainable food system that revolves around aquatic animals
Katya Villano––Studying the construction of an electric guitar
Enrique Villena––Studying low-budget movies, as well as creating his own short film
Miko Walsh––Studying queer theory and modern queer life through a phenomenological perspective
Ivan Wolyniec––Developing an artificially intelligent program, a program with which a user can “chat”
Clarence Wong––Building a swerve and drive system while learning about advanced manufacturing and engineering and exploring the effect of robotic technology on society