Estefania Soto examines one of the fabrics she will use in her dressmaking. “I’ve always liked fashion and had an eye for it,” explains Soto. As part of her project, Soto interviewed a designer from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. A large portion of Soto’s project involved creating designs of her own.
Photos by Ryan Lely
As the public school year grinds to a close, it’s once again the time that Sonoma Valley seniors alternately look forward to and dread: the end of their high school careers. The biggest step in this process is finalizing the Senior Projects. Assigned in September and completed by May of a student’s senior year, the Senior Project consists of 20 hours of field work, a 5- to 10-page essay, a poster, and a 30-minute presentation.
It doesn’t end there. For some students, their project work can help get started on their plans and dreams for the future. In the best scenarios, the experiences can help bridge the gap between students’ ideas of what they want to do and how it actually feels to do it by giving them a taste of what avenues they might like to pursue after graduation.
To give Sun readers an idea of what they’ve been involved in over the past seven months, four graduating seniors shared their personal experiences.
Wired for success
Alex Hernandez has been working alongside his father as an electrician for his senior project. He is attracted to electrical engineering as a career and has used this opportunity to discover whether the profession agrees with him. He is working on new houses and remodeling old ones, installing wire switches, electrical outlets, fans, ceiling lights and breakers. He has become more skilled in looking at and understanding blueprints, and for his presentation will provide a demonstration of how to wire a house.
Working for Wyldlife
For their senior projects, Sierra Sweeden and Courtney Wheeler worked as leaders for a Christian youth organization called Wyldlife. Their duties involved planning games and activities for the group’s weekly meetings, supervising winter camps, and simply spending time with and listening to kids.
Courtney has found the project to be a good learning experience because she wants to be in a profession where she can help children in some capacity. Being a teacher strongly appeals to Sierra, and she acknowledges that although the project was “way harder than I thought,” she is just as passionate about continuing to teach kids important lessons inside and outside the classroom.
“The project showed me it takes a lot of patience to be a teacher,” Sierra said.
Designing a future
Estefania Soto briefly considered her interests in cosmetology and dance before deciding to do her senior project on fashion design. “I’ve always liked fashion and had an eye for it. I knew a little about it but wanted to learn more, to discover what careers and majors fall under that umbrella,” she said. She interviewed a designer from San Francisco and the brunt of her project involves creating and fashioning a design of her own, for which she’s already sketched extensively and picked out fabrics. The project has taught her a lot about the infrastructure of schools and the hard work that goes into the glamorous world of fashion, and she hopes to attend the Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in the fall.
Advice from those who’ve been there
According to these students, the best advice they could give next year’s seniors would be not to take the Senior Project lightly.
“Take it seriously … if you fall behind, it’s not easy to catch up,” said Sierra, to which Courtney adds, “It’s a big time commitment.” Alex warns, “Stay on top of it … don’t procrastinate.” But most importantly, counsels Estefania, “Pick something you’re passionate about and want to do. When I went for my interview at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), the woman who did the interview told me that the fact that my senior project explored the field of fashion was a sign of dedication on my part, and she loved that. I think this will help me pursue an education and career in the fashion world. Any school I apply to will ask me. ‘How did you get interested in fashion?’ And I can say, ‘I did my senior project on it.’”
