Teens busy with Senior Projects

Completing a Senior Project is a ritual, and a graduation requirement, for every senior at Sonoma Valley High School. As part of the semester-long assignment, students are expected to write a related research paper and present a public presentation about the project. So how’s it going? The Sun’s Sarah Ford checks in,

Jensen Hedley

My senior project is called the Little Free Pantry. It is going to be placed at the Springs Community Center to help serve the less fortunate and people experiencing poverty. It serves the community by providing various foods inside it. Anyone is able to donate food to the pantry and anyone is allowed to take whatever they need from it.

I got the idea from my mom. She read about it online and suggested it as a way to get more involved in my community and, looking back on that initial thought, I’m grateful she helped me get more involved in such a great way.

My research paper was on homelessness in America and how people become homeless, and how they survive every day in harsh conditions.

My mentor is former Mayor Laurie Gallian. She has been a great help in connecting me with people to get donations and find a place to put my pantry.

I hope to help people in Sonoma that have a difficult time feeding themselves and their families, and I hope that my pantry inspires others to give back to their community. Through this project I’ve learned about the difficulties of providing food for families every day and that even the smallest effort to give back helps.

Noemi Martinez

My senior project has to do with home design. I’ll emphasize my love for organizing and take it to a new level, designing different areas of houses so they are inviting, welcoming, and a safe space.

After narrowing down a few possibilities, I realized I like to organize messes—physical and mental. I’ve always thought you need an organized place to think straight and I incorporated that into my project. I also wanted to challenge myself to do something that could benefit me in the future. So I decided to work on house design. Since I am growing up, I want to make sure that all aspects of life can be organized in a neat and efficient way starting with my own home.

I hope to gain more knowledge about myself. I also hope that this project will help me prepare for my life after high school and going into college. By then, I will have become an expert on house design and can help make other houses more attractive.

Since I love my environmental class, I decided to have an environmental aspect to my project. My research paper is about the positive impacts of the growing tiny house movement. Tiny houses are a great, sustainable alternative to live in and buy rather than a typical 1000 square foot home. I also want to promote the tiny house movement because with the growing population, it’s important to find sustainable ways for everyone to live in unity.

I’m learning a lot about the function, location, and design of small houses as well as costing out the prices for the essentials. I’ll apply these skills to make a portfolio and then decorate certain areas of my house. I’ll learn how to make a house more appealing in price and appearance by using key concepts of interior design.

My mentor is Bernadette Weissmann, a, SVHS teacher who works with ‪Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.

For my presentation, I’ll explain my experiences and the basis for my project. I also want to promote the tiny house and the vital role it’s gaining in society.

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