Happening on Campus: Senior Independent Studies

This article, written by Journalism student Lucy Newman '27, was originally posted in WiNK on April 26, 2024.

As spring flowers bloom, and the sun begins to linger longer, we count down the days until Senior Send-Off, when the seniors use their passion and creativity to make their last weeks of high school an enriching opportunity for independence and self-sufficiency. In 1968, the Student - Faculty committee of Wooster School created a unique opportunity called Senior Independent Study, where seniors are sent off five weeks before their official graduation to pursue an assignment fabricated from their own curiosity and creation skills. The main purpose of the seniors having this independent time at the close of their high school experience is to let them pursue areas of interest outside of the classroom, and begin to gather real world applications. There is a minimum commitment time of five hours per day, five days a week, and each senior has to plan and submit a proposal, which then needs to be approved by a panel of faculty members, to ensure that all of their time will be spent productively. 

This year individually, the seniors are all doing distinctive things that will result in their ultimate success throughout this invigorating project. The seniors create projects that revolve around both educating themselves, as well as making lifelong memories before beginning their college career. One example of a project from this year that seamlessly blends education and enjoyment is Jonah Bates, who is going to be coding a video game using ROM hacking which is a process of modifying images in a video game in order to alter a game's graphics or other elements. Using his love for video games, he developed this idea which will be challenging for himself, but equally entertaining for him and his friends to enjoy together. Similarly, Amelia Vail has worked to create a very fulfilling lineup for her independent weeks, revolving around marketing, which she describes as a potential career path to pursue, as well as a way to make connections with unexpected people. Connection making is one major convenience of the involvement in SIS, and while interning at a marketing company in Florida, and then using the skills she attains to design a website and social media page for her dad’s business, I am certain that Amelia will have opportunities to build crucial relationships and have a strong start to a possible occupation. 

 Every aspect of the SIS experience is compelling to me, but I specifically wanted to learn more about the origin of SIS, and how it has evolved over the years to become what it is today. As a school, Wooster is capable of making beneficial changes to improve the quality of each and every student’s experience in high school, but no major change comes without a trial and error process to see what works best for students’ individual needs. One aspect of SIS that has evolved, was that when SIS first originated, the seniors had a choice between doing their independent studies, or continuing to take their regular classes. Since it was so successful, the SIS experience is now something that every student partakes in. In addition to this, we have truly expanded heavily on the creative freedom a student can have in order to spend their time in a way that most benefits them. 

Not only has Senior Independent Study come exceedingly far from when it was first established in 1968, many of the core ideas revolve around creating fundamental skills that then become necessary to have a successful career later in life. Throughout this process, students can both find themselves as people, as well as possible passions to pursue. Although the SIS process is short, oftentimes students are so interested in their chosen projects, that they continue to expand on it during further stages in their lives, and some even end up in jobs inspired by their adventures throughout the process. 

Last year, during end of the year presentations given by the seniors to share their experiences with members of the Wooster community, I had the pleasure of hearing about two members of the Class of ‘23, Campbell Greenberg and Chris Bishop’s, involvement in entrepreneurship and designing their own tea company called Chelsea Tea Company. Chelsea Tea Company was created entirely by Campbell and Chris, and was outlined around being an energized tea that is able to simultaneously promote weight loss, have a great taste, and only have 90 mg of caffeine. They spent their five weeks designing logos, visiting tasting labs to trial run recipes, meeting about marketing and business strategies, and so much more behind the scenes efforts to make their vision come to life. Even amongst adjusting to their new surroundings at college, Chelsea Tea Company has continued to expand, and soon enough you may even see their vibrant designs in retail shops. 

Not only have recent students had success throughout the process, but our very own former admissions member, Tess Cicala ‘17, had her admissions experience start during her independent studies from her senior year at Wooster. Ms. Cicala’s college guidance counselor was able to connect her with the Admissions Office at Fairfield University. At Fairfield, she shadowed admission counselors, worked on research projects, helped run some of their social media campaigns, and her favorite of all, met prospective students. Her experiences at Fairfield University really affirmed that the admissions field would be a good fit for her, and not too long after she graduated from Providence College in 2021, she had her start working at Wooster’s Admissions team. She has since moved on to work as the Assistant Director of Admissions at Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, MA, and still thanks her SIS project for pushing her in the right direction! There are countless more examples of alumni who have since taken their experiences during SIS, and are continuing to develop them to this day. 

As a school and community, Wooster has such strong values regarding ideas of self help and experimental project based learning, which the experience of SIS encapsulates so powerfully. Even during my time in Wooster’s middle school, there was always chatter during this time of year about what options may be fun to pursue when the time comes, which just shows the care and thoughtfulness that goes into this project. As a culminating event for the Seniors' final time at Wooster, I couldn’t be more excited to hear about how they each choose to spend their time, and how it will continue to impact their journeys in the next steps of their life.