Where do those seniors go? And what do they do on their projects?
Senior Projects 2009
For many Class I students. May signals the beginning of the long-awaited Senior Projects. A long-standing, treasured tradition, committing the final month at Milton to a project of their own interest and design is an option for Class I students. Such projects require a well-thought out proposal that must be supported by a faculty advisor and approved by committee. Topics this year range from “A Comparative Study of Hinduism and Buddhism” to learning dressmaking techniques, or writing an original novella to studying New England fisheries. Some of this year’s seniors will intern, shadow, or assist at major theater production studios, organic farms, renowned medical centers and athletic training facilities.
Several students and faculty members have resurrected a model from years past and will be involved in month-long mini courses on topics of collaborative choosing. Next month Doug Fricke of the English department will be teaching a class on James Joyce’s Ulysses, and Mark Hilgendorf of the history department will be offering a seminar titled Dylan, Marley and Jesus.
Armide Storey will shadow maternal and fetal medicine specialist Dr. Adam Wolfberg ’88 at Tufts Medical Center.
“I will be spending almost forty hours a week shadowing Dr. Wolfberg and a few of his colleagues at Tufts, Children's Hospital, and Newton Wellesley Hospital; at the end of the experience, I will present the project committee with a 12-page paper on my experience. I am incredibly excited. I have had a summer of experience in basic science research for ALS at [Massachusetts General Hospital] and this May I will be able to observe clinicians in a few specialties (neurology, obstetrics, etc.) as well as have the opportunity to participate in clinical research with Dr. Wolfberg. I have done extensive reading to prepare for the project and… I am eager to have the opportunity to decide whether or not to aim my undergraduate career to a medical specialty. Medicine has always been really interesting to me and it is just extraordinary that Milton will allow me to explore an opportunity that they can not offer.”
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Lauren Edmundson and Angela Baglione will work and learn at Holly Hill Farm, a certified organic farm in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
“For me, the project is about examining local farming and home gardening, really small-scale efforts, as realistic environmental solutions. As a complete novice in all things agricultural, I'm excited to try my hand at self-sustenance, or at least the first small step towards this goal.” – Lauren
“I really fell in love with farm life at the Maine Coast Semester last year and am using my senior project as an opportunity to learn about small-scale farming as a possible career. Besides just farming, however, I plan to examine Holly Hill Farm as a model of holistic sustainable living to be applied both at Milton and in my own life.” – Angela
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Sam Arras will build surfboards alongside head surfboard shaper Kane Berry at the Knightmare Surfboard factory in Florida.
“I am very fortunate to have this opportunity to work with one of surfing’s pioneers in terms of surfboard design and experimenting with new materials. I will be making two surfboards using cutting edge materials and techniques. When looking at the America’s cup sailing boats you see that all these incredibly strong, light and flexible materials are out there, like carbon fiber and Kevlar—it’s just a matter of applying them to surfboard design and adapting their qualities to enhance surfboard performance.”
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Jaclyn Siu and Drew Douglas-Steele will study clinical massage therapy techniques and the related physiology.
“Drew and I chose this project because we thought it was fun, useful, and applicable to our daily lives (Drew is an athlete, and I've always been intrigued by the field of medicine)…. Aside from learning massage skills, we are also going to learn the related anatomy and physiology behind it…. I'm sure I speak for both Drew and myself when I say we are extremely excited about this project; not only is it interesting and new to us, but the time we spend together is sure to bring us closer together as friends.” – Jaclyn
“We've already had too many offers to count for practice subjects! We'll also be learning about the culture behind massage therapy (where and how it originated, how it has been used in the past), which I know for me is particularly intriguing… because I'm kind of geared towards history and past cultures and how they tie into ours today.” – Drew
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Nikki Pantazopoulos will intern with fashion designer Sara Campbell whose retail store and corporate headquarters are in Boston.
“I have always been interested in design and… have interned for an interior design firm for the past two summers. I thought it would be fun to experience design within the fashion industry. I will be getting involved in… research, design, sample production, marketing and retail sales; I’ll be organizing merchandise and fabrics as well as learning details about the garment industry from fabric type, content, minimums and widths, etc. I’ll also be learning business communication skills and assisting with inventory control. I will be doing such a range of jobs and truly hope to take advantage of everything I learn. I want to gain a great sense of this huge industry and further explore my strong interest in design.”
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Nana Amoh’s project is titled “Five Boroughs: A Retrospect of Today's New York in Words and in Photography.”
“The overall objectives of my project are to examine New York City’s residents, by collecting information about these individuals through surveys and through capturing some of these same people in their daily routines in photography and poetry to compile a monograph that can serve as a panoramic view to what I believe embodies the people of New York…. This recession is one that can be described in so many ways and in so many different words, but the solemn face of a child or the red eyes of a postal worker can and do, in fact, say so much more about the zeitgeist of New York today than a blunt editorial in the local paper can ever say.”
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Samara Oster will intern with Broadway Artists Alliance, an organization that creates workshops led by Broadway performers for students up through college-age.
“Having participated in BAA's workshops several times, I know that the unique opportunities and the valuable lessons they provide have an incredible impact. I will not only be working in the office, but also helping to organize and run one of these programs. I look forward to spending the month in New York City, and hopefully, having a closer interaction with many successful Broadway professionals—casting directors, talent agents, and actors.”
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Alessandra Frissora will create paintings on canvas inspired by her trip to Italy.
“I wanted to continue, in more depth, working with specific materials we used in a segment of my junior year studio art class. During this class, I specifically enjoyed working with large canvases, but we were only able to create one canvas painting before moving on to the next unit. I ended up painting a scene from my trip to Italy on this canvas and thought of many other scenes I would have loved to continue painting. My senior project [is] a great opportunity to finish painting the other scenes.”
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Brady Caspar and Mike Saltzman will be working with a team of MIT students who have designed and built a solar car.
“We both have similar interests in sustainability and engineering, so this project caters to both. We are also very competitive people, so working on a solar car that will be entered in a race in Texas in early June, and then in Australia a few months later where the car will achieve real results against other similar cars, is also exciting.” – Brady
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John Haddad, Nick Hurst and Chris Sperandio will work with Captain Richard Armstrong learning about fishing out of Boston Harbor.
“We’ve talked about this project since our sophomore year…. We all love fishing. Nick is from Milton but lives on the Cape in the summer where he fishes from his boats down there. Chris lives in Scituate and fishes Scituate Harbor often, and I live in Milton but frequently fish on the Cape and in Boston Harbor. Because we all love to fish, it is pretty obvious why we would be excited to participate in this project.
We will be working with Captain Richard Armstrong out of Marina Bay in Quincy. He co-captains Boston Fishstix fishing charters. Boston Fishstix (www.bostonfishstix.com) specializes in fly and light tackle fishing around the Boston Harbor area. With Captain Armstrong, we will learn the ins-and-outs of making a boat sea-worthy, preparing and organizing the company’s gear, including rods, reels, flies, lures and other equipment. We will be accompanying him on some charters to learn the waters and serve as “mates” on the boat. Because of our fishing backgrounds, we just hope to soak up information and tips so that we can become better fishermen.
Aside from the actual fishing, we will also be writing a guidebook to fishing in Boston Harbor and a research paper. We have scheduled time in our weeks to conduct interviews and research environmental issues in Boston Harbor, the rich fishing history in Massachusetts, specifically Boston, and the fishing industry of past and present.”
– John
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Breanna Dance and Melissa Mittleman will study the cultural evolution of chocolate.
“This spring we want to develop our mutual love of chocolate into a more complete understanding that not only furthers our appreciation, but also extends the value of chocolate to others. We plan on writing a small book compiled from chocolate research (where it comes from, how it affects us physiologically, how it is involved in our modern market, how it is made, how to professionally taste it, [combined with] findings from our own personal experimentation with chocolate making and taste testing); interviewing chocolatiers in the Boston area; taking classes at the MIT Laboratory of Chocolate Science on multiple aspects of chocolate; and creating our own chocolates with our learned techniques…. We hope that our final presentation will not only provide us with an in-depth concept of chocolate, but also give others the appreciation chocolate truly deserves.” – Breanna
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