From RubicOnline Podcasts, this is Senior Project: A Podcast.

Documenting the struggles, triumphs, and realities of the senior project experience at St. Paul Academy and Summit School.

I’m your host, Mimi Geller, and I will be producing this podcast as a way for students to understand Senior Project. I will interview the people I meet along the way and impart my advice as I learn more about myself, others, and possible careers I would like to pursue over the course of May.

Senior Project: it seems like a rite of passage for seniors, because, well, it is a graduation requirement. May becomes an auspicious time for all high school students at SPA: juniors are now the honorary seniors, sophomores no longer have to be with their advisors during tutorial, and 9th graders…Well, they are that much closer to being a sophomore.

The Senior Project leaders, US Science Teacher Steve Hieleg and US Debate Teacher Tom Fones introduced the senior project to my class, the class of 2019, as the following in a packet placed in our Google Drives, “The Senior Project provides an opportunity for you to design a month of personalized experiences. You may explore new areas or focus on one area of interest through internships and service to others. This project is an excellent opportunity to learn about occupations and service beyond SPA classrooms, in a real-world environment. During this time you will not have classes or the everyday obligations of a typical student. Instead, you will take on the responsibilities of the commitments you choose to undertake. Most Senior Projects consist of one to three activities. You will create a schedule of your own design that meets the guidelines provided by the Senior Project.”

So what does that actually mean? For me, it meant exploring a journalism field. So, I called my good friend Emily Ridder up who lives in a suburb outside of Chicago and asked to work with her dad who works in publishing at the Chicago Tribune. That quickly led to me interning at the Chicago Magazine, where I am right now. As I sit here in the mezzanine, which is just a fancy word for public area, I see offices named after Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, glass doors to meeting rooms, and a screening of live television. I’m not completely sure what I’ll be doing yet… I know I will be copy editing the upcoming issues of the magazine, hopefully pitching story ideas and attending editorial board meetings.

When I am not here, I will volunteer at the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, an organization that offers free education to people who are visually impaired. That’s near Emily’s house, so I can walk there. My other activities consist of yoga and this podcast. I’m pretty much living the dream… which anyone can do for their senior project… just make sure you plan ahead of time.