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A high school student dreams about their senior year throughout their entire high school career. Then when you finally reach senior year…BAM! They slam you with the senior project.

The senior project is an 8-12 page paper about a controversial topic, which requires a 10-15 minute power-point presentation. This counts as a test grade for 3 of your classes, English, Government/Econ, and Bible. The teachers started doing the senior project because seniors were getting separate essays assigned; the teachers thought it would be good idea to have one long paper instead of three short ones, and that is how the senior project was birthed into the lives of TC Seniors.

Each student is assigned to a room where he or she presents the project to four judges. This year the head judges were Mr. Fast, Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Hernandez, and Mr. Williams. The top 9 are selected to present the project again, in front of a different panel of judges, for the purpose of vying for a scholarship.

This year’s top nine were, Morgan Andre, Hiliary Sharp, Demsina Babazadeh, Geoffrey Retemeyer, Morgan Mcintire, Rebekah Godfrey, Garret Allison, Amy Wright, and Natalie Sanders. In the end, Demsina Babazadeh received third place, Hiliary Sharp received second and Morgan Andre won first place. Each student in the top three received a scholarship to further their education.

Demsina Babazadeh 3rd Place

Topic: Gay Marriage: The Battle Between Right and Wrong

Student Tip: Do it early, do not procrastinate it’ll getcha! Do all your ‘note cards’ in English the right way, the first time, research as much as you can and just get it out of the way…earlier. I spent time every day working on my presentation so, it never piled up for the last minute.

Nervousness? Oh I was definitely nervous doing it the 2nd time in front of the judges, but I think it was harder that way cause it was just the judging panel of (4) your tech partner and you. So it’s way less nerve racking when other classmates are in there.

Improvements: I guess I could have made the presentation longer, and had some handouts or something, but I was overall happy with how my presentation was different then my paper so it wasn’t like I was repeating the information over and over.

Scholarship-$500

Hiliary Sharp 2nd Place

Topic: Effects of Pornography on Society

Student Tip: Pick a topic that you are curious about, something that interests you and is controversial. You WILL spend a lot of time researching. Also, I would recommend choosing a topic that no one else is doing because this gives you a boost as far as the competition aspect goes. Another thing: Google Scholar is great for referencing books and articles.

Nervousness? I always get most nervous waiting to go up, but once I’m up, the nerves die down pretty fast.

Best Part: I think my topic in itself is my favorite part. At first, I was nervous pursuing this topic because I thought it would be really difficult to research, but I really felt that God laid it on my heart to pursue, and in the end it worked out really well. He used the experience to help me grow as an individual, while also (hopefully) impacting the lives of others.

Improvements: All in all, I feel very confident in my work. I gave it my all. I don’t think I’d change anything. I do wish I had started drafting my paper sooner, though. It takes a lot of time.

Scholarship: $700

Morgan Andre 1st Place

Topic: Media Bias and whether it is in favor of Liberal views or Conservative views.

Student Tip: A tip for students next year: is to work really hard on your first draft because after that all you have to do is revise and it’s easy. Also, make an interesting PowerPoint with graphs. They love the graphs.

Nervousness? I was extremely nervous. Presenting and public speaking is completely out of my comfort zone.

Best Part: I think the best part of my presentation was the interview with the Modesto Bee’s editor and Vice President, Mark Vasche. It allowed people to relate to media on a local level.

Improvements: I could definitely improve my public speaking ability and also I wish I had a more interesting introduction.

Scholarship: $1000