Student Highlights

Next week we head into expeditions and the last two weeks of this school year. To celebrate the upcoming expeditions, the Grizzly is highlighting a few students and their activity during these final expedition weeks.

Independent study was offered as an option for an expeditions course this year. These Individual students put in a lot of hard work to propose, get them approved, and start these exciting and personalized studies. Out of the thirteen Summit schools, only six, including Denali, were given the opportunity to pursue independent studies. I asked Lauren Rehbein, director of independent studies and internships, a few questions about this unique student experience. When asked about her favorite part of working with students on these assignments, she says, “My favorite part of the independent study program is giving students who have a particular interest a space to explore. It's an incredible opportunity to be given 200 hours to dedicate to your interest or project. This time often motivates students to work on a project they have been crafting in their heads for awhile.” Interested in taking up an independent study next year? Learn more about what these students have done and how they work on these special projects to give you some ideas.

For disclosure: Author has an independent study

James Begole

Independent Study: Writing short fantasy stories and publishing his work

Check it out: https://higherrealmsblog.wordpress.com/

When I met with James to discuss his independent study, he was busy trying to find a set of pencils he had left in the room a few minutes earlier. When he found them with the help of a few of his friends, it was pretty clear how creative and artistic he truly is. Each of the pencils held a different type of graphite, helping him shade his drawings with amazing creativity. I’d never seen someone with the amount of artistic pencils he’d had, especially when they were going to be used to take a math test!

This artistic and creative side of him truly shines through in his independent study. “I’m writing short stories that all take place in the same fantasy world called Fellekron. And I write them sporadically all about different people and different story arcs that will all come together eventually.” he stated in our interview.

James came up with the idea for his independent study after looking through the expedition classes that were offered. He was not especially intrigued in any of the subject material behind the classes, and was very thrilled when he discovered he had the chance to focus on one of his passions. Writing was one of the first ideas that came to his mind. Over the past three expedition sessions, James has tried to finish one story per week; about six stories in total. Every one of his stories has some historical component to it. He starts the beginning of the week by creating background for the characters in his stories, then he researches different parts about traits of his characters. One example would be a Viking character that he created. James spent time finding information on Vikings and then incorporated these traits into his character.

When asked if he would propose making his independent study into an expedition course, he replied in the affirmative. “Writing is really important and I find that lots of people aren’t too developed in the skill. Plus, lots of people can build on creativity so it would be really interesting to do something like this.”

Leilani Gutierrez

Independent Study: Writing short stories and publishing her work

Leilani’s independent study experience came together in a unique way. She started expeditions with an internship at Tama Vet Hospital where she had originally hoped to learn about being a veterinarian. However, that experience wasn’t what she was hoping. “I had an internship in the beginning of expeditions,” Leilani said. “ Then, I found that the environment where I had my internship was not the positive space that I had expected.” When her internship did not work out, Leilani worked to turn in an independent study proposal. She brainstormed many different options, but in the end, she decided that writing was her true passion. “After the first two sessions, I decided that I should do something that I would enjoy better than being a vet so I thought writing would be a good independent study, especially since I am currently interested in becoming an author.” Leilani says. “I’ve written stories before but I’ve found it hard to finish them. So, I decided that I would finally finish a story and this would give me the chance to have dedicated time to write.”

She first drew inspiration from different stories she had read and heard of, then started her own writing process. The environment around her also gives her inspiration. When writing her story, she walks out to a park where she sits near a stream and lets her ideas flow.

She is currently working on a Young Adult (YA) novel about a girl and the complex situations that she is put into. When the protagonist dreams, she sees people in her mind, and she has 24 hours to find them in the real world or tragic events will occur that include the people in her dreams. Not only has she been writing her novel, she’s been working on her cover art. In a collaboration with Ellen H. (who also has an independent study), she has worked to portray her story through photography and other forms of visuals. They plan to collaborate to finalize the front cover in this upcoming expeditions course. Overall, her favorite part of the independent study? Being able to finish a story of her own. “It gives me the chance to look at my final product and decide if it is good or not, and what I can do to improve the next time.”

Dariush Shahidi

Independent Study: Sports Blog

Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/DariushIS

When Dariush first proposed his independent study, he wrote that he would be working to create sports podcasts. However, as his work during his independent study progressed and he learned more and more about sports podcasts, his plan for his independent study changed. “I initially started doing a sports podcast but then I met up with a Comcast reporter who reports on the Giants and she told me that writing a blog would be much more efficient. So, for the last two expeditions I’ve been writing a blog.”

On days when he’s working on his sports blog, Dariush makes his way to a nearby library where he then researches and writes about his topics. At the beginning of the week, he chooses a subject that he would like to work on, then spends the rest of the week researching and writing about this topic. “I identified that the writing style of journalism is very different than writing a blog, so I have to differentiate between the two types of writing.” During expeditions, Dariush finishes at least one article per week, and two articles per session.

The topics he chooses vary each session depending on what interests him at the time. “Last expeditions course I mostly wrote about college basketball. But I want to focus on all types of sports,” Dariush states. Not only does he enjoy learning about sports during his independent study, his new experiences with different writing styles has also fascinated him. Dariush states that he was able to pick this up quickly, which makes this even more interesting to him. He hopes to learn even more about techniques he can use in this upcoming expeditions session.

While Dariush has had a great experience with his independent study, he does have one regret: starting out with podcasts. “I essentially wasted the first expedition block,” he said in an interview. However, don’t let that deceive you. Dariush has finished several of his articles and is still building onto his archives. “The idea behind my independent study is something that I’ve always wanted to do so I figured might as well give this a shot.”