For those who haven’t heard of Senior Experience, it’s a program offered exclusively at WY. Seniors can be out of the classroom for several periods a day, working on an unpaid internship, self-directed project, or being a teacher’s assistant. All that’s needed to apply is a minimum of 21 credits by January of their junior year. If you’re interested in Senior Experience, check out these three seniors with three very different senior experiences:

Questions:

1. What is your senior experience?
2. What periods are you out of class/school ?
3. What are the benefits of a senior experience?

Griffin Lynch

1. My Senior Experience consists of building a web application that allows kids to enroll at Whitney, it should work for both incoming 7th and 9th graders. It will keep track of the data, and make it usable to the school. Hopefully, this solves two separate problems. One, the problem of enrollment taking a long time which is, admittedly, more of a nuisance than a problem, and two, it allows quicker access to the data collected during enrollment. Much of the problem is that it generates lots and lots of paperwork, which has to be stored somewhere. Then when administration wants to use it, such as checking whether a student has signed the media release form, they have to go through the folder full of hundreds of media release forms, and find the student’s.
2. I do my Senior Experience during 3rd and 4th periods every day in the Counseling Suite. My instructor is the counselor Mr. VonMoser, so any time I run into a problem,  I generally end up consulting him. Other than that, the experience is independent study.
3. I’ve learned quite a bit about the enrollment process, and also how websites really work. My project has given me a greater appreciation for how much work it really takes to put up a website, and the underlying concepts behind the internet

Rachel Weaver

1. My senior experience is being a teacher’s assistant at my old elementary school.
2. I’m out of schools periods 1-3.
3. The benefits from my senior experience is that I am able to work with children. I feel like I am connecting with and helping kids that can relate to me because I was once in their position. I love it!

Kate Bailey

1. For my senior experience I am a teacher’s assistant in Ms. Springer’s 8th period Diverse Learner class.
2. I’m out of class 8th period but I’m still in school.
3. I am learning different adaptations and communicative skills to be more effective in helping my students learn and complete the tasks that are asked of them.