Senior projects nearing completion

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 31, 2017

As the school year nears its terminus, the 2017 senior class of Orcas Island High School is wrapping up their senior projects. The graduating class will present their projects at 10:30 a.m. on June 13 at the high school. From internships to construction and art projects, many of the students worked for several months to complete their tasks. Here are the projects and a brief description of what they entailed:

Cyrus E. Amour, “30 Happy Days with Cyrus,” organizing and teaching a class on happiness to share positivity with the community and help people gain control of their happiness.

Luke Bronn, “Bowls for the Arts Soup Dinner,” hosting a soup dinner in support of the OISD art programs. All of the food is donated by Orcas Island restaurants and chefs and the soup will be served in hand-thrown bowls that the guests will take home at the end of the evening.

Michael Chesher, “Helping Wolfhollow,” assisting and learning at the Wolf Hollow Rehabilitation Center, hoping to spread awareness of important work it does.

Ella Conrad, “Fashion Show,” putting on a fashion show at the fire department in Eastsound with donated dresses from the community. Dresses will be available for attendees to keep (donation recommended) The purpose of the show is to help the girls who don’t or cannot afford to pay a lot of money for a new dress, organize and put on an event for the community, and raise money for an island non-profit.

Ricardo De Anda, “Orcas Pride,” update the area around the locker rooms to improve aesthetics and boost school pride.

Tara Dobos, “Supporting SAFE San Juans on the Rocks,” working with SAFE (Social Change, Advocacy, Transformation and Education) San Juans on a series of 5k runs it organized to bring awareness to domestic violence and sexual assault.

Carlos Erazo, “The Amazing Chair,” building a chair that will include every senior name on it and will remain at the school for future students to enjoy.

Rodrigo Erazo, “Super Spanish,” teaching Spanish at the senior center.

Jacqueline Figueroa, “My Nursing Internship,” an internship with Dr. David Russell to learn about certain procedures, practice them, and get a sense of what a career in nursing would be like.

Axel Greening, “Follow the Trash,” an educational short documentary about where the trash and recycling goes. Funded and organized by the Exchange, three members of the OIHS Environmental Club went from Orcas to Eastern Washington to see where the trash goes.

Bethany Hansen, “The Silent Language,” learning the art of sign language through an amazing mentor who I meet with once a week. Along with learning the language, I will also put on a two-day class at the Funhouse to teach the basics.

Miles Harlow, “Revitalizing the Locker Room,” milling island cedar and crafting six new benches for the locker room in order to improve the home of Orcas athletes.

Emma Heikkinen, “Creating Independent Zine Library,” forming a collection of zines – small independently published creative literature – to be housed wit the Orcas Island Public Library. Expanding the Library Bill of Rights with patron access to a breadth of primary sources. Donation welcome; contact emheik@gmail.com.

Stephen Holman, “Running into a Healthier Life,” obesity is one of the largest problems facing both children and adults across the country. The goal of my project is to educate our island’s youth about the health benefits of running and organize a race for the public.

Charlie Holmes, “Concrete Pizza Oven Trailer,” turning an old horse trailer into a portable pizza oven. Also going to learn how to make pizza from scratch and host a pizza party for the senior class.

Aidan Kruse, “A Change in 3-D,” learning how to create a prosthetic hand using 3-D print and a presentation sharing knowledge with people in the community about cost efficient prosthetics and how important they are by hosting a kiosk.

Rowan Lister, “Presenting Community to the Next Generation,” presenting to elementary and middle schoolers’ about experience in Guatemala and why community and water conservation are important using Google Slides and clay model to help present.

Devon Rose Mann, “Student Collaborative Poetry Book,” self-publishing and selling a book of student poetry collected from the community. It will give the students a chance to express their creativity publicly and to give the community a chance to observe and connect with another side of its local teenagers. Along with contributing and collecting poetry, I will also be illustrating the book as well – Silverstein style.

Kai McGregor, “Springtime Shake Up,” a yoga dance exercise that emphasizes wellness, mindfulness, and acceptance of others. This event will be a high-energy extravaganza that you won’t want to miss.

Henry McMurray, “Plants v. Toddlers,” learning to garden and planting and edible garden at the Children’s House to help toddlers learn more about where their food comes from.

Pearl Mudd, “Not-a-mural-mural,” made a large canvas from scratch which is painted to reflect school spirit. The painting will be hung in the high school to bestow upon the students glorious Viking vibes.

Brother Murphy, “Time Capsule,” bury a time capsule full of items relevant to this year so the class of 2017 can dig up at a future date.

Jordan Randolph; “The Flaws in Stretching,” learn and teach middle school athletes and coaches the most effective stretching routines to improve strength and flexibility.

Sandy Rost, “Robotics on the Rock,” organized a robotics program at the Funhouse for kids ages 7-14 which promotes STEM in our community. Project finale will include competition between Orcas youth and off-island team.

Gunnar Sandwith, “Debate Preservation,” a project to preserve debate. Doing this by teaching a middle school debate club and speaking at the Orcas Center in June.

Matia Schwartz, “Marine Mural,” creating a large scale painting to bring awareness to the importance of keeping our oceans clean.

Olivia Smith, “Video for Moran State Park,” filming and editing a promotional video for Moran State Park. Also writing and playing a backing track on the ukulele.

Ivan Velazquez, “The Ticket Booth,” a project to fix and, clean, and paint the ticket booth to make the school safer and more presentable.

Grayson White, “2017 Henry Gudgell Memorial Bike Ride,” organizing a memorial bike ride that raised money and awareness for the John Henry Mason Foundation, which supports mental health awareness in the San Juans.