By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

A major project may be one of the last things a senior student wants to add to his or her list of things to do before graduation. But when that project comes with the chance to find out what you really want to do with your life, some seniors saw it as a small price to pay.

Senior students from Buckeye Central, Colonel Crawford, Wynford, and Pioneer along with a select group of seniors at Bucyrus, participated in the senior project program. Students were required to complete independent research on a subject of special interest to them. In some cases, they were also required to shadow a mentor.

Crawford 20/20 Vision recognized outstanding senior projects from those four schools and Pioneer Career and Technology Center on Wednesday. Six students presented their projects to leaders and businesses from the county and surrounding areas.

Chelsea Civay and Mercedes Kessler, both enrolled in the Medical Technologies program at Pioneer, demonstrated how they created and performed a mock crash for Pioneer students. Last year around prom time, a student died from an alcohol-related crash and Civay and Kessler came up with the idea of a mock crash to show students the perils of drinking and driving.

“This is something that hit home to us,” Civay said. “You had to do your senior project on something you’re passionate about.”

The two seniors put together the mock crash all through volunteerism and donations. They received help during the mock crash from the Shelby Fire Department and EMT and Lifeflight. Civay said they have already recruited current juniors to put on the mock crash next year.

Civay and Kessler plan to attend North Central State College in the medical program. Civay will later transfer to the University of Toledo and Kessler plans on transferring to Ashland University.

The senior projects at Wynford are now a graduation requirement. Students must pass all four parts to graduate.

Wynford senior TJ Mohr came up with a business proposal for a kicking academy as part of his senior project. Mohr taught sixth graders from Wynford how to properly kick a football. Along the way, he learned how to approach and teach kids.

Mohr had been a kicker on Wynford’s football team and will be taking his kicking talents to Heidelberg University in the fall. He will study criminal justice and psychology there before joining the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Colonel Crawford student Morgan Skinner tackled becoming a published author for her senior project. Skinner wrote a 359-page manuscript, edited her work and submitted it to a number of publishers.

“I actually put in a lot more work than I intended,” Skinner said. Although she enjoyed writing a book, she realized that it was not a career she would want to pursue right now.

Skinner did receive interest for publication from Christopher Matthews Publishing.

Skinner will be studying political science at Kent State University.

This was the first year the senior projects had been implemented at Bucyrus High School. A core class of 18 students participated in the project.

Bucyrus senior Kennedy Crawford focused her project on being an attorney-at-law. She mentored with local attorney Patrick Murphy where she was able to help review and prepare for cases.

“The whole experience overall was really good,” Crawford said. “If you write your paper over something you’re not really interested in, it’s going to be a drag.”

Crawford added that seniors should choose a subject they are passionate about.

Crawford will be attending the University of Akron in the fall to study sociology and criminology. She wants to become a prosecutor.

Bucyrus senior Haley Chester delved into the changing world of medicine and how a nurse practitioner impacts that field. She job shadowed with Avita Therapy and Sports Medicine. Chester said she enjoyed being able to job shadow even though she didn’t get a lot of time to do so.

Chester will be attending North Central State College to major in nursing with a focus on pediatrics.

The idea for county-wide senior projects started back in 2009 as a way to make a connection between education and the business world.

“The bottom line is we were looking for rigor, relationships, and relevance,” said Wynford Superintendent Steve Mohr. Superintendent Mohr was part of a core group of school officials that wanted to see the senior projects implemented in all six county schools.

Steve Mohr said his wife wasn’t completely on board with the project when it was implemented but after seeing their son, TJ, go through his project, she has since changed her mind.

“Talking with her last night, she said this was probably the best thing our son has had to do because everything he’s doing in terms of the planning, the organization, the presentation, is going to be invaluable,” said Steve Mohr.

“I think was a really good experience and it’s really important for us seniors to do this because it will help them realize what they want to do with their life. It helps because some people think they know they have their career figured out. Then they do this and a lot of them figure out they don’t want to do this, that it’s not something they want to pursue,” Crawford said.

“What if they would have went to college for that (and) wasted all that money?” Crawford asked. “It’s a really good thing that we did this. I took a lot out of it.”

Chester wasn’t too thrilled to add such a project to her already heavy workload and job. In the end, though, she was glad she did it.

“It’s good because we found out we did want to go ahead and pursue our careers. There were a lot of kids in our class—probably more than half the kids—that said we don’t want to do this anymore.”

Nikki Workman, Director of Public Relations at Marion Technical College, is no stranger to students and the careers changes they go through in college. She was impressed with the seniors’ willingness—along with the local businesses willingness—to go through job shadowing and the benefits they reaped from it.

“Actually seeing the hiccups of the day and what happens and how people adjust and adapt to those situations and you can’t learn that in a classroom. So you need the hands on experience to go along with the book experience,” Workman said.

Workman said the senior projects definitely help seniors prepare not only for college but also for jobs in the future, something that the superintendents and Crawford 20/20 Vision are striving for.