Changes Coming for Thesis Students

Northwest Academy has required all seniors to write two analytical, research-based theses since the school’s inception. However, beginning next year seniors will be able to do a project-based thesis in the spring semester.

Scott Kerman, Associate Head of School, expressed great excitement about this new development.

“The Capstone project will bring our Thesis program, an extremely important part of our high school program and the academic experiences of our seniors in particular, into greater alignment with our school’s foundational principle-the partnership of arts and academics,” he said. “The Capstone project will allow seniors to focus their energies on a very substantial project involving something they are passionate about, whether that’s something in the arts, sciences, or humanities.”

The Capstone thesis will still include a written reflection and the proposal process will remain largely the same, but students who opt for this project-based thesis will also be expected to work with a mentor on either an artistic or scientific project, or on a project within the community that reflects their values in a larger, real world context.

“We’ve been talking about this for a few years, but then this year’s seniors wrote Paul [Martone] a letter, which then he passed along to me asking if there was any way they could do something more along the lines of a project-based thesis for this spring,” Jada Pierce, teacher and English/Humanities department chair said. “I immediately met with Paul and Scott to see about the reality of pushing forward a proposal that the English Humanities Department actually already had in the works.”

Allowing for a more creative or scientific option for the thesis is an important move for the school to accurately represent both the artistic and academic side of the students’ work throughout their senior year.

“Right now Thesis feels like it is just reflective of the work that students do in English Humanities, and not indicative enough of the kinds of work that students do throughout our broader community,” Pierce said. “[Our current thesis] doesn’t accurately reflect our commitment to where arts meet academics as we claim in our mission statement.”

Many of the seniors have felt that the current thesis setup did not recognize the artistic and scientific endeavors of so many Northwest Academy students and hope that the addition will allow for more creative exploration in their final semester.

“It’s an art school, and they make a big point about the marriage between academics and art,” Isabel Downes-LeGuin, a senior, said. “I think there’s a lot of people who by senior year have figured out an art form that they like to express themselves through, and by second semester, you should have enough initiation to be able to do that instead of writing an additional research based thesis.”

In the past, students like Galatea Swart (class of 2014) did not receive recognition for their artistic endeavors in their thesis project, despite performing in the one-woman show “The Belle of Amherst.”

Students who are more inclined towards the sciences will also be able to delve into scientific research projects with a science instructor as a part of their Capstone projects; something that has been going on for a while in the form of for-credit independent studies.

This comes as a welcome change for students who feel as though it is necessary to promote the independent, creative focus that the school prides itself upon.

“I’ve definitely noticed in the past couple of years, a more, almost preppy kind of environment amongst the upperclassmen, not that that’s bad or wrong, but I think hopefully this will help bring back some of the more art-based focus and promote more diverse learning,” Pearce Hyatt, a junior, said.

Students in the junior class are already excited about what they might do for their project-based thesis in the next year.

“I think it’s also interesting that we have a lot of options, like some people are thinking about an album, a painting; a lot of different stuff,” Hyatt said.

The current junior class will be the first test run of this new approach to the senior thesis and Capstone project proposals are already in the works.