EVANSTON — Evanston High School students presented their senior projects on Thursday, April 13, where they showed the fruits of this year’s hard work. 

Through the past year, some students made huge leaps in self-discovery and growth, not only surprising everyone around them but themselves. Among dozens of major projects, students wrote books, rebuilt engines, intertwined art and music, learned about the Japanese language and culture, created pottery for charity, did student teaching and more. 

EHS Principal Merle Lester said the senior project is transitioning to be more career-oriented, and many students have said they want to go to college to expand on what they did in their senior project. 

Lester himself approved many of the students’ proposal letters to encourage them to take on work that would be meaningful for them and their lives. 

“One of the criticisms that we get at the high school a lot is, we don’t do enough to actually research or actually develop careers,” Lester said. “And I can tell you what, ... if we got rid of the senior project, it would be absolutely devastating to our pursuit of career orientation and career development. It’d be devastating. Because it is truly the truest sense of them being able to do that.”

He said several presentations garnered high praise, including Cortney Stratton’s work with Japanese language, culture and art (which he said Eric Stemle said was the best he’d ever seen and which brought woodshop teacher James Reynolds to tears). Lester also made mention of Devan Deshner’s work in restoring his grandfather’s truck, including building the motor “from the rust up” and Alli Haack’s book. There were dozens of inspiring and unique projects through the day, though.

One of the presentations that hit Lester particularly hard was Matthew Long’s. 

“I am an author,” Matthew Long told his panel after showing them the book he wrote over the year. “... Going back to the beginning of the year, if I would have said to myself in the mirror that ‘you are an author,’ I probably would have slapped myself because I wouldn’t have believed it back then.”

“But now I can say with confidence, I am an author, and that is who I am, and that who I will be,” he finished. 

That admission was a hard-hitting moment for everyone in the room — Long’s mother and the senior project panel alike. 

“That’s why I do this dang job, I tell ya,” Lester said. “I mean, you have a moment like I just had, that’s good ... for another six months.”

Lester, who was on six students’ senior project panels, said the day is one of the most important in the year for him. 

“When I look at a day like today, it’s the most powerful, positive thing that happens with our students in the whole year,” he said, “and yet there are still people that struggle to see the value in the senior project.”

He said the resistance to senior projects may stem from the fact that the senior project is a lot of hard work all year long. 

“It’s hard work, it challenges kids, and some kids choose projects that literally are silly; ... they choose things that are not going to benefit them at all. And we try to work and coach kids through that, but I’ll tell you what, when they hit it like we had kids hit it today, it’s amazing,” he said. 

And at the end of the day, seniors from all over the school felt that moment of accomplishment and joy in a job well done, and many had come closer to their dreams and passion.