This year’s  freshmen have a new graduation requirement. The Capstone Project is a new state requirement that Connecticut students starting in the class of 2023 need to complete for graduation. They will start the project in their junior year.. Students need one credit of demonstration of mastery. 

The project is going to be a research assignment that will end in a presentation. Each student will have the opportunity to choose any topic they would like to research. Principal Hauser explained, “each is going to design and carry out a research project that is of interest to them.” Students have the opportunity to choose what they want to do. Their topic could be anything that interests them; this could be a great help for those who already know what they want to do after high school. Students can choose a topic that connect with their career path. Hauser says students will be able to “guide their own learning” and maybe get ideas for college. 

Mr Steady, who has a large part in organizing the project, explained that the project is supposed to have a LTS component. Steady explained that the school doesn’t have an exact idea of what that will be yet. They hope to limit the number of hours needed for the freshmen because of the project. Nothing has been finalized regarding LTS. 

The freshmen have not received any information for a project that is a requirement to graduate. Kristen Gregory, a freshmen this year, explained, “We have gotten no information on the project, I don’t really know what it is.” They haven’t even gotten handouts. It can be frustrating knowing that their is this big project for them, but have no information. 

The freshmen have not been getting any information for the project right now because the plan for the whole project is not finalized yet. Principal Hauser explained that there’s going to be a one semester class for the credit. The course is still in design; administrators plan on finalizing everything over the summer. The school hopes to give more information to the class of 2023 in the fall. Although this is an important project, students won’t truly start it until their junior year. 

The class component, similar to Freshmen Seminar, would help teach students more skills, as well as provide time to work on the project. Taking the class itself gives comes with a 0.5 credit, and the finished presentation would be another 0.5. The class will teach research and speaking skills to help with this large project. Because the class is not finalized, no one has been chosen to teach the subject just yet. Hauser did explain that any subject teacher could teach this class. Unlike Freshman Seminar the teacher doesn’t need to be from the English department; it could be any of the core subjects.

The capstone project is still in its works, but will be completed for the fall. This project and class will give students an opportunity to do what they want for a project, as long as it interests them. Students will continue to get more information as their junior year approaches