Hey guys,

I have been down here for two nights and it has been wonderful. The weather has been unbelievable compared  to back home, it is about 70 degrees everyday. Today it did rain for the part of the day, but we still had a pretty good time. The house I am staying in is really wonderful, it is right on the beach and very comfy. It is literaly eight steps from the ocean and you can hear the waves crashing from everywhere in the house, it is really almost like a dream. Woody’s grandparents are very nice and could not be more generous.

We started our work today at the house by painting an addition that they just added on. We did that for the majority of the day and it was a really fun time working with my friends and getting the job part way finished. After painting we went into town and played some pickup basketball with a few of the locals. It was really fun to play around with them and meet some people from the town. Tomorrow is our first day working at the school, I do not really know what to expect other than playing sports with all the kids.  Other than that I do not know what the school is going to have us do, but whatever they have us do, I am looking forward to it very much.

Other than that not too much has been going on and I write another post soon….

talk to all of you then!

Jon Schauer

Hello! مرحبا! שלום!

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Laura, and I’m a senior from Maryland.

My upcoming senior project trip to the Holy Land–Jerusalem, Israel, and Palestine–will be my third time leaving the country. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this trip. Twelve hours from now, I’ll be in the Philadelphia airport, getting ready to board the plane for a 12-hour flight to Tel Aviv. Just thinking about makes me giddy.

My reasons for choosing this particular project can be summed up in one word: exploration. Exploration of new cultures and new people. I am a deeply curious person by nature, and I continually strive to learn everything I can about the world around me. And what better way to learn than firsthand experience? Being a kinesthetic learner as well as natural-born skeptic (I blame my family for the latter), it’s never been enough for me to be merely told about something or to have something demonstrated for me. I have to find out for myself before my curiosity can be truly sated.

But for me, this trip isn’t just about outer exploration. It’s also about inner exploration. I would not call myself a religious person–spiritual is more accurate a term. My mother’s family is Protestant Christian, and my father’s is Jewish. I was not raised to believe in any particular religion or creed, and I had a largely secular upbringing. Yet I’ve always felt a pull towards Judaism–its culture, its practices, its origins. Perhaps this is has something to do with my family’s annual celebrations of Passover. It was the closest I ever got to religious practice as a child, and I loved it. The colorful story of Moses’ exploits in Egypt, the mesmerizing lilt of the Hebrew prayers, and the age-old rituals all spoke to me in a way that any other religion never could.

And so I’ve grown up that way, identifying culturally, though not religiously, with Judaism. For some reason, it always felt closer to me than Christianity, despite the fact that both religions represent equal parts of my lineage. I can’t really explain this, and in any case, this is not the venue in which to do so. Either way, here I am, about to go to the place where both creeds were born. Last spring, seated around the dinner table with my family as we read aloud from the Haggadah–“Next year in Jerusalem!”–it never would’ve occurred to me that next year I would, indeed, be traveling to the Holy Land.

Despite all this, though, I am trying to keep my expectations for the trip as open as possible. There is a rather common phenomenon called “Jerusalem Syndrome,” which is what happens when a person goes to Jerusalem with lofty expectations of what it will be like–they’ll find God, they’ll be reawakened, they’ll find their spiritual calling in life, or something–and finds themselves leaving disappointed and disillusioned. It’s easy to think of the Holy Land as being something akin to a spiritual Disney World, but the truth is far more complex. I hope to avoid Jerusalem Syndrome by keeping my mind and my eyes open at all times.

I’ll document here what I see, hear, taste, feel, and learn, and hopefully try to make sense of it along the way. I originally hoped to post a few photos along with my blog entries, but I doubt that’ll be possible. Rest assured, though, that I will post photos–and lots of them–once I return on March 9th.

You blog readers are lucky, because for this particular trip, you get not just one, but two different reports–from me, and from Ben, whose first entry is posted below.

Well, I’ve got to go start packing. Thanks for reading! Talk to you soon!

Peace,

Laura

Greetings all!  My name is Benjamin, a Westtown senior from Massachusetts.  For my senior project trip, I am headed off to Israel, Palestine, and Jerusalem.  With me will be going 16 (!) of my fellow students and four faculty/adult chaperones.  I cannot even begin to express how excited I am that this trip is going, and how much gratitude I have for those who worked tirelessly to make it a possibility.  Let me just say thank you now.

So, why, out of the hundreds of possible things I could be doing with my senior project time, did I choose this particular project?  The reason is both quite simple, and of course, more complex.  The simple reason is this:  I feel that this trip will effectively bring my time at Westtown together as I seek closure as I prepare to graduate.  So what does that mean?  First off, I have taken several classes relevant to what I will be doing and…    Wait.  I have yet to really share what I am doing there, haven’t I.

The trip will visit many different locations within Israel and Palestine, and some time in Jerusalem as well.  I won’t give away all of the details here, but a basic overview includes spending several days at the Ramallah Friends School (a sister school to Westtown in the West Bank which has been sending an exchange student every year to Westtown for a while now), swimming in the Dead Sea, climbing the fortress at Masada, visiting a Palestinian Refugee Camp and an Israeli settlement, meeting and speaking with various religious leaders, and, of course, having a general good time.  You will, of course, get all of the details as I go.

Now.  As I was saying.  In many of my classes I have studied material relevant to the conflict that has been troubling the region for over 60 years now, and the various people who call the land their home.  My goal in regards to this, then, is to go in and tie everything I have learned (in history classes, religion classes, etc.) together and come away with a more complete and true picture of exactly what is happening in that part of the world.

On a more spiritual level, I see spirituality as the connection that two completely different people are able to make meeting for the first time (and every time after that).  I am hoping that this trip will expose me to a vast array of people, worlds apart from myself, with whom I will be able to connect and learn from.  Also, I hope to be challenged on as many levels as possible, and this trip seemed the one to do it.  Challenged on an intellectual level, with all the many things I will be learning; challenged on an emotional level, with some of the sights we might see (especially in the refugee camp); and of course, as I just mentioned, a spiritual level as well.

Well, that is all I shall say for now.  I will try to write as often as I can, although I cannot guarantee I can get to a computer every day (my trip leaders have said every other, but we shall see on that).  Any feedback you would like to offer would be more than welcome, and I will try (emphasis on the try part) to get back to people/answer any questions people might have (that might happen post-fact, though).

Hey! My name is Jhewel  and for my senior project I am going to my second home, the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Though I was born in America, I lived in Trinidad for much of my childhood and, after moving back to New York, I have visited the country at least once a year. I have often considered moving back to the country after I finish college and starting my professional life there, and  it was this thought that guided my senior project planning. I am going to be “shadowing” a lady who works as both a midwife and a obstetrician/gynecologist for two weeks, from February 22 to March 5. I find obstetrics very interesting and wanted to study how doctors practice this form of medicine in the country that I hope to one day call my home again.

My project is composed of two main parts: the observation of how both of these professionals conduct their work and also an interview with them asking personal and professional question. I wanted to get an objective view by merely observing what they do on a daily basis, and then using the interview to delve below the surface and find out a more personal view of this occupation. So for the two weeks, from 9 am until about 3 or 4 pm,  I will be following the doctor to her office at the local hospital, and observing while she works. Currently, we have planned out two evening visits where I will be conducting my interviewing, because the doctor made it very clear that she probably will not be able to talk with me much if she has a full day of appointments.

I must admit that there is much that excites me about this project, and I cannot wait to begin. I was very happy to learn that my sponsor has experience with being both a midwife and a professional OB/GYN because I would like to know all about the similarities and differences that exist between these two medical practices. I am also extremely eager to get to my project because I will, hopefully, be able to witness my very first live birth. In New York State, there are very strict rules concerning who is allowed to be in the delivery room, especially if you are under the age of 18. The rules are a lot less strict in Trinidad, and I am hoping to be able to finally view a live birth. I just hope that I am able to stomach all that I see, and I must say this is my biggest fear. I would hate to think that, after all this I am saying about how much I want to see this birth, I am unable to watch the entire thing because of personal issues.

Another issue of mine, that is completely unrelated to my project, is that I was unable to be present at the biggest nonreligious holiday in the country, Carnival. Nicknamed the world’s greatest show, this year’s carnival fell from February 13 through February 16. I will be arrving just intime to see all of the glitter and dust being swept off the streets, but I am not complaining too much for this is the first canrival I have ever missed, and my excitement over my project quickly overtook any dissappointment I may have felt about missing this event.

All of that aside, however, I am anxious to get to Trinidad and embark upon my senior project journey. It is exciting to know that you, as readers of this blog, will be there with me every step of the way and I would like to thank you for allowing me to share this part of my life adventure with you! Hope we both enjoy my project! =)

Hi, I’m Madison! For my Senior Project I will be spending two weeks in Chile from February 20th to March 6th. Four of my friends and I will be staying in Santiago, the capital of the country. We will take Spanish classes at a facility that offers Spanish lessons through a language program with stations in many Spanish-speaking countries all over the world. In addition to the classes, we also elected to take salsa lessons as part of our program. The language classes are four hours a day, followed by salsa instruction. It seems that even outside of the country, we still find our way into a classroom.

After class, we will be exploring Santiago and neighboring parts of Chile. In an attempt to experience a true Chilean cultural immersion, we will visit historical museums and art galleries, as well as markets, hot springs, restaurants, and everything in between. We are traveling to the beautiful beaches of San Antonio for a weekend, taking full advantage of our host family’s vacation house. We also hope to see Valparaiso, if only for the day. I know for certain that we will discover how much better Chilean Sea Bass tastes in Chile.

I have not yet had the realization that this trip is actually happening. Because we started planning in October, the whole Senior Project idea simply seems like a distant dream. We have been counting down to the 20^th since November. I am elated to have the opportunity to pursue my interest in foreign cultures with my friends. For the first time, my friends and I will have independence unparalleled to that of most high school seniors. It will be the perfect time to demonstrate the responsibility, consciousness, and intelligence that we have cultivated over the past four years.

While I am extremely excited for the trip, I am also a little anxious. My primary concern is the flight. While all worthwhile things take a journey to reach, over 10 hours seems a bit extreme. Yes, I am aware that this concern is incredibly trivial. My not-so-trivial apprehension revolves around my ability to communicate accurately. I have always tried desperately to avoid embarrassment, so naturally I am afraid of using my atrociously accented Spanish. I hope to progress from this fear in order to both humble myself and expand my knowledge. Practice makes perfect?

Ciao!

Madison =]

Hey everyone! My name is Alex and I am a senior at Westtown. For my senior project, I am going to be working with the Admissions Office here at Westtown and with the artistic support of T. Tim Loose to create a poster entitled “The Windows of Westtown” (a take on the Doors of Dublin) that Admissions can use to advertise Westtown to prospective students and their families. I am so excited to take a break from school work and be able to focus completely on my photography and graphic design!

I will be using the skills I learned in graphic design courses to design the layout of the poster using Adobe Illustrator. This is where I will create the layout, the type, and arrange the photos to create the finished product. I will be traveling all around campus for this project, and I am excited to photograph our gorgeous campus and buildings. The focus of the poster will be the windows of the buildings, but I also plan on accompanying these photographs with other aspects of our school.

For the technical details, I use a Nikon D60 DSLR camera with an 18mm-55mm lens, a 55mm-200mm lens, and a special 85mm portrait lens, as well as a flash and a bunch of different filters. I plan on using all of these lenses for this project so that I can make the school look beautiful on the poster. I will make sure to keep you all updated with some of the fruits of my labor as I work on my project, and I will hopefully be able to present the poster when we all come back after Spring Break.

I’m so excited to get started, only two more days until senior projects begin! I’ll update you all once I start my project.

-Alex

Hey everybody,

My name is Jon  and I am a senior at Westtown School. I leave for the Bahamas on Saturday, February 20th,and I am ecstatic. I will be staying in Elbow Cay on a very small island with fellow senior Woody’s grandparents. They live down there full time and have been nice enough to let me join Woody and stay at their house. I am very excited to get there and start my project. Especially with all of the snow that we have gotten here recently, the beach sounds great now!

I am going on this trip with Woody  and Matt, also seniors,  and they are both good friends of mine. We will be working on an addition that Woody’s grandparents have just added on. From what I understand it still needs to be painted and some other little things need to be done, so that will be part of our project while we are there. We will also be working at the local school doing things like playing with them during their P.E. classes and after school activities. I will be playing soccer with them most of the time since that is one of my passions and from what I hear, the kids in the Bahamas love to play as well. I do not know all of the details of what I will be doing, but that is the main part of my project and it seems like it will be a blast.

I cannot wait to leave, I wish we were on the plane right now! But I will update everyone once I land and have settled down. Talk to all of you then!!

Hi! My name is Mary Kate, and I’m 18 years old. As you know, I’m about to go on my Senior Project and I’ll be keeping you updated on my progress, but first I should let you know where I’m going and what I’ll be doing there. Claire, a fellow senior, and I will be travelling to the Florida Keys to volunteer at the Dolphin Research Center, which is about 30 minutes away from Key West, in Marathon. We’ll be working there, 9am-5pm, for two weeks, starting Monday, Feb 22nd and ending Friday, March 5th. We will stay with my grandmother, who has a condo in Marathon.

Over Winter Break my family actually spent a week in Marathon for Christmas. While we were there we participated in the interactive “Dolphin Encounter” that the DRC offers, and we swam with the dolphins there! It was so much fun and I even met with Becky, the Director of Volunteer Resources. I spoke with her for a while and got a good sense of what Claire and I would be doing every day. We’ll start off every morning by cleaning off the submerged platforms that visitors stand on to interact with the dolphins. We will actually be the first people the dolphins see every morning, and as Becky put it, “if you don’t say hi and play with them a little, you’ll be in trouble!” (I don’t think playing with the dolphins will be very difficult!) But after that, it’s on to the fish house, where we’ll prepare the dolphins’ meals and feed them their breakfast. Some of the dolphins need extra hydration, we will be helping the trainers give them water. After the dolphins have all been fed, we move on to grounds keeping. Since the DRC welcomes hundreds of visitors each day, the grounds must be kept clean, and it’s up to the volunteers to make sure that happens. We’ll pick up any trash and sweep off the walkways, etc. Then we go to the DRC’s tropical bird house, where we will feed them as well.

Those are our basic daily chores. After they are finished, we report to Becky and she’ll direct us where we are needed, whether that be assisting the trainers with the Dolphin Encounters, working in the gift shop, or preparing educational brochures and leading visitor orientation sessions. My hope for this project is that I do something a lot different from things I’ve done in the past as far as experiences. Yes, I have been swimming with the dolphins before, but as far as work experience and skill application, I have only held the straightforward jobs of field hockey referee and lifeguard; they are seasonal and only require a specific set of skills. At the DRC I will be doing all kinds of work; as I mentioned before, not only will I be working with the animals but also with the landscaping and grounds keeping aspects, administrative tasks, and educational work as well. My only real fear is that I might not get everything done that is asked of me. I can see myself getting distracted by the animals that I will be working with, but hopefully not to the point where I neglect my other duties. Overall it should be a lot of hard work, but coupled with great rewards.

Thanks for reading!   –Mary Kate

P.S.  More information about the DRC and their dolphin pod can be found on their website, http://www.dolphins.org  =]

Hello everyone!

I’ll start off by introducing myself. My name is Mike, and I am currently a senior at Westtown School. This is my seventh year at Westtown, and I’ll be honest, I’ve been looking forward to the Senior Project experience throughout the entirety of my years as a high-schooler and middle-schooler here. Although my academic interests have changed vastly over the course of my Westtown career, I have always been certain that I wanted to center my Senior Project around my greatest passion: Music.

My Senior Project will be taking place very close to home, in Chester Springs, PA. I will have the pleasure of spending two weeks working as an intern at John Diliberto’s studio, where he records, produces, and assembles his radio show entitled “Echoes”. This radio show features a variety of soothing sounds ranging anywhere from chimey singer-songwriter acoustic melodies and harmonies to ethereal and hypnotizing ambient soundscapes. If you’re interested in hearing some of this refreshingly unique and peaceful music, his show airs on 88.5 WXPN every night at eleven o’clock PM. During my time in the studio, the work I will carry out will vary from office-type jobs, such as CD-burning and music library organization, to more hands-on work, like setting up microphones and aiding sound technicians in the actual recording process. I have recently been told by Mr. Diliberto that I may also have the opportunity to help out at one of the Echoes trademark events, a live Living Room Performance.

What I hope to gain from this project is to become very familiar with the inner workings of the radio industry, and the production and recording processes associated with it. Working in radio is a career choice that I may seriously pursue during and following my years in college. Additionally, I hope that I will begin to build a valuable network among fellow musicians and important figures in the radio industry throughout these next two weeks. The relationships I build among these types of people will serve to be extremely vital over the course of my future musical career.

The only fear I have at this point is possibly getting lost in a territory that is new and unfamiliar. I have had very little experience in the realm of the radio industry, and I could see myself becoming overwhelmed and confused at some points during these next two weeks. Fortunately, I believe that these hiccups will only make my Senior Project experience more valuable. As the reality that is college begins to grow on my horizon, I am slowly realizing that I will at times have to rely only on my self to solve problems that will emerge from independent living. My Senior Project at the Echoes Studios will teach me vital problem-solving techniques that will be important throughout my college years, while simultaneously providing me with a insider’s perspective on a career that I may pursue throughout the rest of my life.

http://www.echoes.org

 

Hello everyone! My name is Effie Zhang and  I am a member of Westtown School Class of 2010!

I cannot believe this is our last week of school before we go on to our senior project. Although I am very excited about my senior project, I have to wait until March 3rd to actually start my trip in Hiroshima, Japan. As most of you know, this past Sunday was the Lunar New Year. Lunar New Year is a huge deal in China and celebration with families goes on for at least two weeks. Luckily this year’s New Year Eve was in mid-Feburary, which means if I take off this Friday I can still be home in time for the second half of the New Year celebration. Finally I decided to enjoy my spring break first and do my senior project later.

Speaking of my own-designed senior project, I cannot find exact words to describe my excitement. I am going to spend four days in Hiroshima, then six days in Tokyo, and finally another three days in my homecity Beijing. I am starting my trip in Hirosima. I will be staying in a Quaker-related familystyle hotel/center called the World Friendship Center. I already booked my room for three nights there. It is now run by an American couple. In Hiroshima I will visit the Peace Park and a junior high school (hopefully). I want to conduct some interviews with local people, attempting to gain a true version of what happend and what are remembered about the Atomic Bombings. In Tokyo, with some of my Japanese friends’ help, I will be visiting several history musems as well as the Tokyo Meeting. I don’t know how much of my plan will actually turn out smoothly, but I am defintely looking forward to my trip to Japan. When I return from Japan, in Beijing I will visit a WWII history museum, and spend the rest of my spring break writing  my research paper on different versions of WWII.

Thanks to T.Susan Rhodewalt, my advisor and my “Hiroshima to 9/11” teacher, who inspired me to come up with this great idea and has helped me planning my trip and make connections in Japan for me. Her husband Scott Rhodewalt has been to Hiroshima and the World Friendship Center for several times. They both have been my resources ans supports duing the past three months when I was planning my senior project. T.Susan has always been telling us in class that history has to be learned from different perspectives. Japanese see themselves victims in WWII because of the Atomic Bombings. Chinese people also see themselves as victims in WWII. Chinese hate Japanese because of their denial of Nanjing Massacre (300,000 killed in 2 weeks), and they don’t show sympathy to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivers at all. Through my trip, I want to fully understand what people really think about WWII history and how much they know about the other side of the story. If possible, I would also like to be a peace promoter, bringing peace to both sides and helping them understand each other. No more Hiroshima. No more Nagasaki. No more Nanjing 1937.

My senior project is going to be challenging since I don’t speak Japanese at all. (Although I just started leaning it!) Yet I feel confident and excited about my trip. I will post my blog entries as often as possible and I hope you will enjoy reading them!

See you in Hiroshima!

Effie