'I can't speak in front of people for eight minutes!'

Carson High School senior Tawheeda Wahabzada is collecting donations of school supplies to send to Afghanistan for her senior project. She chose the project because she wanted to do something to help the children of the country from which her parents emigrated in 1982, during the Russian phase of that country's long war. I know about Tawheeda's project because I have the honor of being her senior project mentor. Together, we found an organization in Portland, Ore., that delivers school supplies to a school in rural Afghanistan, checked with the Oregon Secretary of State to make sure the organization is legitimate, and discussed ways to raise support locally and send the materials to Portland for shipment to Afghanistan.

There's some debate on the value of senior projects. I remember a conversation I had with a friend when her daughter was completing her senior project a few years ago. With all the college applications, advanced placement tests, sports, music, and other activities, she said she doesn't have time to do one more thing! What good is a senior project anyway?

I thought about that conversation the following year when my son completed his own senior project - writing, playing all the instruments for, and recording a heavy metal song. (Impressive amount of work, said one of the members of his panel, but couldn't the music be a bit more melodic?) I realized then that senior projects had always made sense to me.

Why? Carson High School seniors are learning to do what I do all the time in my job as a project manager in a civil engineering firm. I am assigned a new project, I gather together materials, figure out what specialists I need to bring on board - a traffic engineer? A biologist? Then I carry out the project, write it up afterwards and present it. Exactly what Carson High seniors do in their senior projects. I remember the first few weeks of my first professional job, sitting at my desk practically paralyzed because I didn't know how to get started. Carson High seniors, having completed a senior project, will be a step ahead of me.

Carson High has been requiring projects of graduating seniors since 1998. In that year, only advanced placement students were required to complete the project, but soon after the project became a requirement for most students and, in 2001, special education students were also included. I asked Jason Macy, senior English teacher in charge of senior projects, and Cheryl Macy, head of Carson High's Language Arts Department why the school had decided to require senior projects. Jason told me a primary reason was because they realized that it had been possible for a student to get out of high school never having written a research paper to an acceptable standard. Now, writing a research paper is a required part of the senior project. Cheryl said another goal of the senior project is to make sure that every student has made a speech to a group of strangers in a formal setting. She told me of a recent conversation with a local businessman, who reported that his son, a CHS graduate now studying business, had said, "I can't believe how much easier it is to become a businessman having given a speech like that."

Cheryl said the projects challenge kids in other ways. They learn how to plan and manage their time, and how to deal with unexpected problems. It's also an opportunity to decide on their own what's important to them. "It puts their education back in their own hands," she said. "And they learn that they can do things they never thought they could do."

"What don't they think they can do?" I asked.

"The speech," said Cheryl. "This is what I hear every year: 'I can't speak in front of people for eight minutes!'"

I asked Cheryl and Jason to tell me about memorable senior projects. Jason recalled the kid who wanted to do a project in computer graphics, e-mailed the New Zealand team who did computer animation for Lord of the Rings, and ended up with them as his senior project mentors. Cheryl talked about a student who came into his senior year with a fiercely negative attitude, discovered an interest in Egyptology, and mummified a cat for his project. Jason said this year lots of kids are doing political projects: Young Democrats, Young Republicans, Rock the Vote. One girl helped run the local campaign office of Barack Obama. Cheryl mentioned a student who's getting his hot air balloon license and another who's job shadowing in the obstetrics department at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center. She reported to Cheryl after her first day. "How did it go?" Cheryl asked.

"Well, I passed out twice and I threw up twice. It was amazing!"

Cheryl, Jason and I agreed that another valuable part of the senior project is that it gets high school seniors interacting with the community in a positive way. Every student is required to have a senior project mentor, and all students are required to present their projects to a panel of community members. This is the first year I've been a mentor, but I've served on senior project panels for two years and always found it inspiring. It's virtually a coming-of-age ritual: The kids are dressed their best, very nervous, and they all, after a few seconds, warm up to their topics and give creditable speeches. I don't want to sound too sentimental, but you can almost see them becoming adults right before your eyes.

Between project mentors and panelists, over the past 10 years thousands of community members have taken part in senior projects at Carson High School. The students choose their own mentors, but if you are interested in serving on a senior project panel, contact Darlene Nevin, Carson High Language Arts Department Secretary at 283-1945 or dnevin@carson.k12.nv.us.

• Fresh Ideas: Starting conversations by sharing personal perspectives on timely and timeless issues. Anne Macquarie, a private-sector urban planner, is a 19-year resident of Carson City.