Carson High students present senior projects

Like most of her classmates, Jamie Snoddy dreaded the senior project " everything from the research paper to the project to the community presentations.

But after directing "King Midas and the Touch of Gold" for the Wildhorse Children's Theater as part of her project, she changed her mind.

"I had an amazing experience," she said. "It was beautiful. Yeah, you have problems along the way, but you learn to work through them."

Carson High School's seniors presented their projects to about 400 volunteer judges from the community Thursday. Judging continues today.

Snoddy, 18, said it taught her to manage her time and revealed her strengths.

But next year's students may not have the same opportunity. After nine years, the senior project may be discontinued because the coordinator's position was eliminated recently due to budget cuts.

As the language arts department secretary, Darlene Nevin has coordinated the project with students, teachers and community members. She was notified about two weeks ago that the position was eliminated.

"It's hard," she said. "When you have something this fabulous that is truly a good educational experience, why would you eliminate it? If it made sense, it would be easier to swallow."

Although the district didn't necessarily cut the program, English teacher Cheryl Macy said Nevin dedicated more than full-time hours to the effort.

"There's really no one else who has the time to pick up the duties," she said.

Projects range from students researching personal interests and careers, like learning to play the piano or shadowing a surgeon, to organizing fundraisers and community events.

Jennifer Dalton said one of her English students, who was married and had a baby, chose welding as his senior project. He studied and received certificates in welding from Western Nevada College.

"This gave him the opportunity to really turn his life into something positive," she said. "Now he's going to be a successful husband and father."

It was a familiar story for senior Jenny Castillo, 18. She gave birth in January, and at the same time her mentor for her art project backed out.

Scrambling, she found a new mentor who encouraged her to branch out from her original idea to create a ceramic tea set to expressing herself through painting.

Castillo ended up with three paintings, two that expressed negative emotion and one that represented positive feelings " a painting of her infant son's hand.

"I learned a lot," she said. "I'm going to be there for my baby and lead him down the right path so he doesn't have to struggle like I did."

Robert Priest, a retired University of Southern California psychology professor, has volunteered as a judge for the last three years.

"It's a good way of getting in and seeing what's happening with the young people in our community," he said. "By having people in the community act as judges, it changes the role of the teacher. The teacher becomes more of the coach."

He hadn't heard that this may be the last year.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "I think that would be very sad."