As the end of this year approaches, students enrolled in the Agricultural Science Academy Program (Ag/Sci) rush to finish an important milestone in their high school career. Senior projects go beyond the classroom by giving students the chance to apply what they have learned to situations or causes they take an interest in.
Laura Barnett, a senior at Tracy High School, was able to bring hundreds of smiles to young children in hospitals through her project.
“I’m proud I was able to help not only the kids, but the environment as well with my project,” Barnett said.
Barnett centered her project around The Crayon Initiative Organization, a non-profit organization that collects and sorts broken crayons, melts them back down, then donates them to children’s hospitals.
As of now, they are partnered with over 240 children’s hospitals around the country. Their main purpose at this
organization is to bring smiles to young patients.
Barnett’s goal was to collect as many crayons as possible for this organization, wanting to make a meaningful impact on her community with the time she had.
Other seniors in the Ag/Sci Program, including Alyssa Cox, reveal that they also recognize the significance of this project.
“I do think that it is more than a project sometimes,” Cox explained. “It always seems to help students become more aware of issues going on in the world.”
Current Ag/Sci Program Director, Stacy Brown, agreed with this statement, while sharing her own opinions on the projects.
“I think the projects affect the students more than the teachers,” Brown claimed.
Knowing the importance of this project, Barnett quickly went into action by collecting crayons from local restaurants and schools.
Barnett gave presentations at Poet Christian and St. Bernards to create awareness of this organization and their purpose.
After hearing about it, young students were excited to know they would be helping bring smiles to the faces of other children.
“At the end of the presentations, I asked the kids if they wanted to help and they all said yes and were very excited to help me,” Barnett said.
Two to three weeks after getting the schools on board, Barnett would come back to find she had collected over 170 pounds of crayons in the span of two months.
A regular crayon weighs about 0.01 pounds, meaning that Barnett was able to collect over 17,000 crayons in total.
Students will present their projects in Jan. of next year and share what they have learned. Younger peers will be able to hear about these seniors’ achievements and be inspired as they progress on their own journeys.
