Welcome to our Summer Series here on Down Home! We hope that you are enjoying some downtime wherever you are. Today we commence our Senior Project Spotlight with projects from three of our Seniors – Annette Bradley, Rilynn Thille, and Georgia Bischoff.
First, we have an introduction from our SLOCA High School English teacher, Paul McCullough.
This spring 18 of our seniors have completed capstone Senior Projects and delivered professional presentations summarizing their work. Video recordings of all our senior presentations are available online for the extended SLOCA community to explore and enjoy. Welcome to the conversation, seniors!
As you watch their videos, feel free to post encouraging comments and questions to keep the conversation going.
Here are just a few titles that hint at the range of our seniors’ erudition across the various liberal arts and sciences:
–Propaganda: The Master Manipulator
–de gustibus: Roman Recipes Reimagined for the Modern Age
–Creating a Social Marketing Plan for “Scary” Dogs
–Love Your Mother: Where the Current Climate Crisis is Headed and How Regenerative Organic Agriculture Could Combat Greenhouse Gas Emissions
–laudare te vult homo: Personhood and Praise in the Invocation of Augustine’s Confessions
–Don’t Just Complain: The Scholar to Scholar Program
–Unicorn Man, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Writing
–Form and Function: Making an Adobe Oven
–Understanding Snakes as a Cultural and Mythological Symbol
–The Art of Grief
We, the SLOCA faculty, feel so fortunate to have taught and learned from this group of seniors, some of whom have been with us since kindergarten. And we are doubly honored to share the fruits of their labor with the wider community in a digital format. Enjoy!
If the past has taught us anything, it’s that things change, yet the work of learning and discovery and community continues. It’s a wonderful thing we get to be a part of here at SLOCA, now more than ever.
Annette Bradley: A Dumb Cartoon for Kids
Abstract: Animation, children’s media, and sitcoms all have an unfortunate reputation for being brainless, childish, and generally low budget. Despite these negative preconceptions, my passion for children’s animated television programming led me to take on a massive concept. For my senior project, I spent 9 months planning, researching, writing, and daydreaming in order to create a pitch for an animated sitcom. A TV show pitch can have many forms, but it is commonly a story concept paired with artwork, season/character arcs, and potential episode storylines that are shown to a TV network in hopes that the network will pick up the series. This process of creating a tv show pitch often takes around 2-4 years, but I condensed this process into 9 months. I wanted to create a show that was reminiscent of the material I grew up watching and reading such as Bunnicula, Eerie Indiana, and Over the Garden Wall. I also wanted to challenge the genre of children’s television by creating more nuanced characters and storylines. Through this process, I learned that there are many alternative methods of writing. I have used this experience to better grasp my own writing techniques and work ethic. Although this story is still an ongoing personal project I did manage to complete many pieces of concept art, character designs, a story premise, and an animatic for a potential pilot episode.
To view Annette’s presentation, please click here.
Rilynn Thille: Creating a Social Marketing Plan for “Scary” Dogs
My senior project was a social marketing plan for Woods Humane Society. The marketing plan was focused on getting pit bulls adopted by breaking down the societal bias of them being mean or scary dogs. To show that pit bulls are friendly I worked with the shelter and took pictures of all the pit bulls currently there in pajamas and bandannas to show off their personalities. In order to convince people that pit bulls are just as safe as other dogs I broke down the training that Woods Humane Society does to ensure that they are fit to adopt. I made example posts and an example newsletter for them to share, along with a guide on how to write their posts in a way that would get the most dogs adopted. At the end of the project I turned the marketing plan into Woods Humane Society for them to carry out. My project was designed to benefit pit bulls specifically, but hopefully the shelter can use it for all breeds and get as many dogs adopted as possible.
To view Rilynn’s Senior Project presentation, please click here.
Georgia Bischoff: Bringing Characters to Life, and Then Forgiving Them
My project is a hybrid of sorts, with two main components. The first, writing the script, is what I would call more inside my comfort zone, having done pages upon pages of writing in my high school career. The second, actually producing the play, was more experimental. I have been interested in theater all my life, but given few opportunities to actually participate in it. I wanted to give myself and fellow students an opportunity to be a part of a production. The concept I started with was the idea of forgiveness, and how/if it should be given. My process skated around this concept, and really diverged for a large part of it, but I believe that I have unknowingly found my way back in this last stretch. In finding my cast and handing the characters over to them, they illuminated my work and brought it to a conclusion I never would have considered on my own.
To view Georgia’s presentation, please click here.
Thank you seniors for sharing your projects with us today! Check back next Thursday for more projects from the class of 2022!
