On May 4, every sophomore student at AHS who wanted to receive an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IBMYP) certificate presented their personal project to other students and teachers. The certificate candidates arrived at about 8:30 a.m. to set up their projects in the cafeteria and were all ready by the time FLEX started at 8:52 a.m.

The students were to “create a project that is of interest to them and spend a year developing ideas and evaluating their progress and final product,” said IBMYP coordinator Christy Loop. Each student brought something original and impressive to the table; from Japanese art, to skeletons, to even low-calorie cupcakes, the viewers found it very difficult to be bored during the presentations.

“Besides the enjoyment of doing something you like, it’s great for college applications,” said Loop. “And getting ready for any higher level classes and jobs.” There were about 25 candidates and most of them had a different reason for doing the project in the first place.

“I wanted to challenge myself to do something,” said sophomore Johnny Chung, who made a video about ping pong. “I learned about a lot of things, like how to make a video.” Freshman Joey Rainey said he enjoyed Chung’s presentation the most out of all the others.

Sophomore Tyler Miller had one of the most exclusive projects in the room. He wrote an original song and built his own guitar to play it on. “I wanted to build a guitar and I wanted some school credit for it,” said Miller. Time management skills was the big factor that determined how a student’s project turned out. “We’re very pleased and impressed with these students,” said Loop.

“I started [the project] in the summer and worked on it until April 9, the day it was due,” said sophomore Annette Janwatin, who created 57.3-calorie cupcakes made mostly of zucchini and almond. The hardest part for her was “trying to find the right ingredients and have them work together,” said Janwatin. Her favorite part was “baking the cupcakes for the testers,” who were very pleased with Janwatin’s outcome.

The candidates each received help from their sponsors through the process of creating their projects. “I started meeting with my sponsor in November,” said sophomore Stephenie Kyermeh. Her project was creating a literary blog on the internet called “A Reader’s Paradise” with the goal of encouraging teenagers to read more. “It was a little hard because my sponsor was also the sponsor for the ‘Just World’ event, so she was unavailable sometimes—but she helped so much,” said Kyeremeh.

In some students’ perspective, the project was a very fun opportunity. “Creating my product helped me grow as a writer and it didn’t feel like work because it was something I liked to do,” said sophomore Marissa Shartel.

The personal projects teach the students how to be independent in some way. “I was interested in doing something on my own rather than being assigned,” said sophomore Gabby Taboada. It was “very intense and it required focus and the ability to be honest with themselves,” said Loop.

“If I could have, I would have done the personal project,” said sophomore Lan Nguyen. It’s an extraordinary opportunity to learn something new, do what you love and receive school credit for it in the end.