A Look into Personal Projects

In this new addition to The Volt, the Student Media Team contributes articles chosen, researched, and written by PGIA students. This week, we took a deep dive into two exciting projects created by 10th graders, in the fields of health care and marine biology.

By Alexis Harris, Amelie Zucker, and Natasha Webster, Student Media Team

As the culmination of the last year in the Middle Years Program; tenth grade students are tasked with a ‘Personal Project’. This project is a year-long initiative of a student’s choice, allowing students to work toward a learning goal, create a product, and document their learning journeys in the form of an analytical essay. This learning opportunity both allows students to prepare for the rigorous Diploma Program and pursue a passion of theirs. In past years, they have written books, created hot sauce brands, coded apps, developed sustainable housing models, and much more. 

This year, we had the opportunity to learn more about these projects with two 10th graders: Ellis Wisehart and Zia Zucker. 

Ellis’s project was a website exploring first aid in the Virgin Islands and potential healthcare careers for high school students. She shared how this project was born from a need she saw in the community, with unfilled healthcare positions and a desire from students to go into medicine, but not enough help to bridge the gap. Thus, she sees information as the best way to assist. 

Ellis also talked to us about the struggles in developing her project. She referenced how “learning how to build a website was difficult”, but that she now knows how. She also had to vastly “grow her research skills”, which is something that she knows will serve her well in the DP.

Zia’s project was a marine data table, where she consistently tracked the ecosystem of a local bay for three months. Her intention was to provide information for the University of the Virgin Islands and provide information for conservation efforts. She “measured the necessary factors for a healthy environment, and tracked salinity, temperature, and pH over the period of time, including the time with the most boat traffic”. She too was inspired by a need she saw in the community; the effects of climate change.

When asked about difficulties, her answer was “consistency” in tracking the data, but that she’s “proud that [she] monitored the data, and stuck to [her] plan”. 

One thing that both students had in common was their focus on time management, which they both said was an invaluable part of completing the project and was their biggest takeaway from the project. Setting goals and following through was crucial. 

What both projects, and their creators, shared was a sense of accomplishment and pride in their projects. They achieved their goals and learned an incredible amount along the way, and this was invaluable.