Being four years since Senior Projects were discontinued, seniors are back to making a difference in our community. With the new UW English 131 class being put into place, these students are focused on Passion Projects. Passion Projects are researched subjects that students use to positively impact the community and world around them. Passion Projects are similar to Senior Projects, “Both are by choice, both have an end product, however, the passion project process involves in-depth research synthesising varied points of view, creating an argument accounting for the stakes of their mission, and implementing it in various stages using the appropriate rhetoric and tone for varied situations, audiences, and purposes.” stated the professor for this class, Karen Kennedy. She advocated for this curriculum because she “Wanted to create an assignment sequence that would allow students to meet all of four of the required UWHS Outcomes in a way that was meaningful to each person individually.”

This class has about 60 enrolled students, all making a difference. When asked which project had affected her most, Kennedy shared “Honestly I can’t say. Because each person cares so much about their goal for change, I too care about that outcome. What has impacted me the most is the quality of work each student has produced and the things they are doing to make a difference in the world.” These students are raising awareness for many different issues such as human trafficking, diabetes, and even the effects of doing Passion Projects. Their impacts in this community at high school age show just how amazing their impacts in the future will be.