A recent exposition of Williston Scholars projects revealed not only a wide range of topics, but an impressive depth of investigation. From a special type of polynomial, to the French New Wave movement in cinema, to the launch of a weather balloon that rose to 95,000 feet and swelled to four times its original girth before bursting, students followed their passions to create original research—bringing audience members a new perspective on the world around us.
“The faculty guided students as they worked on their projects, but they were driven to create meaningful work on their own terms,” said Chris Pelliccia, Williston Scholars Coordinator and the guiding teacher for Scholars Science. “I was amazed to see how their understanding of their complex projects grew throughout the trimester. This was most apparent during the presentations by how fluidly and confidently they spoke about their work.”
The student projects:
English
Kira Bixby – HABIT
Jamie Gallea – Overflow
Claire Harrison – Untitled Fiction Project
Annika Johnson – Myself Help Book
James Lustig – Reclamation Dreams
DJ Poulin – Untitled Fiction Project
History
Nick Barber – JFK, Clinton and the Political Impact of Extra-Marital Affairs
Chris Denham – The Rise and Fall of Pablo Escobar
Ryan Fitzpatrick – The Unknown History of Lacrosse
Dora Gordon – The Mysterious Case of Kiryas Joel
Robby Hill – Felon Disenfranchisement in Alabama
Simon Kim – The Lisbon Earthquake and the Birth of Romanticism
Glede Wang – The Surprising Impact of China’s One-Child Policy
Emily Warren – Soviet Spies in the Cold War and Today
James White – Jesse James and the Myth of the American West
Language
Brandon Chin – A Wall That Stands Above All (Spanish)
Chelsea Clark – The Argentine Jewish Community vs. Anti-Semitism (Spanish)
Ryan Dwyer – The Circus Maximus: The Heart of an Empire (Latin)
Sophie Little – French New Wave Cinema (French)
Math
Ethan Bradway – Space Invaders, Reinvented: Creating My Own Video Game
Kohmei Kadoya, Peter Seo, and Jack Long – A Robotic Arm and Hand with an Intuitive Control Method
Steven Wang – A Special Kind of Polynomial: Using Group Theory to Characterize FSP Polynomials
Performing Arts
Maddie Elsea – Eurydice, by Sarah Ruhl
Reagan Joyce – Lay Your Head Down
Trang Phan – 200 or 100 Pounds
Caleb Stern –True West, by Sam Shephard
Margaret Strange – Production and Stage Manager for Eurydice and True West
Science
Trevor Corsello – Reaching the Edge of Space: A High-Altitude Balloon Launch
Abby Dennin – Building and Coding Movement for a Quadruped Robot
Karen Janocha – Nature and Nurture: Changing the Discussion Around Adolescent Depression
Mac Kongsomjit – Hacking the Force Trainer: Tapping into Human Electrical Impulses
Drew Manory – Designing and Building an Exoskeleton Arm on a Budget
Visual Arts
Abood Abiussa – Visual Opposites; Exploring the Positive and Negative in Drawing
Charlie Blumberg – Investigation of Holography
Katie Han – W Magazine
Ty Johnson – Learning to Animate
Catherine King – Fashion
Minh Le – Isolation
Keyu Lu – All Art is Propaganda: Exploring the Sociological Value of Graffiti Art in Post Colonialism
Aidan McCreary – Under Pressure: Water Barometer
Quincy Sandbank – Sawyer Sauce: A Movie About a Boy and His Dorm
Amanda Shen – Homeostasis
Trix Willems – Postcards of People and Places