While most students were enjoying their day off on Monday, many of the sophomores who attend Greeley West presented their MYP Personal Projects.

As a final product of the Middle Years Programme before students turn into full diploma students, students picked a passion of theirs to further explore and tie to a global context/  The projects, which count as part of their English grade, require them to learn a new skill, collect data, or develop a new talent. English teacher Ms. Elizabeth Dent said, “The goal of the projects are for the students to learn about themselves while learning something new.”

Serena Phillips, Amya Goodman, Khu Khu Hser and Tanian Schuttler are a few of the many students who presented their personal projects on Monday night.

Phillips project was on getting her black belt in karate. She explained, ” I wanted to do my project on this because it’s not only something I am passionate about, but also it helped me get through hard times as well,” Phillips said.

The message Phillips is trying to convey is that hard work pays off. Phillips learned many things through her passion project. She stated, “I learned many life lessons. I also learned so much about myself -especially communication.”

While Phillips was helping herself, Goodman was helping others. She started a non-profit organization to help provide basic hygiene for the students at West. Goodman’s idea came from an incident she witnessed last year. “I saw a girl washing her hair in the sink and decided something needed to be done about it,” Goodman said.

Her message was simple. “We all need to care about one another at this school. Even if it is as simple as giving someone shampoo. Then that way they don’t need to worry about their hygiene and they can focus on school,” Goodman said.

Something she learned was how hard it is to communicate. ” I know what I want to do and say in my head, but when I say it, it doesn’t come out right,” explained Goodman.

Hser’s project focused on sharing her culture with the West community. Hser stated, “My culture and language of Karin is very obscure. That’s why I chose it: I wanted to expose it to West. There is so much culture at West but it is quiet.”

Hser plans to put posters around the school in her language. She hopes so spread positively, all the words and phrases she choose in Karin are all positive like the word “love.” She hopes everyone will be able to pronounce the words, and they will be able to say them for fun.

Schuttler’s project went in an even different direction.  It was about how music affects the brain, specifically kids with autism. Schuttler explained, “One day, I was watching a TV show and this guy was singing and playing the piano so amazing. It turns out he had autism. That was so inspiring to me.”