Since 2021, all sophomores have been a part of the International Baccalaureate’s personal projects. These projects are based on the student’s interest. Students can choose how they want to present their project. They have to make a presentation and present it to their supervisors, which they will grade. The grade they get will be 10% of their English class, and all projects are due March 22 and will be presented on March 27th. 

During the times students are working on their projects, they will have to document their work in a personal project journal. They update these journals periodically, about every week.  

In their journals it must be detailed in everything they do with their personal projects, in the journal it should give detail about how they started their projects, if they make mistakes or if they want to change something, and how they are going to present it. It must also include one of the five ATL’s. 

Jarran Molina is one of the sophomores at West doing the personal projects. “I’m learning to play the electric guitar. I had no knowledge on the electric guitar before starting the project. I think past experiences from other instruments prepared me for what it would be like,” Molina said.

Molina is a student who goes out of his comfort zone and does something a little different but also something he finds interesting. “The electric guitar striked my interest when I was listening to one of my favorite songs,” Molina said. “The idea of learning how to play the electric guitar just came to my mind and I knew that’s what I wanted my personal project to be about.”

For his project, Molina is also writing.  “I’ve decided I want to write an essay about the journey it takes to learn to play the guitar like a step by step tutorial.”

Sophomore Leah Sanchez is also working on her personal project. “For my personal project, I decided I was going to create my own T-shirt. I have always had the thought of creating my own clothes brand in the future and decided it would be the best idea to try and see my creative thoughts through this and see if I would like to pursue this in the future,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez is using her personal project to aspire to her future goals to become a fashion designer. “In my project I have created a draft and what I am gonna have on the front of the shirt. I am currently still creating the big design for the back, then I am going to turn it into digital art to apply on a t- shirt.” Sanchez said. “For my presentation i plan on wearing the shirt to show my finished product”