Every year, seniors at Vermont Commons School spend their last six weeks of high school exploring a passion or interest of their choice. This usually involves doing an internship with an adult mentor in the community. At the end of the internship, each student makes a presentation about his/her Senior Project to the entire VCS community. Below are descriptions of the senior projects for the Shelburne students in the VCS Class of 2010 written in their own words.

 

Eric Fournier - Music Production Internship
It is my intention for my senior project to explore the topic of music from a few different perspectives. My plan is to combine a working internship with creating a series of recordings that are of deep personal importance to me. The main portion of my time each week will be spent working as an intern with a local record label called Cumbancha, based out of Charlotte. Cumbancha was founded by the music producer and ethnomusicologist Jacob Edgar who, prior to running Cumbancha, was the head of music research and product development at the famed independent record label Putumayo World Music. He created Cumbancha to give artists from around the world a chance to record full albums, rather than only the singles that Putumayo was releasing. The label represents a number of artists from the world music genre and their office is adjacent to a full recording studio facility. Although the tasks that I will get to perform during my internship likely involve more Web site updating and handing out flyers, I will nonetheless be exposed to the music industry in a way that I never have before. Therefore this experience will undoubtedly be invaluable to my understanding of the recording process and the music business.

 

Eric will be attending Bishop's University in Quebec in the fall.

 

 

Andrew Jaffe - Web site Interfaces Internship
The goal for my senior project is to get experience at a local business in the technology field. Additionally I hope to in some way help them by completing a project for them in my time there. I currently plan on doing this through working with the Blue House Group in Richmond, Vt. I will be investigating different online mapping interfaces that could be built into a Webs ite and determining the pros and cons of each one as well as the compatibility with different sites. I will then report my findings to Blue House Group.

 

Andrew will be attending Rochester Institute of Technology in New York in the fall.

 

 

Grey Switzer - Physical Fitness Internship
The purpose of my senior sroject is to learn how to teach other people, preferably middle to high school students, about the importance of being active and in shape. I hope while working with a personal trainer I will obtain the skills he has, to be able to teach others how to do the same thing. I want to be able to learn more of how to use the equipment in a gym to the benefit of my physical well being. By the time I go to college I hope to be able to go to a gym and be able to share my routine with others to help them prepare for upcoming sports seasons. Someday I might want to pursue being an athletic coach and part time teacher at an environmentally friendly school like Vermont Commons.

 

Grey will be attending Paul Smith's College in New York in the fall.