Prior to the presentations of the sophomore projects earlier this month, there were lots of sleepless nights full of coffee and cramming to finish the project. Although these presentations were a bit stressful, they were extremely enjoyable to watch and provided diverse, interesting information for everyone in the audience.

The projects varied in topics. Emma’s favorite sophomore presentation was Dylan’s musical project. Dylan went a different route than most and created his own music about Latin American jazz. Sophie’s favorite presentation was Max’s. Max did an interesting project about the the Dalai Lama and its effects. Lilly thought by far the best presentation was Sallie’s. Sallie explained the Amanda Knox case and how she was wrongly accused for a murder that she never committed. With every gruesome, suspenseful detail, Sallie managed to get the audience at the edge of their seats in only three minutes. The last person I interviewed was Cooper. Her favorite presentation was Sam’s presentation. Sam explained how the Japanese people’s stress are causing deaths all throughout Japan.

The sophomores had to explain to the audience their global topic. A portion of the sophomores created a project to do so.

For example, Lily Maple painted 3 portraits that express her emotional state of mind and how she has transformed throughout the years. Lily’s self-portrait was inspired by the painter, Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo was famous for her personal symbolism in her self portraits therefore Lily’s portrait contain meaningful symbolism throughout the exquisite painting. The first noticeable part of the painting is the bird in the left hand corner of the painting. The bird symbolizes Lily’s growth over the past few years. The next symbolic thing in the painting is the background of the portrait. In the back of the painting, there are black train tracks that symbolize Lily’s hometown in New Jersey.