By Emma D. Kersting, Summer Intern
On Tuesday, June 13, all graduating New Fairfield High School seniors set up poster boards and presentations in the cafeteria and prepared to share what they learned over the course of their Senior Enrichment Experience (SEE) Projects with the local community.
The SEE Project is a graduation requirement where students work 25 hours a week for four weeks. The projects are typically either an internship/shadowing position with a career the student is interested in, or a project where the student creates something using skills they learned during the four weeks.
The SEE Project program is directed by Andrea Forzaglia, NFHS family and consumer science teacher, who is in her second year of managing the program. Forzaglia believes the SEE project can help students gain skills and serve as a guide as they decide on their college and career paths.
“The reason I ended up taking [SEE] over was because I wanted students to realize that there are things that they can still learn in high school that will help them later in life,” Forzaglia said. “My belief is that the kids don’t have to go to college, they may find something else… and hopefully this will help them figure it out a little more.”
While most students decide that their SEE project will be an internship position to learn more about a career they are interested in, Forzaglia gives students an opportunity to use the SEE project to find new fields that they are interested in and grow a broader set of skills.
“If [the project is] not something you are going to do in college, maybe it’s something you still want to learn and it’s a skill you can use later in life,” Forzaglia said.
One of the SEE projects is to be a SEE coordinator, a position that students can apply for during their sophomore year and work on through their junior and senior year. The SEE coordinators, which are two juniors and two seniors, ensure that the seniors are meeting all of the requirements for their projects.
This year’s senior SEE coordinators, Claire Enerson and Frankie Colao-Pinero, said that they organize the panels where students pitch their projects to be approved, play a part in approving projects, and organize the SEE Fair at the end of the project.
“I think in any career, being able to work with people and have a lot of organization information is important for everyone,” Enerson said.
The SEE coordinators work directly with students participating in the SEE program to ensure their success in completing the graduation requirement.
“I think [SEE Project] is a good experience for seniors to learn responsibility and get an opportunity to explore what they want to do in their field,” Colao-Pinero said.
Senior Alayna Addesso worked at the New Fairfield Middle School’s physical education program as a lifeguard and swim instructor for sixth and seventh grade students for her SEE project. Addesso has been a year-round lifeguard for almost two years and hopes to become a professional lifeguard.
“Wherever I plan on living in the future, I plan on being a full-time lifeguard, doing professional beach lifeguarding,” Addesso said. “[There is another] couple years of training for that… this is definitely something I have a strong passion for that I do want to do for the rest of my life if possible.”
Nathaniel Vujs intends on studying political science in college, but decided his SEE project would be to work with three other students–Mia Dennucci, Quinn Sanderson, and Andrew Riina– to create videos documenting the Class of 2023’s senior year.
“I do as a hobby…” Vujs said. “As long as you have a mentor that you’re working with, you can explore whatever you’d like, so [SEE project] gives you the opportunity to do things that aren’t traditionally taught in classrooms.”
Vujs and his group created a series of videos documenting the football season, senior prom, the construction of the new campus, and more. All four students said that their favorite part of the project was to create a video tour of the new school.
Mariana Correa spent her SEE project shadowing an audiologist. Correa had already chosen to study audiology in college, but she said the SEE project confirmed for her that audiology was an interest of hers. The audiologist Correa shadowed allowed her to witness the majority of appointments with the permission of the patients.
“I was everywhere, I was able to do everything,” Correa said. “I think that trying to solve the issue, seeing all the testing [the patients] go through, was my favorite thing to do, even to just observe it.”
Corra was inspired to explore the audiology field after watching a video online of an audiologist giving a baby hearing aids for the first time.
“[The baby] being able to hear his parents and the doctor, he was so happy,” Correa said. “I think that’s what sparked my interest, and SEE was a perfect opportunity for me to try to get into the field and get to know more before going to college.”