Newtown High School students taking the Junior/Senior Project course for the second semester this school year presented their completed projects June 1 and June 2 at the school's Lecture Hall.Poetry Speaks. She also finished a book of poetry last year in the course.

The course is designed to offer students the chance to build on existing strengths and to provide the opportunity to explore a subject or career they are passionate about outside of the classroom, while developing a career-oriented relationship with a community professional as a mentor in the student's area of chosen interest.

Peg Ragaini, Elizabeth Hanna, and Susan McConnell oversee the course. When the students present their projects each semester, a panel of judges are present to review the efforts.

Before presenting, students explained what their projects were.

NHS senior Amanda Walsh created a book of poetry,

"It was based on music," Amanda said, "because music is a form of poetry. So I took 30 songs of what I have listened to on repeat, like my senior play list, and I used those songs to help write my poems."

Amanda said she wanted to find a way to express herself and show that she has grown over the last year, since her last completed book of poetry was created.

"This project was also a way to say goodbye to this stage of my life and move onto the next stage," said Amanda.

Junior Elizabeth Chamiec-Case made a website "about the brain," she said, explaining that she has been interested in neuroscience "for a while."

"So I worked with the Avielle Foundation," Elizabeth said.

Jeremy Richman, PhD, and Jennifer Hensel, MS, founded of The Avielle Foundation following the murder of their daughter, Avielle Rose Richman, at Sandy Hook Elementary School on 12/14. They started the foundation to fund research exploring the underpinnings of the brain that lead to violent behaviors, and to foster the engagement of communities to apply these insights.

"Everything they do is related to brain health," said Elizabeth, "so my stance was how can you understand brain health if you don't know about the brain? So I made a website as an education tool."

The website is not live yet, but Elizabeth said the plan is for the site to linked to The Avielle Foundation's website eventually.

For her project junior Chaeli Allen created a graphic novel to go along with a short story she created.

"I've always had an interest in art and comic books," said Chaeli. "I thought why not do this because I can't do it in school, like regular classes."

The Junior/Senior Project course, Chaeli said, offered her a structure to create her short story and graphic novel, which, Chaeli said, is about a girl and her imaginary friend.

Juniors Christina James and Ardita Gjonbalaj worked together for their project. They created two research papers on bioremediation.

"We were really interested in ecology topics," said Ardita, "and we both want to go into biology when we go to college."

Christina said her paper focused on bioremediation and human intervention, and Ardita focused on biodegradation. Both girls also created paintings to represent the difference between society's view of pollution juxtaposed to the actual facts of pollution.

Senior Riland Abazi focused his project on spreading factual information about the Syrian refugee crisis. He made a public service announcement video, which he said he plans to make available online on YouTube.

The video, he said, "also advocates for Syrian refugees to be accepted in more developed countries, like the United States."

Syrian refugees who are resettled in the United States, Riland said, are vetted, "and it is safe for us to have them as part of our community, and communities in general. I think it is important, not only in a moral and ethical sense, to provide refuge for people who are escaping danger and war. It is also a requirement under international law, and it is an advantage for us in terms of our foreign policy and diplomatic approach."

Riland said he wanted to create the project to help share factual and accurate information to combat the misunderstandings around the subject.

"I think it is important for us to use reason and not fear to guide our actions and decisionmaking," said Riland.

For her project, senior Jillian Gibney said she is trying to obtain a food truck for the Feeding the Need program at NHS. Feeding the Need is a nonprofit organization launched in 2012 by then NHS junior Sonya Stanczyk. The program is a collaboration between the NHS Culinary Department and advanced culinary students and the Connecticut Food Bank. Food is prepared by the culinary students, and then delivered to homeless shelters. Jillian also worked on her project during the first semester NHS Junior/Senior Project course this school year.

"With a food truck we will be able to deliver hot meals, rather than meals that need to be reheated, as well as raise revenue that will support the program further," said Jillian. "For my project I have met with local town officials to discuss regulations for a food truck, and this semester I have begun raising funds that will be used to purchase the truck."

Jillian also created a business plan to pass her efforts on to future students at the high school to continue the effort of raising funds and obtaining a food truck for the program.