Are you curious about what it’s like to experience the capstone Junior Project here at Waterloo School?
In their third year, Waterloo students take on the exciting task of completing a Junior Project. This is a project that showcases each student’s unique interests and skills developed during their time at Waterloo and helps colleges see clearly each student’s particular accomplishments. Students may create an original project or choose to develop a prior project with new learning, application, or value. Junior projects allow students to dive deeply into something they are passionate about while simultaneously being accountable to present their work publicly.
We believe this is relevant for students’ preparation for real life, where we work towards creating works of value to an employer, community, or customer. Projects focus priorities, make feedback more purposeful, and make learning more lasting — a perfect cornerstone for Waterloo’s vision!
In this video, you can hear more from the students themselves about the process, what they learned, and how they grew.
Waterloo School Class of 2023’s Junior Projects
Asher P. – Caveat Emptor: Let the Buyer Beware of Buying Online
Whether you know it or not, Facebook’s numerous court cases and Google’s unlawful ad space buying and selling, affect us. You need to become an alert consumer, and to do this, you must become acquainted with online business. Whether you want to create your own business or get the best deals on only quality products, you must first understand the others’ intent, that is the key to becoming an informed creator and consumer. Why do you think Facebook ads work so well, and why there are so many people against them? It all comes from understanding what the business or the consumer wants from you.
Owen C. – Where the Sidewalk Begins: How Austin and Other Cities Can Repurpose Streets to Become More Pedestrian Friendly
We should make steps to repurpose our city streets to function better for people rather than cars. Cars take up a lot of space, are loud, and are unhealthy both to people living in cities and the environment itself. These big loud cars taking up 60% of all city space is greatly limiting the potential cities could have. Cities should be made for people, not for big metal boxes. Since cities are where people live, work, and shop, we should propose a solution so as to give the people a more healthy place to live their daily lives, while also giving cars the space they need.
Henry S. – Learning About Austin’s Homelessness Problem Through a Service Project for Community First!
My project is about understanding the best solution for homelessness, not just in Austin but across the board. Austin recently has ranked first among major Texas cities in unsheltered homelessness. Why are these issues so important? I did my junior project at Community First. I built an outdoor community water station. This was the perfect opportunity to take leadership and own my project, by leading volunteers. In all, my project is meant to show how Community First should be the number one solution for the homelessness problem because it focuses on Community and rehabilitation.
Diego F. – The Roman Way: How Stoicism Can Help Teens Through the Trials of Life.
After experiencing the 7-day stoic challenge for myself I want more adolescent teens to try some of the practices that helped me get through a lot of mental battles. The 7-day stoic challenge, made by the daily stoic not only taught me what stoicism was but taught me how to practice it. Young teens are going through a lot, school, relationships, work, it is overwhelming, I know because I was overwhelmed not too long ago. Just doing very simple practices each morning and night has completely changed the way I view life.
Sophia D. – Mining Mindsets: A Deep Dive Into Learning How Mindsets Affect Life
Have you ever thought about the type of mindset you have? The way that it affects your life? Your relationships? Or the way you deal with boredom or hardships? What if I told you that your mindset is the root of every feeling, and it could be holding you back from living life to its full potential. I am here to tell you today that your mindset affects you, as a person, way more than you’d think. As the years go by, more and more people are not enjoying life as much as they used to, and I think it is extremely important for people to be able to open their eyes a little bit, and know you are in control of your mind, and the way that you think is a choice.
Freddy C. – Brushing Broncos: My Step by Step Process of Learning How to Paint Horses
In order to improve your skill in painting the horse’s anatomy, you need to learn from your mistakes. Number one is my research on the tips from different artists in painting horses along with just my process. Doing a step-by-step process building up some techniques on painting horses. I had a lot of fun doing this and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
