Seniors are taking initiative by taking independent studies either as an individual block, during another block with another class, or outside of school. Independent studies do not follow a certain curriculum, and allow the students to study a topic of interest on their own.

Finding a class about “leadership in history” would be impossible at BHS. So what did seniors Brandon Craig and Maddy Childs do? Create it. This particular independent study is unique because they decided to team up and research together, which Craig jokingly refers to as a “co-dependant” study. Both Craig and Childs have a strong interest in history, and the classes provided do not fully satisfy their curiosity. Craig meets with Childs and their independent study advisor, Mr. Cory Eno, every two to three weeks during his D block for a discussion on their research in historical leadership.

This gives these intrinsically motivated students an extra history credit, however Craig stated, “I don’t care about the credit. We’re both interested in learning new things. It’s an outlet for curiosity, and I enjoy sharing the knowledge between the three of us. It’s cool.”

Currently, Craig, Childs, and Eno are working on a documentary that will be finished around April that they hope teachers will be able to use. The documentary will answer the question: “What is a leader?”

Speaking of leaders, senior Andrew Merritt independently studies “social entrepreneurship”. Contrary to Craig’s independent study, Merritt’s mostly happens during after-school hours, but for a good cause. With the help of Mr. Brent Jansen, Merritt organized a charity night with Palio’s Pizzeria and Safe Harbor, a shelter for women and children. He spent five hours at Palio’s tallying up how many pizzas they sold. For every pizza sold, Palio’s gave one to the homeless shelter. He brought about 25 pizzas and 10-15 soda bottles to the shelter. Entrepreneurship is the idea of how to run a charity minded business, and that is exactly what Merritt is doing. Merritt plans on becoming a business/entrepreneur major in college, and wants to continue working with charities.

“Sometimes I feel like I might be the poster child for senioritis, but during my independent study I’m given the chance to do research and learn about things that I will definitely apply toward my career goals outside of school,” said Merritt.

Merritt did not like the idea of taking a study hall, and this independent study allows him to get a jump-start on his future. Merritt said he would love to do a shoe drive next, as he is inspired by TOMS shoes, which donates a pair of shoes to those in need for every pair bought.

It’s more than just shoes for senior Chrissy Crocker, it’s the entire outfit. While she took Fashion Design two and three, she is independently studying Fashion four, which is not provided in the curriculum. The Fashion classes taught by Ms. Abby Fay only goes up to Fashion 3, however, Chrissy wanted to be involved all four years of her high school career.

Currently, Crocker can be found building a line of Disney character inspired clothes. The collection is based off of the character’s environment, colors, attitudes, and previous outfits. Crocker designed and created an outfit for Snow White, which is a yellow tank top with polka dots and blue high-waisted shorts.

“[Snow White] would be the cutesy skater girl if she was in the real world,” said Crocker.

She has also designed Kida’s outfit from Atlantis, which Crocker wrote her poetry all over. She has many more Disney character’s clothes to design and make before the fashion show in April.

“It’s all I do on the weekends, sew and draw. Most of my homework is sewing,” said Crocker.

Crocker hopes to double major in fashion and textiles at her dream school, Rhode Island School of Design, which requires a portfolio of 20-50 pieces of her work. The independent study is definitely time-consuming, however, Crocker said she could not imagine herself doing anything else.

“All I want is to make clothes and make people happy and excited to wear it,” said Crocker.