-By Talia Ruxin and Brigitte Schmittlein- The ILE. Since its instatement in 2009, the Independent Learning Experience (ILE) has become one of the seminal experiences of a Winsor student, filling students with a mix of awe and fear. Now part of the graduation requirement, the ILE was originally designed in order to give seniors an opportunity “to design their own educational program, pursue passions and interests, deepen skills and increase understanding, learn essential work and life skills, get involved with a community, and engage in new experiences.” However, despite its importance, only four weeks at the end of the school year are devoted to the ILE. With that in mind, one cannot help but be struck by how small an amount of time this is to gain such meaningful skills. In fact, Buckingham Browne and Nichols School (BB&N), one of Winsor’s peer institutions, extends its “Senior Spring Project” to its entire third trimester. The question arises: why is Winsor’s ILE so only four weeks long? In order to learn more, we talked to several Winsor students and to Ms. Labieniec, director of studies and ILE advisor, to get a better sense of the positives and negatives of each ILE experience.

This year, seniors completed projects in a wide range of fields, from farming (Lucy Kaneb ’15) to interning for Elizabeth Warren (Arielle Mitropoulos ’15) to shadowing a veterinarian (Emilia Ferrara ’15) and everything in between. Hallie Fischman ‘15, is working with a pastry chef at a restaurant; her project goal is to “see if [she] can can translate restaurant quality desserts into a noncommercial kitchen.” Hallie admits that although she understands it is logistically challenging to extend the ILE period, she thinks “having ILE only for May is a little limiting. Between AP exams and preparing for graduation, the five weeks goes by really quickly.” Kayla Camacho ’15, whose ILE goal is to “learn about the growth of digital and social media and how it works in comparison with more traditional methods of information sharing and entertainment, such as technology” while interning at Burst Media, explained why she likes the current system of completing classes before starting her ILE. She remarked, “I think a longer ILE might end up being more disjointed because it would be more necessary for AP classes to meet, since the exams wouldn’t be right at the beginning.” Camacho also noted that because some seniors shadow or intern, the mentors often arrange their schedules. As a result, a longer ILE would require seniors to devote “a more significant portion of their time for AP review,” and that would complicate their schedules.

Labieniec agreed with Camacho, adding that the ILE would become “very choppy” if Winsor were to extend it to earlier in second semester. She believed that the administration “felt that the…month [of May] [was a] good balance between still having enough time to have senior classes [and gaining] the valuable goals outlined on the Winsor website.” Under the current semester system, if the ILE started sooner, both APs, which must meet until the exams, and other courses would be extremely short, and seniors may become burdened with many assessments in a short amount of time. Labieniec also explained how a longer ILE, such as a six-week one, would be difficult to plan. She remarked that she believes it is difficult for seniors to find and arrange their ILEs, “A lot of seniors make up a schedule of what they think they’re going to have and it becomes very different when they get into the ILE.” And finally, she said it would be difficult for seniors to transition back to Winsor life if the ILE experience were longer than four weeks: “we don’t want the seniors to leave for six weeks of second semester, and then just show up for graduation”. Making the ILE longer could affect the close-knit community that Winsor fosters.

On the other hand, Camacho noted that a longer ILE would “help seniors learning a specific skill” and a longer time allotted for ILE would allow seniors to go “more in depth in their chosen field[s] of learning.” Although the ILE is “not flawless,” as Labieniec acknowledged, both Camacho and Labieniec agreed that the balance between delving into an independent project and maintaining meaningful classroom hours second semester seems to be the most ideal option for Winsor seniors. Labieniec also noted that the ILE project originated from Winsor students; in 2009, a few students approached Ms. Labieniec with a petition to have an independent project instead of going to classes for the last few weeks of school. The curriculum committee approved ILE for these few students, and later made it a requirement for all Winsor students. The moral of the story is that ILE experience is always changing and evolving, and that these changes come from the students.

Click here to check out some Student ILE Blogs!