By, Annie A. ’21

As the school year comes to a close, the graduating Class of 2018 returns to Winsor after a month of ILEs. Independent Learning Experiences are projects seniors complete in order to graduate. Students have a mentor with whom they work or check in periodically. In the words of ILE co-coordinator Ms. H., ILEs are “an opportunity for students to put all the skills that they’ve learned over their time at Winsor to use.” Ms. R., the other co-coordinator, said that Winsor aims to provide a platform for seniors to “explore something in-depth for a month that they haven’t had an opportunity to do before.” ILEs are an aspect of Winsor that many students love because they are fun yet practical. Megan K. ’18 said, “not only has my ILE taught me about real-world applications of a field I am interested in, but it’s also given me the chance to practice self-advocacy and teaching myself various new skills.”

The possibilities are truly endless. Below are a sampling of the Class of 2018’s projects:

Megan K. ’18 worked “on the Mars Rover . . . project called SuperCam which is a remote-sensing instrument for the Mars 2020 mission . . . [Megan created] a tool that allows scientists to easily search for SuperCam data so that they can compare and contrast it with samples from Mars.”

Izzy I. ’18 interned “in the Community Partnerships & Player Relations department of the Red Sox . . . [Izzy accompanied] patients from Children’s Hospital and Veterans as they met players on the field, and occasionally [she helped] out with pre-game ceremonies.”

Juliet I. ’18 worked “on a dog-umentary entitled, The Luxurious Lives of Pets: And other far-fetched tails, in which [she] contextualizes and explores the phenomenon of pet humanization.”

Selina L. ’18 interned “at a clothing boutique on Newbury Street called Soodee” in order to “learn more about what it is like to be Asian and involved in entrepreneurship/fashion, as both of these fields are dominated by white people and also to get some experience in retail . . . The second part of [her] project included creating [her] own fashion account on Instagram.”

Madeleine M. ’18 worked on “Project Firefly, which is sponsored by the Air Force and involves drones [that are] about the size of a football but travel at the speed of a commercial jet. [She worked] on making the propellant and the fuel for it.”

Mikako M. ’18 made “a film that reflects on how [her] identity has changed throughout [her] life so far.”

Penny M. ’18 did “historical research on what Salem Village looked like in 1692, during the witch trials. From that research, [she built] a 3D digital model of the town, which [meant] around [eight] buildings and the roads through town.”

Jordan S. ’18 had an internship “in the MACA (Massachusetts Children’s Alliance) office. [She] spent most of [her] time attending meetings, doing research, completing organizational and administrative office tasks, and learning more about the organization and their initiatives through readings and discussions.”

Congratulations to all the Seniors on their ILEs! We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors!