For some seniors, the COVID-19 has added even more stress to the tight schedules of finishing Senior Project.

Many seniors have been dealing with their events being canceled completely or postponed to an unknown time while others have been unable to work with their mentors.

In a March 27 email to seniors, Senior Project Coordinator Louise Geczy announced that seniors must write a minimum 500-word reflection addressing what has already been completed or not completed, the feelings about what has happened to the Senior Project as a result of COVID-19, and the lessons learned from the process.

This reflection will fulfill the Senior Project graduation requirement.

For senior Abby Earnest, her canceled trip to Honduras went deeper than simply losing her project’s trip. “I actually was extremely excited to do my senior project because I one day want to go into the Peace Corps, and it would be a great way to dip my toe into that experience.”

Some of the projects also required schools to be in-session. Senior Helen Butler’s project focused on career exploration of Marine Biology and Environmental Science.

“I was planning on going to a classroom to speak in front of younger children and show them the importance of keeping our planet clean and how the trash affects our oceans. I was also planning a Susquehanna State Park clean-up, but we can’t have big groups of people together.” Helen said.

In a similar aspect, Senior Helen Lortie has been “designing a supplement to attach to an ice hockey stick that will make it more supportive so special needs players can use it to skate better.”

“My goal was once I had made it, I could take it to where I volunteer with a special needs ice hockey organization called the Baltimore Saints to test the prototype out and make adjustments,” Helen said. “Not only is that program closed for the season due to Coronavirus, but so are all other ice rinks.”

Other projects, such as Nikolas Mucha’s require being in school. His project was putting on a production of Once On This Island Jr.; however, he completely lost all rehearsal days, along with ultimately canceling his performances. For events such as his, it is hard to reschedule a project this large. “Due to the conditions we’re all facing right now, everything is up in the air, and rescheduling is very hard due to the current calendar,” Nikolas said.

Along with working with children and in school, Madison Evering’s project required working with the elderly, the most vulnerable to the Coronavirus. Madison’s main focus of her project is Music Therapy and was shadowing a music therapist who is based in Franklin Square Hospital.

“The main part of my project would have been going to four different nursing homes in Harford County and playing the same 12 songs on guitar such as ‘How Great Thou Art’ and ‘Let It Be’ to either groups of people or individual visits.” Madison said.

“My two goals from performing would be to see from those who struggle with memory loss if they would remember after a few visits the songs I was singing and for anyone else just to find comfort and peace in the songs.”

“I hope that all of us can ultimately find something meaningful in what we are going through now and come out of this time stronger and know that we can do anything successfully that we set our minds to doing,” wrote Mrs. Geczy in her email to the members of the senior class.