Every year seniors prepare to leave Westford Academy behind. But as they do, WA offers one last opportunity before they depart. Capstone projects play a large role in defining a WA student’s senior year, but how did the school come to adopt this program, what skills and experiences does it provide for students, and how might it continue to change as a program?
The Senior Capstone is a program that was created as a final project for WA seniors. In the 2025-2026 school year, the program will run from Apr. 13 to May 20 during the fourth quarter, and for this duration participating seniors will complete a project. The program exists to give students the opportunity to volunteer at an organization, learn about a topic of their choice, make career connections, and apply the soft skills learned at WA.
Senior Capstone also replaces all classes except advanced placement (AP) courses, four or more of which exempts a student from participation in a capstone. Students not exempt from capstone that do not participate will instead take part in the Senior Experience program—an alternative, in-school, community service program designed to stand in for the capstone project.
The 2025-2026 WA administration provides three distinct options for student participation in a capstone: community service, an internship, or a research project. In a poll conducted on the Ghostwriter’s Instagram, students were asked which of the three options they were planning on choosing. Sixty-seven percent of respondents chose an internship, 26% chose community service, and 7% chose a research project.
The program was founded by former Counseling Coordinator Wendy Pechacek after looking at the internship opportunities that other schools provide. When Counselors Susan Lynch and Heidi Hider took over advising the capstone project, the push from administration was to expand capstone participation from a select group to the entire senior student body.
“What started as, let’s say six to 10 students, is now hundreds,” Hider said. “Our counseling department has always been pretty advanced in terms of our service delivery and the programs we offer and what we do. Having a comprehensive school counseling program has always been really important to our school, including the postsecondary piece, and not just applying to colleges, but really getting some experience with life outside of here.”
While capstones are foundational to WA seniors’ final year, the program is not implemented similarly in other schools.
“There are some schools that offer internship opportunities not necessarily structured how we do so,” Hider said. “For example, I live in Littleton. My daughter is a graduate of Littleton High [School], and she actually was able to do an internship that was built into her schedule. She went to one of the district schools and helped in a classroom throughout the school year, but sandwiched [the internship] in [the middle of] her day.”
WA capstone acts as a culminating experience where seniors not only get the opportunity to use all of the skills they learned during high school, but also take their first step into a world outside of school.
“I think it’s very valuable to see what the world is like out there, [because] school isn’t always representative of real life and real jobs,” Hider said. “I think it’s really helpful for students to see and get excited about those options and be able to explore things before the stakes are higher.”
WA’s robust capstone system may be subject to change, however, as on Dec. 1, 2025, the state government of Massachusetts released a new statewide graduation framework offered by Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. The framework includes programs like a capstone, but it also mentions portfolios and end-of-course assessments to encourage “proven skills”.
According to Heider, while this framework may indicate future change in the capstone program, WA’s pre-existing program gives it an advantage.
“The next question, and this sort of remains to be seen because it’s still rolling out, is, what the state’s requirements [are] going to be, and are there things that we’re going to have to adjust?” Hider said. “But I think we’re in a good spot, because we already have a program. So we’ll just have to look for students who aren’t participating because of APs, [and] for seniors who decide to do Senior Experience instead of a traditional capstone. Do we have to structure [these students] in a certain way to meet those state requirements.”
When it comes to capstone, counselors have a variety of tips and advice to give on securing a project, evidenced by the “Resources and Helpful Tips” tab on the capstone website. Nonetheless, according to Heider, the capstone is more than an educational opportunity, it’s a personal commitment.
“You get out what you put in,” Hider said. “If you’re just gonna get [capstone] because it’s easy, sure, you can meet the requirement, but you might not enjoy it, and it might not be valuable for you. Students who really put thought and time and effort into getting something that’s going to be meaningful to them, they really get a lot out of it.”
