Starting next Monday, the majority of the senior class will begin their Senior Capstone experience with either a senior project, paper, community service or internship. However, there are a select few seniors who chose to stay and continue their classes for the remainder of the school year instead of participating in Capstone.

Senior Kat Vlach is one of the few students who have decided to stay and finish the year. With her heavy course load and four AP classes including biology, German, AB calculus and psychology, Vlach decided it would be easier to continue with her classes as opposed to having to return to WA for her AP classes each day.

“I have too many AP [classes], so it would be annoying to have to come back for them and I wouldn’t have much time to do a project anyway,” said Vlach. “I also like my non-AP classes, so I don’t mind staying back.”

Because the majority of her classes are AP, she feels that her workload will remain about the same.

Vlach is excited to continue all of her classes, however, she is most looking forward to continuing with her Mandarin class.

“I’m looking forward to continuing Mandarin, because there will be other people in that classes like underclassmen, and I love that class because it’s really interesting,” said Vlach.   

Though she has decided against participating in Capstone, Vlach feels that it is a great opportunity that all seniors should seriously consider, but if they are taking a lot of AP classes, it may not be worth it to do an internship or project.

“I think that the Capstone is a great experience, so I would recommend that most seniors do it,” said Vlach. “But if they are taking too many APs, then it’s not worth the struggle of trying to find a Capstone to do.”

Senior Caroline Moomjian has also decided against participating in Capstone with the rest of the senior class. Moomjian considered doing an internship, but ultimately decided to stay to finish the remainder of her calculus class as it will help her more easily succeed in math in college.

“I’m taking calculus and plan on majoring in mechanical engineering in college, so it was suggested that I stay and learn the basics of calculus before entering a major that is a killer for math,” said Moomjian.

After Capstone begins, Moomjian anticipates that her classes will be a lot less work and is looking forward to having less students and less homework for the majority of her classes. She is also excited to spend time with underclassmen that she will not see next year once she leaves for college.  

“I anticipate all DLT’s, except for calculus. So that will be absolutely great. [There will be] less students, less work, so it’s just easier than doing work for an internship,” said Moomjian. “I look forward to classes that aren’t senior based so I can spend time with the friends outside of my grade as much as possible before college.”

Overall, Moomjian is content with her decision to stay because she will have less work for her classes and can avoid doing extra work that the internship or project entails such as keeping journal entries and putting together a presentation at the end of the experience.

Senior Phil Manzi decided to stay until graduation because of his love for the WA community as he is not ready to leave just yet.

“I love this community. Westford Academy is my home. It seems like yesterday, I was walking into WA for the first time ever. The students, the faculty, they all feel like family to me. It’s hard for me to leave such a wonderful and inspiring community behind,” said Manzi.

Manzi also decided against participating in Capstone because he will be assisting in directing the next WATA production and wants to dedicate as much time to the show as possible.

“I am also directing a show for WATA during the fourth season. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost, will be directed by and written by Anthony Giovino, Ryan Dunn, and myself. The project has always been important to me, and I strongly felt that if I left on internship, the project would become far too challenging for one to handle,” said Manzi.

Manzi is looking forward to continuing all of his classes as he enjoys all of them. He expects his classes to be more laid back than before, but still with a decent amount of work. He is also excited to be one of the few seniors left because he will be able to be around the underclassmen before graduation in June.

Though part of him wishes he could participate in Capstone, Manzi is looking forward to remaining in the WA community.

“I wish I could [do an internship]. I would love to do one. But staying around this wonderful community, I am most certainly happy with that,” said Manzi.