The Bay School of San Francisco 35 Keyes Avenue, San Francisco, CA www.bayschoolsf.org
Schedule
5 p.m. Exhibition opens in the Great Room 5:30, 6 and 6:30 p.m. Classroom presentations begin 7 p.m. Exhibition closes
Each classroom presentation will last for 25 minutes. 5:30-5:55 p.m. John Henry Frankel (Rm. 227), Addi Kuth (Rm. 233), Rainier Pearl-Styles (Rm. 234), Aaron Schlier (Rm. 230) 6-6:25 p.m. Ian Berman (Rm. 317), Addi Kuth (Rm. 233), Amalia Maric (Drama Rm.*), Rainier Pearl-Styles (Rm. 234), Ayana Renoldi-Bracco (Rm. 319) 6:30-6:55 p.m. Ian Berman (Rm. 317), John Henry Frankel (Rm. 227), Amalia Maric (Drama Rm.*), Ayana Renoldi-Bracco (Rm. 319), Aaron Schlier (Rm. 230) * In the basement
Projects
Addie Bacon Through a Different Lens: What Does Today’s Youth See? Mentor: Dana Albany How is beauty seen through the eyes of today’s youth? Can photography be used to instill a sense of pride and ownership in kids? By using disposable cameras, I explored the creativity that could be shown by students at the Boys and Girls Club. To allow access to their work, the final photographs were incorporated into a set of large wooden blocks to be used at the Boys and Girls Club.
Quinn Barker-Plummer What Part of Schroedinger’s Equation Don’t You Understand? Mentor: Shervin Sahba Math is not the same as Science. It is an often forgotten fact in fundamental physics. I hoped to rectify this by providing a resource for high school students to explore the ideas of quantum mechanics, without having to master complex mathematics to do so. Over the last two trimesters, I created a series of videos aimed to teach quantum mechanics to high school students, using the concepts-first approach.
Ian Berman EP1: An Experimental Art Project Mentor: Ryan Lindberg 6 and 6:30 p.m. presentations: Rm. 317 I created an experimental electronic EP with a heavy ambient and jazz influence. Most of the sounds are taken from external sources - field recordings, song excerpts, and more - which I then manipulated to tell a new story. The end result is a slow, foreboding, and beautiful EP meant to be played loud in a single sitting. In addition to detailing the EP and its accompanying community art piece, my presentation will provide an in-depth demonstration of my creative process.
Luc Borden Everything Bagel Mentor: Michael Puente It is said that there are two types of people in our world: people who love bagels and liars. Personally, I choose to identify with the former category. Why are bagels important to society? I decided to explore the bagel indepth via a journalistic-style feature story and short film about the bagel-making process, as well as try my own hand at baking this delicious food. Remember: when no one else is there for you, simply remember that a delicious bagel with lox and schmear always has your back, no matter the hour, time or place.
Sara Brown Hike into a New Mindset Mentor: Brian Benson So how can nature affect the mindset of teenagers? In today’s fast-paced world, it can often be difficult to find time to pause, relax, reflect and evaluate your wellbeing. But nature can frequently serve as a healthy outlet to rejuvenate the mind and the body. By going to the Andrew Molera State Park, seniors embarked upon a journey of self-exploration to find out how nature could influence them. While their testimonials are inspiring and innovative, the long-lasting impression of how nature affected them, truly remains the catalyst to the beginning of a new mindset.
Jacob Bunker Will Weihnacht Star Crusaders: a Multiplayer iPhone Game Mentor: Hitesh Parashar We created an iPhone application based off of proven game mechanics with a new flair. By using Galaga as our base design and then adding both ship and fleet editors as well as a multiplayer aspect, we created an original game that encourages cooperative fun.
Brooks Carman Bringing Social Media to Bay Athletics Mentor: Daniel Rathman Just like sports themselves, sports journalism has come a long way since it started. Instead of a single sports page in the newspaper, there are now many different ways of publishing articles and updates, social media being a huge one. I decided to create a Twitter page that the Bay School community could access, devoted only to Bay School Athletics, in which I posted updates, scores, and links to post-game recap articles.
Lia Carver Healthy Transitions For You Mentor: Deb Blum A major fear I have about going to college is that my healthy eating and exercise habits will be replaced by greasy dorm food and hours spent lying on my bed writing essays and not being active. My intention to avoid this was to create an informative and welldesigned website that will serve as a resource for graduating high school seniors/college freshmen. This website will be a resource that will give them information on how to stay fit and eat healthy on a budget in college.
Giulietta Corrado Neurotic to Hypnotic Mentor: Lynn Swearingen We all have anxieties that make us fear or cringe at the sight of a certain object or situation. Often times these fears cannot be faced directly, as they are buried in our subconscious. Those who have suffered of such irrational fears or chronic anxieties were able to overcome their struggles through a few one-hour sessions of hypnosis and relaxation and rewinding techniques.
Sarah Fay Teaching Kids the Value of Nature Mentor: Rachelle Cardona Going on field trips is the most fun you have in school, right? So I developed an outdoor educational program for the 2nd/ 3rd grade class at Kittredge school. My goal was to have kids learn to appreciate their environment. On the two field trips, I did a beach cleanup and a hike around the Presidio, teaching the kids about native species of plants and animals. This allowed the kids to gain a deeper understanding of their environment and learn about the consequences of neglecting their local environment.
Jackson Forman Separating Appearance from Identity Mentor: Byron Kuth For younger generations, “knowing” someone is no longer about understanding who they are as a person. Someone’s identity can be dependent upon their physical appearance. So, if appearance is the first thing that someone is judged on, what would happen if society removed their physical identity and defined people in different forms? I explored how human personality can be captured through architectural idioms.
John Henry Frankel This is a Certified Hood Classic: Can Trap Music Showcase the Bay School Staffulty? Mentor: Ryan Lindberg 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. presentations: Rm. 227 The Bay School community is one laden with many talented individuals, proficient in vastly varying fields. Can trap music, generally a genre of music not associated with places of learning, encapsulate the various talents of several key staffulty members of the Bay School? By creating a trap album abounding with samples of the faculty, I aimed to find out.
Elena Freiwald Giving a Paw to Shelter Dogs Mentor: Melissa Jacobs There are many dogs that end up in shelters. However, many people prefer to adopt dogs from breeders due to shelter dogs’ unpredictable behavior. I made a website with stories of people who adopted shelter dogs and their experiences to give potential dog owners an idea of what to expect and to make shelter dogs a more appealing option.
Bianca Galarza Who Are You? Mentor: Dolores Preza Who are you? What makes us unique? How are our experiences shaped by our identity? These are a few of the questions I grappled with during my senior project. I found inspiration for my project after the recent shootings of unarmed black men across the US. I wanted to explore how identity not only shaped our experiences but how it shaped the way we were perceived in society and by others. Through art I explored identity (specifically gender identity) and how the inherit qualities we are born with can predispose us to different experiences.
Sophie Go Women for STEM Mentor: Renee Chu Where are the women? Although females hold half the jobs in the American economy, less than 25% of all jobs in the STEM field are held by women. Even at the Bay School, there are fewer female students in the science, computer programming, and engineering courses than there should be. A lecture series with female professionals encouraged next-generation females to pursue careers in the STEM field.
Darcy Groves Breathe Easy: Mindfulness for Kids Mentor: Alison Frost In recent years, mindfulness and meditation have gained popularity within the Bay Area community, helping countless adults manage stress and lead more peaceful lives. Rooted in Buddhist tradition, the practice teaches patience, compassion, appreciation of the moment, and many other important qualities for a happy life. And how better to obtain these traits than as a child? In order to start the introduction early, I wrote and illustrated a parable-based children’s book on mindfulness, exploring important values and the ways we can cultivate and express them within. I gave a reading of my book at the Children’s Day School, which allowed me to share my message with my community.
William Hunscher Nathan Siegel Analog Synthesizer Mentor: Tom Oberheim Technology plays a large role in our society today. However, many people don’t understand how it works. Through building an analog synthesizer and describing how it works, we hope to educate people on how common electrical components work with hands-on experience and a comprehensive lesson plan.
Ali Imperiale How to Handle Dyslexia Mentor: Trish Schreiber Often times people have misconceptions about dyslexia. My goal was to create a place where students, parents and educators could obtain accurate information regarding this learning difference. I designed a website that outlined the science of dyslexia and how to find success with neurodiversity. Moreover, I highlighted accomplished individuals who feel that a great deal of their success is due to their dyslexia.
Sidney Johnson The Teen Scene Mentor: Trishawn Brown Whether we like it or not, a person’s fashion and appearance is a huge part of their everyday life. Through photographing local teenagers and documenting their clothing choices, I sought to expose the way teens choose to express who they are through their fashion sense.
Precious Jones Take Action: The Truth About Gun Violence and Police Brutality Mentor: Mattie Scott Police brutality and gun violence are very much present in our everyday lives, but some people are unaware. What we call “freedom� in America is experienced differently by different cultures. The goal of my event is to help form a better understanding of the experiences people face with police brutality and gun violence. I want to encourage all people to stand up against these injustices.
Addison Kuth Jazzy Neighborhoods Mentor: Randy Craig 5:30 and 6 p.m. presentations: Rm. 233 Throughout centuries, music has been used to communicate emotions. For my Senior Signature Project, I wrote three jazz compositions that represent three different neighborhoods in San Francisco. The neighborhoods were North Beach, Chinatown, and the Financial District Area. Every neighborhood has a sound. Locations convey different feelings and the point of my project was to capture and communicate these feelings in my original compositions.
Rosalyn Lemmo Class-bloom Mentor: Ally Lemmer How can children with special needs learn about nature? How can a garden be used as a classroom? I created a garden at Marina Middle School with severely impaired students to combat nature deficit disorder and provide a new learning environment. Hand painted and planted by the students, the garden box served to build a sense of accomplishment and create excitement about plants.
Kait Libbey Bay Wind Inc. Mentor: Greg Bohannon How can renewable energy be added to a campus where historical preservation is essential? With such a grand endeavor, someone needs to lay the groundwork. Starting a multi-year project to hand off to future seniors, I have set up the foundation for the Bay School to acquire a wind turbine. By creating a project development plan, interacting with manufacturers, and working with the school administration and the Presidio Trust, I have begun the process of pushing Bay to the cutting edge of
John Ludeke Not Scoring? What’s the Mata? Mentor: Joe Killmaier Made for intermediate players looking to improve their shooting, this series of videos gives an in-depth description of the types of shots that are most effective in the game of soccer. They include clips of professional soccer players shooting, then a breakdown of how to perform that shot, and advice on when to use that shot. These videos cover shots in three types of shots: chips, power and placement.
Bryant Lui Consumerpocalypse! Mentor: Elana Lutz Through drowning zombies, plunging into landfills, and observing gargantuan robots, I used art to remind students about the Bay School Precept, “We are Careful Conscious Consumers.” I created a series of paintings to provoke teenagers and initiate conversation about their consumerist tendencies.
Amalia Maric The Invisible Yellow Brick Road Mentor: G. Scott Lacy 6 and 6:30 p.m. presentations: Drama Rm. The Invisible Yellow Brick Road is a sixty minute, one-woman cabaret show exploring the high school experience and why the teenage years are considered such a crucial, defining moment in a person’s life. Themes such as wanting to grow up, making decisions, insecurity, and finding ourselves are explored through songs from both the classic and contemporary catalogues of musical theater. The show will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 7 downtown at the Hotel Rex (562 Sutter Street).
Kealey McKown Sentimental Journey: Music Therapy Among Alzheimer’s Patients Mentor: Jim Murdoch How can music effectively access memory and emotion in elders with Alzheimer’s disease? How can group programs utilize music therapy to foster community and happiness in residence facilities? These were questions I explored as I visited the CPMC Irene Swindells Alzheimer’s Residential Care Program each week to play music and talk with the people living there.
Camden McMillan Bay School Book Club? I’m Drawing a Blank (Page)! Mentor: Carolyn Karis Have you ever read a book and just thought to yourself, “Wow, that was great! I wish I had some people to talk about that to.” Well, now you can. I restarted and revamped the school’s book club program, creating a fun and relaxed environment for people to meet and discuss books in a non-academic setting. The club will continue next year under student leadership.
Jameson McQueen The Classroom & The Traumatized Child Mentor: Annie Gwynne-Vaughan How does early childhood deprivation effect kids during major emotional developmental milestones? What can elementary school teachers do to help? I’ve specifically focused on kids who have experienced abuse, neglect, and deprivation in foreign orphanages and institutions. My final product is a resource to guide teachers through in assisting the complexities of these situations.
Michaela “Tait” Morrison Meaningful Artwork Making A Difference Mentor: Jacqueline Cooper This project has revolved around working towards understanding and creating meaningful artwork representing social justice issues that everyone faces. While curating the gallery, I was really looking for a diversity in backgrounds, ages, professionally, perspectives, and issues, (including racism, sexism, issues with sexuality, etc.), then selling the artwork and giving the money to a charity supporting young children to learn about the issues and various media to represent their opinions. Finally, bringing the enthusiasm back to the community by showing people the issues and artwork so they can be heard and seen.
Claire Murphy Life Skills 4 Dummies Bay School Students Mentor: Lois Wander What information do high school students need in order to live independently after graduation and how can this information be presented in an engaging and exciting way? I started my project by researching the history of Home Economics in America, focusing primarily on why it’s no longer required in schools. With this information, I designed four Life Skills Workshops for students: Cooking, Financial Literacy, Emergency Preparedness, and Job Skills. I worked alongside professionals (such as chefs or bankers) in order to help Bay students feel confident in their abilities to live as independent young adults.
Alex Oh When Pen and Paper Gets Old Mentor: Eric Wild For as long as humans have lived, art has always been present. We use pens, pencils, brushes, charcoal, and other materials to draw and create pictures. But in this day and age where technology has reached so far, why not have students learn how to draw through digital means? Over the course of SSP, I created and taught a series of after-school digital arts classes for middle schoolers centered around the use of Photoshop and graphics tablets.
Savannah Owens Why Read? Mentor: Peggy Tunder What is the significance of reading on children’s socioemotional development and language acquisition? I set out to answer this question through observing a kindergarten classroom, where I was able to sit in on story and reading times. Partnering this with reading everything I could find on the subject, I wrote an article for parents of young children to be educated on different methods of reading with children.
Rainier Pearl-Styles Betwixt and Between: Bringing New Perspectives to a Classic Story Mentor: Jennifer LeBlanc 5:30 and 6 p.m. presentations: Rm. 234 Peter Pan is a tale told over a thousand times. It is a story of innocence, immortal youth, and adventure in which “never grow up” has no repercussions -except that it does. In J.M. Barrie’s original work, the Peter’s choice to live as a child forever takes a toll on everyone around him. This theme is not well represented in modern productions of Peter Pan. I wanted to bring a new perspective to this story and adapted The Little White Bird, a prequel to Peter Pan, into a one-act play dealing directly with the themes of loss and mother/child relationship and the negative impact of deciding to never grow up.
Ben Purtell Arel Wiederholt Kassar BE RE(A)L Mentor: Eddie Smith How can one make meaningful Hip Hop music that also appeals to a modern audience? Sick and tired of today’s Hip Hop themes, we set out to create an album devoid of demeaning language and fraudulence. Our goal was to BE RE(A)L, portray our authentic voice, and incorporate contemporary, relevant themes. The end product was the album of our dreams.
Ayana Renoldi-Bracco Stress Hacks: The Body, Mind, and Soul Approach to Stress Relief and Prevention Mentor: Danielle Saunders 6 and 6:30 p.m. presentations: Rm. 319 Students are more stressed than ever before and they need tools to cope with their stress, school-related or otherwise. The mental, physical, and creative exercises described in my workshops and guidebook have been curated for use in both relieving tension in moments of high-stress and preventing stress through long-term practices. My hope is that students will be able to apply the techniques they learn for dissolving stress in their lives even after they leave the academic world.
Keith Roehl Project AUVA Mentor: Kai Hirz Project AUVA is made to revolutionize agriculture into the future by applying autonomous capabilities, as a tool, to help farmers. From detracting the percentage of moisture in soil to plant health, project AUVA will make the future seem possible without an expensive price tag. Over the past year, this project has developed a model to use with an opensource network that can help farmers worldwide.
Danielle Rosenthal Capturing Family Culture in the Bay Area Mentor: Anne Hamersky By exploring and capturing family traditions and events throughout the Bay Area, I have been able to better understand what brings families together and how families create their own culture. By compiling a book containing photographs and perspectives from different families of different cultures and compositions, I hope to expose the diversity, chaos, and beauty of what it means to be a family.
Thomas Ryan Keeping Time Mentor: Charles Sowers For thousands of years, people have kept time in various ways. However, only recently have they developed the ability to hold it on their wrists. How did the original mechanical watch work? Why are they still made? Throughout the course of SSP I explored the mix of engineering and art that goes into the design of a mechanical watch and why, even though they aren’t necessary to know the time when we all have phones in our pockets, they still are made and are bought for hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Aaron Schlier Rock Climbing for Teens Mentor: Wayne Willoughby 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. presentations: Rm. 230 How can I generate enthusiasm for rock climbing within my community? This short film showcases the activity of rock climbing and how it benefits teens.
Mariella Sullam Tuning in SF Mentor: William Abrahamson “Tuning In SF” is a blog dedicated to publicizing up and coming musicians and bands from around the San Francisco Bay Area. My hope is that this blog will act as a resource for both musicians and music lovers to connect with one another - networking over one of the greatest art forms of all time. An avid music lover myself, I’ve created this site to share the stories of struggle and passion behind the creation of one’s music.
Malik Sy Advertisement for Mobile Games Mentor: Brooke Bengier My project is mobile game advertising and how to market a game in an effective way. I used Facebook pages, websites, and Google ads as the foundations for a marketing campaign for the iOS game Star Crusaders created by Jacob Bunker and Will Weihnacht.
Nina Tanujaya Social Deconstructionism: Seeing People as Components Mentor: Ben Leon Has someone ever looked you up and down, from head to toe, and you could feel their eyes judging? Even without consciously thinking it, every day we make judgments about one another based on appearance and external characteristics, labeling their attributes so that we can make sense of who they are. At times, society defines our identities based on our physical appearance. Through sets of three different pictures for 10 different subjects, this project aims to separate personality traits from physical traits and assert that people’s personalities are not the sum of their component parts. An interactive exhibit in the Glass Gallery aims to display these findings in a way that engages the audience and prompts discussion and reflection.
Theron Tarigo Simplified CAD Software Mentor: Michael Shantzis Computer Aided Drawing software is an important and powerful tool in the engineering process. Existing CAD software is designed for professional work and often has a steep learning curve. By choosing conceptually simple but powerful tools for the drawing workflow, I created a CAD software that is flexible in its drawing capabilities but is also friendly to novices in order to make CAD tools more accessible and encourage the learning of engineering.
Nick Tse Life-Eating Bully Mentor: June Donenfeld My project is about teaching middle school kids the effects of bullying. What effect it can have in one’s personal and social life? I decided to write a story, one that teaches a lesson and that invokes the reader’s emotions about this topic.
Nolan Van Dine Sailing on Land Mentor: Sean Svendson I drafted plans that allow a child (aged 9-15) to build a land yacht with the assistance of an adult. The plans are meant to be easy to follow and require only limited resources. The goal is to learn basic building skills and gain a hands-on knowledge of the physics that powers a land yacht.
Aidan Van Runkle Olden Charlotte Wheaton California Through the Disposable Lens Mentor: Andrew Nance We all see things differently. Although we are all connected by a common thread, the variety of environments within California foster an incredible diversity of cultures across the state. Our project culminates the likeness of youth culture through the distribution of disposable cameras to the corners of California. The final product is a collage, a visual melange of backgrounds illustrating this generation’s
Alex Wah Making Change Mentor: Ronald S. Sloan My project focuses on the economic feasibility of socially responsible stocks versus the traditionally socially irresponsible stocks. This is important in the context of school endowment because often times a school’s investments contradict the values it professes in its classes.
Harry Welsh A Scrawny Guy’s Guide to ROTC Mentor: Master Sergeant Morrell Coleman For nearly a century, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps has been a staple in American higher education. However, not everyone can make the cut on their own. I wrote a guide to help those people prepare for the demanding ROTC application process.
Jillian Wong Cooking Up Confidence Mentor: Tracie Grufman Teens today barely know how to function in a kitchen. Through a web-series of 4 videos, kids will learn about general cooking safety and how to be more confident in the kitchen and beyond. I explored the correlation of learning something new and unknown with the confidence of taking on the challenge.
Jonah Wooley Football, Friends, and You Mentor: Mitchell Abad Powerhouse high school football teams may not be a staple of San Francisco culture, but avid football fans are. I created a flag football team for Bay School students to play a sport they enjoy. They got to share in the team camaraderie and bonding experiences that come with the sport of football while evading the concussions that are also all too common in the full contact version of the game.
Daniel Yeluashvili The Glory of Sprayable Metal Mentor: Dmitri Segal The Glory of Sprayable Metal is a sculpture designed to display the efficiency and practicality of a wondrous technology, metal in an aerosol format. Sprayable metal has a myriad of practical applications, being used in the oil industry to fortify pipes, in aerospace engineering as a protective coating, and, ironically enough, in works of art. If Tesla cars can be all the rage and the latest smartphone can boast a host of new abilities, why shouldn’t people care about an enthralling technology such as sprayable metal?
Senior Signature Projects are the capstone to The Bay School’s academic curriculum. Guided by Bay’s Senior Signature Projects instructors, students organize and plan their projects, reach out to potential mentors, track and document their progress and work through project-specific challenges as they arise. In the end, each student creates a deliverable and makes a formal presentation to the school community. Through these projects, students explore possible areas of study for college and careers, develop projectplanning and professional skills and connect deeply with the community beyond the walls of the school.