BY ROD HANSEN

As their years in secondary education draw to a close, some seniors at John Stark Regional High School said they reached their crowning achievement at the John Stark Expo.

The high school hosted the 20th annual General’s Exposition on Thursday, May 17. The event served as a forum for students to show their senior projects to the community, while teachers and parents perused the handiwork that some students spent months bringing to perfection.

With dozens of booths set up in the school gymnasium, many of the projects drew audible admiration from visitors on the night of the exposition.

The kayak produced by Chris Reed of Weare was one of the event’s most popular attractions.

Seventeen feet long, seamless and sleek, the wooden water craft came in a kit from Pygmy Boats, which Reed then assembled with the help of his father, Paul Reed, his project mentor.

“The process was what I expected, but it took a lot longer than 30 hours,” said Reed.

The guidelines of students’ senior projects require they spend at least 30 working hours on their task. Reed met the time requirement multiple times over, ultimately devoting 150 hours to the assignment.

Reed assembled the kayak using an arduous stitch and glue process, in which the boat’s plywood panels are held together with wire and an adhesive mixture.

Reed drew on his father’s experience in finish carpentry in creating the project, as well as his uncle Brian Cooper of Windsor Locks, Conn., for advice on creating the boat. Biology teacher Barbara Beers served as his faculty coach on the project.

All students have a coach and advisor on their senior project, said John Stark math teacher Laura Newman, senior project coordinator.

In proposing their projects, students must demonstrate their activity will provide them with an experience in independent learning, Newman said. Ultimately, students are evaluated during a half-hour presentation to an evaluation team consisting of one faculty member and a member of the community, Newman said.

Requirements for the project go beyond the 30 hours of work. Other guidelines include a written proposal, at least 200 pages of reading, a reflective paper, photographs of their experience and a work log.

Beyond their academic merits, the senior projects also provide students with an experience that lasts well beyond graduation, Newman said.

“These students are really proud of their projects. It gives them something they can look back on,” Newman said.

One student chose her senior project specifically to provide her with a valuable family memory.

Laura Serard of Henniker said she built an Adirondack chair in order to work with her grandfather, John Watson. Serard made a poster commemorating her project, complete with pictures of herself and her grandfather at work in his Contoocook woodshed.

Building the chair also exposed her to new areas of knowledge such as the use of an orbital sander, Serard said.

“This has been a great experience, and I never would have done it if it hadn’t been for the expo,” Serard said.

Many of the students chose family members as their mentors.

Melissa Lesmerises-Cricco of Weare worked with her father on an end table with wrought iron legs and a glass top. She constructed the table with legs designed to look like elephants, each one ending in a pointed proboscis.

Lesmerises-Cricco said her father Anthony Cricco’s experience operating a blacksmith shop proved
valuable in constructing the table.

The projects at the Stark Expo reflect a variety of talents and interests, said expo coordinator Bob Clarke.

“We’ve got some outstanding, unique work on display here tonight,” Clarke said of the 180 projects exhibited at the event.

He said the expo often attracts a large number of community members and former students eager to witness the graduating students’ accomplishments.

The evening’s points of interest extend beyond the senior projects, Clarke said.

Other attractions on the program include a dinner organized by the school’s world language department, an honors art display and the Ron Lesniewski Memorial Oratorical Contest, named in honor of the longtime foreign language and English teacher who founded the competition.

With their senior projects completed and evaluated, many students enjoy the expo as a sort of last hurrah of their high school years, Clarke said.

“Some of the kids are nervous, but there’s a sigh of relief when they’re done with this,” Clarke said.