Tabor Academy seniors are preparing to graduate, but not before presenting their senior projects. Liz Tarrant, Hannah Dawicki, Josh Hillebrecht and Khalida Williams were among the students who each got the chance to spend the second half of their final semesters at Tabor working on a project of their choice.

Tarrant, from Marion, chose to produce a three-song EP called Soundwaves, on which she sang and played guitar.

“It was mostly about the production of it,” Tarrant said. “I went to the studio about five times.”

Dawicki, from Fairhaven, combined her love for photography and Photoshop and created a project where she used the photo editing software to change people’s races.

“I took all the Photoshop and photography courses available here, and I knew I wanted to keep going and learn more about it,” she said. “Last year I did a project about diversity at Tabor strictly using photography. I loved it and found it super interesting, so I wanted to bring those two together and make a project out of it.”

Hillebrecht, from Stafford Springs, Connecticut, restored an old wooden boat that was donated to Tabor and had been sitting around for 20 years.

“We sanded the entire thing down, reset the frames because they had sagged down over the years, repainted and varnished it,” he said.

Williams, from Brooklyn, New York, handcrafted four Caribbean carnival pieces out of wire and feathers, pieces she likened to the wings that Victoria’s Secret models wear during shows.

The students have to be in good academic standing to be able to do the projects. It often requires dropping classes in order to have the time to accommodate working on the projects.

Students are allowed to choose anything that interests them, with the only stipulation being that they have to write a 400 word journal entry five times a week to update their progress so faculty knows work is actually being done. At the end of the semester, they present their projects and write a short essay reflecting on the process.

As well as getting to hone skills in areas they’re interested in, the students also learned other life skills, such as time management.

“I’m the queen of putting things off,” Williams said. “But I’m also a perfectionist, I need things to be done the way I envisioned it…I really learned how to manage my time…I was like OK I have eight weeks and I really need to get this done, and I need to do this well enough that I won’t be disappointed.”

Each student had a faculty advisor from the project committee assigned to them, and they chose an additional faculty member to help them.

“My advisor was in the shop with me everyday,” Hillebrecht said. “I learned a ton from him.”

The students plan to take what they learned on these projects and continue using the skills as they move forward in life.

Hillebrecht plans to study marine architecture and oceanography in college, and Dawicki plans on studying communications, so these projects provided skills they can use in college.

Tarrant and Williams look to use what they learned in hobbies outside of their classes once they leave Tabor.

Tarrant said she wants to join a band in college, and Williams wants to continue making the Caribbean carnival pieces at home.

Tarrant’s album can be heard both on Spotify and iTunes.