(June 11, 2010) -- As the school year comes to an end, senior projects wait to be judged and seniors reflect back on their recent presentations. The senior projects vary from different areas to be covered such as scientific experiments, mathematics, and more. But senior Meenely Nazarian decided to base her senior project on the education.

“It was about tutoring and teaching,” said Nazarian. “Ms. Carlson drove me to Lincoln Elementary School twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) and I tutored a non-English speaking fifth grade student.”

The student didn’t know any English at first. Nazarian thought it was a great challenge because she had to find some way to communicate with the student. “Thanks to the four years of Spanish that I took, I was able to somehow speak to her and get her to understand what I had to say,” Nazarian said.

Nazarian got books for the student, ranging from easy to most difficult, and had her read one every day. Part of the exercise required her to explain to Nazarian what just happened in the story. “She couldn’t describe [the story] well during the first couple of days, but towards the last few days that I had tutored her, she really improved.”

For Nazarian’s final product, she wrote a children’s book and had the student read it on the last day of their tutoring session. The book was short and was about a dog that went out to look for his owner and a little girl that took him home. “She read it better than the other books she had read and was able to explain it to me well,” said Nazarian. “She showed improvement.”

Nazarian presented on Saturday and thought it went pretty well. “I was less nervous than I expected,” said Nazarian. “Since it was a topic that I chose and something I liked to do, presenting it was a lot easier than presenting something we would have to do in class where we are given a specific topic.” The judges had asked a lot of questions but Nazarian was able to answer all of them.