Senior year at Worcester Academy means a chance for students to dive deep and explore something outside the regular curriculum in a long-term, intentional way. Here, four members of the class of 2024 share their Senior Discovery Project journeys.
Bringing a New Language to Local Students
Lily Zifcak’s passion for American Sign Language began in sixth grade when she saw the TV show “Switched at Birth”, which features several deaf actors.
Inspired, Zifcak ’24 downloaded apps and taught herself independently, joined an ASL club at Worcester Academy, and took a class at Quinsigamond Community College. But it was always tricky.
"I found it was very challenging to excel in learning ASL, or at least to grow in learning ASL, because of how hard it is to find places and resources to learn," Zifcak says. "Schools usually teach Spanish or French or something like that. But they don't usually offer American Sign Language."
Her Senior Discovery Project focused on making instruction available to others in the community—specifically to fourth-grade students in an afterschool club at Vernon Hill School in Worcester. "I wanted to give younger kids an opportunity to learn sign language in an environment that's not pressuring or difficult," she says.
"I started coming in once a week for an hour, but later we increased it to an hour and a half because they loved it so much," Zifcak says. "I tried to make it fun, and they really enjoyed that. They responded to that, and they were all able to learn a decent amount of ASL.”
"Worcester Academy has given me the confidence to do it," Zifcak says. "I learned that I could push myself and try and succeed."
She hopes to continue her study of ASL at Emerson College, where she is focusing on writing, literature, and publishing. But her project also exposed her to the possibility of education as an option. "Every time I left the elementary school, I would feel really happy because they all really liked it," she says. That feeling was something I really appreciated. That pushed me to consider a career in early education."
Searching for Answers in Unresolved Cases
For Sophia Buffone '24, a lover of history and literature, sitting down for the first time with a binder on an unresolved homicide case was like cracking open an amazing new story—one in which she could play a pivotal role as an intern in the office of Worcester's district attorney.
"It was not just another novel. It wasn't just another historical nonfiction book or a memoir. It was someone's whole life presented right before me," she recalls. "And it was from decades before I was alive. My parents were in high school. I looked at it, and I'm like, 'What are dungarees?'"
Buffone's path to her Senior Discovery Project had its roots in a conversation with the college counseling office about possible career paths. She mentioned law and the office produced a list of potential internships. The Worcester District Attorney's office piqued her interest, but it was offered in the fall, and she didn't think that would work with her schedule. Then, while she was working at summer camp at Worcester Academy, her sophomore health teacher and Senior Project coordinator, Jamie Sullivan, asked about her plan for later that summer. Buffone mentioned the desired internship and said she wished the timing had been different. "He looked at me and said, 'Just give it a second,'" she remembers. "He walked away, and then he returned and was like, 'You're going to work there this summer. You're going to get an email. Make me proud.'"
Buffone worked with Assistant District Attorney Edward Karcasinas Jr. that first summer on domestic violence cases. "Even in just two months, he really sparked that passion within me," she says. That was the momentum."
The following summer and continuing through the school year, she assisted Anthony Melia, the assistant district attorney working on "unresolved homicide cases" (Cold cases aren't "cold," says Buffone. "Never stop looking."). "It has been a life-changing internship, to say the least," she adds.
"My purpose is new eyes," she says. "Everybody has an opportunity to read a case, but there's always something that's glossed over or a really weird connection only you can make. I'm hoping that my efforts drive forward a new idea."
As a result of this exposure, Buffone is now at UMass Amherst, planning to major in psychology, legal studies, and political science with an eye to law school and maybe a future working in the International Criminal Court.
Launching an AI-Influenced Business
For Alex Emery '24, his Senior Discovery Project meant a chance to tackle details most entrepreneurs don't tackle until college or beyond. He has honed a vision, set up an S-Corporation, found experienced advisors and investors, and built a team.
His vision is to provide an artificial intelligence- influenced platform for anyone to offer or take a course on any topic. The idea leverages social connections so those offering courses can build credibility and find people to enroll. "The best piece about that is it's other people building those courses, and they're monetizing it themselves," Emery says.
Launching a business was a natural fit for his project. "I come from three generations of entrepreneurs, so I've always been interested in businesses," he says.
The Academy provided critical connections for Emery's team. Ash Mohaghegh '23, now a student at Babson College, is providing the technological know-how, and Martin Jeon '24, who just began at Purdue University, is his chief marketing officer.
The Senior Discovery Project provided Emery with a new place to grow at Worcester Academy at a crucial moment. He entered as a junior from Oregon, attracted by the chance to play football. Then, an injury in the spring of that year kept him from playing as a senior. "This gave me something to occupy my mind," Emery says. "I thought, 'Ok, why don't I dip my toes into the entrepreneurial world?'"
He hopes to launch the initial version of the app this fall. As he continues to develop his business, Alex is now attending San Diego State University. "What I've been trying to do with this app is assemble a great team around me so we can all kind of push forward for that same vision," he says. "I've developed so much from my Worcester experience."
Expression Through Painting
"I think that if it weren't for Worcester Academy, I would never be able to really call myself an artist," reflects Tori Rassias '24.
Rassias created ten large paintings for her Senior Discovery Project — all depicting women. "I looked at magazines from the 1960s and 1970s up to the present," she says. "I went into each canvas with somewhat of an idea but nothing too specific; I just let my process take over. I didn't want to be too restrictive. That freedom helped me grow."
Ironically, Rassias's path to this place began in a first-year drawing class, where she decided she wanted to paint. Her Worcester Academy teacher let her go off script. "While yes, she was giving these assignments to the class, she was always open to me expressing myself through paint and just whatever I wanted to do that was outside the assignment box," Rassias recalls.
Her Senior Discovery Project allowed her to document her process — starting with underpainting and continuing through an awkward phase until a piece comes together. In "Blooming Secrets," for example, she spent an initial hour using broad strokes in one hue (in this case, burnt sienna) to put the figures of a woman and a man on the canvas. Then she painted more details, leaving the colors and proportions in flux until firming them up in a final stage.
You can't see most of the pair's faces in that work. "I kind of wanted it to be through your imagination," Rassias says. "Like he's holding flowers. Why is he holding flowers? I wanted people to think for themselves: What could this mean?"
Her path going forward will involve thinking for herself—not taking the expected road to major in art. She plans to study science at UMass Amherst, perhaps heading to a career in dermatology. "I found that I can see art in all different aspects, like their science, and I am majoring in science.
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Lily Zifcak |
