You can watch Sam Tarter's and Drew Walter's documentary here.

Last week, time ran out for the Grande Project. Come the end of this week, certain seniors' week-long extensions will (hopefully) have given them enough time to put the finishing touches on their papers, podcasts, or videos and allowed them to submit their final project to Canvas. Due to the somewhat rushed schedule of Grande Week, where the seniors got a week off classes to work on their projects, and the shocking realization that our projects were due only a week after, the complaints of my classmates about how much they despised the project came to a head. It seemed that my class had been upset over the project since its initial reveal, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back of poor scheduling and changes from what came before. 

But despite the rise in complaints and dismissal of work right before the due date, I still ended the Grande Project happy that I got to create something worthwhile and tangible.

As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the project and the opportunity to branch out on my areas of interest and research, I don’t find many of the complaints of my peers relevant. Sure, being the class that was the first ever to experience a bold new and different project was going to come with some setbacks and problems (that was inevitable). Still, I believe that many of the complaints and shortcomings that came with the project stemmed from sheer disgust for the lack of something so revered and proclaimed at SLUH: the Senior Project. With that, instead of staying open to something new and the chance of doing some great and spiritual work, my peers bandwagoned onto a common hatred for the Grande Project. I heard people say that the project’s directors should have “made us have more time for school and college apps instead of this busy work”; that they “should’ve had us work together towards something instead of splitting us up even more.” Or the complaint I heard most often: “I would’ve taken nothing over what we got.”

That is where I seem to branch off from the pack, as I am so glad that we got something instead of nothing. 

For me, the Grande Project was a time of necessary research along with dedicated and thoughtful time into a topic I’ve always been passionate about and interested in, that being racial injustice. Thanks to the prompts and requirements of the project, I got to interview a dear friend of mine on what her upbringing was like and get to know her on a spiritual level, and to sit down and talk with a former politician as a normal human being and man of color, not as a respected public figure or political party member. And I got to partner with and grow closer to my dear friend Drew Walters as we put both of our talents to use and saw each other’s greatest potential, which is what I will most remember from my time working on Grande.

The Grande Project reminds me most of a little known film called Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. I will not delve deep into the many controversies and opinions on this movie, but let's just say that the divide on who loved or hated this movie was an even 50/50 split; it quite literally ripped the Star Wars fandom in two by subverting expectations, trying something new, and being a bold, brazen addition to the Star Wars lore. 

I know that I am in the minority of people who enjoy this film and who enjoy the Grande Project, but I am also not oblivious to their many flaws. Similar to how Star Wars’ killing off of main characters who have been beloved by fans for decades subverted expectations, the Grande Project subverted seniors’ expectations by being completely different from Senior Project and somewhat disregarding the past. A side-plot about a casino planet and animal rights in a sci-fi epic may feel as out of place, unnecessary, and as big of a waste of time as a few of the presentations in Grande Week. And the director killing off who was supposed to be the main villain of the trilogy at the end was as big of a shock to me as when I realized the Project deadline was in less than a week.

I could make a list of the many problems and errors that came with this project (*cough* TIMING! *cough*), but I’m sure our Grande Project leaders have heard all of them enough times already. I do want to say to my peers and fellow advocates: do not look back on the Grande Project with envy, disgust, or remorse, but instead remember it as an example of you persevering through uncertainties in a year full of them. Do not think of yourself as the guinea pigs or test subjects of a new and experimental replacement for the Senior Project, but instead as the trailblazers of a new and hopefully better new chapter of the Senior Project story at SLUH.

I applaud my classmates for doing what St. Ignatius teaches and “going forth and setting the world on fire”, and paving the way for the graduating classes of the future. I thank Mr. Gilmore and Mrs. Anzalone for making this a possibility and for all the faculty advisors who made this a reality.