When I learned about the Grande project, I was both disappointed and excited. I was saddened by the loss of this 50-year-old tradition—something that I was looking forward to since freshman year—but I also recognized the great potential of the project. Campus Ministry has led the Senior Project in a new direction. What had been more centered around service has now become focused on advocacy and social justice. This new Senior Project has excited me, and I am very happy with my project.

My close friend and classmate Noah Apprill-Sokol wrote an opinion piece earlier this year responding to the backlash of this project. He told us to keep an open mind about this opportunity and to really embrace these moments. But this is very difficult when considering all the factors of this project.

The senior class has been bombarded with school work and college applications and scholarships, and for many of us, we have been tasked to be the leaders of the many different clubs at Saint Louis U. High. In the homily at our Junior Ring Mass, Fr. Gibbons said that life is unfair, but that we are going to have to rise to the challenge and be more. I have spent countless hours navigating school work and college stuff. As a Senior Advisor, I sacrificed my time to be a mentor to the I have risen to the challenge of the pandemic in many ways this year. I have risen to the challenge of living and working in a pandemic, but I do not know how much more I can be and do. I do not know how much more energy I can muster for this Grande Project.

The second and most recent deliverable, which was due last Tuesday night, asked students to list three sources and two names of people they planned to interview. I am very excited about my topic and project, and I really want to unleash my full passion and creativity on the project. But, in the midst of preparing for exam week, it quickly became a tedious task on a checklist, much like those English essays that students cram out the night before they are due. I, like most of my classmates, simply did a quick Google search on my topic and copied the first three internet sources that I could find. I would have loved to spend a lot of time searching for fascinating articles on my topic, but alas, I was too worried about the threat of getting a JUG or a demerit the next day because I did not turn it in on time.

My situation is not uncommon when it comes to my class. In conversations with my classmates, I heard many stories that were similar to my own. Students are excited about this project and want to put effort into it, but they are relegated to doing the project last minute and placing minimal effort. Even students who are well organized and disciplined are struggling to give this project the time and effort it deserves. In a conversation with a classmate who is a very organized and straight-A student, he said that he stayed up to 12:00 a.m. working on it because it got caught up in the other work that we have to do to prepare for the end of exams. 

To Campus Ministry: I ask for grace and mercy. Give us more time to think and process each step and give reminders a couple of days in advance. I know it is not necessarily deserved, but isn’t that what mercy and grace are all about? Hopefully, then, students, like me will be able to spend more quality time on the project and not be rushing through it in the middle of the night.

I know this sounds like a “whiny senior,” someone that does not want to put effort into his final year at SLUH. But, I hope you see me more as a student who is desperately overwhelmed by the plight of school work, college application and scholarship deadlines, and now the Grande Project. I think that I have raised some legitimate concerns that should not only be heard but addressed. I recognize all the work that has been done by Campus Ministry, in particular Ms. Anzalone and Mr. Gilmore, and I am grateful that we have at least some form of Senior Project in this crazy time.