Their Next Chapter: Seniors are writing their annual Senior Research Papers on books relating to future career options

All senior English classes are writing the annual Senior Research Paper over the course of the first quarter of second semester. The paper is a graduation requirement and capstone project at East. It requires students to pair a “work of literary merit” with a secondary discipline, typically an existing field of study that can be applied to their chosen novel and explored throughout the paper.

“We live in a world in which transfer from one field to another is very important,” AP Literature and Composition teacher Amy Andersen said. “It’s an important skill to be able to apply knowledge from one discipline to another and problem solve fusing together different fields.”

Many students chose to work with topics that they are interested in pursuing after high school, from medicine to biochemistry.

After considering all 295 suggested book options to work with for her senior research paper, none seemed to align with senior Lida Padgett’s interest in exercise science. 

Over an email exchange with Andersen, she was directed to and settled on the novel “The House of God” by author Samuel Shem because of its medical focus. For her paper, Padgett chose to pair the novel’s storyline about a man’s exposure to surgery and treatments during a medical internship with exploring the practice of comparing inactive and active medical care.

“I’m focusing on how over-prescribing treatments can affect [a patient’s] health more than not doing anything,” Padgett said. “And the concept of letting the body take care of itself.” 

As a cross country and track athlete, her love for fitness encouraged her to combine her affinity for science with healthcare, and resulted in her current hope to pursue exercise science in college. Padgett first discovered her interest in the medical field through taking Anatomy and Medical Science her junior year. 

“Because I’m a runner, I’ve seen people who are in sports medicine and they’ve helped me a lot to stay healthy and not get injured,” Padgett said. “I want to do the same, and I realized that I can do what I want to do and what I love at the same time, like medicine and sports.”

Then-middle-schooler Mia Stamos first fell in love with the field of biotechnology at a summer camp held at the Center for Academic Achievement in 2019, fascinated by growing bacteria in petri dishes and running gels with strands of DNA. 

When sophomore enrollment came around, Stamos knew what she would use her two free electives for — the biochemistry class at the CAA. She found interest specifically in molecular and cellular biology, which served as inspiration for the secondary discipline element of her paper. 

“I really enjoy the interdisciplinary angle,” Stamos said. “I have these books and this science that I love and it’s been really interesting to think about how I can find deeper meanings within the novels using science.”

Stamos chose to analyze two texts for her paper, choosing “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller and “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood to examine how science has historically been used as justification for the oppression of women.

“In both of these books, the response to a fear of the unknown is trying to find a way to solve this which leads to the oppression of women,” Stamos said. “The question I’m answering is as our society evolves, and further scientific advancements are made, will we be less likely to oppress women?”

After high school, Stamos hopes to go on to both undergraduate and graduate studies, with a major in biotechnology. 

“[I love that] I get to critically solve problems and do all these experiments working with my hands,” Stamos said. “I’m not very good at sitting down, so I like the laboratory work and the science of it. I love that kind of mix.”