On Wednesday, December 13, Athens Academy senior Rachel Wicker successfully defended her Capstone Project, "Becoming a Journalist." As a junior, Rachel had joined the Capstone program with a vision of creating a podcast, but she struggled to choose just one topic to study. She was interested in so many stories and how to tell them. Through her work with mentor Tricia Edmison, her project evolved as a study of journalism. Ms. Edmison is the coordinator of the Scruggs Writing Center at Athens Academy, overseeing the school’s newspaper, The Spartan Review, and assisting students as they develop their writing skills through Middle and Upper School.

Over the last year, Rachel has worked to develop her own writing skills in order to tell a variety of stories. English teacher Connell NeSmith helped connect Rachel with Red & Black Executive Director Charlotte Varnum. This interview led to a summer internship which dramatically shaped Rachel's experience with writing. Over the course of her internship, Rachel wrote articles on female tattoo artists in the Athens area, free yoga classes at the Georgia Museum of Art, and a word-on-the-street story of Athenians' favorite summer meals.

Perhaps Rachel project's greatest legacy is the programming she has created with Athens Academy’s Middle School newspaper writers. Rachel created and ran training sessions for middle school writers and then established a position of Middle School newspaper coordinator, an Upper School student who works closely with Middle School editors to train and encourage the program. Ms. Edmison has watched as Rachel has "transformed" the program in incredible way. Rachel is now also working to create a pathway to connect Spartan Review writers with The Oconee Enterprise.

All of this, and when Rachel first joined Capstone, she had never even written for the school paper.

The Capstone Project is an opportunity for Upper School students to explore a passion via four criteria: research, mentorship, experiential learning, and an outward contribution. Each student details their work extensively in a portfolio, including a research paper; they then defend the project before a committee of faculty and administrators, similar to a Ph.D. oral defense. Students whose projects are approved by the committee receive the Capstone designation at commencement in May.

Athens Academy is an independent, co-educational school for students in K3 through 12th grade, located on a beautiful 152-acre campus in Northeast Georgia. Now in its 57th year, Athens Academy pursues its mission of “excellence with honor” through academics, athletics, fine arts, and service and leadership. Ranked the #1 private school in Athens, #9 college prep school in the state of Georgia, and #1 private school in Northeast Georgia (Niche.com). For more information, please contact Kelley Cuneo, communications director, at [email protected] or 706-433-2410.