At Peak, our Division IV students benefit a unique experience, one where they can truly own their education by creating their own carefully crafted schedule. Division IV students this year have been splitting their time between taking courses at The Peak School, such as Lives of Moral Leadership, and at Colorado Mountain College, where they earn college credit. We call this final year for our seniors at Peak a Capstone Year.

A larger piece of the Capstone Year is creating a senior project. The sky's the limit when it comes to these projects, as long as they meet certain educational parameters for growth. Division IV students chose any topic they want to spend an entire school year studying and researching and doing. It should be something they are passionate about -- something that inspires them.  This year, we have six division IV students who have a wide range of exciting topics as their senior projects. Grant Morgan, a pianist, is working on a sonata on his Piano. He plans for it to be 15-30 minutes long with varying pieces to his movement. Tye Brown-Wolf chose politics and is studying what party young voters (ages 18-25) are affiliating with and the influences parties/young voters have on one another. Arel Svenson, a passionate snowboarder, is studying film and working on shooting a snowboard film capturing the emotions a snowboarder experiences as they are flying down a run. Kira Benson, passionate about country music, is recording and producing a country music album that features herself on all the instrumentation and vocals. Jared Lincenberg is studying city planning while using a new software to map Summit County while also studying cultural and historical aspects of city planning. Selah Kreeger, founder of the Peak Theater Club, has been working hard to reach her goal of producing, adapting, directing and acting in three plays this year: Every 17 Minutes the Crowd Goes Crazy, Chronicles of Narnia and Clue.

At the halfway point of our academic year, these six seniors are well on their way to success. These students are being challenged with the biggest project thus far in their academic careers, while also learning about topics that get them excited for future study. A Capstone Year is meant to ignite a passion for learning in a field that these students are interested in, and we are definitely seeing that happen at The Peak School.