Academic essays have always been a significant stressor for students, with their impending deadlines and lengthy word counts. None, however, seem to top the infamous Senior Thesis. With a required 15 pages, the turbulent eight-week process of writing the Senior Thesis consists of many steps, from research to editing. In summary, the paper requires students to utilize the skills they have developed from freshman year.
English Department Chair William Martino believes that the thesis allows students to showcase their KO education. “I feel like the Senior Thesis is such a great moment for seniors to showcase and demonstrate all of the skills they’ve learned in their four years of English classes,” he said. “So from analyzing a text to incorporating secondary sources, to really finding something you’re passionate about, it is an opportunity for students to take those skills and apply them to something totally driven by the student’s own curiosity. So often, English classes are dictated by the works we choose to teach. So, it is a great opportunity for me to see what students are passionate about and what students are watching and reading.”
Since its inception in 1993, the Senior Thesis has served as a graduation requirement at KO. It embodies the KO experience, as it challenges students to think critically and delve into the research process. With both Senior Thesis teachers’ insights and a comprehensive poll of the senior class, the KO News Investigative department has learned about the reception of the Senior Thesis and has heard a wide range of student perspectives. Described by some as “UNSPEAKABLE” and others as “rewarding,” Senior Thesis has impacted students in diverse ways.
Despite considerable positive feedback, the Senior Thesis is not without potential flaws. Throughout its time at KO, there have been two notable changes. First, before readily-available technology like Google and personal laptops, students were expected to write their entire thesis by hand. Additionally, they often relied on library resources without the convenience of websites like Google Scholar and JSTOR. “Obviously, with technological research, so much of the research and writing is completely done through computers,” English teacher Mr. Hild said. “Some of that is a lot easier, and better for kids too, than worrying about, say, who is going to type my thesis for me.”
Furthermore, another significant change was the new definition of a “text.” When the Senior Thesis was first introduced at KO, students had to choose a literary text, frequently a novel, play, or poetry. In the past five years, however, thesis teachers realized how primary source texts can come in many forms, including video games, podcasts, or films. In 2024, almost 50% of the senior class is writing about a film, with an additional 26% writing about a TV show. This inclusive definition of a text allows students to pursue various primary sources, genuinely allowing them to engage with work that piques their interest and mirrors the collegiate experience.
While KO markets the Senior Thesis as essential for students to complete, only 60% of current seniors ultimately believe that the thesis will help them be adequately prepared for higher education. Of the remainder, 20% of seniors believe the thesis will not aid them in the future. English teacher Michelle Caswell has heard various students’ perspectives on the Senior Thesis. One of the most significant included a student who struggled with writing while at KO. “He leaned on the scaffolds that his teachers gave him and worked with copy editors,” Mrs. Caswell said. “He came back to KO in November of his freshman year of college, and he said, ‘I’m helping everyone on my floor with structuring an essay!’ Their first day of class, the teacher asked the students to write a five-page response to their summer reading. He was like, ‘I knew exactly how to do that.’”
Completing the KO thesis in a student’s senior year has many arguable benefits. Most importantly, it lets students directly practice the skills they will use in college. Like Mrs. Caswell’s student, students are often asked to produce a paper with minimal guidance, leaving them possibly unsure how to proceed. “It’s the closest thing to a college-type paper, you’ll write when you’re at KO,” Mr. Hild said. “There has been a strong belief for many years that it is a good project to have kids do before they go away to college because they will have done it already with a lot of support. I think they get more support here from their teachers than they’ll get from a college professor because that is how it is set up to be.”
Similarly, in an article published on the KO website, former Associate Head of School Natalie Demers stated the importance of the Senior Thesis. “Demanding both persistence and passion, the Senior Thesis is the culmination of each student’s academic experience at Kingswood Oxford,” Ms. Demers said. “It allows seniors to bring together everything they’ve learned about research, organization, literary analysis, and writing to focus on an author, literary work, or theme they love.” Furthermore, she highlighted the national significance of the KO Senior Thesis, with several students attracting national recognition for their well-polished and impressive papers. In former years at KO, the English department selected an essay annually to be sent to the National Cum Laude Society. At the time, the Society ran an essay contest for inducted students. At KO, Benjamin Waldman ’16 and Noah Stanton ’17 were selected by the National Cum Laude Society as having the best student research paper in the country. Consequently, they won a small college scholarship.
On another note, many current seniors argue that the thesis process should be extended. The winter season is an overwhelming time for many. Performers in the musical balance lengthy rehearsals with a lengthy paper. Similarly, various teams travel to competitions nationwide, leaving them to struggle to balance their sport with the paper. “It feels like all the due dates are so randomly early,” one anonymous writer wrote in the survey. “But at the same time, it makes sense if they want to get them in before Spring Break, which is smarter than letting it dwell over break. I know for a fact no one would work on their Senior Thesis over break.”
Students may not have to fear completing their thesis over break, however. After recent departmental discussions, the English department plans to extend the Senior Thesis process. In this system, during the first semester, a student would complete their foci (in other words, their narrowed topic) before Winter Break. Therefore, students would have two teachers review their thesis topic, given they have different semester teachers. Despite these possible changes, the writing process for seniors in 2024 remains unchanged.
Although the process can feel rushed and perhaps overwhelming, students can still write a well-researched, specific analytical essay. While teaching students how to write an essay of this scope, the paper also allows students to discover and master new topics. Approximately 65% of seniors agreed that the Senior Thesis gave them a space to develop and research a topic that otherwise they wouldn’t explore. “The purpose of the Senior Thesis is to engage and sustain longer-term, deeper-dive scholarship and detailed, focused writing,” English teacher and Director of Teaching and Learning Heidi Hojinicki said. “The Senior Thesis forces you to really closely analyze [a work]. Just because of its length, it makes it much harder to skim the surface.”
Because students must dive deep into their analysis, they must retain passion for their topic and commit to writing a lengthy paper. This doesn’t always work in practice, however. Seniors frantically write in order to finish and be done with the thesis. Approximately 40% of seniors agreed they could not “sustain energy and enthusiasm for intellectual pursuit.” These are the goals that the English department hopes to achieve with the Senior Thesis, and they are outlined on the KO website.
In order to more accurately include all students’ interests, Ms. Hojnicki and English teacher Cathy Schieffelin have brainstormed ways to transform the Senior Thesis into a Senior Capstone project. This project would be more interdisciplinary and would make students become even more immersed in their communities. In a Senior Project, students would still pose questions and complete extensive research. However, they would need to find a mentor in the local community to support their research. “If you were wanting to research about the lifecycle of a plant, then you would work with a horticulturist or maybe UCONN,” Ms. Hojnicki said. “We bandied about ways to put together a database for students to contact folks. So, you would tap into our alumni network and people in the area who might be willing to work with students. We intentionally designed it so it wouldn’t be a massive ask of the person outside campus.”
This way, the Senior Thesis would become more inclusive, allowing students with more STEM interests to pursue their passions. Although it would become a capstone project, students could also write a classic thesis about a work of literature. Of the current senior class, 66.7% agreed that the Senior Thesis should be changed to a capstone project. However, some seniors expressed they would disapprove of the change. “I think there is a lot of merit to having a thesis element of KO’s curriculum, so even if it becomes a senior project, it should still include synthesis of information,” an anonymous senior said. “Additionally, I think that Senior Thesis works best for KO English, as English doesn’t have the same AP requirements to contend with that, some other classes have, which would make a senior project much more difficult. Also, taking Senior Thesis from just being an English project would make advising more difficult.” The English department has the staffing to support students through the thesis. Enlisting teachers from other departments, however, would pose a challenge. Given the depth of the project, teachers may not have the time in their busy schedules to support multiple students.
Overall, the Senior Thesis is a culmination of the KO English experience, allowing students to perfect their writing abilities and gain real research experience. The Senior Thesis might change in the years to come, but it still retains its goals of critical analysis and independent exploration.
