Capping Off a High School Career

Rishi Patel says the Capstone project is worth the extra work.

Brooke Marie Photography Co.

By Andrew Morin

Sanford High School student

The Sanford High School and Regional Technical Center is one of the newest and most impressive high schools in the state. In addition to amenities like the grand Performing Arts Center and well-equipped athletic facilities, SHS offers many academic programs that most other schools don’t. One of these is the Advanced Placement-Capstone program.

Advanced Placement, or AP, is an academic program offered and administered by the nonprofit College Board that aims to help students challenge themselves and develop critical skills for the future through in-depth research, experimentation and analysis of scholarly material. While many schools offer AP classes, Sanford is one of only 14 high schools in the state to go a step further and offer the AP Capstone program.

With the Capstone program, students take AP Seminar classes – in-depth courses that help develop their analysis and critical thinking skills – and AP Research classes. These classes require students to research existing knowledge about a subject and then do their own research and experimentation. Areas and methods of research can vary widely among students. Possible topics may include biology, history, sociology, or art. Methods of research may be as simple as a survey or as complex as experimentation with animals. The goal of AP Research classes is to give students the skills to effectively research and come to their own conclusions on topics.

Students who take both Seminar and Research classes and an additional four other AP classes are eligible to receive a special AP Capstone diploma. This is challenging, says senior Rishi Patel, who will graduate this June.

“It’s not easy to do, but it’s worth the hustle if you do the program,” said Patel, who credits the program for helping him develop such skills as time management, critical thinking and responsibility that can be useful later in his education and career. Also, he values the program for allowing him to take college level courses early, meaning he will not have to take them when he’s in college.

Patel said he would recommend the program to others. “I think it helps develop necessary skills for later in life,” he said, “and on top of that, it looks good at graduation and to potential employers and college admission committees.”