Global Academy passion projects put discovery on display as freshmen share inner visions

For Global Academy Level 1 students, the passion project provides the opportunity to move beyond the textbook and delve deeper to become an expert in their key interests. It is the first major assignment of the year and challenges freshmen to take a deep dive into an interest and then present a creation to their class. 

English teacher William Brydon believes the project gives students the chance to discover themselves and demonstrate how they learned more through the lens of their souls.

“We check off the first unit standards by giving the students a little bit more autonomy in how they choose to demonstrate their learning,” he said. “They identify and follow a passion of theirs and then share it with the class and get all that positive feedback, which I think generates some positive momentum for the school year.”

Brydon  hopes to see students inadvertently build these skills through their projects.

“We work on the core reading, writing and speaking skills that are going to be with them for the whole school year and then have them work on those skills without knowing they are working on those skills,” he said.

While the final Gallery Walk is a celebration, the road to getting there is full of frustrations and hurdles. Brydon noted that there are multiple obstacles that the students might face in their projects upon initial research.

“There are some commonalities throughout the years, like there is always the initial frustration phase,” he said. “I think it's good. Friction creates fire—you gotta go through some frustration to learn something.”

For freshman Sadie Balcom, who researched the neuroscience of the violin, the difficulty was finding her focus. Sadie has been playing violin since she was in third grade, and while she enjoys it, she realized that it might’ve not been her initial passion, but after more research, she realized that the violin's correlation with neuroscience meant more to her than she thought. 

“At the beginning that wasn’t really my focus, it was just violin as a whole,” she said. “What I thought was very interesting was that the main thing that playing an instrument does is that it improves the bridge between the two hemispheres of your brain.”

Balcom said the project fundamentally changed how she approached her learning. She began to think more critically about different things within her life, and applied that even more in her passion project.

“I think the main thing it taught me is to look a little deeper at what you’re doing because a lot of things say it's good for you, but what is it doing?” she said. “I’ve never really had a class that made you think a little deeper instead of telling you to memorize these topics.”

The variety of creations at the Gallery Walk reflected the sheer ambition of the freshman class. A sense of uniqueness makes these creations memorable for the teachers and students involved.

 "I think the projects that stick with me over the years are the ones I've never seen anyone do before, like Devyn bringing in a horse,” Brydon said.

Freshman Devyn Gietman brought her horse, Sebastian, to school to demonstrate the healing power of equine friends. Gietman, who has been riding horses for almost half of her life, explained how the animals have always given her a way to be herself.

“Horses have always given me a sense of accomplishment, comfort, and understanding,” she said.

 She wanted to educate people more on equine therapy, as it's not a common subject in schools, or nationwide. Equine therapy is closely related to most animal therapies and focuses on improving the mental, cognitive, physical, and emotional health of the person involved in the program.

 “Equine therapy is not commonly spoken about, even though it has such a high success rate, almost more than human therapy,” she said. 

Gietman explained that the bond between humans and horses has been around for years and has let people see within themselves.

“Horses don't hide, or mask themselves from people; they're authentic, they're genuine. They invite us humans to be more transparent with ourselves,” she said.

The logistics for the project were intense, requiring Gietman to work with administrators to get Sebastian on school grounds. 

"It was not the easiest project I've ever done. Considering the fact I brought my horse to school, I had to go through many policies, fill out forms, and meet with the principal so I could bring Sebastian," she said. 

For her, the effort was validated when she saw the response by everyone around her.

“Many people loved the project, and I had several people ask about programs in the area where they can go to equine therapy,” she said.

Freshman Argelia Brost presented a short film she made as part of her focus on becoming an actor.

 “My project was about acting. I did a short film and that was really fun to make,” she said. 

She found inspiration from industry professionals, whose guidance led her to success in her passion project.

"One of the things I found interesting was a quote from Anthony Hopkins, ‘Don't show too much, contain, contain,'" she said.

Brost, despite having confidence on stage, admitted that she still gets anxious when presenting to peers. 

“I just get a rush whenever I go on stage,” she said. “I get kind of nervous whenever I show people stuff I made.” 

The Gallery Walk not only served as a critical opportunity for the freshmen to learn about themselves,  but about each other. Freshman Ellie Piela explored art and fashion, displaying her work, an elegant purple gown, on a mannequin.

"This project made me talk out more, which is one thing I usually don't do," she said. 

As the project progressed, she learned it was about more than just content, rather the connections built along the way. 

"To some people, it may seem like, ‘what does this have to do with Global at all?’ But it really helps you learn about your peers," she said.

Freshman Isabelle Sorensen, who focused on how color adds depth to her artwork, faced a more academic hurdle. While she knew art was her passion, she still had to expand her knowledge to successfully complete the project.

 “Citing sources was probably the hardest thing because I never learned that before,” she said. “Overall, it would be paying attention to those little details that was the hardest thing for me, but I also learned how to do that.”

 Sorensen felt the project shaped her passion in ways she has never explored before.

“I always thought of art as something to do in my free time. I've never pushed myself to learn further, so I think that this project did so for me.”

Sorensen’s final creation was an experiment on color perception inspired by a TED Talk that went over how colors and people correlate together. She painted the same vase of flowers twice, one bright, one dark to see if people's emotions would change. She loved the academic freedom this project brought.

 "We got to learn more about our passions and that this was a Global project, so that got me more excited for what's to come.”

The greatest reward, Brydon concluded, is the sense of accomplishment the students feel afterwards.

"The other commonality is always the reflections after they have gone through the gallery walk and how proud they are, and how excited they were to share their passion with their peers," he said. 

Brydon hopes the freshmen carry this lesson forward into the rest of their school careers and beyond.

"They do something that they thought was gonna be hard, that was hard, but they got through it and triumphed over it,” he said. “That is a big lesson to learn early on in high school, that we can do hard things and that it's going to benefit them going forward.”

by Uzma Mirza

Published November 3, 2025

Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue II