This week, I was tasked with finding a research project that I liked, and maybe had something to do with mine. After a lot of searching, I chose Kari Bender’s project, “Speak. Bringing Spoken Word Poetry to Olin College”. At first, I thought this was going to be a pretty normal project, but I was pleasantly surprised. Ms. Bender looked around her culture and saw that there was no outlet for spoken poets in her college and decided to do something about that. After forming the club, she set out on her work and research: How to run a successful club, proper ways of preforming slam poetry and how to get people to accept her new club in a college totally devoted to engineering. I was taken with Ms. Bender’s project because I like that it involved action. Ms. Bender didn’t just sit around and complain about how her creative juices were stifled; she actually did something about it. To me, a project, especially a senior thesis, should leave a real mark on the community, and I think that Ms. Bender’s project did just that. Her love for the project made it a passionate, interesting idea. I also love how she presented it, with videos and meeting notes spaced in a PowerPoint. I definitely think that this is a type of project that I would like to do because I can really relate to it’s message. Action is so important in life, and judging by Ms. Bender’s numbers about their final poetry slam (15 performers and 35 attendees), she has accomplished more than she set out to do! A great project for sure!

http://digitalcommons.olin.edu/ahs_capstone_2014/15/