Homestead School students develop Capstone Projects

Real-world problems and important lessons make the projects so much more

By TED WADDELL
Posted 12/11/24

HURLEYVILLE, NY — It all started in 1978 when Peter and Marsha Comstock founded the Homestead School on a 200-year-old, 85-acre property in Glen Spey. The site was once owned by the locally …

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Homestead School students develop Capstone Projects

Real-world problems and important lessons make the projects so much more

Posted

HURLEYVILLE, NY — It all started in 1978 when Peter and Marsha Comstock founded the Homestead School on a 200-year-old, 85-acre property in Glen Spey. The site was once owned by the locally prominent McKenzie family.

In the decades since, Jack Comstock, son of Peter and Marsha, has become the head of the Homestead School’s Collaborative College High School (CCHS), located in Hurleyville. In 2020, the school announced a partnership with SUNY Sullivan: the program provides students with an opportunity to graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree.

The 2024-2025 school year marks the point when the Homestead School is poised to graduate its first cohort of 12th graders, many of whom will be awarded associate’s degrees in their selected disciplines through the partnership with the two-year college.

In 2021, the CCHS began offering Capstone Legacy Projects. According to Zarah Cabañas, they are “designed to be part of a series of functional courses that provide students a set of skills, such as media arts, dramatic arts and writing.”

According to the Colorado Department of Education, a Capstone Project is a “multifaceted body of work that serves as a culminating academic and intellectual experience for students.” Students “present findings from an independent research-based project, feature a set of experiments or prototypes organized around a central problem, and/or showcase a community service project or learning activity.”

The short version is that Capstone Projects are becoming an integral part of university degree curriculums, designed to create innovative solutions to real-world problems.

This year, the CCHS Capstone Projects are taught by Cabañas, a communications consultant and faculty member. Along with Lizzie Wright and Kelly Adams, she is in charge of guiding several sophomores in the development of their student-selected projects—Trout in the Classroom, Bouldering Wall and Weight Room—and documenting the projects under the heading of Journalism.

“It’s a class where students use their interests and skills to create projects that interest others, and an opportunity to put all the pieces together, and create something that is larger than themselves, giving back to the school and community,” said Cabañas.

Peter Kura, a 15-year-old sophomore from Bloomingburg, is at the helm of the Trout in the Classroom project and has been attending the Homestead School for 3 1/2 years.

At the start of the school year, the avid fisherman went on a trip to the NYS DEC Fish Hatchery near Roscoe. He was introduced to the intricate processes involved in raising trout from eggs to maturity.

“I love multiple kinds of fishing, from fly fishing to spin fishing,” he said. “It’s been my whole life; I love everything about fishing.”

To make his dream of establishing Trout in the Classroom a reality at the CCHS, Kura is looking for funding and sponsors to provide fish tanks, filters, egg baskets and chemicals—all the stuff required to raise trout in a classroom.

“Trout are very sensitive and beautiful. They live in such specific environments; they live to their fullest,” he said.

August Guevara-Frederic of Glen Spey and Freddie Li of Livingston Manor are 15-year-old 10th-graders who designed the Bouldering Wall project.

“Essentially our project idea is to build a bouldering wall, a subset of climbing,” said Li, noting they have been climbing for “three-ish years and really like it” at gyms with walls in New Paltz.

Li said that he likes the sport because “you have to plan and then go out and do it; you have to put thought into it.”

Guevara-Frederic said he enjoys climbing because “it makes you really think about what you’re doing. It takes your full attention; it’s a calming experience.”

To get the bouldering wall project off the ground on a free-standing wall in the school’s community room, they are looking for funding to provide all the necessary equipment, such as wall systems, ropes and safety gear.

Lucas Porter, 15, of Hurleyville, and 16-year-old Max Murphy of Grahamsville are in charge of the Weight Room project, designed to make a functional weight room out of an existing half-room set aside for lifting, and a storage closet, a now unused darkroom.

“As a Montessori student, I came to the high school from the lower campus in Glen Spey with so much activity, so I know if we have an expansion of physical fitness [at the high school], it will benefit not just the student body, but the students’ bodies,” said Porter about the planned weight room.

Murphy concurred with his friend, adding a similar thought. “With the addition of the weight room, it will benefit the entire community. We struggle in our world with a lot of issues, from personal issues to family issues—social, media, school—all of it. A lot of that can come from being lazy, not enough to keep yourself occupied.”

Continuing his pitch for the expanded weight room, he said it was important to “[get] your body up and moving. Really connecting your mind to your body.”

Asked about his Montessori experience, Porter said he has been part of that program since he was a preschooler.

“It’s not just a place to go to learn, but a place to express yourself and also gain knowledge. The Montessori method has a lot of benefits… it offers so much self-guidance and expression. I love it, [but the high school] has very limited sports offerings.”

Murphy said that he came to the CCHS from a public school, where “they let the teacher talk,” while at the Montessori school, “we sit down in class and interact with the teacher and each other.”

Lydia McCardle, 15, lives in Wallkill and serves as documentarian for the school’s Capstone Projects.

“I’m documenting the progress as well as studying, and spreading the word in the community, and writing articles to update [the progress],” she said of her role as project journalist.

McCardle noted that she also uses Google Docs to post things about the projects on the CCHS website for the “students and parents to see.”

“I watch their progress, write down what I see, and ask questions,” she said of her role as documentarian. “One of the big things is to let people know what’s going on; keep people updated on the whole process. It’s a good way to keep the public engaged.”

Her take on attending public school vs. the Montessori experience? 

“I definitely prefer it to public school,” replied the soft-spoken teenager. “I feel like it gives me the freedom to do what I want, instead of pushing me into a box.”

Asked whether she wants to be a journalist in the future, McCardle replied, “Possibly. I plan to go into graphic design in the future, designing websites, so journalism could be helpful.”

Or she might be destined in some fashion to follow in the footsteps of Maria Montessori (1870-1952), an Italian educator and physician, recognized for her unique philosophy of education, a concept that became known as the Montessori Method.

homestead school, hurleyville, NY, CCHS, capstone projects,

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