Williamsport, Pa. - For many students, a high school graduation project may be considered the last obligation of a long academic career before the sounds of 'Pomp and Circumstance' fill their ears when they receive their diploma and march into the next phase of life.
School districts have a variety of requirements for high school seniors to graduate. Some districts require their graduating students to complete a project based on school criteria. Some do not.
St. John Neumann Regional Academy in Williamsport, a Catholic institution of learning, more than encourages, it requires their seniors to be more benevolent in their final projects as pupils of their school system.Â
"I decided I wanted to do a project where I collect backpacks and school supplies. We're going give them to kids who need it the most, like kids in foster care," said Kylie Cendoma, of Loyalsock.
Cendoma elaborated further about the scope of her graduation project and what it means.
"The project itself is a really broad thing. It's literally just do something for the community. Has to be community service, or something," explained Cendoma, 17, class of 2022.
Cendoma said other examples of graduation projects from St. John Neumann have been a fundraiser which involved repelling off a building in Williamsport for the American Cancer Society; or volunteering for Girls on the Run, which she says two of her friends are doing.
But Cendoma said she wants to help as many students as possible receive backpacks for the coming 2021-22 school year.
According to Cendoma, she and her mother, Joyce, personally purchased 48 backpacks but have received other donations, such as pencils, markers, crayons, binders, pencil sharpeners, and folders.
The high school senior said her goal was to fill each backpack with most of the same school items to keep things equitable.Â
"We have 75 backpacks right now, so we'll probably split those between two organizations," Cendoma said. "If we do get more donations, I would like to purchase more backpacks, but for now we just have the 75," she said.
Cendoma said "any extra money that we have, we're going to end up spending on that stuff."
Organizations expected to benefit from Cendoma's project includes Dwell Orphan Care in Williamsport, and the YWCA of Northcentral Pa.
If the mission of St. John Neumann Regional Academy is to instill and inspire benevolence in their students, Cendoma seems to have met that challenge head on.
"I thought it would be fun. I feel bad for kids who don't have anything. I don't understand what it's like to be in their position, and I wanted to help them as much as I can," she said.
But she said she was not stopping there. Inside each backpack, she explained, will be a handwritten note from Cendoma on a small, motivational card. The cards were given to her, she said.Â
Cendoma said she plans to write each note, for each backpack, herself.
As for Cendoma's own future, she said she wants "to go to college in Virginia" to become an X-ray sonographer. "And If I like the X-ray thing a lot, then I'll stay and do nursing."
But as an admitted video game fanatic, she says her backup would be to "go in to graphic design, develop video games, and websites, etc.," she added.
Cendoma said she still will be collecting backpacks and other items. Those willing to donate supplies may do so through her Amazon Wish List, which will directly impact her graduation project, in addition to positively affecting dozens of other area students in need of supplies.
She also said individuals interested in purchasing backpacks in bulk to be dropped off at the school, may do so.
