Senior Thesis Presentations 2025
All Geneva School students complete a thesis in their senior year. With the help of their teacher and a faculty mentor, each senior studies a contemporary issue, learning all they can about its history, and situating it within the greater conversation about what is good. Then, with their particular audience in mind, they explain what they have learned and propose a way forward. It should be noted that the oration, as well as the student’s answers to audience members’ questions, represent the student’s own understanding and do not necessarily reflect the position of the school or the student’s mentor.
In order to succeed in the thesis process, seniors must commit to growing in a number of skills and habits: careful research, clear and organized writing, judicious time management, humble response to criticism, tenacious commitment to truth. In one sense, what they take on in the senior thesis is not new. By the time they reach this milestone, Geneva students have had many opportunities to practice logical thinking and public speaking. They understand that to make a good argument requires them to consider an idea in a reasoned way, to take a clear and specific stand, and to go to great lengths to understand and refute opposing viewpoints.
But the senior thesis is different, and not just because it is a more public, more sustained argument than any the student has made before. The thesis process teaches students how important it is to back up their claims with reasoning and evidence, as well as to consider what counts for evidence in different contexts and with different people. More importantly, it teaches them that when it comes to complex issues, it takes more than evidence and logic to change someone’s mind. Finally, the process is meant to remind the seniors that real insight about issues of human flourishing requires an understanding of what humans are for–and of what their Creator requires of them.
Although our seniors will readily admit that they still have much more to learn about their topics, they are, nevertheless, doing something noteworthy in presenting and defending their thesis: they are trying to change our minds. By drawing our attention toward an issue that matters to them, they are making a contribution that goes beyond the academic. They are attempting to persuade us to act in a way that will secure the common good. In other words, they are engaging in deliberative speech, which Aristotle saw as the highest form of rhetoric.
By going through the process of preparing and presenting their thesis, each senior is making strides toward being the “good person, speaking well” that defines the ideal orator.
| The Geneva School Senior Thesis Presentations 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, May 6, 2025 | ||
| 8:35 am | Elijah Quintana | Drawn Thin: Why Animation—and Its Artists—Deserve to Thrive |
| 9:35 am | Grace Clark | Burden or Blessing? Restoring the Dignity of Motherhood from Modern Feminism |
| 10:40 am | Angelie Gonzalez | Is It Their Fault? Exploring the Roots of Teen Anxiety |
| 11:40 am | Lindley Rives | The Loss of Life: The Injustice of Capital Punishment |
| 1:20 pm | Giuliana Flores | Progess over Perfection: Why Standards-based Grading and Formative Assessment Are Better Tools for Education |
| 2:20 pm | Savannah Strasberg | De-Extinction in Practice: A Future Built on the DNA of the Past |
| Wednesday, May 7, 2025 | ||
| 8:35 am | Ashley Vandersluis | Mind over Matter: The Psychology of Entertainment and How It Impacts Us |
| 9:25 am | CHAPEL | |
| 10:20 am | Nathaniel Alilin | Health or Hustle: Examining the Motives behind Health Authorities and Determining Whom You Can Trust |
| 11:10 am | Loralei Flores | Who Doesn't Want a Personal Assistant? The Benefits of Chatbots in Education |
| 12:00 pm | Noah Geiger | Faith and Fiction: The Case for Christian Engagement with Literature |
| 1:40 pm | Palmer Hendrix | The Perfection Paradox: Developing the Correct Framework for Success |
| 2:30 pm | Layla Mander | Executing Justice: A Study of Natural Law, Moral Responsibility, and the Ethics of Capital Punishment |
| 3:30 pm | Samantha Petrak | Right Here, Right Now: The Problem of Instant Gratification in the Modern Age |
| Thursday, May 8, 2025 | ||
| 8:35 am | Elizabeth Roberts | Many Hands Make Light Work: How the Primary Care System Can Best Support Dementia Patients |
| 9:35 am | Griffin Smith | Remember the Tight-Ends: The Benefits of Youth Tackle Football |
| 11:40 am | Lourdes Starr | Distressed Damsels and Femme Fatales: Women Are Worth More Than What the Film Industry Says |
| 1:20 pm | Landon Gerber | Polluting the Mind: How Pop Psychology Distorts the Public’s Understanding of Both Mind and Soul |
| 2:20 pm | Bailey White | On Earth as It Is in Heaven: The Place of Social Justice in the Kingdom |
| Friday, May 9, 2025 | ||
| 8:35 am | Michael Sharp | America's Favorite Rifle or Public Enemy No.1?: The AR-15 Controversy Unpacked |
| 9:35 am | Keith Dixon | Mind Gym: Fortifying the Mind through the Exercise of Mental Toughness |
| 10:40 am | Craig Godwin | Retire on Your Terms: Social Security’s Low Returns, Fading System, and Tapered-off Future |
| 1:20 pm | Audrey Little | Did You Stand Up? Why Teens Are Leaving Youth Ministries and What You Should Do about It |
| 2:20 pm | Micah Swain | Called to Serve: Why Military Service Is Both Viable and Valuable for the Christian |
| Monday, May 12, 2025 | ||
| 8:35 am | Mattie Shepherd | The Great Physician and His Tools: Complementary Medicine and Its Integration into Children's Healthcare |
| 9:35 am | Lura Shepherd | Faith and Femininity: How Gender Distinctions Enhance Church Life |
| 1:20 pm | Reese Peters | Grandma’s Dead and You’re Next: The Rituals and Stigma around Death in American Culture |
| 2:20 pm | Emmy Black | Beyond the Bag: Reimagining Our Relationship with Plastic for a Cleaner Future |
| Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | ||
| 8:35 am | Emma Keyes | Leveling the Playing Field: Preserving the Present and Future of Female Competition |
| 9:35 am | Beatrice Frazer | "What I Stand for Is What I Stand On": Preserving the Agrarian Tradition |
| 10:40 am | Jack Demo | Hen in the Foxhouse: Why Girls Should Be Removed from the Boys Scouts of America |
| 11:40 am | Elliot Myers | The Bigger Equation of Education: How the Liberal Arts Can Improve Mathematics in Schools |
| 1:20 pm | Sona Bowen | Protecting the Protectors of Truth: Why Federal Laws Should Be Enacted to Ensure the Security of Investigative Journalism |
| 2:20 pm | Caedmon Clark | Fighting over Dead Americans: A Moral Stand for Confederate Monuments |
