A final wrap-up with 2020 St. Kate’s honors students
As the end of the school year comes to an end, one of the major events for Antonian Honors students is presenting their projects before they graduate. Students work on these projects over the course of a semester in place of a regular class. The projects are interdisciplinary, meaning they utilize multiple topics to form a single project. This past Friday, Warda Abdullahi ‘20 (Public health: health sciences) and Jordan Lena ‘20 (English & music theater) presented their projects in an online presentation.
“Being an honors student at St. Kate’s is about more than completing a checklist of requirements,” said Rafael Cervantez, the director of the Antonian Honors program at St. Kate’s. “It also gives students the opportunity to be part of a community following a different, more engaging path.” The honors program comes with special benefits, such as the opportunity to take honors seminars, meet and socialize with other honors students in the Honors Hub, and complete a final senior project at the end of the journey.
The title cover of Abdullahi’’s novel, Warda: My Journey from the Horn of Africa to a College Education, which is her project.
Abdullahi’s project is a book she wrote about her life’s journey, which has taken her from a farm in Ethiopia to graduating from St. Kate’s. “My journey is one of perseverance, determination, and steadfast refusal to let go of a dream,” Abdullahi said. “Warda is the story of a fierce, independent young woman on a tireless quest to become the first member of her family to finish high school and go to college.”
“My story illustrates the human cost of war, xenophobia, famine, and drought,” Abdullahi added. “Warda is the story of the unbreakable human spirit, a powerful memoir that helps us to understand some of the inequities and injustices embedded in a global system that determines who is allowed to move freely and live where they choose.”
Lena’s honors project is a dramatic adaptation of the children’s book, The Day the Crayons Quit. The book tells the story of Duncan, a child whose crayons “quit,” deciding they don’t want to be used for various reasons. Red, for example, is tired of being used to color hearts, apples, and Santas so often, and Peach, having had their wrapper removed, is nude. Through Lena’s innovation, the story is reinvented into an easy to perform play. It retells the story in a low-cost and accessible way, with no strict scripts and no needed equipment or theater performance history.
“Performers young and old will have the opportunity to bring a colorful cast of characters to life as they tell audiences why they have decided to quit their job as crayons forever.” Lena wrote in her project abstract. “This flexible cast may feature from as few as two actors playing multiple parts, to a lively cast of thirteen unique characters.” The rendition Lena performed featured her as the sole actor playing the roles of Duncan and the crayons who were quitting.
Lena, pictured above, acts out a scene in her adapted play based on the book, The Day the Crayons Quit. Orange, Duncan, and Yellow (from left to right), are all shown by her as she acts out their arguments.
With a background in music theater and English, Lena ensured an easy way to dive into such a performance. “The script is designed to not only entertain young viewers when performed by seasoned actors, but also [to be] an easy introduction into acting for those wishing to dip their toes into performance.”
For more information about the Antonian Honors program at St. Kate’s, visit the website at https://www.stkate.edu/academics/honor-societies/antonian-scholars or email honors@stkate.edu.
