Thanks to four of their classmates, approximately one third of seniors are hoping to spend the last month of their Brewster High School careers outside the classroom.

Senior Enrichment Experience, a new program for Brewster, allows students to spend their final weeks of school in one of three ways: an unpaid internship, a teacher assistantship or an independent project. 

Instead of going to class, students are required to spend 20 to 25 hours weekly working on their experience. They must also keep a journal of their progress and turn in time logs to a select teacher they chose as a mentor.

Once the program begins on May 16, grades for those who participate will be final for the year, with the exception of classes held through Westchester Community College. Mentors will assess student performance as meeting expectations, exceeding expectations or needing improvement. Coordinators and administrators are still discussing whether those assessments will be printed on student transcripts.

Applications for the SEE program were due earlier this month. As of last week, 102 students had applied. Of those students, 53 opted for independent projects, 26 for internships and 23 for teaching assistantships. 

Seniors Lauren Hutt, Ed Newman, Tyler Pollock and Rachel Zurheide have been working on the program with a group of administrators since December. The concept is one they borrowed from New Fairfield High School in Connecticut, after Principal Dr. Joseph Castagnola, former superintendent of New Fairfield Public Schools, suggested a similar experience for Brewster seniors.

"We were so surprised with the response," Hutt said. "For the first year, to have 102 people even interested in the project after knowing little about it is great. The kids are really going to take full opportunity of it."

Organizers are encouraging students to think outside the box. While applicants still have time to finalize internships and projects — which must be secured by May 1 — some students have already come up with unique ideas.

One senior is hoping to study culture in Spain, while another group is concentrating on a beautification project for the school. Internship hopes range from working at publishing houses and law firms to hospitals and other medical-based organizations. “Becoming a co-pilot,” is also on the list.

"We try and allow each person to look into their area of interest,” Pollock said. “We want to keep it open to all areas of interest so everybody can have an opportunity before they get to college, before they graduate, to kind of look into a field."

Just as the array of ideas is broad, the number of students eligible to participate is also wide-ranging. Hutt said that nearly 80 percent of the senior class met SEE requirements, which included a grade point average of 3.0 for this school year.

“Brewster prepared us for this,” she said. “We’ve done the schooling, we’ve sat in the classroom for 12 years, we’ve done what’s required of us. Now it’s time to put it into use to actually see what Brewster High School students can do and take with them when they leave.”

Any businesses interested in learning more about sponsoring an intern can contact seecoordinators@brewsterschools.org.