By Ginny Miller

Daily Journal

TUPELO - A student-driven program at Tupelo High School is helping 12th-graders to think critically as they prepare their senior projects - and for life after graduation.

"It's a whole learning stretch, getting ready for the future," said Derrick Pounds, who illustrated a book about armadillos for his senior project.

"You have to have it to graduate. It's three major grades," he said, noting that with research, an essay, a product and other components, "It's a lot of work."

Students have mentors on their projects - Pounds' was THS art teacher Karen Barclay - and many of them get started before their senior year because of the amount of work involved.

"I started drawing this back in July," said Pounds, whose drawings complement teacher Donna Ivy's book "Armadillos Come in Fours."

Pounds completed his drawings in January, and a couple of weeks ago he read the book to kindergarten and first-grade students at Church Street Elementary, which he attended as a child.

The young audience was good practice for Pounds, who will join the rest of the Class of 2009 to discuss their projects with community evaluators on Culmination Day.

"This year, nearly 400 seniors will be participating in Culmination Day on April 28," chairman Mary Thomas said. "The community is a part of this entire process, volunteering as mentors, supporting AEE with donations for the day, serving as evaluators, and also visiting the arena to see the finished project."

The Association for Excellence in Education picked up the 5-year-old project last year, and earlier this month the Community Development Foundation organized visits from local business leaders to senior English classes to discuss professional dress and behavior.

"These volunteers talk to the students about proper attire for Culmination Day, how to meet and greet the evaluators and other 'tips of the trade,'" Thomas said.

By the time students meet with evaluators at the BancorpSouth Arena, she said, the projects they've been busy working on will have transformed "from an idea to a well-polished presentation."

Kevin Steinman is nearly finished with his senior project, a memorial labyrinth he is building behind the St. James Catholic Church office on Lakeshire Drive. His mentor is Nancy Bridges, who described the labyrinth as "a prayer walk, and a mirroring of your personal life journey."

"For a church retreat, we went out to Miss Nancy's house and we walked it, and I was just so taken by it," Steinman said. "It was really relaxing and it helped me cope with some problems I was going through at the time."

By building his own labyrinth, "I hope that other people have the experience that I had," said Steinman.

He drew up plans in February and broke ground in March. With a red wheelbarrow, he's been hauling $300 worth of stones and placing them in the labyrinth's seven-circuit pattern.

"I have to be done before Culmination Day," he said last week.

Like Pounds, Steinman said he's benefited a great deal from his senior project.

"I think it's a really good project for us," Steinman said. "It teaches us a bunch about time management. As seniors, we have so many things we're working on. It's stressful, but it's getting me ready for college. It stretches you."

Contact Ginny Miller at (662) 678-1582 or ginny.miller@djournal.com.