BATH

Despite being worlds apart, two generations collided on Thursday as students from Morse High School shared the end results of a two-week project — biographies they had written of the residents at the Plant Memorial Home in Bath.

Mary Parker, who teaches at-risk students through the Academy program at Morse, said the project was something she had come up with for Women’s History Month when she used to work at Freeport Middle School.

“I always wanted to connect my kids to their communities and to real-life opportunities,” she said. “My end goal is just really to get them into their communities and have positive interactions with people.”

Equipped with a recorder and a packet of questions, each student in Parker’s morning class had sat down to conduct a one on one interview with a woman at the Plant Home earlier this month.

Parker was hopeful that the project would challenge students to “go out of their comfort zones.”

Not everybody enjoys public speaking, Parker said, and not everybody likes meeting new people.

However, she added: “For me, I see a lot of personal growth in students and (they’re) taking it so serious.”

After two weeks of poring through recorded interviews and organizing it on paper, students returned to Plant Home to read the biographies they had prepared out loud, as their interviewees sat close by and listened to their life stories read back to them.

Each biography was comprised of a unique collection of memories and stories from each woman, including interests and hobbies, significant historical events, former aspirations and what it was like to be a teenager.

“I loved it,” said Plant Home resident Gerry Perry after the presentation. “I thought the kids did very, very well.”

Perry was interviewed by sophomore Mackenzie Snowdon, who shared that she now has “a different outlook on life” through the project.

“I really enjoyed the interview,” she said. “And I feel like it was a great experience and I just love … learning about someone’s life and how it was. And their time of living was pretty awesome.”

Plant Home Executive Director Kristi Hyde also commended the students for their work and invited the students to return for next year’s project.

“It’s always interesting to see how people reflect on their lives and I think the students did an excellent job,” she said.

“I am unbelievably proud of what they have done,” Parker said after the presentation. “And I think I’m more proud because they feel a sense of positive accomplishment because they’re hearing immediate gratification back from the person they just spoke about. And they know somebody now in their community a little bit differently.”

dkim@timesrecord.com

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