Twenty-six Upper School seniors presented the culmination of two years of independent research to a packed Heritage Hall on Friday afternoon — the annual Capstone Symposium, a defining ritual of BPD Academy’s college-preparatory program.
The Capstone Program, established in 1993, pairs each junior with a faculty mentor to develop a substantial research project that they defend publicly at the end of twelfth grade. This year’s projects ranged from an oral history of a shuttered Philadelphia printing trade to a chemistry investigation into tap-water stabilizers in aging municipal systems.
“The point is not a grade or a credential,” said Dr. Elena Marquez, Head of School. “The point is that every graduate of BPD leaves having done, at least once, a piece of work they cared about that no adult assigned them.”
Faculty mentors include not only Upper School teachers but also Trustees, alumni, and a small number of outside practitioners in fields relevant to the student’s question. Two of this year’s projects were co-mentored by academics at Lehigh and Bryn Mawr.
A selection of this year's Capstone titles (student names redacted on the public site):
- The Kensington Press, 1971–2004: An Oral History
- Phosphate Scale in 1920s-Era Municipal Piping: A Case Study
- Translating the Tenth Book of the Iliad: Choices and Losses
- Unpriced: A Field Study of Rural Broadband in Central Pennsylvania
- A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Sophocles’ Philoctetes
The Symposium is open to families, alumni, and the surrounding community every spring. Projects are archived in the Academy Library and available for independent reading by current students.