1. 1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
19 April 2012
Judges, Senior Project
Creekview High School
1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
Dear Judges:
My name is Alex Arzenshek, and I am a senior at Creekview High School. I have been
surrounded by the French language since I was a child. Therefore, for my Senior Project, I
created a bilingual children’s book in French and English. I wanted to understand what writing a
children’s book entails. My desire was to display the language in a simple and creative way, so
children could comprehend both languages.
The product for my Senior Project is a bilingual children’s book in French and English. I learned
through my research that children are familiar with more than one language have a higher chance
at success in all areas of life. They are almost guaranteed to earn higher standardized test scores,
to excel at reading and grammar, and to get more opportunities in the career field. During the
process of creating my product, I encountered two major problems. The first was translating the
English to French because the languages are completely different with wording and style.
However, through the help of my facilitator, we were able to translate my entire story with the
help of dictionaries and native speakers. My second obstacle was finding a publisher to publish
an inexperienced high school student’s writing. Fortunately, I discovered a local bookstore to
publish it and incur all the costs. I was delighted to finally have my published book that I had
worked so diligently on.
My topic of bilingualism in children introduced me to outstanding facts and statistics for learning
a second language. Hence, I decided to explore a career in teaching a second language to
children. I wanted to witness the difference it can make. However, I have learned, thanks to this
project, that I do not want to pursue a career in teaching a foreign language due to the lack of
demand in the job education market. Instead, I would like to pursue a career in nursing.
My thoughts about the Senior Project are very mixed. I do not feel like it has enhanced any
skills of mine or made me feel more confident for my future. However, I think that it has helped
some of my fellow classmates really concentrate and do something productive during their senior
year. This project does have the ability to help students decide on or reject a possible career, but
the limitations and requirements reduce the amount of time to really think and explore. Thank
you very much for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Alex Arzenshek