1. Halley Ramsey
Mrs. Corbett
Senior Project
April 9, 2012
Senior Project Speech
Are you afraid of snakes? A huge percentage of the world's population is, but most people that
are afraid of snakes have never interacted with them. Perhaps it's the numerous misconceptions
that have YOU scared.
Having grown up around the beautiful creatures, it’s upsetting to hear some of the absurd
reasons why people hate snakes. When choosing my topic for my senior project I wanted
something that would be interesting for others and remove me from my comfort zone. I have
always wanted to be a veterinarian and specialize in exotic animals because there are not many
vets out there that want to work with exotics or know how to treat reptiles correctly. For my
project I wrote a paper on misconceptions and one of the main reasons why you don’t find very
many veterinarians for exotic animals is because of misconceptions. No one wants to specialize
in something they will have no use for and not very many people have reptiles because they are
afraid of them. Another reason I chose this topic because I am tired of watching people kill
snakes because of their fear. You see a snake in your backyard; your first thought was probably
to cut its head off. I just want others to understand that there are worse things to be afraid of, yet
snakes are almost always in the top five of a phobias list. My paper correlates with my product
because in order to stop rumors and wrong beliefs from happening, it’s necessary to start young
and educate the children so they can spread the word of truth as they grow. Movies, TV shows,

2. and books can misinform people into believing things that never happen. When children watch
movies such as Anacondas, Harry Potter, Snakes on a Plane, and The Jungle Book they create a
negative memory or feeling about snakes. Not only do all these movies have snakes killing
people, Anacondas and Harry Potter have snakes that are exponentially larger than an average
snake. If someone doesn’t tell a child the impossibility of these animations, they will register
snakes as evil and scary just as the movies show them.
When finding my facilitator I knew that I would not find anyone more appropriate for the
position than my father but because he was not allowed to take the role I decided to go the
alternate route and find a facilitator that could help me with my paper and my speech skills. My
facilitators name is Jennifer Evans; she is a seventh grade teacher and my next door neighbor.
Not only did she help me with ideas for my paper, she also gave me tips for writing parent
permission forms and working with kids.
For my product I decided to contact my fourth grade teacher at Acworth Elementary,
Mrs. Beal now teaches second grade and after emailing back and forth she really wanted me to
bring in the animals. She told me that most of her student have never seen a snake before and
that made me very eager to be the one to introduce them to the harmlessness of the species. I
sent parental consent forms home to all the parents, letting them know exactly what I was doing
and giving them the option to deny their child the privilege of the show. I brought in three
different kinds of snakes, a blue tongued skink, a tortoise, and a scorpion for the kids to observe
and learn about. I wanted the kids to have fun, and feel as if they were at a party. Growing up,
my dad was always asked to do reptile parties and presentations. He would take our animals to
people’s houses and put on an educational demonstration. I have always been his assistant,
taking the animals out of the cages and putting them back. However, this time he was my

3. assistant and my goal was to do a better job than he would if that were possible. Everyone was
given the opportunity to touch the more docile animals and at the end they received a reptile
themed goodie bag just as if they were at an animal themed birthday party. I did run into a few
issues with my project. The first one being that I had to come up with a way I could do my
project without missing school because Acworth is around forty five minutes away one way and
it would take almost all day to complete. I then realized that Cobb County schools do not have
the week long breaks that Cherokee County has. So over winter break, my dad and I took a day
to complete my project. My project facilitator was not needed to complete this part of my
project. My dad had to be there just in case and no one else could have taken his spot. I also ran
into trouble with my Walgreens photobook. After completing it once, I was told I had to go to a
different store and start over. It looked great until I looked inside to find the pages out of order
and duplicated. Although I did not have to redo it again, I did have to wait for them to re-print
another one which in the end turned out very nice.
Through the senior project experience, I realize that I need to work on procrastination. I
get nervous very easily and my nerve might not be as bad if I wasn’t always stressed about
deadlines. However, I believe I did well with my communication skills. I tried to make sure that I
did everything I could to make sure the parents were comfortable with their kids being involved
and I didn’t get any negative feedback which was one of my worries in the beginning. After
finishing my project I realized that I would love to be a vet but seeing hurt animals so much
would start to get to me. I took three years of healthcare science because that was the class that
was recommended for students with veterinary interests and fell in love with the idea of being a
nurse. People will always need nurses, so I would never have to worry about being out of a job. I
plan to attend Kennesaw State University with the hope of one day being accepted into their

4. nursing program. Although I changed my plans for the future, my argument on the ridiculous
fear of snakes remains the same. I will always love reptiles and for those who don’t, remember
you may be wrong and the more educated on snakes you become, the less afraid you will be.
Thank you so much for your time! Does anyone have any questions?