Ryan Thompson

10800 Highway 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576
843-650-5600
DRThompson843@gmail.com
1st December 2016
Senior Exploration Judges
10800 Highway 707
Murrells Inlet, SC 29576
843-650-5600

Dear Senior Exploration Judges,

My name is David Ryan Thompson and I am currently in my junior year at St.
James High School. So far my academic career has been based upon goal:
being the best student that I possibly can be. My two oldest sisters attended
high school here with my oldest being the first valedictorian of St. James High
School, putting pressure on me to succeed. I am an involved student and I am
in various clubs here at St. James. I have held the position of class president
for freshman and junior year and was vice president my sophomore year.
Outside of student council I have been a member of our chapter of Future
Business Leaders and am currently the Parliamentarian, a vice president of our
DECA club, a member of the varsity swim team, and a spectrum club member.
I also am involved in our drama department and enjoy travelling to
competitions. As I approach senior year and graduation just around the corner,
I am left with a feeling that can only be described as mixture of excitement
and nervousness. I know that by being such a well-rounded student will help
me as I go further into my academic future.
My topic is a bit off the beaten path when it comes to typical topics because I
chose the broad topic of reality television. Specifically I honed in on the
negative stereotypes that are projected to viewers of different reality
programs. As someone who is a devoted fan of reality competition shows and
shows that focus on the lives of people I have never met, I wanted to write
about how what I view has affected my opinion of people. During my research

hours at the news station, I focused on media bias and met with news anchors
and the new director of News 13. I learned from them how harmful the term
big media is to the people who provide us with our news coverage. It made
me realize that not everyone in the media are bad people; it is made up of
regular people who are just doing their job. This helped to proceed in my
project with a less judgemental point of view.
The Senior Exploration process has been positive for me and has allowed me
to learn about a topic that I am passionate about. A major obstacle I faced,
however, was that finding somewhere to do my service hours was rather
difficult because not many places related to my topic. I contacted multiple
media outlets around the area, and finally received a response two weeks
before the hours were due. Meeting with the staff of News 13 was a great
experience for me because it allowed to branch out and network within my
community with a station that has a large following. This will prove to be
useful when I need to promote events at school to the community on a large
scale.
I would like to thank you the judges for taking time out of your busy
schedules to not only read my letter, but to judge my project as well as my
peers. We all have worked tremendously hard on these projects over the past
few months and I am greatly appreciative that you are sharing your time to
view my portfolio.
Sincerely,
Ryan Thompson
Ryan Thompson