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Keely Herzog

Mrs. Jenkins

English

28 April 2020

Senior Project Reflection

Senior project has been a struggle for me since the beginning. I really had to take

inventory of my life and determine what I was most passionate about. When I couldn’t come up

with anything, I had to find the motivation to continue with something I wasn’t committed to.

For my question I chose to focus on the nature versus nurture debate in regards to

criminal behavior. I’ll be majoring in criminal justice in the fall, so I was hoping this research

paper would get me inspired for my college curriculum. I discovered that there is so much

research available and so many opportunities for me to grow within this field. There was actually

so much information that I struggled narrowing down all my ideas for the paper. In fact, I tried

too hard to cram a lot of many scientific studies into the paper that I bored myself writing it. If I

had to do it differently, I would have done a better job organizing my thoughts and connecting

the subtopics.

For my project I decided to volunteer at the Prison Literature Project where they send

books to prisoners, as well as, create a neighborhood watch group for my housing community. I

set out to see a different side of the justice system and try to better understand how someone

could end up in that situation. Also, I hoped that the watch group would make me feel more

connected with my neighbors and set up connections with people in law enforcement. Before

quarantine started, I had made a lot of progress with my project. I had done a couple hours at
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PLP, got in contact with both the Walnut Creek and Concord police department for a resource

officer, created a watch group with the National Watch Group organization, created a messaging

platform for future group members, started creating posters, and was setting in stone meeting

dates for our group to meet. My intention was to do more work with PLP and have regularly

scheduled watch group meetings. However, the time I did spend with PLP was truly life

changing. I had the opportunity to read letters prisoners sent in and even got to write back to

them personally. It gave me an overwhelming sense of responsibility, like if I couldn’t

completely satisfy their book request, then I had let them down. It felt like I was holding a little

piece of each inmate, like every choice they made, good or bad, came out in how they presented

themselves in their writing. Also, it felt weird knowing that someone thousands of miles away

behind several cell doors had written to you and was waiting for you to write back. I wish I had

been able to spend more time and answer more. As for my watch group, I’m not disappointed

that it didn’t take off because I wasn’t passionate about it in the first place. If I could do things

over again, I would have been more creative finding something to do for my project.

The senior project helped me discover more about myself. I feel like I’m more

resourceful now since I had to face so many logistical obstacles, I’m capable of pushing through

a big task even if I don’t have the motivation to continue, and, probably the best of all, I feel like

I’m better at sending emails. My main goal for this project was to come out more confident in

my field of study and I know I accomplished that. I was able to see both sides of the justice

system, so in the future I’ll be more empathetic to the people I come into contact with. This

project has definitely opened my eyes to the power of community service and I hope to do more

of it in the future.