During their sophomore year of high school, all South Lakes students are required to take part in the Middle Years Program Project (MYP Project).  Lucas Finet is no exception.

For his MYP Project, Finet, an avid basketball player, composed a score of music intended to be played on the piano, Finet, who is a percussionist for band as well as a pianist in his free time, as mostly motivated by his love of music.

Learning to play the drums at age eleven and the piano when he was eight, Finet found his project not too difficult and was pleased with the results.

“I used a music score program called Musescore,” Finet said.  “It was recommended to me by a friend and it was free”

Monica Russ, a friend of Finet, assisted by writing lyric to the music created by her coworker.  Russ, though pleased with the results, acknowledged several obstacles to completing the MYP Project.

“The difficult part about the project was finding something to write about,” Russ said.  “There were also many times when I experienced writers block and had to work through it.”

Tabitha Morrison, the English teacher of both Finet and Russ, was intrigued by his choice of project.

“I love that he channeled his emotions in a creative way,” Morrison said.  “I am also extremely impressed by his efforts.”

Finet, however, though pleased with the results was unhappy with the idea of the MYP project in general, believing it to be flawed.

“The project is called a personal project,” Finet said.  “But there are multiple guidelines restricting a person’s creativity.  There were numerous occasions when the stress of this project would put me in a poor mental state.”

For more information, see the official MYP personal project page at http://www.ibo.org/iba/enewsletter/may2009/myp.cfm