The most important aspect of this process is ensuring the student selects his/her project topic based on person interest. Evidence reveals students not fully vested in the topic will lose interest and abandon the plan. Many students who choose a topic with which they are very familiar do weak research, erroneously thinking they already know all there is to know about a topic from their years of experience. An important requirement of the Graduation Project is for the student to demonstrate a "learning stretch." Students will be discussing topic selection in homeroom and will be completing interest inventories in Freshman Seminar to help with this step in the process.

• The topic is of personal interest to the student
• The student knows enough about the topic to get started but can still benefit through further research
• The topic is global enough to be researched but narrow enough to allow time for depth
• The topic lends itself to the other components of the Graduation Project
• The student would not encounter unreasonable expenses
• The topic is intellectually engaging for the student and allows him/her to stretch and grow