SHOUT (Students Helping Others United Together), which runs from June 1 to 14 this year, provides for unique but meaningful experiences for seniors in their final weeks before graduation. Instead of attending classes, seniors participating in SHOUT complete 40 hours of a community service project of their own design within this two week span.

Because of the freedom to design your own project, some seniors have created particularly distinctive projects that give back to the community in new ways.

Senior Jake Raman’s project is no exception. For his project, Raman will be assisting Virginia Tech (VT) professor at the Northern Virginia Capital Region Research Center for VT with research into monitoring spent Nuclear Fuel Plants across the country.

“Monitoring spent nuclear fuel until a proper and eco-friendly disposal method is devised is important to all Americans’ safety,” Raman explained.

Raman hopes to gain a greater understanding of nuclear energy, which is vital to his goals for the future.

“I plan on commissioning as an officer in the Navy after college,” he said. “In the Navy, I hope to work aboard America’s Nuclear-Powered Submarines.

Raman will also be improving his coding skills during SHOUT, as well.

“I will also be writing code in FORTRAN during my work with this professor,” he added. “Programming is another vital skill I would like to improve during my SHOUT project.”

But while Raman will be SHOUTing in Arlington, senior Juliette Burcham will be going all the way to Maine to complete her project. Along with seniors Madison Davis, Rachel Hardison, & Natalie Lorca, Burcham will be volunteering at “A Place to Be,” a nonprofit started by her cousin.

“A Place To Be… is a horseback riding program for school-aged students in the foster care system,” she said. “[A Place to Be”] was only started this year, though [my cousin] been working to develop it for the last three years.”

Burcham knew she wanted to help out with her cousin’s organization because she wanted to SHOUT somewhere special, helping out with something she enjoyed.

“I chose this project because I enjoy working with animals and be outside,” she said.

The group is looking forwards towards helping out on farm and helping A Place to Be start out on the right note.

“I hoping to work directly with the horses and maybe meet some of the students who will be in the program,” she said. “Being around horses and other animals can be very therapeutic, so this program will be very helpful to kids, especially those who are in foster care and maybe very stressful situations.”