This school year, the English department introduced a new junior/senior seminar which endeavors to study films and analyze the art of film construction.

This seminar, which is currently in session for the semester, has an unusual twist: it isn’t taught by a teacher.  

Instead, the instructor is Luke Valadie, a senior.  Valadie applied for the position as a “Capstone” or independent study project, which he earned due to his excellence in his English career throughout high school.

Luke Valadie, known to be an excellent scholar in the Saint Stephen’s community, took up this opportunity as a Capstone project and he’s hit the ground running.

A Capstone project is a two-semester project where students pursue an independent study of their choice; it can be a guiding question, a problem, or another form of academic activity that interests them.

Luke says the reason he took this on is because “I’ve had an interest in both film and teaching since sophomore year, and I think that film analysis can be really useful in developing some important skills. I also think that visual entertainment, from movies to television to social media, is one of the dominant forms of modern art and culture, so being able to look at it critically is becoming more and more important.”

The Capstone project is a coveted endeavor at SSES, the privilege for which must be earned through discipline, independence, and excellence throughout one’s time at Saint Stephen’s.  There are few students who do it, as it takes a lot of independence and autonomy.

These projects must be done with the guidance of a faculty member, and must be approved by administration.  The advisors serve to guide them through their year-long project. Luke’s supervising faculty member is Mr. Moore, the English Department Chair

The film seminar is offered to seniors and juniors (and one select sophomore) during sixth period. The class is hosted in Mr. Moore’s room and the students attend the class for one semester.  

According to Luke, “The seminar is an introductory film class that explores the visual elements that movies are constructed with, the ways that directors adapt a story from the written word to the screen, and how a director’s artistic interests can be analyzed by comparing and contrasting their films. We’re watching everything from 1950s Japanese films to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, as well as reading graphic novels and short stories.”

Though Luke is the course planner and teacher, he does not grade the students; that is up to Mr. Moore and they work in tandem to do so.

For students, the opinion is overly positive. A student in the seminar, Gus Bayard, said“I love the class; it really provides me with a new aspect of learning, the class is really interesting and I love the idea that Luke teaches. The set up works really well and I like it just as much as my other classes.”