Knightly News

Episcopal celebrated the 10th LAUNCH on Friday, March 10, with impressive student presentations crafted and meticulously prepared in order to teach and inspire their audience. Because of the special milestone, alumni were also invited to attend this year, many of whom had presented their own work during their own senior LAUNCH Day. Please enjoy reflections from seniors Sophia Horridge (Thesis) and Aadit Narayanan (ESTAAR) who presented this year!

Photos courtesy of yearbook staff, friends and family

Sophia’s Reflection: 

From the beginning, our Thesis class wanted to emphasize LAUNCH as a celebration: a celebration of knowledge, a celebration of learning, and a celebration of the many presenters that came before us, of the tradition they created, that is so embedded into Episcopal’s identity, and the community they built–one that fosters bold, free thinkers. With that in mind, we aimed to make LAUNCH 2023 as memorable as possible through the addition of more LAUNCH hosts serving as our hype crew, an array of presentation locations, and a reflection on how each Thesis class has contributed to making LAUNCH the awesome day it is now. To put our own touch on LAUNCH, we focused on collaborating with the ESTAAR students to bring them into the presentation game more than ever before. This meant that audience members could learn about biology and social media in the same session!

Within the larger LAUNCH vision came our own personal dreams for how each of us presenters could adapt our scripts to fit our audience and location. I knew that I wanted to talk directly to the students, awkward eye contact and all. My thesis is about ability grouping, tracking, and my claim about its real place in determining a student’s academic performance. So, I ended up choosing a place not many people would imagine a LAUNCH presentation: the Student Center. The LAUNCH crew helped take the tables out, rearrange the chairs, and make Caroline and me a red carpet stage. On the actual day, our location ended up being super inviting because we were able to interact with the LAUNCH hosts, greet the students as they found their seats, and speak to teachers after our presentations. 

And of course, we would be nowhere without the Seminar class, our junior LAUNCH crew. Presenting your research in front of the school, simply put, is scary. Whether it's the intimidation of presenting to a VPAC full of students with a bright spotlight or finding the stamina to deliver your presentation four times back to back, having someone whose job is to stay glued to your side and be your hype man is just the thing to calm your nerves. Our seminar buddies worked so hard to make LAUNCH perfect for us just as we had one year ago. The Thesis community is so beautiful, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that every single year, a bunch of sophomores hurry to apply. 

Aadit’s Reflection:

As freshmen, our ESTAAR class experienced the wonder that was LAUNCH. Many of us found interest and enjoyment in it, hence us joining ESTAAR later. But, coming out of the pandemic, we knew that as a class that we wanted to do something different. 

However, as the fall semester progressed, our focus was geared towards JSHS, an academic symposium where we would present our research. While JSHS is similar to LAUNCH in terms of presentation style, the relaying of the information is vastly different. Much of the JSHS rubric was based around not only the validity of the research, but also its applicability. This meant that we had to not only explain our research to professors in the area, but also present in such a way that would explicitly outline the real life purpose of the research. 

When the spring semester came knocking, so did LAUNCH. We knew that we could not use the same presentation as we did for JSHS, as we would lose a lot of engagement. For us, it was all about making our research accessible to our audience. We realized that to have an effective LAUNCH presentation, we would need to break down complicated topics and information into a more entertaining and accessible format. 

After many hours of work on our slides and script, we were ready, and it was well worth the wait. LAUNCH was a truly unique experience for all of us, and our presentations captured that feeling. For me it was my humor, but for others it was creating stop motion animations, bringing in live animals, or even just the joy of presenting their research with their peers. We all found something in LAUNCH, and LAUNCH found something in us. We learned not only the importance of translating scientific work, but also the time and dedication needed to achieve a presentation that we would be proud of. While we may not remember every specific detail of our research later, LAUNCH was a one of a kind experience that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. 

The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge 2024-2025 application is now available! ​For more information on the application process, to schedule a tour, or learn more about the private school, contact us at [email protected] or 225-755-2685.