Perry Holobach wrote a letter to the judges of his senior project at Creekview High School. He is a 17-year-old student who plans to major in pre-pharmacy and minor in chemistry, attending Kennesaw State University and then transferring to the University of Georgia. For his senior project, he created wool animals through the craft of needle felting, which he learned about through his hobbies of origami, scrapbooking, and needle felting. His research paper focused on the mistreatment of sheep for their wool. Through his senior project, he determined that while needle felting is enjoyable as a hobby, it would not be a realistic career path for him.

1. 1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
April 19, 2012
Judges, Senior Project
Creekview High School
1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
Dear Judges:
My name is Perry Holobach, I am seventeen years old and I have big plans for my future.
My current goals are to graduate with good grades, get a job for summer and go to
college. I plan to major in pre-pharmacy and minor in chemistry. I will begin college at
Kennesaw State University and finish at the University of Georgia by 2016. In my spare
time I enjoy crafts such as origami, scrapbooking and needle felting, which is where I got
the idea for my senior project. My senior project is needle felting, a craft in which you
create animals or shapes using loose wool and barbed needles. I have been needle felting
for a year on and off.
My products are the individual projects from the book, Wool Pets, this relates to my
research paper because the wool that created my projects was selected carefully. My
research paper was about the mistreatment of sheep for their wool, wool used commonly
in clothes and for crafts. I had to carefully select the wools I used to be sure they were not
from mistreated animals. Some wool I would not use because they came from Australia
or did not say where they were manufactured and distributed. Other obstacles were the
amounts of wool I could get at one time, I ended up getting a pack of colors and not using
about half. Other problems were the wool not cooperating with the pattern and some
patterns were too complicated for my skillset.
The goal of my senior project was to figure out whether or not I would want to make a
career out of this hobby; the answer is no. This hobby is fun in small projects that I chose
to do for a family member or for a friend, but as a career it would not be realistic at all.
My facilitator does this for a living on top of owning and running a store for cross-
stitching so she has income along with needle felting. I would have to do it on the side
and sporadically so I could allot time to my future career and family. From my research, I
am encouraged to help out in the struggle against the abuse of sheep for their wool.
All in all, my senior project was a valuable learning experience for me. By doing this
project I learned that I do not want to do this outside of a hobby. These projects are too
hard and take up too much time to do; it is not realistic in my life right now. However, I
might pick it back up when I am older and don’t have as much stress.

2. Sincerely,
Perry Holobach