Danielle Chiavelli is a senior at Creekview High School who chose to knit hats for premature babies and raise money for the March of Dimes as her senior project. She was born prematurely herself and wanted to help other preterm babies. Through her research, she learned about the hardships premature babies face in the hospital. She knitted hats and raised money door-to-door in her neighborhood. While she enjoyed donating the hats, raising money was difficult. Her project helped her realize she wants to study speech pathology instead of becoming a neonatal nurse. She felt her senior project taught her about herself and possible career paths.

1. 421 Greyfield Drive
Canton, GA 30115
April 18, 2012
Judges, Senior Project
Creekview High School
1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
Dear Judges:
I am Danielle Chiavelli, and I am a senior at Creekview High School. At home, I have two
brothers; Michael is a freshman at Creekview, and Ryan is a seventh grader at Creekland. I am
extremely close with my family. I also have two dogs; Molly is a puggle, and Charlie is a chug. I
feel like my dogs are also part of my family. However, next year I plan to leave home and go to
the University of Georgia to study Speech and Language Pathology. It is going to be difficult for
me to be away from my family, but I am excited to go to college. Before I even think about
college, I need to focus on the rest of high school. Right now, my senior project is one of my
main focuses. For my senior project, I chose to knit hats for premature babies as well as raise
money for the March of Dimes. I chose this project because I was born six and a half weeks
premature, so I understand the challenges that preemies face first hand. I want to help preterm
babies just as someone helped me 17 years ago.
Through my research, I learned more about premature babies and their strenuous lives; they go
through a great deal of hardship before they even leave the hospital. While researching, I learned
that every premature baby leaves the hospital with a hat that was donated. I wanted to help that
cause, so I decided to knit hats for the premature babies; however, I did not feel like that was
enough of a donation. Therefore, I also raised money for the March of Dimes. Raising money
was more difficult than I expected it to be. I went to several different stores, but none of them
would allow me to ask for donations outside of their buildings. In the end, I had to go door to
door in my neighborhood to raise money. Although I was successful in collecting money, I felt
more accomplished when I finished making my hats. I enjoyed donating the hats to the hospital;
the nurses’ enthusiastic facial expressions made my entire project worthwhile.
In the career field, my topic of premature babies relates to neonatal nursing. When I started my
project, I was thinking about pursuing this career; however, now I know that I do not want to
become a neonatal nurse. While I was doing my senior project, I also shadowed a family friend
who is a speech therapist. As I shadowed her, I learned that I want to study speech and language
pathology. In this career, I can also help children; in this way, the two career options are similar.
My senior project did help me to learn more about myself. I realized that I am very committed to
my various projects, and I also realized that I have very good time management skills. Without
these skills, I would not have been able to complete my project.
Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed working on my senior project. I think senior projects help
students learn more about themselves as people. This project also helps students learn more

2. about a possible career path. I wish we did this project our junior year instead of our senior year
because I feel like senior year is a little too late to make these types of decisions. Overall, I felt
like my senior project was good for me. Thank you for reading my letter and giving me the time
to share my project with you.
Sincerely,
Danielle Chiavelli