Nicole Smith hosted a 5k race in downtown Ballground as her senior project. She raised money for the race that was donated to her church to help fix their parking lot. For her research paper, she studied common running injuries and how to prevent them. She learned about issues runners face that will help her as a future cross country coach. Hosting the race provided experience solving problems, which she believes is an important learning experience, though it may be better suited for first semester seniors.

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 Nicole Smith, and I am a track and cross country runner here at Creekview High
School. For my senior project, I hosted a 5k race in downtown Ballground. I wanted to do
something with running and also help someone at the same time. I wanted this because, in the
future, my goal is to become a teacher and a coach for either cross country or track. I will be
going to Young Harris College on a full ride scholarship for academics and athletics to pursue
this dream. In order to help a cause through this project, I chose to use the money that I raised
from the race as a fundraiser for my church. The church needed money to fix the parking lot
which costs a lot of money. Therefore, the money went toward the cause of fixing the parking
lot.
My product was the money I raised for North Canton Baptist Church. For my research paper I
researched what kind of problems runners face. I learned that there are many injuries that can
occur in a runner’s career and that there are many preventions to the injuries. For example, Shin
splints is a problem that can be prevented by running barefoot sometimes. I wanted to know what
kind of problems might occur in the process of hosting this race. Because there are so many
issues that can occur, I put a waiver on the flyer making sure that I would not be liable for any
problems that the racers may have. There were many obstacles in the process of getting to my
product. One of these problems was the issue of time. I am a student, an athlete, and I have a job
which takes a lot of time out of my life. I had to find time to meet with my facilitator and host
the race while still trying to keep all of this up.
My research relates to a future career of being a cross country coach because knowing what
problems runners face will help me aid my future athletes when I become a coach. I learned
through my research that there are many things that can go wrong with runners. However, I have
also decided that I would like to pursue my dream of becoming a coach because I love running
and I would love to be able to help and see runners overcome these injuries. I want to be able to
see my athletes overcome problems and become really good runners. I cannot wait to be a part of
that process and help people get over injuries and pursue their goals.
Overall, I think the senior project is an important experience. I think that there are many other
things that seniors need to be focusing on (graduating, getting class averages up for HOPE
eligibility, etc…), but it is also important to get the experience of working through a project and
having to solve problems that come up. I think that maybe it is something that should be for first

2. semester and not have as many steps, but I do think it is a good experience. Thank you for your
time tonight. I hope you enjoy my presentation.
Sincerely,
Nicole Smith