As the community wraps up the school year, many students reflect on their favorite and/or least favorite courses over both semesters.  

For Ian Marquez, a prominent favorite course for his junior year second semester was Media Analysis, taught by Bailey Eckert. 

The project that captivated his attention the most was the media investigation assignment, in which students researched something of interest to them pertaining theories and what theory was most likely to have happened. 

Eckert explained that the purpose of this assignment was to “give students the opportunity to explore what they are interested in and what they like while also developing critical thinking skills.” 

For his assignment, Marquez chose to research the murders and suicide by by Christopher Michael Benoit, most often known as Chris Benoit, a former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstar. As explained in Marquez’s presentation, Benoit committed the atrocities of murdering both his wife Nancy Benoit and his seven-year-old son Daniel Benoit before eventually taking his own life. 

While there are often many theories that come into play when looking at this tragedy, Marquez chose to explain the theory of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). In his presentation, Marquez describes CTE as being “caused by repeated unprotected hits to the head with no treatment,” and even went on to explain that when looking at brain scans of the 40-year-old wrestler resembled that of a man of 85.

Through the project, not only were students able to further study and understand topics interesting to them, but also expand the knowledge and understanding of other classmates. 

Eckert explained that the students were placed in a position of “not knowing what happened but using said critical thinking skills to see the possible theories and see which one makes the most sense.”