Independent Studies Program

The rigorous two-year Independent Studies program at Renaissance School has been compared to graduate school level work. In their Junior and Senior years, students are responsible for selecting and researching topics of their choice. In their Junior year, the focus is on conducting interviews, academic research, and public speaking. By the end of their Senior year, students have pursued rigorous academic research, produced a 20-page, APA style thesis paper, and defended their theses before the faculty.
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Sample independent research topics from our graduates

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  • Nigerian-American Youth Affinity Groups
  • Competitive Irish Dance
  • Protein Modification as a Treatment for Choroideremia
  • Nostalgia & Aestheticism
  • Oral History of Queer Charlottesville
  • Youth Councils
  • Biomimicry in Prosthetics:
  • Thorium Nuclear Reactors
  • Communications Technologies In Presidential Campaigns
  • Russo-Ukranian War
  • Bacteriophage Therapy *Award
  • Proto Indoeuropean Language
  • Menstruation’s Impact on Female Athletes
  • Inherited Culture
  • Gender Inequality in Film & TV
  • Asian American and African American Race Relations
  • Protest Music and Unionization in the 1930’s
  • Cryptography Regulation
  • Trade Policy
  • Renewable Energy
  • Impact of Celtic Languages on English
  • Color Psychology and Branding
  • Racial Bias in Justice Algorithms
  • The Hyde Amendment
  • Outsider Art
  • Mindfulness and Mental Health
  • Racism in the Criminal Justice System
  • Drag and LGBTQ+ Civil Rights
  • National Strategic Stockpile and Pandemic Response
  • Baseball Statistics
  • Women in Engineering
  • Goldbach’s Conjecture
  • Government Intervention During Financial Crises
  • Biodiversity Conservation in the Philippines
  • Chinese Economic Growth
  • Deaf Awareness in Emergency Medicine
  • Linguistic Relativity in Economics
  • Originality in the Information Age
  • Fairy Tales & Child Development
  • Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN)
  • US Interventionist Foreign Policy
  • Horse Breeding Ethics