For Millennium students, sophomore year begins with one question: “where am I from?”

The Where I’m From project is a key component of Qualitative Research class, and the first step of this project is data collection. Students ask themselves, “what makes me who I am?”

The second step is a poem, a self-portrait with words, a memoir focusing on their backgrounds. The next and final step is a video, a movie of their lives, of their families and friends. The Where I’m From project is a hidden milestone at Millennium Brooklyn.

A senior who would prefer not to be named had only good things to say about the project. She said, “it was my first project when I first transferred in. I was like ‘oh my god this place is so down to earth and granola.’” One of the things that differentiates Millennium is the focus teachers place on their students. As the senior said, “it’s like they actually care about us.”

Dr. DeJaynes, a teacher notorious amongst the upperclassmen for her chill attitude and friend-like relationship with her students, created the Where I’m From project with her co-teacher, the equally cool Ms. Mottahedeh. Senior Natalie Miolan described DeJaynes as incredible. She said, “with her sarcasm and witty personality, she made Qualitative Research one of the best classes ever.”

Now-junior Harry Flax said that DeJaynes and Mott are “amazing people who whenever something was wrong or got messed up it was fine. It wasn’t taken out of proportion. Instead, it was taken as a mistake to learn from. It felt like you could never mess up. I learned from my mistakes instead of getting stressed out.”

DeJaynes moved back home to Missouri in late 2014 to care for family, and is now teaching at Park University in Parkville, Missouri (to the disappointment of her fellow teachers and students).

Ms. Mott voiced sorrow regarding the move, saying that she misses DeJaynes everyday, the curve of her face, the touch of her skin, and that nothing will ever be the same without her.

Senior Simone Singletary said, “I wish I started school in 10th grade so I would have had a chance to do [the project], because it is so amazing.”

Yaakov Waronker, a sophomore, just completed the project. According to Waronker, “the Where I’m From project was really informative and an educational experience that really helped me. It helped me to discover who I was, and what I found important in life. I find my Jewishness important to me, for example, praying in the morning helps me focus and keep things in perspective.”

Yaakov was not alone in his appreciation for Where I’m From. Sophomore Olivia Saraniero said, “my favorite part was data collection, because it made me learn a lot of stuff about myself that I didn’t know. For example, one thing that I found out about myself was I got to research a lot about my family background.”

This feeling of gratitude can be found even in the oldest of students, like in senior Daniel Bortoluzzi, who expressed his love for the teachers and the films. However, friend and senior Erin Goeringer disagreed. “It’s like organized creativity, but that is just how school projects are designed which is unfortunate. Still, I think it was one of the better school projects, but it was very structured.”

Junior Saskia Johnson agreed stated that the project was “a little too open for me. I wasn’t comfortable sharing huge parts of my life.”

Seniors Jan Johnston and Bryan Sharka reflected on the project together. Johnston said, “it took too long to make. It could have taken like two days.” Her friend said, “I liked the concept behind it. I liked the idea, what [DeJaynes] was trying to get us to do, but I feel like it became tedious, and it took too long to complete.”

Frankie McSweeney, who completed the assignment last year, spoke about the written aspect in particular. “I loved the project,” he said. “I love poetry a lot, so being able to express my life’s details in poetry form was great. The point was to learn to use research techniques, and [Mott and DeJaynes] were really helpful and flexible with deadlines, especially when my project file got corrupted and I needed more time to remake my movie.”

Ms. Mott also reflected positively on the project. “Where I’m From is hands down my favorite unit in qualitative, mainly because it’s effective in teaching the content- how to actually do qualitative research. It also helps students feel really empowered and gives them the opportunity to create something really beautiful.”