text: Student-designed summer projects are a phenomenal chance to give students more freedom and let them be creative. In school, students have very few opportunities to express their creativity, so summer break is seen by many as a chance to break away from overly structured school days. Forcing students to follow a teacher-designed project will only remove its specialty, and further limit chances students have to be creative. On the other hand, student-designed projects could be the spark needed by some to make use of their summer. Additionally, if students feel the teacher-designed projects were too restrictive, there is a chance they would put as little effort into them as possible, or forgo them entirely. If this happens, it is a waste of time for both the student and the teacher. In my own experience, I have seen that most summer assignments had very little or no impact on my grade, so it often made far more sense not to do them. However, when teachers did try to tie these assignments to a grade, lots of students and parents complained. Whereas, when students are able to design a project about something they are passionate about, this is far less likely to happen, and could even lead to further interest about that topic.