text: The summer preceding eleventh grade was by far my most memorable summer for an atypical reason - the summer assignment. This summer assignment, unlike any others, was student-designed. In the same summer I had multiple other summer assignments: annotating a textbook, completing a packet of math problems, and even writing an eight page essay! However, my wise AP Biology teacher decided to deviate from the norm by assigning a student-designed summer project. This project only had one rule: it had to relate to any part of the curriculum. To this day, I can vividly recall details about my project, its relevance to the curriculum, and the biology concepts covered throughout the project. Although many teachers around the globe have difficulties determining whether teacher created or student created summer projects are more beneficial, the evidence clearly supports that student created summer projects are more beneficial. This is because student designed summer projects increase student engagement, develop a variety of necessary traits, and as opposed to common belief, they allow for students to learn more than they would in teacher designed projects.