text: Student-designed projects would make summer projects more engaging for students, while still expanding their knowledge. An experience I had with this was after I finished my freshman year in high school. Over the summer I had a ten page assignment for my math class that I had to finish before the first day of school started. This experience was very frustrating because all I could think about at that time was what I was missing out on with all my other summer activities. This assignment was very long and boring for me to do, when it could've been a lot more fun and exciting if students could've brought their own personal intrests and ideas into it. Another example was when my friend Generic_Name had to do an assignment for German class. The teacher asked each of the students to research one aspect of German culture and then make a power point with pictures with what they found. Although this wasn't a summer assignment it shows how assignments can be made more engaging if students can take charge in it. In this instance, Generic_Name was able to research a specific part of German culture she was interested in, and she actually enjoyed taking part in this project. Summer projects have the potential to be very engaging and could even bring in personal interest if they could be student lead.