BASIS seniors present projects, by Brian Abate

Red Hook’s BASIS Independent Brooklyn seniors gave presentations on their projects last month in the school auditorium. A wide variety of subjects were chosen by the students.

Students worked independently as they finished normal classes in mid-March. The requirement was to work at least 15 hours per week on their projects in the lead-up to their final presentations. In addition to the presentations, they wrote blog posts.

Alexa Lau presented “Marketing Sustainable Fashion.” Her work was supplanted with a social media internship.

She spoke of the ever increasing popularity of social media and how short-form content has made people more hooked onto platforms.

“Psychologists have found that people love trends because buying into new items feels like a way for people to almost reinvent themselves. In the past advertisements were something that interrupted people’s entertainment on TV, however now, it is concentrated on social media to the point where it is intermixed with people’s social media feeds,” Lau wrote in her Week 8 blog post.

Lau created a survey and which found that the age group of 13-30 were swayed by social media to make purchases, which was not a surprising find. “But something that surprised me was that the group was very split on whether or not they would make clothing purchases based on how sustainably they were made,” she added.

Looking at anxiety
Avi Lockner presented “An Investigation Into Providing a Best Fit Solution for Generalized Anxiety Treatment for the Masses.” He worked at Small Brooklyn Psychology to better understand Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD.)

Lockner examined different forms of treatment including talk therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy, mindfulness-centered home practices, and medications including SSRIs and SNRIs.

He found “medication is hopefully a resource that those who don’t have the means to access a therapist or simply don’t have the support of their peers can use to help control their anxiety.”

Some key points were that medication can help some but is ineffective in treating others. He found that many with GAD are often sensitive to potential threats which lead to avoidance behaviors. Additionally, there is no clear-cut cause and solution for GAD, but using different techniques and strategies can make it manageable.

Ripple effects of Taylor Swift tour
Samantha Goldfarb presented on “The Economy [Taylor’s Version] – The Economic Impact of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.” From March through August of 2023, Swift traveled across 20 cities in the United States and her dedicated fans followed.

“When we’re buying a ticket for The Eras Tour, we’re paying to see Taylor Swift perform but there are so many more people who make this possible,” Goldfarb said. “There are people selling merchandise at the show, people scanning tickets, security throughout the venue, people who build the stage and then take it down in every city. Zooming out a little, there are people hired at hotels to prepare for the influx of tourists and ‘Swifties.’ All of these people are profiting off of The Eras Tour experience.”

One of the stats Goldfarb found was that Swift’s two performances in Glendale, Arizona on the Eras Tour actually had a larger economic impact on the city than Super Bowl LVII which was played in February of 2023.

Goldfarb also spoke about how other artists have used opening for Swift as a springboard for their own careers.

It was clear that all the students put a lot of time and effort into their work. Many of the final presentations took place at the same time in different classrooms but they were recorded so those who are interested can find both the presentations and the blog posts on the BASIS Independent Brooklyn website.