Robbie Dunn '23 named Senior Project Winner

Senior projects have been a meaningful tradition at Laguna for over 30 years and are a distinctive feature of its curricular requirements. The projects culminate with student presentations which reflect the wide range of our student’s talents and interests. The presentations this year took place on Monday, June 12, and Tuesday, June 13.

The Senior Project Award represents high honors for a collective body of work and outstanding participation in all senior project requirements. The top award is given to the student who demonstrates exceptional activity that goes significantly beyond the required work.

This year’s senior project award is presented to Robbie Dunn who spent the beginning of his project buried in a microscope alongside pathologists at Houston Methodist Hospital. His supervising doctor noted his professionalism and drive as he worked with tissue samples and learned to determine the stage of various cancers by viewing them through the lens. He attended hours of meetings alongside medical teams, and he felt firsthand how pathology is a branch of medicine that can be somewhat impersonal with minimal patient contact.

It was anything but impersonal, however… When he shadowed a gastroenterologist towards the end of his project, and was in the room as a woman was informed that her cancer had metastasized and was in an advanced stage. This emotional experience helped him realize that each of those microscope slides he had poured over had a life attached to it. 

Whether or not he pursues medicine, we know this young man will pour his big heart into whatever he does.

Congratulations, Robbie!