Every single student has faced the challenge of summer projects at least once throughout their academic career. After a long year of work, their vacation plagued by an assignment that will get pushed of till the last week, hour, or even day. It is a difficult task to create a summer project that is engaging while simultaneously academically beneficial. While the opposition states summer projects only have structure and success with teacher's designs, however, in actuality, student-designed summer projects allow for higher success rates through the use of individualization.

After a grueling year of school, students need a break from intense out of class work, and student-designed projects are able to provide just that. During the year, students become easily overwhelmed with their work load combined with their own family, work, and extra circular stresses. Students need time to decompress after nine long months of struggles. If students are able to design their own project, they could assign the amount that they would be able to handle. Some children have to work harder in school, while to others school comes naturally. Students know how much more they can take on better than any teacher ever will. Students with trouble in their families would benefit extremely from this, allowing them the ability to assign a lighter project or even no project at all. In addition to those who just need a break or are struggling with personal matters, some students have their self-esteem completely destroyed every time they walk into school. Not all students learn the same, causing some to fail within the current system. Those students need the ability to raise their confidence in terms of school work and a self-assigned project would allow for just that.

As well as those cases of students, all different types students would benefit from a student-designed project through the use of individualization. Individualization would mean that student would have the opportunity to chose a project that they were actually curious about. Though these projects may have less structure, they leave space for passion. Students spend the majority of their years at school learning about concepts they do not have interest in. Allowing students to pick a topic that they are passionate about would allow for a slight mental break while still keeping their minds' active. With college on the horizon for many high school students, they could pick a topic for their project that may help them with their future majors. Many students switch their majors' numerous times while in college, and the opportunity for high school students to do research within a major could rule out or confirm students ideas of what they would like to study. This allows for personal reinforcement along with the possibility of students saving money in the future. With the addition of individualization, students would have the ability to pick a media that they enjoy. Some students enjoy art while some have a passion for film, a student selected project would create a choice with the details of a project, possibly having a huge impact on their desire to complete it. As well as learning about the topic of their chosen project, student would be able to continue fine-tuning those individual skills like art, music, or film over the summer.

In addition to individualization, student-designed projects are simply easier to complete. Many students do not complete assignments due to lack of motivation, but they would be able to have a topic they are passionate about combined with a media they enjoy. This combination allows for better work as well as work that is completed on time, getting rid of the procrastinators that are present within each class. As well as students' drive assisting in creating more successful projects, students could plan their projects according to their summer schedule. Students have all different types of jobs, vacations, and other events going on during their break. No teacher can accurately plan out a single project for all of them. Student-designed projects lets students break up their project based on their schedules. This would also allow for a higher success rate and timely manner of the projects.

It is hard to say if students should have summer projects or not, however if they are present, the school system should do everything in their power to create projects that are not only meaningful but enjoyable as well. Students are overwhelmed with structure and deadlines all year, it is logically to convert to a more casual, enjoyable environment during the summer. Summer projects can do just that by allowing them to be student-designed. With access to all topics, medias, and schedules, students are able to fully immerse themselves into their projects on their own terms, creating beautiful work.