Hundreds of students have gone through the freshman autobiography project. Throughout the year, all freshman in English teacher Greg Stobbe‘s class are required to participate in this assignment.

“Life becomes more meaningful with relationships and so by doing this project, I’m trying to promote closer family relationships,” Stobbe said. “One way to accomplish this is that the students are forced to discuss things with their parents. And it’s kind of like a personalized yearbook of yourself.”

During the first semester, the students are to have all of their history section done: grandparents’ life-changing stories, parents’ life stories and their family tree. Second semester is dedicated to more lighthearted topics, such as family vacations and students’ fun facts about themselves.

While some students tend to overlook the advantages of this project, most end up discovering interesting historical facts about relatives. Freshman Caitlin Gaines has enjoyed asking her grandparents about their early adventures in America and discovering the origins of her family.

“I really like this project because I got to learn a lot about my family that I hadn’t known before,” Gaines said. “I knew that my great-grandparents came to America from Germany, but I didn’t know that my great-grandfather had traveled the world first.”

In addition to learning how to make sense of what grandparents’ accomplishments, many students are finding out details that seem almost impossible. Some have discovered that their cousins are famous actors, while Johnathon Brushwood, ’15, has found that his grandmother knew Elvis Presley.

“I got to learn more about my grandparents,” Brushwood said. “I especially enjoyed it because I got to figure out about my Grandma Audrey who got to ride with Elvis Presly in his Pink Cadillac. Who gets to say that their grandma went to a high school in Alabama where there were 14 students (high school, junior high and elementary combined), and four were relatives?”

Stobbe says that, throughout the years, many students have discovered that they are related to significant historical figures.

“I find students that are surprised because they are related to local celebrities or even international kings and actors,” Stobbe said. “One student found out that they were related to Bing Crosby, and others to presidents.”

Through this project, Rhyann Crain, ’15, has reopened connections to her grandmother, who has been distant from the family for the last ten years.

“I didn’t even understand what happened,” Crain said. “My dad just stopped talking to her when I was two or three years old and never tried to. I feel like I’ve never met her, but she’s watched me a couple of times when I was little.”

At first, Crain thought this part of her autobiography would not go well. Although she was slightly apprehensive about asking her father, Crain’s mother agreed to help find her grandmother.

“I just wanted to get it done and over with,” Crain said. “I asked my mom about my grandma and she kind of just said that we’d found her before so we could probably do it again. I had doubts though, but as we got closer and closer, they eventually went away. I never really noticed that I didn’t have a grandmother. I wasn’t even aware of her until a couple of years ago.”

However, Kathleen Janet Fordyce has always hoped that connections with the Crain family would start again. So when Crain contacted her, she was especially joyful of the opportunity. Though Fordyce was a little nervous at first, this experience deepened the relationship between the two, says.

“I didn’t know her mom’s name, but I wanted to meet her,” Fordyce said. “But, at the same time, I didn’t want to intrude. I had hoped that Ryhann would find me, and she did. I was a little nervous at first and had been thinking about this moment and when it came I was just very happy to finally meet her. I love her and I’ve always loved her even before all this.”

Crain met with her grandma after school, Nov. 16. She was excited to know that her grandma intended to be active in her life.

“She’s almost 60 and I’m excited,” Crain said. “I want her to be in my life and she wants to be in my life. But I found out she wanted to be in my life because she had seen pictures of me on Facebook.”

Though events like these only occur once in a while, the cases are still rare. Stobbe is excited for his students when relations with relatives are recreated through this particular school project.

“The best part is that I’ve seen students who meet in meaningful ways that might never have been achieved if I had not encouraged the student to do so,” Stobbe said. “This doesn’t happen very often, so it’s satisfying to know that a project continues to work despite the change in technology and how we interact with each other.”

Stobbe continues this project every year because of its potential impact on students’ family relationships. Taking surveys on how many hours students spend with their families every week, Stobbe oftentimes finds that these hours have decreased over the years.

“When a grandparent who’s been lost in the shuffle of life gets to restart with their families, it’s very satisfying,” Stobbe said. “Whatever these students put in into the autobiography become meaningful stories — stories of achievement.”

For more features, read the Dec. 13 article Celebrate the season: Join the discussion, 2011.