Looking poised and polished in pearls and a belted black dress, senior Allison Hartman confidently presented her photographic portfolio to a row of judges evaluating her senior project.

The photography course at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the nearly 1,000 pictures she's taken, and the hours spent editing and retouching photographs all have convinced her of one thing: She doesn't want a career in photography after all.

Instead, she'll study writing at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

"I was forcing it upon myself, and it's not necessarily a passion," she said. "I'm thrilled that I did this project."

Last month, seniors at Chartiers Valley High School arrived for the annual Senior Exhibition bearing binders, posters and props, ready to complete the final portion of their state-required senior projects. At Chartiers Valley, the senior project also includes job shadowing and writing a paper.

Since the 2002-03 school year, the state has required high school students to do a "culminating project."

At Chartiers Valley, administrators use the project and the presentation to ease students slightly out of their comfort zone, requiring them to develop new skills.

"The main thing is that this is a learning stretch, that they push themselves beyond what they've learned," said Lisa Trainor, chairwoman of the English department and Senior Exhibition lead teacher.

For Adam Wolfe's senior project, in which he renovated his bedroom, getting the carpet stretched and smooth took hours longer than he'd planned, and his initial plan of adding electrical outlets didn't quite work out when he encountered technical difficulties.

"Carpeting is a lot harder than it sounds," said Adam, who is heading to Penn State University next year to study electrical engineering.

Deseree Kuzel, who designed and printed T-shirts for her dance troupe, also found the project occupying much more of her time than she anticipated. She spent several hours on the phone negotiating prices for the shirts and sweats, more time calibrating equipment and 14 hours in one day printing 161 T-shirts.

"I felt very accomplished," she said, after racing around the printing classroom to demonstrate all of the steps involved to the judges. "I learned a lot about studio art."

Still, bedrooms and T-shirts don't necessarily conjure thoughts of the typical academic experience. It was, in part, the issue of nonacademic senior projects that prompted a radical change in the North Hills School District earlier this year.

"Many of the projects were not even close to being school or education-related," said school board member Jeffrey Meyer, who also called the projects "busy work that provided little or no value to the overwhelming majority of the students."

By a 5-3 school board vote, North Hills scaled its project back from a required paper and presentation to a simple one-page paper on a topic of the student's choice. The change will save two days of school per year that were reserved for senior projects, said Mr. Meyer, and students can do an optional presentation at night.

The change met with resistance from students, parents and other members of the school board. Superintendent Joseph Goodnack called the change "a disservice to students and our community" and board member Arlene Bender called it "appalling" during the school board meeting.

"It is a balancing act," said district spokeswoman Tina Vojtko. "It needs to be a learning opportunity, not a burden. You certainly want to make sure that there is a balance, but that you have that necessary rigor to make sure that it's meaningful."

Senior projects range from a simple paper in English class in some school districts to a full-blown career exploration starting as early as eighth grade in others, said Daniel Paul, coordinator of the Career Dynamics program for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit.

Mr. Paul strongly advocates putting a career planning component into the senior project, and holds workshops for teachers helping them to design their culminating activities.

"They're going to get a lot of opportunities while they're in high school to see different careers and different aspects of the workplace," he said. "They're going to get some planning going to make conscious choices about what it is they are going to do beyond high school rather than just react to what life gives them."

In Chartiers Valley, the act of presenting before a panel of judges translates directly to a life event such as a job interview, said Ms. Trainor.

The school holds a banquet for students and the hundreds of judges -- both teachers and community members.

Student presentations ideally last 12 to 15 minutes, and judges evaluate the students on such criteria as dress, demeanor, eye contact and ability to field questions.

"Not only does it ask them to take control of their education, it gives them a really real-life experience," said Ms. Trainor. "Sometimes it's a harsh reality check. We're letting them experience it before they really have to do so without a safety net."