In Dual Credit English III (ENGL 1301 – Composition I), Ponder High School juniors are proving they’re truly Made for Greatness. Under the guidance of Professor Harold, students are tackling one of literature’s most demanding works—Hamlet, Prince of Denmark—through an ambitious, college-level research project.
This capstone assignment requires students to produce a ten-page MLA-formatted literary analysis that rivals upper-level college coursework. Each student must craft an original thesis, annotate the Folger edition of Hamlet line-by-line, integrate at least ten scholarly sources from Gale and JSTOR, and refine their ideas through multiple rounds of drafting and feedback.
Unlike many dual-credit projects that stop at three to five pages, Ponder’s juniors are engaging in authentic academic scholarship—embracing the challenge of close reading, critical analysis, and sustained argumentation at a collegiate level. The process calls for intellectual endurance, textual precision, and a willingness to wrestle with Shakespeare’s most complex themes.
Professor Harold shared,
“This assignment pushes them far beyond dual credit minimums. They are not writing to pass a class — they are writing to join the conversation of serious scholars. That’s what greatness looks like.”
Through this work, Ponder’s juniors are not just earning college credit—they’re learning what it means to think deeply, write fearlessly, and rise to greatness.
