Hopkinton, MA — HopNews is proud to welcome Hopkinton High School (HHS) senior Maci Ober as our newest contributor. Ober has chosen to complete her Senior Capstone Experience with HopNews. Over the next several weeks, readers can expect to see her byline on stories covering the Hopkinton school community and beyond.
What Is the Senior Capstone Experience?
The Senior Capstone Experience is a cornerstone of the final year at Hopkinton High School. It gives seniors the opportunity to develop and implement a self-directed learning plan. The goal is a meaningful, summative project that demonstrates what it means to be a Hopkinton High School graduate.
The program runs for four weeks. Students are excused from most of their regular classes during that time. They must dedicate 20 hours per week to their project, submit weekly journal entries, and deliver a final presentation.
Each student works with an adult mentor who is an expert in the student’s chosen field. The project must result in a tangible final product and a formal presentation. The experience is designed to push seniors outside the classroom and into the real world before they graduate.
Source: Hopkinton High School Program of Studies 2026–27, Senior Capstone Experience section. https://docs.google.com/document/d/154-VS1180SahyOZY1okvVEyvvVRuh_yPySaee7pI2_40/edit?tab=t.0
Meet Maci Ober
The HopNews team has known Ober for the last couple of years and describes her as a talented writer, an organized self-starter, and someone mature beyond her years. At age 16, Ober wrote a letter to the editor.
For her capstone, Ober chose journalism. She will spend the next few weeks reporting, writing, and publishing original articles through HopNews. Most of her coverage will focus on school-related topics.
What to Expect
Ober’s articles will appear on HopNews throughout her project. Her work will be published as written, giving readers an authentic look at student journalism in action.
HopNews encourages the Hopkinton community to read her work and show their support. This is a rare opportunity to watch a young journalist develop her craft in real time — and to see Hopkinton’s own story told through her eyes.
Please join HopNews in welcoming Maci Ober to our team.
A note on editorial transparency: Maci Ober is completing this work as part of the Hopkinton High School Senior Capstone Experience. Her articles will be reviewed by HopNews editors prior to publication.
Congrats Maci! I’m looking forward to reading for the next 4 weeks!
I cannot wait to follow Maci’s work. I remember the first Op-Ed she wrote and being so impressed. What an amazing Capstone project, too! I’ll be cheering her on!
Congratulations and best of luck. If looking for ideas, how about follow-ups on the illegal food services in town that we were going to help get in compliance – how many did, how many are still operating and if in compliance how many $10s of thousands in additional tax money would we bring in? How about a follow-up on the gas center’s safety systems that were non-functional, has it been fixed or what is the plan there? Now that we are finding Center School costing almost double, do we continue as planned? Convert it to a new town hall with additions, let a private investment company convert it for economic use? Do we set up an enterprise zone over on South Street to attract businesses to add to our tax base? Thanks!