Arielle Trakhtenberg ’25 is writing a paper on the former Chelsea Football Club owner and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. The paper details Abramovich’s influence on Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine for her Senior Independent Study.

She is one of six selected students in this year’s Senior Independent Study group, with each student exploring a unique topic that she chose across various subjects.

Trakhtenberg said that she chose this topic to offer a new perspective on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

“The war in Ukraine was something I already knew about, but I wanted to gain more knowledge on it,” Trakhtenberg said. “I want to shed new light on this topic.”

In addition, Trakhtenberg said she was able to refine the focus of her topic because of help from her mentor, History Teacher and Department Head Celia Goedde.

“I proposed my topic to  Goedde and she was supportive, but also gave me some suggestions on how to improve it,” Trakhtenberg said.

Goedde said her role as an adviser is to guide and support her student’s efforts, and also to ensure that the project is completed successfully.

“The mentor’s job is to keep the student on track,” Goedde said. “We make sure that the student doesn’t fall behind and has a successful outcome. We also serve as a sounding board for students to get ideas for their topics.”