POLAND – Freshmen visited colleges, sophomores presented their life stories, juniors job-shadowed and seniors made good on graduation requirements.

All of these events, months in the planning, occurred Tuesday and Wednesday despite the school week starting off with a bomb threat on Monday morning.

School Union 29 Superintendent Nina Schlikin decided that students would remain at Poland Regional High School while sheriff’s deputies made sure the bomb threat presented no danger.

School staff fed the students a snack and lunch, had buses warmed up for anyone getting cold during the three-hour wait outside, and shuttled students to Poland Community School for bathroom runs, said Schlikin. Students were back in class by noon, she said.

“It was the superintendent’s call, and I decided based on the Sheriff’s Department and my experience that we needed to keep the kids at school,” said Schlikin.

Monday’s disruption seemed a distant memory to the hundreds of students milling about in the halls and nervously awaiting their turns for presentations.

Kyle Purington, a senior from Mechanic Falls, started last summer on his final research project required for graduation. Earning enough money to buy a Volkswagen Jetta for $1,000, Purington worked all year on customizing and painting it.

“It was fun doing the project, but I was getting nervous today,” he said Wednesday.

Purington never did auto body work before this year but decided that he would present to his teachers and peers anything they wanted to know about sport fenders, primers and the little details that count at a car show. Purington continued working odd jobs throughout the school year so that he could put another $2,000 into his demonstration. He plans to finish the paint job in Hugger Orange.

“Last year, I filmed some of my friends during their presentations so that I could get ideas,” said Purington. “I never did this kind of work before, but I knew this is what I wanted to do.”

Each year, seniors demonstrate skills in independent research and public speaking before they can receive their high school diplomas, said Angela Atkinson Duina, dean of faculty.

“Some kids started last summer, some kids started about a month ago,” said Duina. “But it’s set up so that students can really find their passion and so that they can all succeed.”

Juniors are part of the scoring panel for the presentations, which prompts the seniors to take the requirement seriously, said teacher Karen Fancher.

“The kids don’t want to embarrass themselves,” said Fancher. “There’s always a little panic, and there have been tears. But they always come through.”

Other projects ranged from earning emergency medical technician credentials and building a working sauna to explaining the legalities of downloading music from the Internet.

And if there wasn’t enough deliberate chaos going on at the school with two full days of senior presentations, sophomores got their feet wet in public speaking by presenting their personal portfolios to faculty.

Sophomores had to seriously answer the questions of: “Who am I?” “How am I doing?” and “Where am I going?”

Most of the students this week were coming and going nonstop. When juniors weren’t critiquing upperclassmen, they were learning on the job with a professional that they had contacted on their own. And all freshmen made visits to college campuses throughout the state to get them geared up for three more years of preparation.

“Our main goal is to prepare the kids for college, careers and citizenship,” Duina said.