Students’ Projects Make GOA Global Capstone Showcase

Each semester, the Global Online Academy selects student projects to be included in its Global Capstone Showcase. This year, GOA teachers nominated 1,400 student projects, and only 82 were selected as exemplary, earning a spot in the showcase. Greenhill’s Anaya Dubé ’26 and John Hurley ’26 were among those selected.

“Your thoughtful and impactful work demonstrates the potential to catalyze real-world change on important issues,” a spokesperson said, mentioning that the projects are “a testament to your ability to apply the skills you developed in your GOA course in meaningful and personalized ways.”

ABOUT THE PROJECTS
Anaya Dubé’s project is titled “Invisible Pressure.” It was nominated by her Medical Problem Solving 1 teacher, Beth Crissy, who shared this about her work:

"Anaya really wanted to focus on the intersection of eating disorders and sports. As a top volleyball player, she really wanted to make an impact in her community, raise awareness, and give resources. Anaya is a fantastic student and such an incredibly hard worker at everything she does, from Scouting to academics to athletics – she is a true scholar-athlete."

John Hurley’s project is titled “Are Trump’s Tariffs a Regressive Consumption Tax that also Weakens U.S. Global Power?” It was nominated by his Macroeconomics teacher, Dee Vardhan Sharma, who shared this about his work:

"John, your capstone on the Trump administration’s tariff policy is exceptional work. What stands out is the maturity of your thinking: you recognize the issue as a complex economic policy with domestic equity and geopolitical consequences. Your research is wide-ranging and serious, but what makes the project especially strong is how you use that research to build your argument.

We studied taxation, trade, tariffs, and globalization in this course, but you truly understood the connections between them and showed how tariff policy can function as a regressive consumption tax. You do not just say that tariffs raise prices; you explain who pays, why the burden is unequal, and how that connects to the lived reality of working- and lower-income households.

I was also impressed by the way you examined whether the promised manufacturing revival is realistic, especially in a world of automation. The global framing – connecting tariff policy to alliance strain, dedollarization, and alternative trading blocs – reflects real intellectual confidence. Your proposed alternatives are thoughtful because they recognize that unrestricted free trade may be unrealistic while still advocating a smarter, more targeted, and less harmful policy approach.

This is exactly the kind of capstone that belongs in the Global Showcase: researched deeply, argued carefully, and presented with the confidence of someone who is genuinely thinking like an economic analyst."