I don't think it's reasonable to expect Hemingway from a 19-year old, but this is a collection of emails, and they are still one helluva lot better written than the Wookie's Princeton thesis!
The assignment was simply required.
Most students would consider training involving those risks to be a bit more than they'd bargained for.
Where were the professors all that time ~ were they perhaps SAFE IN THEIR OFFICES in their armed guard protected buildings?