Alexa Siegel Capstone

Over the past several years, art therapy has become a very popular form of treatment for special education students and kids with other behavioral, emotional or psychological issues. For me art therapy has been my favorite way of learning. It teaches different types of skills such as learning academic skills, symmetry which is a math skill and social skills as they are more engaged with each other.  It is also a fun way for students of all ages to learn because they get to see what they are creating.For my Capstone I went to Greenfield and did projects with the students in Mrs. Serra’s class. We did different projects such as painting pumpkins and painting hearts for Halloween and Valentine’s Day. In order to plan this project I had to research different ideas and send them to Mrs. Serra to get them approved, once she approved them I had to go out and buy the supplies and get them ready for the students. The hard part of this project was finding something that worked with all the students and their disabilities. In the end of this Capstone I have gained experience in working with children with disabilities.


art therapy
art therapy

Art Therapy is More than Just Making Nice Pictures

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/art-therapy-is-more-than-just-making-nice-pictures_us_5609be20e4b0af3706dd8e26

This source provides information about art therapy and why it is important for children to be introduced to art. It explains how art therapy isn’t just making nice pictures it is a way of learning.



Art Teaching For a New Age

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Art-Teaching-for-a-New-Age/140117

This source provides information about teaching art to a new age of kids.



Ten Reasons to Let Your Kids Paint

https://picklebums.com/ten-reasons-to-let-your-kids-paint/

This source provides information on why you should let your kids paint.



The Value Of Art Therapy For Those On The Autism Spectrum

https://the-art-of-autism.com/the-value-of-art-therapy-for-those-on-the-autism-spectrum/

This source provides information on how arts and crafts are good for those with autism.


Destiny Patton Capstone-Giorgio 2018

Much of this past year at the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) has been spent crafting a project that means a lot to me. For senior year, we have to create a culminating piece of work, or Capstone, that requires at least 80 hours of work. The direction we choose is 100% up to each student, with the only requirements being 3 week updates on our progress and approval from a teacher and mentor. For my Capstone, I decided to write a children's storybook in German. 

This idea was inspired by an exchange program with SLA and a high school in Frankfurt, Germany that I participated in during my junior year. We visited Frankfurt for a week and ever since then I have been interested in German language and culture. I decided to dedicate my Capstone time to teaching myself German and sharing what I learned. Over the school year, I have used German Rosetta Stone and Duolingo to increase my knowledge of German. While this task was easier said than done, it has been incredibly rewarding to recognize words in a language I knew almost nothing about when before starting the project. 

My final product is a hand written and illustrated children's book. As a person who has not taken an art class since freshman year, I felt myself struggle to draw and paint the pages in the book. That being said, I am incredibly proud of my final product and could not be more happy about how it looks and my personal growth. 

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PHuiH3bqcAD_texh8ywR3q9rtQE5laWGupN3RcMw9Dc

Asher Swartz Capstone

For my capstone, I explored wood joinery. I started with and focused on dovetail joints by hand. I had to do of research at first to figure how to actually make dovetails. I found plenty of sources, I just had to find the right ones. Eventually I found a set of tutorials that were suitable. Then I had to actually try to make the dovetails. While they aren't necessarily extremely difficult, as my mentor told me they're very easy to mess up. I did four dovetails by hand, and one with another method. My first, which I knew from the start weren't going to turn out well, didn't turn out well. For my second set, I used a different hand saw which helped. For the third, I used the bandsaw to see if it improved my work. It did, but not by enough to warrant the hassle. For my fourth I sharpened and improved my tools, which did help. For my fifth, my mentor set me up with and helped me use a dovetail jig to make a rudimentary box. 
My final product is my array of finished dovetails. They are a skill that takes years to master, and I showed my progression with each piece. Each was an improvement on the last. For each one, I took what I learned and augmented it with a new technique. Joinery, especially hand joinery, is a complex and difficult skill, and I only began to scratch the surface with my work.
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1. Bridgewater, Alan, and Gill Bridgewater. Making wood handles, hinges & knobs: the perfect touch for cabinetmaking. Sterling, 1998.

This book, which was recommended and lent to me by my mentor, is probably one of the less useful ones for my specific capstone, but still interesting nonetheless. As I’m not planning on making something with drawers, I most likely won’t have a chance to use the handle making techniques listed in this book. My design isn’t final, however, and depending on the difficulty I may very well decide to add decorative pieces. Also, carving these handles by hand involves a lot of chisel work, which I need to practice. I may create some of the simpler examples to this end.


2. Dahl, Timothy. “How to Cut Gorgeous Dovetail Joints to Up Your Woodworking Game.” popularmechanics.com, Popular Mechanics, 2 Feb. 2016, www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/how-to/a19197/how-to-cut-dovetail-joints-woodworking/. Accessed 22 Jan. 2018.

This source gives me a few resources. It doesn’t contain much information on its own, but it does link to a few other videos. It’s where I found the Paul Sellers tutorial. It also includes two other videos about how to make dovetails using a table saw and router jig. These aren’t methods I’m particularly interested, but they’re good to have nonetheless. Popular Mechanics is an important magazine, that many people read and trust. They don’t usually focus on woodworking, but the videos they link to are sound and from some websites that I use as sources, which I discovered independently.


3. Greef, Jeff. Marvelous wooden boxes you can make. Betterway, 1996.

This book is also from my mentor, meaning it has been read, reviewed, and approved by another woodworker. The author is a professional woodworker that has published articles in Fine Woodworking, among other places. This book doesn’t focus as much on the type of project I will use for my final, but showcases and details projects that would be good to practice fine joinery on. There are a good few chapters on type of dovetailed boxes, as well as other types. It might not be as helpful as some of the other books for my final project, but a major goal and core value of my capstone is improving my finer skills, which making a small, detailed box could help me do.


4. Haydon, G. “How to Dovetail.” Instructables.com, Instructables, 2 Apr. 2013, www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Dovetail/. Accessed 22 Jan. 2018.

Instructables is a source Mr. Kamal swears by. It mostly consists of at home maker uploading their tutorials and how-tos. And yet, many users are very good at doing what they do, and all types of interesting projects end up there. This source is in depth and detailed, and was a little tricky for me to understand at first. Their process is more complicated than the one I used. But it provides good information and an alternate way to do things. It also provides good explanations of how and why to do things, and details measurements to use for other sizes and types of wood, which will come in handy later.

5. Kirby, Ian J., and John Kelsey. Making joints: techniques, tips and problem-Solving tricks. Rodale Press, 1996.

This book, from my mentor, goes into lots of detail amount many types of joints which I will use in my final project. It was the first thing I looked at as it is very good for beginners. It details pretty much anything you would need to know in the process of making joints starting with buying the wood. I used it for my dovetails, but also for mortise/tenon joints and for some project ideas. It’s my all around most useful, generally applicable, resource that I will keep on hand and refer back to as I craft my various projects.


6. Rodel, Kevin. “Coffee Table Puts Joinery on Display.” Finewoodworking.com, FineWoodworking, 1 July 2005, www.finewoodworking.com/membership/pdf/8732/011178038.pdf. Accessed 23 Jan. 2018.

Fine Woodworking is a fairly highly regarded magazine that deals with more complex techniques, as the name implies. This article is a detailed description and walkthrough of the making of one particular type of coffee table. It features diagrams and design schematics and instructions and explanations for all of these. The design is meant to show off joinery, so it is a good concept for me to look at. It mainly uses mortise/tenon joints, which I haven’t focused as heavily on. In general, the design and process will make good reference material for my project, and I may use certain elements, but my final design will most likely not be based on this source.


7. Rodriguez, Mario. “All About Dovetail Joints.” FineWoodworking.com, Fine Woodworking, 12 Sept. 2005, www.finewoodworking.com/2005/09/12/all-about-dovetail-joints. Accessed 22 Jan. 2018.

Another source from Fine Woodworking, this article in particular was very informative about some of the history and theory behind dovetails, as well as common types and what each type is best used for. They give some good numbers and ratios to use. They try to include pictures, but none of the links work which limits the effectiveness of this source. This is good for thinking about dovetails, and not much else, as it doesn’t provide much more information. It may have been more useful if I hadn’t also read better, more specific source, but as it stands I didn’t gain much.  


8. Savage, Adam. “Learning How To Make Dovetail Joints with Adam Savage - YouTube.” youtube.com, Tested, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIpN8yWEqNQ. Accessed 22 Jan. 2018.

This source shows someone else’s process learning to make dovetails which is useful in a few ways. Seeing other people learning and making mistakes can warn you of things to do and not to do that watching a master can not. This source is Adam Savage learning how to make dovetails, starting from a similar place as me, sort of. He obviously has a lot more experience, but the type of carpentry I have done is similar to the type he usually does. Adam Savage is an accomplished maker, and has a lot of expertise in many ways forms of making. Seeing someone of his pedigree learn is especially helpful.



9. Sellers, Paul. “How to Make a Dovetail Joint - The Three Joints - | Paul Sellers - YouTube.” youtube.com, Paul Sellers, 17 Feb. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCYjoj6cfno. Accessed 22 Jan. 2018.

This was my main reference in actually creating the dovetails. This source consists of Paul Sellers, a well known master woodworker, going through his process of making dovetail joints by hand. I found references to this on a few other sources, like Popular Mechanics. I watched it once through at the beginning to check if I would be able to do what he does, and he used tools that I had easy access to and a process I could follow. I referred to this video many times while making my first few dovetails because he details his process slowly and clearly. I also used other videos of his as a guide for chisel sharpening.


10. Tables and desks. Time-Life Books, 1994.

A book from my mentor, this one deals with the making of tables and desks. Seeing as how I’m making a table, this provides a lot of information. It talks about important things other sources overlook like wood size changing with moisture, something I was warned to look into. It gives some tables featuring common dimensions of types of projects which I can refer to depending on my design, and diagrams them too. It also shows common joints to use for each application. It goes on through every step of making a table or desk. This will be very helpful when designing my final project.


Jorin Gerveni Capstone

Bracket of the Tournament
Bracket of the Tournament
For my senior project, I was interested in finding the best way to efficiently host a sporting event. I did this by creating and hosting a 3v3 soccer tournament. I contacted soccer players at both SLA campuses to participate in this event. Soccer is my passion and by hosting this tournament, I took advantage of this opportunity to explore a possible future career as I will be pursuing Sports Management at Drexel University this upcoming fall. My mentor, Mark Johnson, has provided great help in the course of organizing and hosting this tournament. I have learned how to set milestones and complete objectives, how to advertise and most importantly how to host a successful event. Finding the perfect date and venue were the largest obstacles that I faced along the way. Relying on the recent inconsistent weather patterns complicated matters as well. On the other hand, I learned much more through my research and the success of my event. The participation and enthusiasm from SLA Center City students, SLA at Beeber students, and alumni made this capstone a success.

Explaining the bracket to one of the participants (Aidan)
Explaining the bracket to one of the participants (Aidan)
Presenting the trophy and explaining the rules of SLA World Cup
Presenting the trophy and explaining the rules of SLA World Cup
Winners of SLA World Cup:    Spain (Kai, Jacobo, Javi)
Winners of SLA World Cup: Spain (Kai, Jacobo, Javi)

Lotus Shareef-Trudeau Capstone

Captsone: http://lshareef-trudeau.wixsite.com/rejectscapstone

For my senior capstone I resolved to make a collection of clothing/accessories made entirely out of recycled material. I created eleven pieces in all out of various material, from worn out jeans, to plastic tobacco packs. It was really important to me that I do something which I could incorporate sustainability into because it is something that I believe in and am very passionate about. By making new clothing out of material that was old and otherwise unusable, I was able to save a significant amount of material from the dump where these non-decomposable, non-recyclable materials would stay for years upon years polluting the Earth. 

I also wanted to find a way to apply the skills that I had learned through my internships in the past school years which were heavy on sewing and designing as well as to improve these newly developing skills in a way that I could feel proud of.This project seemed the perfect balance between the two. I learned a variety of different skills through completing this project. Designing a website, which is the platform I am presenting it on, shoe repair, embroidery, sewing machine repair, the complexities of designing, measuring, fashion sketching, sewing, and even making a mannequin.  

Avram, Ioana. “How to do fashion sketches step by step.” YouTube, YouTube, 28

Aug. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0orqkmOGamk&feature=share.


This video is a tutorial on fashion sketching, by Ioana Avram, a Romanian designer. Avram takes you step by step through the process of drawing fashion figure for your designs. She describes the proportions of the body and the angles and lines of the body to follow. She describes three primary steps to drawing figures. Starting with the axis of the body, drawing stark lines and angles of the body, such as the shoulder line and the hips, you create something like a stick figure. Secondly sketch out the primary shapes within the body, and lastly you connect the shapes together as fluidly as possible. All in all, this tutorial helps to guide you in drawing figures fast, each one doesn’t generally take more than 3 minutes, and efficiently, the figures are ideal to emphasize the subtleties of each design you create.

Learning from this has made my design process a lot faster and easier. Previously I did not have a real method to drawing figures, now I can easily reference my designs and I have an air of consistency to my figures which helps me better understand my designs in relation to one another.


Claudio, Luz. “Waste Couture: Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry.”

Environmental Health Perspectives, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Sept. 2007, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1964887/.


This source talks about the detriments of “fast fashion.” Fast fashion allows huge quantities of clothing to be produced and sold quickly and at low costs. This type of fashion has repercussions on the environment and leads to inhumane conditions for workers. In China, for example, where 30% of the world’s apparel exports stem from, workers make as little as 12-18 cents per hour. For the majority of the apparel nowadays, just producing the material to needed to construct the clothing creates harmful by-products. Cotton crops account for 25% of all pesticides used in the U.S.

Because of how quickly clothing is produced and sold, it urges consumers to throw out last season’s purchases. One person in America will throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing/textiles per year. Though thrift stores are becoming an increasingly popular way to discard clothing, they make up only 15% of all clothing that is thrown out. This source is very useful in pointing out the flaws in fast fashion and reasons that we are in need of more sustainable & eco-friendly habits within the fashion industry.


Cline, Elizabeth L. “Ethical Fashion: Is The Tragedy In Bangladesh A Final Straw?” NPR,

National Public Radio, 2 May 2013, www.npr.org/2013/05/02/180557959/ethical-fashion-is-the-tragedy-in-bangladesh-a-final-straw. Accessed 25 Jan. 2018.


This source explains a lot of the “fast fashion” industry’s operations and how that becomes problematic and disregards environmental and human rights issues. The fashion industry is now ruled by fast fashion industries which outsource to other countries in order to employ extremely cheap labor, optimizing their profits. It opens your eyes to how apathetic we are as a country to any crises that don’t directly affect us, the sufferings of people outside of the U.S., the degradation of the environment, etc… Now, there is a surge in the U.S. towards more ethical fashion and a greater demand in consumers for brands that sell and produce conscientiously.


Colon, Ana. “The 51 Most Incredible Dresses From Couture Fashion Week.” Glamour,

Glamour Magazine, 25 Jan. 2018, 12:25pm, www.glamour.com/gallery/best-looks-couture-fashion-week-spring-2018.


This source is not quite academic or without bias, but for my intents and purposes it doesn’t really need to be. The article compiles a list of fifty popular looks from 2018’s couture fashion week, from some of the most influential designers of today. Studying each of these pieces and other looks from the designers mentioned is a useful way to gather inspiration for my pieces as well as understand what types of designs that people respond positively to. This makes the bias of the article useful to my research. Realistically I won’t be able to match the designs from Fashion Week, but I can try to incorporate some of the main components and/or themes of the pieces that I see.


Csanák, Edit. “Eco-Friendly Concepts and Ethical Movements in the Fashion Industry.”

International Textile, Clothing & Design Conference, 5 Oct. 2014.


There are some limitations in this source, as the author who presented at the conference it was written for is not from an English speaking country, and so, though it is written in English, some of the meaning is convoluted in the writing because of the language barrier which causes the author to write in broken English at times. Despite its limitations, the source introduces the idea of three pillars of a “sustainable fashion retail chain” which is something that can be useful to understand. The pillars are made up of social issues, economic demands, and environmental aspects. In order to create a sustainable fashion retail chain it is essential to find a balance between all three, ensuring that you can produce goods at a relatively inexpensive cost, treat workers fairly, and take environmentally beneficial based action.


Ferrarini, Paolo. “Interview: Sass Brown of "ReFashioned".” Cool Hunting, 9 Oct.

2013, www.coolhunting.com/style/interview-sass-brown-of-refashioned.

This article transcribes an interview held with Sass Brown, the founding dean of the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation and an advisor for the annual Danish sustainable solutions guide, Sustania100. Brown counters the question of whether or not recycling/upcycling would be a contradiction to fashion’s naturally value of obsolescence, by explaining that “creativity thrives on challenge.” She expands on how, challenging oneself to be sustainable in fashion elicits creative responses and that eco-fashion is no less couture than its wasteful counterparts.

I find a lot of truth in her response as I begin my capstone. I’ve felt a lot of enjoyment in upcycling clothes not only because of the environmental implications but also because it poses a challenge and stretches my creativity because I have to work with what I have, mistakes have to be embraced and run with because I don’t have an endless supply of material. I have one chance, one thing, each piece is unique and near impossible to replicate, which lends each piece a valuableness that it would not otherwise possess.


Gerval, Olivier. Fashion: Concept to Catwalk. Firefly Books, 2010.


Gerval’s Concept to Catwalk laid out everything that a designer needs to know to create a clothing collection. He starts from the very beginning of the design process, mapping out how to choose color palettes and fabric type, touches on the conceptualization of each piece, producing them, creating a portfolio, and finally showcasing your collection. Reading this has given me a lot of helpful hints to keep in mind while designing my collection. It has also given me a lot of good ideas for how I want to present the final product because I hadn’t had a solid plan for that aspect of the project. Now I am excited about the possibilities of what I can do to display it. I’m considering doing a photoshoot with each piece and recruiting models, which could be a time consuming process. I am also very taken with the idea of creating a portfolio of all my designs, making it all follow a sort of theme, concept mapping and the such.


Prime, Richard. “Restructional Clothing by Ninna Berger.” Cool Hunting, 28 Oct.

2013, www.coolhunting.com/style/restructional-clothing-by-ninna-berger.  


Ninna Berger is an avant garde, Swedish designer. Berger founded Recontructional Clothing, a collection of clothing which uses 100% reused materials and doesn’t allow any material to go to waste. This source was able to provide a lot of examples of the different possibilities that upcycling holds as the project Berger undertook was very similar to what I am attempting in my capstone. It has also abolished the idea that upcycled clothing’s greatest potential is to look like a 4th grade arts and crafts project in its finished state. If nothing else, learning about Reconstructional Clothing and looking at the results of the project has helped to boost my morale and reinforce my hope for the quality of the products that I create.


Sims, Alexanda. “How the fashion industry is helping the world's rubbish problem.”

The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 27 May 2016, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/how-the-fashion-industry-is-helping-the-worlds-rubbish-problem-a7052826.html.


This article talks about how designers have turned to more ecological materials to create their fashion. One popular and effective method of no-waste fashion production mentioned is chemical recycling. Chemical recycling involves  melting old material down to extract the raw material. Using this method, old clothing can be made into a new garment to be recycled again and again. The article points out that each year, 350,000 tons of used clothing in the UK goes to the landfill. In the U.S., this number is a whopping 16 million tons as of 2014. The UK is making great strides in integrating sustainability with fashion, and the sheer mass of waste that the U.S. produces in textiles, shows how beneficial sustainable fashion could be in America.

My capstone is a response to the question of how I can personally reduce the waste I create, beyond simply recycling. This source has opened my eyes to how much of a detriment the fashion industry can be to the environment and some of the ways to combat that. After learning this, I knew that I wanted to emulate designers such as Christopher Raeburn and Cyndi Rhoades. Though I do not have access to the technology to employ chemical recycling, my end goal is to create several pieces of clothing out of old and worn out clothing and materials, which will allow me to create environmentally conscious clothing and minimize my carbon footprint, although it will be on a much smaller and more personal scale than the design.


Wyszynski, Linda. The complete photo guide to needlework. Creative Pub. International,

2012.


In The Complete Photo Guide to Needlework, Wyszynski includes descriptions of different tools and materials essential to needlework which was extremely helpful for me so that I knew exactly what would be the best type of thread, needle, etc… when embroidering. This book gave me a lot of different techniques to use when embroidering, beading, and the like. It was especially useful when I was working on the shoes that I repaired because I was using so much embroidery, and in such a vast range of techniques, on them. I thought this source very effective to use because it had ready pictures and steps so that I could easily follow along and copy the steps in order to finish the pair of converse.


Claire Byrnes Capstone

For my Capstone, I wanted to create a resource for teens interested in museums, a place to hear about other volunteers' experiences and learn about volunteering opportunities. To complete my CTE Digital Video requirement, I interviewed students sharing stories and their passion for museums. Since it was difficult to get in touch with a variety of teen volunteers, I decided to expand my research. My final product is a collection of information about museums around the city, organized into a website.

My website housing all of my videos and information is here below:


Annotated Bibliography


Bay, Ann. “Museum Programs for Young People: Case Studies.” eric.ed.gov/?id=ED090116.

This is a set of 14 case studies of young people in twenty-four American museums. Since it’s case studies, their source provides more specific information about these programs. The author writes about programs for young children and high school students, allowing me to understand a variety of programs. I found this source useful because it has information about the museums’ exhibits, staff, funding, and its coordination with schools. This source will be difficult to utilize though because it is a long document (almost 300 words) and since it was originally published in a book, not online, the font is difficult to read.


Bormann, Sarah Beth. “Teen programs : engaging adolescents in the museum setting.” San

Francisco State University Digital Repository, 2016, hdl.handle.net/10211.3/172971.

This source focuses on how and why museums interact with teenagers specifically. This source includes four case studies of museums in America with long-term teen programs and the themes that connect them. While this source is very long, there is a Table of Contents that will allow me to read the specific parts that I know will be helpful. This source will be very helpful in not only understanding long-term teen museum programs, but also their impact on the museum itself. This source also has interview questions that I can adapt to use when interviewing the teens involved in museums.


Dahl, Mette Irene. “Finding a new voice: lifelong learning experiences in museum

volunteering.” International Journal of Lifelong Education, 10 Jan. 2018, pp. 1–13., doi:10.1080/02601370.2017.1406546.

This article focuses on the aftermath of a volunteer’s time at a museum. These volunteers aren’t teenagers so it may not be applicable to my own Capstone, but this source provides me with information about how volunteering at a museum may affect their identity. By describing the experiences of different volunteers, this source is able to analyze their effect on the museum as a whole. I will use this source to better understand a volunteer’s impact on a museum which will develop into a conclusion for my Capstone. This source is an article by an independent researcher and has many references and data to reference.


Hoven, Kristy Van, and Loni Wellman. Recruiting and managing volunteers in museums a

handbook for volunteer management. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, books.google.com/books?id=GQQsCwAAQBAJ&dq=teenage museum volunteers&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s.

This is a digital copy of a book written by museum studies alumni of Johns Hopkins University, an institution known for their research opportunities. This book, published recently in 2016, focuses on the process of volunteer recruitment, communication, and retention. Focused on non-profit volunteers, I will use this source to understand the culture behind volunteering through a business lens. Since this is just a preview of the book, which costs $16.50 and is not available at a free library, I can’t access all of its pages which will limit its usefulness. There is a Table of Contents which will allow me to pick and choose the sections to read.


Janes, Jennifer Elizabeth. “High school volunteerism, student docents, and the Sacramento

History Museum.” 14 Feb. 2012, hdl.handle.net/10211.9/1468.

This is a project exploring high school volunteer programs in history museums. This will be helpful because its focus mirrors mine - high school students and history museums. This source analyzes the best way to institute a high school volunteer program in a museum by using the Student Docent Program at the Sacramento History Museum as a case study. By using this project’s information backed up by the case study, I can agree with it that high school volunteer programs in museums focused on history are worthwhile and the museum’s staff should put forth time and energy towards developing these types of volunteer programs.


March, Kristina Marie. “Igniting the spark : the use of teenage volunteers in museums.” San

Francisco State University Digital Repository, 2013, sfsu-dspace.calstate.edu/handle/10211.3/130200.

This thesis examples the idea that teenagers can increase the value of a museum’s volunteer program. This source has case studies at 3 different science-based museums in the San Francisco Bay area and an informal survey of teenage volunteers. This source will be helpful to me because I will interview high school students at a few science focused museums and may adopt the survey questions to use in the interviews. The main reason this source will be helpful is its conclusion. This source ends with a set of guidelines for developing a successful volunteer program for teenagers in a museum.


Musick, Marc A., and John Wilson. Volunteers: A Social Profile. Indiana University Press,

2008, books.google.com/books?id=u8Tabf5HcRcC&source=gbs_navlinks_s.

This book is about volunteers themselves. By using information about volunteers at various museums (their race, gender, class, relationships, etc.) gained through a survey, this source will help me understand volunteers’ motivation for volunteering at museums. Since this is just a preview of the book, which costs $15.52, I can’t access all of its pages which will limit the amount of information I can access. There is a Table of Contents and a strong introduction which will introduce me to the book and allow me to pick and choose the exact sections I know will be useful for my Capstone.


Schwartz, Deborah F. “Dude, Where's My Museum? Inviting Teens to Transform Museums .”

www.mercermuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Dude-Wheres-My-Museum..pdf.

This is an article written by the president of the Brooklyn Historical Society and is reliable because of the author’s experience with museums and her use of footnotes and a bibliography. The author references many well-known museums in her article (the Museum of Modern Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Brooklyn Museum…) showing her expertise. This source is an opinionated piece, giving me the opportunity to understand someone’s actual opinion, rather than just information to cite. This article concludes with a set of guidelines for the museum community to engage teenagers. I can also use this source for its bibliography, to have more resources about youth programs in museums.


Szekely, Ilona. “Multiple Perspectives on Teen-Centric Art Museum Programs.” The

International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, vol. 5, no. 4, 2013, pp. 25–36., doi:10.18848/1835-2014/cgp/v05i04/44412.

This source focuses on how the involvement of teenagers in art museums has transformed their connection to the public. By exploring the historical context of teenagers’ relationship with museums, I will be able to understand the museums’ shift of focus from children to teenagers. This paper also discusses the implementation of technology in art museums which attracts teenagers to then stay and volunteer. This work is in the series “The Inclusive Museum” and was written by a professor at Eastern Kentucky University, a comprehensive institution. The author helped to establish several community arts organizations so I know she is experienced with the art community.


Verbanszky, Stephanie J. “Winning Over Tweens: Museum Programming for the Middle School

Audience.” 18 July 2006, pp. 1–111., library2.jfku.edu/Museum_Studies/Winning_Over_Tweens.pdf.

Divided into 13 sections, this study contains data from 8 focus groups of tweens to discover how their needs can be met in museums. This project’s research focuses on museums in California and uses psychology and neuroscience to understand tweens’ needs. The purpose of this study is to inform museum educators how to address the needs of tweens. The article’s main point is that through effective programming for tweens, museums can engage a large audience that will benefit the museums in the end. This project ends with an analysis of the important parts of successful tween programs and recommendations for museum educators.

Kara Lazorko Capstone

https://youtu.be/9ANq_ygmjks

I spoke to black girls, and they told me colors other than nude were “too loud” or “too much to wear in public.” Myself being a dark skin girl who wears a variety of colors on my face, knew that I had to prove what was being said wrong. Not only wrong, but had to raise awareness and confidence to black girls who don’t think colors are meant to be worn. Throughout the month of April I spoke to a group of black sophomore students and got them to come with me to Sephora to observe the limitless colors that they could wear. It resulted in them feeling more comfortable wearing colored makeup.


My inspiration of doing a YouTube video was for the fact the visuals being better than words. It was an opportunity to combine creativity with a message. I not only needed the message heard but seen and spread.


The point of my project; “Color with Color” was to raise awareness the the issue of dark skin girls wearing makeup colors other than nude. The goal of my YouTube video was to wear different shades of lipstick that I purchased to represent my idea. Each color had a different look and item. For example, the orange look was paired with a large orange sweatshirt and an orange lighter. Another example would be the green look was paired with a normal green t-shirt and a rose. The whole point of switching each of the lipsticks with the outfits was to demonstrate how much the color pops.


Carlos Rivera Capstone

Carlos Rivera Annotated Bibliography Floyd, Daniel. "Extra Credits" Extra Credits: Game Design. Daniel Floyd, YouTube Playlist, Last Updated Mar 8, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5BkTruCmaBBZ8z6cP9KzPiX
 I used to watch this source as entertainment, because I was bored. Now that I look at in for research, I realized how much of an excellent job this source does at providing an overview on video game development. The tips and tricks given in this series really help me understand what developing a video game is like, how to benefit from it and how to deal with its grievances. Because it’s mostly just an overview, I can’t use this for anything specific. However, it can help me keep my sanity while developing a game and give me hope and encouragement for its success. 

Arcila, David. “Zeef” Game Development Resources. David Arcila, Blog, last updated 1/22, 2013. https://game-development.zeef.com/david.arcila
 I recently found this site whilst looking for an online chiptune music creation app. This blog is chalk full of tutorials, free music, game engines, character generators, and so much more for any developer to use for their games and other applications. The possibilities are endless with how much this blog post could help me with my capstone, which is a video game. However, I do prefer to create these things with my own hands and I am willing to do it for the most part. I am willing to change my mind if the situation beckons me to do so. Chapple, Craig. “develop-online” 16 ways to make your game for free. 

Craig Chapple, Blog, 5/24/2014 http://www.develop-online.net/tools-and-tech/16-ways-to-make-your-game-for-free/0193040
 Video game development is surprisingly expensive and risky, especially for the triple “A” developers. Some developers put up to five hundred million dollars, and more, into developing and advertising one game. That is enough to buy and own a few private islands or a couple of yachts. Thankfully, video games doesn’t need to be that expensive. In fact, anyone can make a game without spending a penny. The free tools to make a video game are scattered across the internet for any upcoming video game developer, like me. This blog can help me find some of these tools for my game. Schreier, Jason. “Blood, Sweat, and Pixels” Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made. Jason Schreier, Book, 9/5/2017 It is difficult to describe how hard it is to make a video game to anyone who has never made a video game. There is so much that goes into video games and it is a relatively new industry. Thankfully, this book has me covered. I talks about these hardships and uses famous video games, released or not, and how they were developed. It gets into the mind of the developer or developers and shows their intent for the games and any future sequels. This book gives much needed insight in such a difficult task and prepares me for what is to come. 

Swirsky and Pajot, James and Lisanne. “Indie Game” Indie Game” The Movie. James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot, Movie, 6/12/2012
This movie has been out for a while and it has been in my radar, since I do enjoy watching documentaries. This one is about the indie game development scene and what these developers have to go through in order to make their games and market them to a decent sized audience. Viewers of this documentary, later including myself, gain insight on their hardships and how they have to balance their game development and social lives. I know I will go through a lot of the struggles these people have and their stories can help me figure out what to do if I am in some sort of block or corner. Francois and Brady, Lester and Anna. “Game Loading” Game Loading: Rise of the Indies. Lester Francois and Anna Brady, Movies, 4/21/2015 This movie follows several indie game studios and gets into how they develop their games and the hardships of their video game’s development cycles. There is a surprising amount of video game documentaries that cover this and other topics about the video game industry. However, this shouldn’t be surprising to me anyway. The video game industry is one the fastest growing industries in the world and documentaries like these give insight as to the difficulties of the industry. This movie, and others of its kind, will be valuable resources for the capstone I am working on and my future career, if I become a video game developer. 

“Discovery Channel” Rise of the video game. TV Show, aired 11/21/2007 
This show covers the history of video gaming from its humble beginnings to the massive industry it is today. It also covers how some of these games, and their genres, gained popularity, became innovative for the industry, and how they became smash hits. This could be used to, at the very least, gain encouragement to keep going with my capstone. It can also give me inspiration as to what to implement into my capstone in order to make it more fun and interesting for the player. I am just surprised that even the freaking Discovery Channel wants to make a documentary off this.
I came into the capstone thinking that once I learned it, it will be a breeze. My naivete got the best of me and created many hardships to come. When I first heard that capstone is a year long project I knew what I wanted to do, create a video game. I then learned of the extra stuff that needed to be done besides creating the capstone and its presentation. I tried doing all of that, but neglected actually creating the capstone. Once it was january I realized what wasn’t done and had to rethink what kind of game I needed to make. I at first wanted to create a platformer similar to the game “The Mario Bros” (the one after Donkey Kong & before Super Mario Bros), but after learning the time I had to make the game, I settled with a platformer similar to Geometry Dash, but without the scrolling. This was the best time for my capstone because I had a balance between the game and the background stuff. However, things took a turn for the worst when I got lazy and slacked off. I didn’t develop the game enough within the timeframe given. So, I decided to reconsider what kind of game I had to make again and, this time, settled with a game that is like the easter egg minigame from Doom 3 called “Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3”. This game was very easy to develop at such short notice.

David Williams Capstone

My Capstone is a video documentary of the SLA Baseball team. I have incorporated both ground and aerial shots of games, and I conducted thorough interviews of the captains This shows their goals and achievements throughout the season, both as individuals and as a team. It captures all aspects of the sport. Inquiry was be the interviews, I did research on the sport of baseball, I collaborated with the baseball team and coaches, and I hosted interviews where I asked the captains to reflect on their season. This project shows the value of SLA sports and communities, and it shows what it means to be part of a team. By doing this, I have learned more about sports communities as a whole, and better filming and editing techniques. This project has enabled me to put my digvid skills to good use. This project worked for me, because I am a CTE student and it really shows the skills I have gained in CTE as a student.

“Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc.” Baseball , www.piaa.org/sports/baseball/. This website greatly helped me make my timeline. I did not know what to put on my timeline, because, I needed the SLA baseball team schedule to properly make the timeline. This is because I am filming all of their games and practices. The site had the full schedule on it and more helpful information about the league. It is important to have a source like this, because it will constantly be updated, providing me with fresh and useful information that I can use to make a good capstone. I am confident that this source is accurate and legit, as it is the official high school league website for al sports. NFHS, “2018 NFHS Baseball Major Rules Changes”, http://www.piaa.org/assets/web/documents/2018_Baseball_Major_Rules_Changes_With_Rationale. FINAL(1).pdf This source was crucial to my knowledge of the league. It had very important rule change information. It showed me what this years major changes to the rules would include. These rules included new baseball material regulations, bat attachment regulations, and a very interesting rule about first base sliding and run-overs. This source will greatly help me better understand the games while I am filming them. This will lead to better video quality and more dynamic camerawork. I am excited to use this information in my capstone and I feel like it will help me be more successful. NFHS, “Preseason Bulletin” http://www.piaa.org/assets/web/documents/2018%20Baseball%20Preseason%20Bulletin(1).pdf This source was very similar to the previous one, but it was much more in depth than the previous source. It had information on all the new big rules and all the new small rules. It had important information about the player behavior and the coach behavior. It talked about how players on opposite teams should interact with each other. This is all very helpful to me for my capstone. Now I know what to expect during games and I know what aspects of the game to look out for. This is a very important capstone source for me. MLB, “2017 Official rules”, http://mlb.mlb.com/documents/0/4/0/224919040/2017_Official_Baseball_Rules_dbt69t59.pdf This source was very important to my compare and contrast aspect. At some point in my capstone, I will be comparing and contrasting the high school league baseball rules to the professional baseball league rules. I feel like this will greatly help me capture the unique aspects of high school baseball, ultimately boosting the quality of my capstone project as a whole. This simple source has made me more confident in turning a great capstone with many creative elements. I am very confident in myself that I will use this source well and that it will add something truly valuable to my capstone. Whistle Sports, “World of Baseball”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw4uEOb_USQ This video was very intriguing to me. It really captures the excitement in baseball. It was very energetic and crisp. This was posted by a verified page on youtube, so I feel confident that it is very creditable as a source. Even though it was short, running at only 6 minutes, I feel like it really captures all of the important aspects of baseball as a whole. I think this would be a good role model for some parts of my capstone video documentary senior project. At first, I was hesitant to use a video source, but this video proved me wrong. Scully, Gerald W. “P.” Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball, www.bing.com/cr?IG=246A9D6A83D84672A1BDA2B62F6C0742&CID=14E0239110B163E2162B2 812111E6258&rd=1&h=fMDMvTi4qf9F_pIUhSLpcV8w5_ulbYM2as89sDqGjO4&v=1&r=http%3a%2f %2fwww.jstor.org%2fstable%2f1815242&p=DevEx,5050.1. Unfortunately, I was not able to view the full document. However, I was able to find a website with a portion of this writing available for free. I am very grateful to have stumbled across this helpful document. The excerpt that I read contained very helpful information about the pay and performance of baseball players, hence the title, “Pay and performance in Major League baseball”. The viewpoints in this writing were both unique and intriguing to me and I am happy to use this as a source in my documentary project. MaxPreps, “Science Leadership Academy Baseball” http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/science-leadership-academy-(philadelphia,pa)/baseball/hom e.htm This source will possibly be the most valuable one I have. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much, but it actually contains some extremely useful information about the SLA baseball team. It contains all of their records from previous seasons played. This is going to be great in my documentary for comparing and contrasting the team’s performance between previous seasons and this current season. I believe it will also be updated during this season to show their current win/loss ratio and other stats. I am excited to use this source in my documentary. PIAA, “Preseason Bulletin 2017” http://www.piaa.org/assets/web/documents/2017%20Baseball%20Bulletin%20V.pdf This source is similar to another one on this document. That source is the 2018 season bulletin. I figured that having both of them will help me compare and contrast the different rules and regulations of the 2 different seasons. This will help me when I compare and contrast team performance, because it is important to know the conditions and rules of each game and each season when comparing 2 things so that the information gained will be very accurate and fully reflect their progress as a team unbiased. I look forward to further advancing my capstone with this link. Major League BAseball Productions, “The official history of baseball” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMZzsV3xi8Q This link is another baseball documentary. However, this one is more focused on the history of the sport. It is significantly longer than the first one used, with a runtime of about an hour and ten minutes. This source will go well in my introduction. I can model my introduction with some historical facts about baseball and I feel like this will give some strength to my documentary as a whole. Even though though this is about the history of a different league, I feel confident that I will find a way to incorporate these facts smoothly into my capstone baseball video documentary project for my 2017-2018 senior year. “Baseball - the Basics.” BBC Sport, BBC, 26 Oct. 2005, news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/baseball/3562135.stm. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/baseball/3562135.stm This is my final source. It is one of the keys to my castones success. This source is all about the basics of the sport of baseball. It talks about the flow of the game, the positions, how the game works, etc. This will help people who don’t understand the sport of baseball very well better enjoy my documentary. I feel like this great source is crucial to include facts from in my video project for science leadership academy. If people can’t understand the sport, then how will they understand my documentary? Exactly, they won’t. That’s why I must include a basics section for the game in my documentary capstone project.

Kaamil Jones Capstone

For my capstone I decided to do a documentary on my uncle, Stacey Torrance. Stacey was arrested at the age of fourteen and given life in prison without the ability of parole, he was released last year at the age of 43. For the capstone I decided to do lots of research on the criminal justice system, go to his final court date and film him and his mother in a sit down interview. 

Charles Velazquez's Capstone

IMG_0534
IMG_0534
​     At the beginning of the year when I was brainstorming capstone ideas, I made a goal to learn more about carpentry. In order to accomplish this goal, I decided to build furniture for students at SLA. I chose two students to build furniture for, one of the students wanted me to build them a footrest and the other one wanted me to build a bookshelf. In order for them to be involved in the process and give them something they actually will like, I asked them about the specific features they want for their items. I essentially treated them like clients and had meetings with them, where we discussed different things pertaining to the design until they tested the final products. The final products were a 17”x10”x6” footrest that was filled with Nu-foam and a 47”x22” bookshelf that they are going to pick up once they are ready to. From building the furniture I can say that I accomplished my goal as I learned a lot more about carpentry. I learned how to biscuit joint two pieces of wood together, how to upholster a cushion and a multitude of other things. I overall had a good time creating the furniture for my capstone. 

Annotated Bibliography:

Jessica Guarino Capstone

For my capstone project, I wanted to educate people on animal behavior, and utilize that knowledge in situations when either animals approach people or if animals are seen on the street. To accomplish this goal, I held a presentation that went over the 4 basic behaviors of dogs and cats, since those are the two most common domestic pets. In that presentation, I discussed when not to approach an animal, since there are instances when approaching one is not safe. Another thing that I wanted to accomplish with this capstone was to give back to the animals in need, while they are waiting to find their forever homes. So with that, I decided to hold a donation drive to collect necessities for the animals, and deliver them to the PSPCA. After all of this was done, I put everything together on a website and added some extra information about animal behavior for those who want to explore beyond what was explained in the presentation. Something that I learned from working on this capstone project was that initial plans may not turn out how you originally imagined them to, but to overcome that obstacle, you should be open to quick changes to make do with what you have.



Final Website here

Annotated Bibliography here

Cindy Chen Capstone

https://cchen252.wixsite.com/slastory 

For my capstone, at first, I didn't really know what to do my capstone on. My first idea at first was to create a documentary story website to get more awareness of human tracking but it was a hard topic that was not really realistic. There were too many what if which was risky. Instead, I decided to change the idea not completely but the topic of it. In which, I decided to create a website of SLA immigration story. The reason for this is because I wanted to learn more about people story specifically in SLA. I feel like this is a topic that not many people have the chance to share.  The different type of story that got before they came here, something you wouldn't just know from looking at someone. Doing this capstone, I learned about the different type of story that I did not knows of people in SLA. I already knew immigration is a big thing so if I were to focus on the students in the school I attend, I feel like it would be interesting. The final product is a website of teacher and students story. 


Tajnia Hussain Capstone

For my capstone, my very first idea was that I wanted to give back to my community. I wasn’t aware of what this was yet until the end of my junior year. When I gained knowledge about the global refugee crisis and what was going on in Syria, Yemen, and Myanmar, I wanted to make a greater impact. I reached out to a refugee resettlement program here in Philly, HIAS Pennsylvania. I contacted the director and set up various meetings with the education coordinator to set up my capstone project. Over the course of nine months, I spent over 90 hours preparing and completing this project. I worked one-on-one with a group of young refugee children between the ages of 5-13 at Gilbert Spruance Elementary. Throughout this time, I got to know each and every one of them, built bonds and relationships, was a mentor and helped build their English and homework skills. I learned about their journey here to America and their difficulties back home. 

As I gained all this knowledge, I decided to create a documentary but after many technical difficulties, the content I collected was not of good quality so I decided to take another route and take excerpts of their stories and include it in my awareness presentation. Along with the volunteering I completed, I was apart of the Braskem Accelerator program and pitched to the company so I could get funding to give back supplies to the refugees at Spruance Elementary. I was among three individuals who received full funding and additional funding. I ordered books of all ages, basketballs, soccer balls, and jump ropes, to send home to the kids. I filled book caddies of various books to each family so they could build a mini-library of their own. The last component of my project was to raise awareness about the global refugee crisis so I created a 30-minute presentation on Prezi breaking down the various crisis’, the resettlement process, and the interviews I had of the refugees. I presented to all grades and also recruited students to volunteer at HIAS Pennsylvania next year for their ILPs/capstones. Overall, I am very proud of how my capstone turned out and educating others about what is happening around the world that need to be addressed. 


Global Refugee Crisis Presentation: 
The book caddies that I put together for the refugee children.
The book caddies that I put together for the refugee children.
Some of the refugee children I worked with.
Some of the refugee children I worked with.
Some of the refugees exploring their mini-libraries.
Some of the refugees exploring their mini-libraries.
Seraj, a refugee from Syria, playing with the soccer balls I provided to HIAS.
Seraj, a refugee from Syria, playing with the soccer balls I provided to HIAS.
Presenting about the global refugee crisis to a group of sophomores.
Presenting about the global refugee crisis to a group of sophomores.
Presenting about the global refugee crisis to a group of seniors.
Presenting about the global refugee crisis to a group of seniors.
Presenting to freshmans and juniors.
Presenting to freshmans and juniors.

Nadia Green Senior Capstone

Capstone Bibliography
​Abstract: For my Senior Project, I decided to write free write poems throughout the school year. I wanted to create a project that I was interested in. This was very difficult for me in the beginning stages of the Capstone. I didn't feel like I had interests that were year long projects. My original idea was to create a book with a series of short stories. I wanted them to be horror mysteries. For the first month I have been working on trying to create these stories but had no luck. The reason why i wanted to do a writing piece was because of my old passion for writing. I use to spend a lot of time writing poems, stories, and even songs. Due to progressing in school I had less time to write and really do what I like. I saw this as  an opportunity to advance with a subdued passion. When I was writing the stories I instantly had writer's block. I had an idea but I didn't know how to write it. I was stuck for a week with just formulating characters. After awhile I decided that I needed to change my idea. I was not progressing and time was being wasted. I found a journal that held a few of my past works. I then decided to change my idea to making poems. I would write a poem everyday day or frequently. There would be no specific topic but just what I feel in the moment.  My initial goal was 100 poems for the whole year. I knew this was a lot to strive for but I set a schedule for myself. Unfortunately, I was not on track for my poem amount and it was changed to 50 poems. I was very close to writing 50 poems but then I was only able to write 31. I feel like I accomplished a lot and that I saw a lot about myself through these poems.       

Capstone Website: https://ngreen95.wixsite.com/unspokenthoughts

Lydia Anderson Capstone

​My Capstone was a series of essays that detail the reasoning behind three different feeling categories; Happy, Sad, and Angry. Under each section there are four essays, making twelve in total. I decided to do this as my capstone because I wanted to better understand why I felt the way I did about certain things, as well as process certain feelings. I thought while starting my capstone that writing my initial thoughts about my feelings, others would be able to relate to them and find some kind of comfort. The writing process for this body of work was daunting, as the content I was writing was incredibly personal, and as a result, I got in my feelings a lot. This made the writing process much harder for me, I frequently felt emotionally spent by the process. I learned a lot about my ability to confront my feelings, or lack of ability. I learned how my reactions affect people, and what I can do to make sure what I say doesn’t have a negative effect on the wrong people. Overall, I am incredibly proud of the work I’ve produced and I hope that people understand the messages that I hoped to convey. Click on the image to get the link to the PDF of my final work. 

FINAL CAPSTONE ESSAYS

Annotated Bibliography


Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. Dial Press, 1963

The Fire Next Time is a poetic story that has a complex commentary on the issues that Black Americans faced in the Civil Rights Era. The two essays together serve as a commentary on race relations in the 1960s as a whole and the intersectional issues that race and religion often make for black people of faith. Baldwin’s language in both pieces of The Fire Next Time


De Beauvoir, Simone. “Untitled” Received by Nelson Algren, 1951,  pp. 1–1.

For the beginning quote of the section “Angry” I will use a quote from a letter Simone De Beauvoir sent her longtime beau Nelson Algren. She wrote to him and during it she says “I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.” This quote speak a lot to me because I find that often the source of my anger stems from frustration. I chose to use this quote because of how it resonates to the feelings reflected in the section that follows it, “Anger”.


Gay, Roxane. Bad Feminist. Harper Perennial, 2014

In my journey to prepare for this project I read several different essay books. I chose to use Bad Feminist as one of my example readings. I used this book mainly as a way to understand and dissect how Roxane Gay relates to her readers, how her dialogue flows and how I can use my own words in my work in a similar way.


Huxley, Aldous. Unknown.

To begin the section entitled “Happy”. Aldous Huxley is credited with saying “Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.” The majority of the things that have made me happy, were not something I planned. The essays I am writing in this section fit this quote very well and I think that this quote is a good way to set the atmosphere going into the section.


McPeck-Stringham, Marisa. “I Can't Get Out of My Sweat Pants: An Essay on Depression.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Apr. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/marisa-mcpeckstringham/i-cant-get-out-of-my-sweat-pants-an-essay-on-depression_b_7175836.html.

As I partially mention in other sections, I am planning on writing about some very hard times in my life, some that people may not be able to handle. This essay talks about these things in a way that is emotional, but not so much so that it doesn’t work to convey the message. I used this to study the way she finds that balance in her writing, which I sometimes have trouble with.


Orwell, George. “A Hanging.” George Orwell - A Hanging - Essay, www.george-orwell.org/A_Hanging/0.html.

I used this essay as a reference point in my early research, before I started reading the essay books of other authors. In several different articles about essays, this one written by George Orwell came up several times in several different articles. After I read it I got the vibe that Orwell has a very dark, haunting way of describing things. It was interesting to read and overall, his essay made me understand exactly the way I was going to approach writing for “Angry” and “Sad” because I plan to talk about very emotionally taxing times of my life in those sections.



Sedaris, David. Naked. Little, Brown and Company, 1997.

I used several different sources to gather inspiration for the way I would write. Sedaris is known for adding a sarcastic and humorous tone in his writing, usually about awkward situations he has been in. He writes in a very cynical way but still people enjoy his books immensely. As a writer he has found the balance between being a skeptic and not being a complete downer in his essays. He’s essentially turned the things that were really hard for him into something funny for other people to equally enjoy. I can relate to some of the emotions he has and reading this book helped me understand how he manages to convey the messages he does, the way he does.


Staff, SLA. “CAPSTONE.” Google Sites, Science Leadership Academy,

https://sites.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/capstone/home

The Capstone website mainly serves as a base for any work I do. The capstone project has a lot of rules and a strict structure. Whenever I do work on my capstone, I have to have a tab with this site open so I know that I’m actually answering what is being asked of me by

SLA.



Schulten, Katherine. “From 'Lives' to 'Modern Love': Writing Personal Essays With Help From The New York Times.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Oct. 2016,

www.nytimes.com/2016/10/20/learning/lesson-plans/from-lives-to-modern-love-writing-personal-essays-with-help-from-the-new-york-times.html.

I used this article in my search for advice on what to avoid and use when writing my essays. It explains common tropes and mistakes that people run into when they write personal essays in a way that makes a lot of sense. This helps me distinguish my writing because I now know what to avoid and what to continue doing when writing essays like this.


Thoreau, Henry David, and Bill McKibben. “Chapter One / Economy .” Walden, Beacon Press, 2004, pp. 11–11.

I used a quote from Henry David Thoreau as a preface to the section entitled “Nervous”. The quote goes as follows: “In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.” This quote for me represents and personifies some of the feelings I have when I am nervous, which makes it fit well as a preface to this section.










Luis-Manuel Morales Capstone

For my Senior Capstone, I chose to give back to the SLA Shop. Throughout my high school career the SLA Shop has given me a great deal of experience in engineering that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I wanted to grow the shops certification process by creating single procedure sheets to help students get familiar with each tool so that they may be eventually certified in the tool. Some tools in the shop do have the single sheet produced sheets, however the tools that I have created sheets for are some of the most used in our shop. I wanted to make sure that these key aspect of our space had a healthy amount of information the students could consume to properly and effectively use each tool. Doing research on each tool by reading the manuals provided by the tools companies, hands on experience, and getting feedback from fellow classmates and Mr. Kamal throughout the school year, I have created well thought out and information sheets that provide students with all the key things they need to know to operate the tools, and my hope is that they will hang above each tool for years to come.
Capstone Certification Sheets LM
LM Capstone Annotated Bibliography

Israh Mohammed Capstone

Some of the kids seeing their showcase for the first time! Photographed (left to right): Yalda, Rougeya, Seraj, Hashmatuallah, Mohamed, & Nawi
Some of the kids seeing their showcase for the first time! Photographed (left to right): Yalda, Rougeya, Seraj, Hashmatuallah, Mohamed, & Nawi
Annotated Bibliography
Every Wednesday, I volunteer at a refugee after school program that takes place at Spruance Elementary School. The kids I work with range from kindergarten to 6th grade and are all refugees! I collaborated with the kids and the beautification club led by one of the most amazing and dedicated teachers I’ve ever met, Ms. Pileggi. Together we created a series of artwork that is hung at the main showcase of the school. The purpose of this was to celebrate diversity and to create a positive representation of refugees to anyone who comes to Spruance and happens to pass by the showcase. The kids I work with painted the flags of their native countries, we installed different artifacts from around the world, and in the center is a huge atlas with various stickers signifying the different parts of the world all the kids are from. Also, it allowed the kids to destress and stimulate their brains when creating art which is great method for healing trauma amongst children. The kids enjoyed creating the different projects and are so happy to see it at the most focal point of their school! This was all possible due to the help of Ms. Pileggi, Ms. Marty and Valeri Harteg. Thank you all so much!

Camara Fatoumata Capstone

Applying to college can be a full-time job. National Commitment Day is a big thing that is apart of the new chapter that we are about to begin. All around people are celebrating the next step they are about to take in this new chapter. With our final sale days coming to an end a celebration is well needed. We worked hard for 4 years and to celebrate that growth would be exciting. 
 For my capstone, I decided to throw a college signing commitment day event. Before I planned this event out I had my internship at Go Believe. Go Believe taught me about advertising, communication, and marketing. Each of these topics helped me create my event. My process included collaborating with the senior class, coming up with activities and promoting my event. Before my event officially happened it was a cross-event that interfere with the original plans for my original event plans for my capstone. I had to get permission from both of my principals for my new event to take place. After I got permission I started to plan out all of my ideas and turned it into what it was. The activities that took place included each of the students standing in front of everyone one by one and saying the school they were attending in the fall and their intended major. After that was played a series of games that helped us enjoy our final days together. We played games like musical chairs, clusters, dance battle, and charades. We even let the underclassmen join in the fun by playing games with them and answering any questions they had about the college process.

 Bibs
1. https://www.thebalance.com/successful-event-planning-skills-4051976
Woodward, Melanie. “5 Event Planning Skills You Need for Success.” The Balance, www.thebalance.com/successful-event-planning-skills-4051976
This source gave vivid steps of how you should plan events. The article had 5 important steps that are important for event planning. Each of the steps will help me create good events without having so much trouble. Source also gave tips on how to throw a professional event. The source is going to help me because of they a lot of information that was fully descriptive and could help me. With being a first-time event planner these tips can help me improve on what needs to be done and things that I can avoid. This source gives me ideas about how each tip should be processed.

2. https://www.wikihow.com/Organise-an-Event
wikiHow. “How to Organise an Event.” WikiHow, WikiHow, 26 July 2017, www.wikihow.com/Organise-an-Event.

This site has steps to create a successful event. Each of the steps is steps that will help me prepared for everything else that will come my way. This website gave useful tips I may need since I’m dealing with high school people who might not like my events. Some tips were talking about how to deal with people, being organized, having a budget and staying in that range and etc. The source gave me a detailed way of how to plan a good event. Each step gave good reasoning of how things should go and what you should do when something goes wrong. Event planning won't be easy but with this source, it will be useful for me to go back to make sure I'm not missing it. 

3.https://www.thebalance.com/event-planning-questions-to-ask-your-potential-clients-1223669
Beers, Geoff. “5 Questions Every Event Planner Should Ask.” The Balance, 
When your event planning or planing someone else event you have to make the clients happy with what they want. For each of my event, I have to make sure people are satisfied with what they asked for. The source gives potential questions that I can ask people for their ideas. Event planning allows you to be creative for entertainment and other things. Asking people for input will help me know how to make a great event. Event planners need the skills of thinking and knowing what the event is going to call for. Planning ahead will help me give more time to make the event perfect. 


4.https://www.brightonsbm.com/news/top-10-tips-successful-event-manage
!0 Tips on Event Planning. www.brightonsbm.com/news/top-10-tips-successful-event-manage
This source gives 10 successful tips that event planners use to manage an event. With each event, you have a goal at the end. Everyone wants to reach that goal but you need to follow tips and steps to create a successful event. Each tip had a reasoning behind it and if something goes wrong we need to have a second plan. When you are event planning you need to be flexible so you can respond to changing demands very calmly. Backups plan are very necessary because anything can go wrong at any moment. These tips are very useful for me in the future. 

5. https://www.brightonsbm.com/news/top-10-tips-successful-event-management/
“Top 10 Tips for Successful Event Management |.” Brighton School of Business and Management, 1 Jan. 2016, www.brightonsbm.com/news/top-10-tips-successful-event-management/.

Advertising is a big deal when you want to show your work and get people to come through the door. If I want people to come through the door you have to show them something that will catch their eye. In this source, I saw important and helpful tips that will help me plan my advertisement and how I would want it done. Each of the tips was described very vividly so that you can have a good advertisement. This will help me in my capstone because this is the number one thing I will need to if I want people to come to my event. It gave some good management tips for me.

6. http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/event-marketing.html
Event Marketing | What Is Event Marketing? www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/event-marketing.html.
This source talks about event management which is a strategy that event planners use to contact people face to face with their companies. Marketing entertainment also reaches consumers. The source gives each step of event management, how its played out and talks about event marketing which also is another way that event planners use to target audience. The website is very descriptive breaks down each part of event management and event marketing. It talks about how it works, what steps you need to take to reach that potential goal and how it can help you in the long run.  

7.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfS4vKgQhXo
Lyons, Darlene. Event Planning. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfS4vKgQhXo.
This source is a video which a lady who is an event planner that talks about being an event planner, the process of event planning and how to impress the clients. In the video, the lady talks about her personal experiences with her clients and some of the risks that may come with the job. This source is a reliable source because it comes from personal experiences so it gives me a better intake of things and how it will all work out. She goes on and shows us some of her own events she planned herself. She showed the steps she took to complete her tasks to plan a successful event. 

8.
Nielsen, Annette. How To Start Your Event Planning Business. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsRRMaX_neghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsRRMaX_neg.
In this source, Ms.Annette covers all of the basics of event planning. She went over event management and event planning. She also explains how you tie in marketing and management with your event. Event planners need to have skills like organizations, networking, personality and have the details of the client down. She talks about having the clients personalities down because people want their personalities and themselves through the event. This source was the most detailed and honest work because she was very honest. She talks about the pros and cons that come along with event planning. Event planning can be very stressful because you want to give it your all and give you the client the best event. 

9.https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Complete_Guide_to_Successful_Event_P.html?id=P-FKapyszGsC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
Kilkenny, Shannon. “The Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning.” Google Books, books.google.com/books/about/The_Complete_Guide_to_Successful_Event_P.html?id=P-FKapyszGsC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f.
This source showed me the importance of my capstone. The author was very descriptive with her stories and her opinions. Her opinions talk about how she dealt with the pressure of event planning, her process of event planning and networking which she used to value the understanding of the relationships with her clients, and companies. She talks about her education and her training towards event planning. She talked about the process of her schooling. She says speech is a number one thing that is very important because communication is key. “Focusing on people as much as on the planet is the future viability of our business.

10. https://institute-of-event-management.com/what-is-event-planning
“What Is Event Planning? Four Unique Perspectives from Event Planning Experts.”International Institute of Event Management | Certificate Programs in Event Management and Wedding Planning, institute-of-event-management.com/what-is-event-planning

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Hannah Layton Capstone

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For my capstone, I wanted to do something that incorporated the Philadelphia music scene. I like photography and I have prior experience making portfolios. So, I decided to try photojournalism by taking candid pictures of two Philly bands Georgey V and Well Room. I was interested in helping these bands get publicity while learning more about the music industry. I interviewed both bands to learn about how and why they got involved in shows. After completing this project, I realized despite knowing a lot about this community, there’s a lot I didn’t know about the process of writing music, recording and performing.


All photos: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gSMg02UK65Op0Ltlb2V6Gqb5nRO2zau33i0zmtntDo8/edit?usp=sharing


Bennett, Andy, and Richard A. Peterson. Music Scenes: Local, Translocal and Virtual. Vanderbilt University Press, 2004.

This book indicates several ways in which music is shared with communities. A large part of this book revolved around the subject of technology’s effect of music industry and platforms. I found that the discussion on contrast between individual music scenes helped me gather more information about how these communities develop.

Briggs, Mark, and Jennifer Preston. Journalism a Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing. Sage, 2016.

Reading Journalism a Practical Guide to Digital Reporting was a helpful way to understand the methods used within photojournalism. Previously I’ve never taken many candid shots, but for this project I knew there would be a lot of movement. Instead of trying to give the illusion that these shots weren’t posed, I decided to take photos while the bands were actively playing their music. The movement helps tells a story, one of the key factors of photojournalism.


Becker, Howard S. “Photography and Sociology: Studies in Visual Communication.” Contemporary Sociology, vol. 31, no. 2, Oct. 2002, p. 250.

This source is a journal from a scientific study on visual communication through photography. It gave helpful insight into studies about the development and structure of human society. Answering important questions about why visual communication like photography intertwines with sociology.

 

Hevner, K. “Expression in Music: a Discussion of Experimental Studies and Theories.” Psychological Review, vol. 42, no. 2, Feb. 1935, pp. 186–204.

I used this article to learn about how music has evolved to become a form of expression. It’s a thorough description of the results within experimental studies regarding expression through music. Several theories have emerged over the years from the data that has been collected. It was useful to see the affect writing music has on people’s mental state.

 

Schäfer, Thomas, et al. “The Psychological Functions of Music Listening.” Frontiers in Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 9 Dec. 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3741536/.

This source is somewhat similar to the prior scientific journal. Instead referencing research about how listening to music affects a person. There’s evidence that listening to music is often used to achieve self-awareness, regulate emotions, and as an expression of social connection.

 




Madison Militello Capstone

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     In college, I plan to study marketing. Marketing is the research, promotion, selling, and distribution of a product or service. I wanted my capstone to relate to marketing, so I decided to create new SLA merch. My goal was to create school spirit, but also have a piece of merchandise that can be sold in the school store later on. Many students like to carry blankets around school to keep them cozy. With this in mind, I decided to make an SLA blanket. I contacted Home and School President, Diana, to help me with this. She led me to Liz, who handles some of the SLA merchandise. Liz gave me a catalog that I can search through, and there I found a blue fleece blanket. Liz also gave me a stitched design that I could use, which is the picture above. The blue fleece blanket has “SLA” with the rocket logo stitched in the right corner. Liz and I coordinated shipping costs and dates. Students needed to pre order their blanket for $13 each. From there, I started to advertise around school with posters, and advisory memo appearances. I collected students’ $13, and gave Liz my order. I learned that there is a lot more to creating and selling a product than you think. Every detail is important, and to get the consumers to like and want your product, it must be appealing.


Capstone Annotated Bibliography


Austin Community College. Fashion Merchandising. 2000. 
http://irt.austincc.edu/IDS/curriculum/PDFs/FashionACAPReport.pdf 
This source is reliable because it is from the curriculum at Austin Community College. When I go to college, I am hoping to minor in fashion merchandising. This was a step inside what I will be learning in the future. This book consisted of an overview of 11 units that are taught there. Unit 1: Merchandise Sales helped me to see a plan of how I should be conducting my capstone. It reminded me that I will need to identity trends, make a sales goal, and analyze the history of my buyers. I will apply this by understanding what students at SLA tend to buy more of and how much. 

Baker, Michael J, and Susan Hart, editors. The Marketing Book. 7th ed., Routledge, 2016.
https://books.google.com/books?id=nzX7CwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=marketing&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfsaeX5vXYAhVS3FMKHR_kCpgQuwUIKDAA#v=onepage&q=marketing&f=false 
The Marketing Book consists of 25 chapters that are each written by experts. I read the fourth chapter, The basics of marketing strategy by Robin Wensley. It provided a brief history of marketing and the people who influenced it. The section “Customers, competitors, and channels” informed me about product-market space and patient perspective. Understanding certain terms and the history of marketing has helped me grasp the concept of marketing better. This chapter also discussed analysis and interpretation in marketing strategies. Since I want to study marketing in college, and my capstone also relates to marketing, I believe this was a helpful source to educate myself more. 

Close, Angeline, editor. Online Consumer Behavior: Theory and Research in Social Media, Advertising, and E-Tail. Routledge, 2012.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Qi0vezD0sY0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=consumer+behaviour+theory&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwian5W-8_XYAhUD21MKHUY2CicQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=consumer%20behaviour%20theory&f=false 
The title “Online Consumer Behavior: Theory and Research in Social Media, Advertising, and E-Tail” interested me by its title. In the modern age, especially with teenagers, social media is a vital part to everyday life. If I can integrate a modern way of thinking with incorporating social media, I believe this could help my capstone. Section III opened my eyes about the importance of word-of-mouth advertising. Yes, something can be seen online, but then the more the topic is discussed online, it will become a well-known public topic. I hope my capstone will be discussed through word-of-mouth through social media or even in person. 





Donaldson, Bill. Sales Management. Third edition. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Tx8dBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=fashion+merchandising+%22theory+and+practice%22&ots=OwnqENQ_aR&sig=duTkWZ5-KdPvaXnHap-P1jgWWog#v=onepage&q&f=false 
Bill Donaldson is a credible author because he is a Research Professor of Marketing at Aberdeen Business School at Robert Gordon University. In chapter 1.5, Marketing and sales strategy, I learned to identify the needs of the customers I am trying to reach. It also taught me that I need to keep consistent communications with my prospective customers. I have already applied part of this to my capstone. I sent out a Google Form asking SLA students what kind of SLA apparel would they want sold. Towards the end of my process, I will repeatedly remind my peers at SLA that new school apparel is coming. 

Egan, John. Marketing Communications. 2nd ed., SAGE, 2014.
https://books.google.com/books?id=a9vSAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=marketing+and+communications&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRmJGR6fXYAhUB7FMKHQNBCkMQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=marketing%20and%20communications&f=false 
The author of Marketing Communications, John Egan, is a celebrated marketer with many achievements. The sections “Hierarchy of Effects Models”, “Rational VS. Emotional Appeals”, and “Digital Marketing Theory” connected to my capstone. “Rational VS. Emotional Appeals” helps me understand what the consumer thinks. Sometimes the purchaser buys the “best deal” instead of what’s best for them in the long term situation. I felt like this applied to me in the decision making of picking out certain apparel. For example, a shirt may be cheap, but I have to consider whether or not the consumer would get the best use out of it. Sometimes quality over price will apply to what I have to choose.

Lea-Greenwood, Gaynor. Fashion Marketing Communications. John Wiley & Sons, 2013
https://books.google.com/books?id=oKtA71-oBlAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=fashion+communication&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRh_LZ5PXYAhVD0FMKHXc6AocQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=fashion%20communication&f=false 
Gaynor Lea-Greenwood is a Senior Lecturer in Fashion Marketing and Buying at Manchester Metropolitan University, which makes this book extremely reliable since she is well educated on this topic. I closely read the section titled “How do we get there?”. The title attracted me because this a question I repeatedly ask myself about my capstone. “How do we get there?” focused on getting the word out about a product and how to do so. It suggested using blogger/celebrity endorsement, increased product placement, or sponsoring an event. This helped me with the question of: “How can I promote my capstone?”

Lake, Laura. Consumer Behavior for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
https://books.google.com/books?id=3EPJBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=consumer+behavior&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-mefbs_bYAhUBrFMKHZs5BxUQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=consumer%20behavior&f=false 
I believe a “for Dummies” book was probably what I should have been reading all along. I chose to read the chapter “Supplying Information and Influencing Perception”. The consumer is a big part of my project. Without the SLA students, my project would not have any basis. I learned from this book that the way that consumers process information is important. Also, the way that I give meaning to my project is also important. If I fail to prove why having new merchandise is important, then no one will be motivated to spend their money buying it and supporting me.
Schnaars, Steven P. Marketing Strategy. Simon and Schuster, 1998.
https://books.google.com/books?id=vvfmcTAGdloC&printsec=frontcover&dq=marketing+strategy&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfurGW7PXYAhXD6FMKHdMRDyAQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=marketing%20strategy&f=false 
This source is credible because Steven Schnaars is an author, professor, and the department chair in the Department of Marketing at Baruch College. One problem I have come across during my capstone process is the issue of pricing. My big question is: How can I compete with the prices of the old merchandise but also keep the pricing reasonable so the store makes profit to buy more? I decided to read the chapter “Competing on Price” to help with this. While a lot of this chapter was based on large brands with bigger problems than I will faced, Schnaars focused on how consumers care about quality. I know this already, but I will have to keep in it mind for my capstone when choosing the quality of apparel. 

Sethna, Zubin, and Jim Blythe. Consumer Behavior . 3rd ed., SAGE, 2016.
https://books.google.com/books?id=e9PUDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=consumer+behaviour&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjouJn67PXYAhWE71MKHbfgCOgQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false 
Consumer Behavior contained a lot of basic information on a lot of topics that will apply to me. I already learned about consumers and the theories on how they make decisions of purchasing, so I decided to read the chapter “Promotion”. After I make the apparel, I want to advertise it around school with posters. I feel only making posters might not be the most effective, so I am open to other ad options. This section brought to my attention that I can either nudge my audience in the right direction or persuade. I realized that I need to persuade the SLA students to buy my apparel instead of just pushing them towards it. 

Singh, Ankit. Dhayal, Neetu. Shamim, Amir. Consumer Buying Behavior. “International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity”. Vol. 5 no. 12. 2014.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/36888436/2421.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1516807965&Signature=i30UBYSoyuScqqqVUthE6VQHyjM%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DCONSUMER_BUYING_BEHAVIOUR.pdf 
Consumer Buying Behavior was a generalization of the concept of consumer behavior. This was my first source, so it was a helpful starting point to introduce consumer behavior. This source is credible because the author and co-authors are employed at the University of Delhi. It discussed the factors of the consumer’s buying decision: cultural, social, personal, and physiological. I hope to reach SLA students on social and personal levels. There was also a chart that described the consumer buying process. I found the “information search” step the most important. I realized that I need some students to buy my clothing in order for a good word to spread. Once a good view of my apparel is going around, then the students are more likely to buy my products because their friends believe it is worth it. 


William "Trey" Matthews Capstone

​Over the years, I've met many people who talk about faith yet show no outward connection to their perspective religious viewpoint on the matter. People might say, "If I just have more faith, then this or that will happen." Later, they wondered why faith didn't seem to work for them. This is why I decided to do this Capstone topic, in the form of a cartoon. Because I have been attending private catholic schools from 4th to 11th grade, and I wanted to share some of those teachings and perspectives to my peers of Science Leadership Academy. My main point is that faith isn't a feeling, and it's not a supernatural force to get God to give us what we desire. If faith isn't tied to our religious truth, then it accomplishes nothing. Faith is only as strong as the thing to which it is anchored. It may be true that a person might be full of faith even if they don’t feel it. One may be willing to act in faith (for example: to love an enemy, to protect the weak, or to respect a terrible boss), simply because they believe that’s what their religion says is true, even if their emotions and reasoning do not compel the action. With certain events occurring in today’s society, especially with the election of Donald Trump, people make the assumption that world is heading in reverse. However, my parents and Catholic education taught me that sometimes we need to look at the positive side of things and look at life with a different PERSPECTIVE; and that’s what my Capstone explains. 

Disclaimer: I am NOT trying to question or condescend someone else's belief. I just want to give a different perspective based on my past/current life experiences, with the help of others.                                 

Alex Chuon Capstone

My capstone was an economics class where I taught students how to cook good tasting healthy food to prep their college life. For my capstone there were some tools that I would need like (hotplates, pans, spoons, and plates) to get them I decided to use the Braskem funding so that money would not be a problem that I would face with my capstone. At first I thought that getting people to attend the meetings would be a problem because I didn't know how much the other students would care for a cooking class, but once I actually started the class I noticed that a lot more people than I thought were coming because they were happy to be making good food that they could eat. Overall I enjoyed my capstone even though planning it wasn't easy, finding suitable recipes that fits the criteria, buying the ingredients, and all the work I had to do before was stressful. I liked the end result and being able to work with other people and eat afterwards was fun. If possible I want to transition my capstone from just a temporary economics club to an actual elective. This is because I feel like everyone should know how to cook, it's an important skill that will make college and just life in general easier. Hopefully the people that attended my capstone was able to get a grasp of what cooking is like, how fun and easy it can be, while also learning the importance of cooking your own food from scratch than buying ready-to-eat type foods such as top ramen.


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Opoku Kwateng Capstone

Sophomore year during health class Ms. Martin said; “Stress is the biggest problem S.L.A students face.” Two years later when tasked with making a capstone these words would once again come into my mind, and lead to the creation of a Stress Clinic. The purpose of the clinic was to be a place students could come to meditate, relax, and essentially ease their minds. The main principle that fueled the clinic was positive education, the belief that schools should not only focus on the academic success of their students, but also their mental health and well being. The clinic itself taught me that working with people is not easy. Getting people to attend the clinic was difficult. This tied in with the fact that my fellow classmates where also holding their capstone events during the the same time period, added another hurdle for me. All these hardships led to a myriad of meetings where no students attended. The capstone process was one that has taught me numerous things ranging from what stress is on a psychological level to how to teach and hold a group of people’s attention. Even with all the difficulties and frustrations that occured I cannot lie I enjoyed my capstone. Having an opportunity to work on something that interests me was a big and enjoyable change from normal schooling.


Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cCQFnNrJdE28mF-KTOukRSkyTXlwa9sJHdT7ibUtLjo/edit?usp=sharing





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Tia Roberts' Capstone

​Over the duration of my senior year, I have been teaching both sophomores and juniors courses in makeup. Every Wednesday for an hour and 30 mins I teach many different things. Sometimes we focus on techniques and procedures of makeup and other days we focus on the importance and history of makeup. I teach the girls to understand that makeup is pure art; not just something people use when they feel ugly. They have been learning this for about 25 classes and of course, no one becomes the best over that short period of time but I am definitely confident in the process my girls have made throughout these classes. They have not only practiced multiple times on themselves but have had the opportunity to practice on about 5 different models throughout this year. Overall, this year has been amazing and crazy at the exact same time. We had a lot of breaks and days off which made it extremely hard to fully teach everything needed. A lot of the practices I gave full control to the artist and didn’t give too much help because I wanted them to be able to progress themselves and not always look for help. Not only did I teach these girls something but they taught me a lot too. I learned how to be better at teaching a group of people and staying organized with my lesson plans. I also learned how to present my ideas in a clearer way and most importantly how to truly see the beauty in everyone around me. In the end, each girl created a final look that I took photos of and created a mini book of. Below you can see the book. 

Link to bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HiopudEvI-oCIWIbQQX2Somn8Hlwla1J6_2X-sXw_AU/edit?usp=sharing