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Back in the 8th grade, I had a specific pair of nubuck sneakers that was my favorite which I did everything to keep clean. One day I had worn them to gym class and they ended up with scuffs, dirt patches, and random marks.  This made me take the sneakers home and use basic materials to attempt to clean them. When my family saw the results, they started to ask me to clean their sneakers as well. Kick’s Rebirth™ is the product of a sneaker cleaning hobby of mine that began after cleaning that one pair of sneakers in the 8th grade.  

I chose to make this my senior capstone because this is something that I have a large interest in that also benefits others. Not everyone pays notices how many people walk around with dirty shoes wishing they were in better condition. Especially those apart of the sneaker head population. Kick’s Rebirth™ helps those who don’t have time to clean their shoes themselves and saves money for those who end up buying new shoes due to the old ones being dirty.  However, the idea of Kick’s Rebirth won’t just stop at sneaker cleaning. It will soon include sneaker customization, therefore this is a project that you may wish to stay tuned to!

When I was initially thinking about what to do for this capstone I was considering the idea of an informative display about greenhouse gas. In addition to information about the effects of greenhouse gases, I wanted to include alternatives. For this project, I decided to inform people about the 5 contributing sectors, transportation, agriculture, industry, electricity, and forestry.  I gather the information about what makes up each sector and how much it contributes and how.

Then I began to consider how I wanted to present this information. I started with wanting to create a model city with information printed or engraved on building and streets. Then I worked down that idea to each section a dedicated box with background information, examples of contributors and alternative to help reduce emissions. I used adobe illustration to make the layout of the box and the laser cutter to cut and engrave the text. In addition, I  used fusion 360 to add in 3D models of the examples to accompany the information.

The information about the specific sectors and about how much of a populated city can contribute to carbon emissions was learned. It was informative to talk about the forestry and agriculture sectors because of how trees and plants affect O2 levels and how reliant this country is on agriculture. I also learned how to create a project from of my own idea with the objective of teaching something specific.

As the year ends we are close to presenting our final project for the year! For my senior capstone I decided to be a bit more creative with myself. I chose to do special effects makeup (sfx), because of my capstone I believe it allowed me to demonstrate of what I am capable of doing and also I believe it’s a fun way of being creative. What I did for project was make two videos, one of the process and the other of all the final looks. Each look took me about an hour and half to create. In the video everything is sped up so it wouldn’t be a long video when someone is watching it. I created three different looks but similar at the same time, they were all horror and gore. The first one I created was a scary clown and I used my brother as the model for it. The second look I created was a torn off face and the last look I created was monster with scary teeth. Both those I created on myself. From creating this project I learned that there is another side of just using regular makeup, there is also other ways to be creative and that hopefully this can inspire others to try something different.

  For senior project, our  main a focus was on the African root connection because this club is  create a school family for the student through learning about our African cultural roots and this club have every aspect of Africaness also we had non -African student who want learn about  African Cultures. Africa is broadly divided in to five as regions but were focsed on two regions the East and west African coutries history and culturies.

 Many SLABeeber students have prejudices about life in Africa.  They believe people from Africa wear long dresses and all African immigrants cover their heads.   

SLABeeber students from Africa have been asked questions like “Why do you cover your head?”, “Why don’t you speak English”, “Do you wear clothes in Africa” and called names like “African Booty Scratcher” and told “Go back to Africa!” and “If you took off your hijab, you’d be pretty”.  The best way to help people understand African culture is to teach them about it. With our African Culture Club, we helped students learn about African cultural clothing and food. We planned activities like attending educational presentations and cooking African food.

Our club helped students learn how to make injera, a local African flatbread. Students at SLABeeber now have a better understanding of African culture because we taught them the reasons behind the food we eat and the clothes we wear.  The club members were so surprised to learn why we cover the heads. Our club members know to understand the traditions of Africa.

For my capstone, I wanted it to be about something that I am passionate about! Or else, I know I wouldn't be able to put my all into it. Since 6th grade, I had a love for poetry. As I got into high school, my love for poetry grew like a wildfire. While working with the Philadelphia Poetry Youth movement, they inspired me to want to widen my audience of listeners. So I came up with the idea of teaching kids (middle school) and teenagers (high school) about "The Power Poetry" and what it can be used for! Throughout my slides, you will see both of the breakdowns for high school and middle school.  I got an extraordinary chance to be able to work with kids from SLA middle school with the supervision of their teacher, Ms.Hamilton who welcomed me like I was her own. Then I taught two tenth grade classes in my school.

My capstone mentor challenged me to cater to both audiences without losing the "it factor" of using poetry to make a difference. So that's what I did! I wasn't able to put the recordings of each grades performances in but I do have them and they performed amazingly! I have to be honest, I was scared that the kids wouldn’t want to participate in the open mic at the end. But overall most people did because they were intrigued by the prompts that I gave. I made sure that we made the room a safe space before sharing. So everyone had a understanding that nobody including the teacher and myself wouldn’t judge the student about what they wrote. After all I was always taught that writing has a mind of its own and will take its course no matter who’s listening. Thank you for viewing my Capstone. Hopefully, you can find a love for poetry and use it to tap into your creative side and be a voice for the voiceless. Maya Angelou once said, “ I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”