My senior capstone was my class: Learning Through Passion. Every Wednesday, I would go to the Powell School and teach what was essentially an introduction to Anthropology, Psychology, and Philosophy. A huge anxiety of mine is that the kids wouldn´t like the material, I wanted to make sure they could have fun, and that they could make the class about them. So my guiding question became How can I make a class for them that they can learn from and appreciate. What I learned from my capstone is that a lot goes into a class, but something that became highly apparent is that when working with students, I needed to be transparent and relatable, yet firm.

I think this topic is very important because the problem isn´t just ignorance, it´s more about complacency with lead poisoning. Lead poisoning is a huge problem that affects a lot of people, mainly children. Our video is a message to politicians, the people in power who can enact laws to protect us. I think the video is well done, if not just a bit short, but so are most commercials. Politicians have a short attention span. The most meaningful part of this project to me is that it´s the last project I get to do in Environmental Science with my friends.

What stood out to me is that a problem that should´ve been solved decades ago still exists to this day in India and other third-world countries. I see why that is as there isn´t a set-in-stone resolution for water contamination. This type of issue really shows the inequality in how water crises are dealt with and makes this an environmental justice issue.

• Gigi