For my 2019 senior capstone my partner and I decided to create and decorate graduation caps. We sourced our blue caps from amazon and leftover caps from last year, we also bought our own supplies in order to have the complete product. Something very valuable my partner and I learned during this whole process is that every does have different views and perspectives but in the long run we are all the same. In order to create something that would represent our class as a whole we asked around about some ideas that people would like to see left behind in our name. I enjoyed the whole process and I was happy and pleased with our overall result.

What I did for my project was present the current issue dealing with HIV into people's lives and how we should continue to stay safe from this. Not all people look at their health all the time and I want to make sure that people have a public awareness on their intentions and how it might affect people. I did a lot of things like ask around a hospital for patients who have it and what it did to them. I learned that people take public health lightly and don't realize their surroundings like having intimate relations with some who has a STD. For example someone who has a STD will hide the fact they have this disease and pass it to the intimate partner without warning. Another thing I learned was that I must show others that keeping your own health in check benefits you and the others around you. Showing others you care for your health let’s them know that you are aware about your health and you are doing your best to keep it good. These individuals remind us that we are the only ones who are responsible to take care of ourselves and keep us safe, away from danger.

What I did for my project was present the current issue dealing with HIV into peoples lives and how we should continue to stay safe from this. Not all people look at their health all the time and I want to make sure that people have a public awareness on their intentions and how it might affect people. I did a lot of things like ask around a hospital for patients who have it and what it did to them. I learned that people take public safety lightly and don't realize their surroundings like having intimate relations with some who contains a STD. I was going to bring in condoms for everyone who doesn't have it or cant get to one. Another thing I learned was that I must show others that keeping your own health in check benefits you and the others around you. Showing others you care for your health let’s them know that you are aware about your health and you are doing your best to keep it good. People like this show others it can change someone’s life, and people around the persons live’s.

For my capstone, I decided to combine an influence in my neighborhood and get our school community involved. Last year I interned at a small thrift shop known as I Spy You Buy, and the owner held her first fashion show in April of 2018. This year the show was bigger and better, I was put in charge of finding new models and the overall management of the show (with help). Thanks to a lot of people from SLA@B we were able to have over 25 models and have a show worth seeing. During the process, I had to really hop out of my shell and speak up, management is also something I want to do in the future, and taking this chance made me realize that even though it's incredibly stressful (especially on the day of the show) I enjoyed it. The overall experience was a little overwhelming but there was a lot to learn and gain.

For my capstone, I built a go-kart that my team and I will race in a competition later this year. The main reason I chose to do this is that I'm very passionate about engineering and I generally just love building things. We spent one day out of each week of the school year building it at the other SLA campus with the help of our mentor Sal. The process took longer than I expected because I didn't know how much research had to go into building it. The first half of the capstone was just research, but I learned that it was necessary due to the fact of how complicated every component was. Once we began putting it together the process went faster and it wasn't that hard to fix any physical problems with the kart. I've completed many projects related to some field of engineering but this is by far the best thing I've created and I couldn't be more proud of myself and my team.

Oppression. Resistance. Justice. Liberation. These are the broad dynamics of society which I’ve learned about during my 7 months with the Philadelphia Student Union. I’ve always been personally interested in understanding the mechanisms of systemic injustice, and how to combat it. PSU’s core values center around student leadership, political education, and wellness. We’re constantly confronting the experiences of students in Philly, and how many of our experiences often can adversely impact our mental health and our intrapersonal development. In challenging the institutionalization that black and brown students are expected to conform to, we often discover inquiries which guide our work in deinstitutionalizing schools. How does educational justice manifest? What should schools look like? How do we identify and fight the systems which enable injustice in our educational system? We are constantly exploring these questions, and perhaps there is no solid monolithic answer. However, these questions can be applied to specific situations we encounter. I, as an organizer with PSU, spent the last year, strategizing, collaborating, and organizing around issues that concern students. From aggressively taking on a metal detectors mandate from the School District to analyzing the vigorous workload of SLA Beeber and figuring out methods to improve the morale and mental health of students. I have participated in various ways to build student power. In resisting and organizing against authority that would be detrimental to the development of black and brown youth. We not only build power for those stakeholders, but we realize a broader vision for educational justice and expand the platform of student's voice. We must not be silent!

Throughout this year, we worked on creating a video for both seniors and upcoming freshman. We used seniors and advisors to get the message across. We talked with the seniors to hear about their high school experiences so that the incoming freshman could see how it would be in the SLA community as well as the different experiences you could have. The advisors in the video were for them to express their final message to the class of 2019. Before we got to this outcome we had to do some research about what a community really is and how it can affect people. When we gathered information on a community we wanted to ask questions that would relate to what students and teachers in our school thought of our community. In SLA @ Beeber, It’s about being in a safe space and having a mutual understanding of the people around you and creating things together. All of this ties into our core values; Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, and Presentation. We thought about how we can make this a legacy at SLA Beeber. This video is a heartwarming style documentary about what people actually think about SLA and what seniors are leaving to future generations. We’re establishing a foundation that they can build on and make not only the school better but also the community in whole!

My capstone is a business plan for a student-organized farmers market and a DonorsChoose page for the Green Team. The inspiration for this project comes from my interest in working in the field of business and environmental sustainability. This plan is the accumulation of what I have learned from my Individualized learning plan (ILP) and time in high school. Throughout the process of this, my plan for the final product has changed a lot. At first, I had planned on writing grant proposals to get fundings for Green Team activities. However, due to procrastination and lack of thorough planning, I missed all of the deadlines for grants relating to the environment. From this project, I have learned several things. This includes time management and how to prioritize. I learned what goes into a business plan and how to write one. Finally, while writing the business plan I was able to improve on my writing skills and how to properly plan out what I am trying to convey. View as a website: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSGFPEZDoSm3-hiee-uxHTL-A_8R6WLUiNjuiPB2QBdNNx1Djx4slkNXEtDJ1OcTly-Ae5S90trWqdl/pub