Belle’s mission is to enlighten young black girls on the potential that lies right inside them through practicing the love of self, character development, and emotional intelligence: self-awareness and social management. For many years, black women have been victimized by society by being projected as over-sexualized, aggressive, bitter, and angry. Still, little does everyone know, we are Belle’s. We are made with nothing but pure beauty, elegance, leadership, love, and empowerment. Sadly, nothing is understood about the effect of derogatory stereotypes on black girls and women. In the lens of the media, communities, and ethnic classes, a black woman is held to a high standard of staying strong, displaying little vulnerability, and still being pushed to the sidelines of everyone's issues. There is little known information on the impact of negative assumptions on black girls and women. How can we transform our communities’ opinions by sharing and acknowledging a black girl’s experiences and demand attention to our mental and emotional health? Throughout the Belle Program, there have been major gains and setbacks due to the delays revolving around the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the three girls I've worked with have shown significant improvement in their self-awareness and emotional intelligence despite the pandemic. The initial idea for Belle was for weekly Zoom meetings and a final in-person meeting to create vision boards and participate in other fun activities. Regrettably, it did not go as intended, and as a result, I created my own vision board showing the representation of what Belle is.

For my capstone my partner Kyla and I created a website directed towards lowerclassmen to help them navigate through high school. The website originally started as a website to inform anyone young and old about different mental health issues and coping mechanisms. In the process of developing the website my partner and I decided to refine our target audience and make a website to help some kids make a smoother transition from middle school to high school. We believe our website can help upper and lower classmen manage stress and the college process. https://sites.google.com/slabeeber.org/mentalhealthwebsite/home

For my capstone my partner Davina and I created a website directed towards the freshmen to help them navigate through high school. Our original plan was to create a website to inform the students of SLA about different mental health issues and coping mechanisms. During the process of brainstorming and reflecting on our experience, we found that we wished we had a ‘guide’ to help us in high school. This resulted in us changing our idea and creating a ‘survival guide’ for the freshman to help them easily transition into high school. We hope our website can help upper and lower classmen ‘survive' SLA and the college process.

My name is Moussa Sow and I am currently a senior. For my Capstone Project, I was running a Multilingual Club. The club will celebrate the many languages of our school. We will teach each other about the languages we speak or are learning. Participants in the club will learn the importance of learning a new language and how it can help us in the future. We will meet every Friday during lunch, 12:30-1 pm

For my capstone project, I choose to create an essay researching the benefits and harms of school uniforms. In my essay, I focused on the research question, “Do uniforms teach students conformity or how to dress appropriately?” In my essay, I highlighted all of the benefits and harms of uniforms and possible solutions to them. I chose this topic because, for almost 10 years, I had to wear a uniform to school in the Philadelphia public school system along with many other children without an explanation. It was a mandatory requirement and most students that I've met hated them. I wanted to understand why uniforms exist when many students didn't like them and I wanted to research why they matter and their purpose. I knew that it would take time to write a good research essay, so I didn't start writing it until after months of research. During this entire process, I learned that I shouldn't fall on something that feels comfortable and push myself to be more open to new ideas. I also learned that I value creativity a lot more than I realized as it wasn't much in this project. However, I am proud of it because I was still genuinely curious about school uniforms and the harms and benefits of them.

My capstone is an interview series about women in STEM in the SLA Beeber community. About once a week I interviewed someone and we talk about their STEM experiences and what their careers been like up until now.