My capstone involved learning an instrument to answer the question “what does music mean to me?” While I did learn a good portion of the instrument, I ultimately ended up with no guitar to play. I then decided that I’d try and contact the School District of Philadelphia in order to see what it’d take to get some sort of music elective or program or anything set up here so that future students could answer this question themselves. Despite my best efforts, I got no response from them which leads me to believe that if anyone at this school wants to get music into our school that they need to be pestered further.

Link to my Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1u2hcFIXmmsMij9-ddlnbVRG17UrMugBhR0u-QJyCi1g/edit#slide=id.gcec4d27072_0_0

Link to my Paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J3HXBCu5PAWQ2LfhUFZxGR4HRkEh8R7mVYwz4p8rvkU/edit?usp=sharing

My process for this project was interesting. When this started, I had a completely different idea than what I ended up with. I went from considering a hospital internship to leaning into my artistic side. My project ended up being a portfolio of sorts. My main focus was to design an item of clothing and make it using a sewing machine, which I accomplished. I felt that this wasn’t enough for my own personal project, so I created a small website portfolio with other forms of my art. This includes traditional drawings, digital art, painting, etc. This project allowed me to appreciate art more, if I’m honest. It had always been a big part of my life, but until now, I hadn’t really created any sort of portfolio. It allowed me to look at my own art in a new light, and I appreciate that. (Original design for the jacket I made below.)

I wanted to see if safety could be taught in a way where it was more memorable. A lot of my classmates I now don’t know CPR even if they were taught it beforehand. I thought that maybe the way it was taught could have been the problem so I made my game educational about general safety that I thought an SLA student could use. The outcome was an interesting game that I don’t think would help the problem. After making my capstone, I realize someone only memorizes something if they are motivated to. to that end, if my game motivated people to retain the knowledge maybe the outcome would be different.

Game: https://cloudnovel.net/SSmaster46/novel/safety-soul

For my Capstone project, I wanted to focus on the theme of child development. I thought the best way to base a project on this was to build a toy that helps a child develop different important qualities that they need. At first, I was going to build a balance bike because it helps with balance, becoming independent, and hand-eye coordination. I realized I did not have the proper tools in order to complete this project, so I decided to change it into a more simple puzzle that teaches kids pretty much the same things. Basically, the puzzle is a small board that has pegs on it, the kid has to put the correct shape on the correct peg. I thought of it as a suitable replacement for the balance bike because it helps children develop independence, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills. It also helps young kids with their shapes, colors, and numbers.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IJPe-Yd7k8m8l3m-GIwtj2802ppxcE_qOprR2E_dBNI/edit?usp=sharing

My proposal for my capstone project was to start an art therapy club. I want to do this project because mental health is important especially in adolescents that face challenges. We would meet up during lunch on fridays in the auditorium. For our first activity we decided to create zentangles. A zentangle is a method for drawing. This exercise helps promote concentration along with creativity. When making one you start by drawing a frame on the paper. Then you divide the existing space into smaller parts. The next step is to make a pattern within the blank spaces. Another session we made our own designs on stickers which was inspired by street art. My personal experience with art is that drawing can be a calming way to express yourself when feeling anxiety. My goal for this project was to share my passion of drawing to show other adolescents how they can use drawing to deal with anxiety. I discovered that seeing the work of other artists inspires me to create my own art. It has helped me learn different techniques and perspectives towards the topic. When reviewing my peers’ work it is like I am able to get a peak into their mind. It helps me get a better understanding of where their ideas come from.

For my Capstone Project I decided to do a community clean up. The project consisted of me talking to my neighbors and organizing all of us to come together and clean our community up. In order to complete this project I had to grab a couple items ranging from trash bags to masks to keep everyone sanitized and safe. We then used the items I purchased in order to clean our community up. This is beneficial to my community because it makes my neighbors and I have a cleaner area which also helps the earth. As my project came to an end I learned that community relationships and keeping your community clean allows us to create better relationships with each other while doing something positive. Cleaning the neighborhood made the community come together because we all had the same interests despite our different lives and situations. As I completed the project it allowed me to learn more about myself. I understand now that I enjoy helping others and making a difference in the community.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HoWTZDbvAbDs7A4hXUbwN33jhPt1jTAdfbQQOIFT_zY/edit?usp=sharing

I completed my capstone project, and as part of it, I photographed gentrification in several places. Within the images, you can examine the underlying meanings of things such as how everything is being swept away and we are starting over, which may be beneficial to some but harmful to others. In today’s society, we are okay with removing history and replacing it with new items in order to meet an aesthetic, which is absurd because neighborhood standards have shifted dramatically, both physically and financially. We should start looking about and paying attention to our surroundings since things in our communities change in the blink of an eye.

In my Capstone, I worked with Idris. Our goal was to create a watered-powered go-kart at first, but we changed it to a solar-powered electric go-kart. I originally chose this idea on my own and we eventually teamed up to complete it. I chose this because a go-kart has been done in my school, but it was electric and we wanted to try a different approach. In the process of making our go-kart, we first had to learn about how cars work and basically a lot about what does what in a vehicle. We took a lot of knowledge from articles and videos teaching us about how to make a go-kart and how it works. These videos also taught us about what’s the cheapest route and ways to make it easier on ourselves because our first goal was to make a water-powered go-kart, but that’s way too hard and it was expensive. The engine we needed started at 10,000 dollars and making the engine would’ve taken too much time out of us. Our product, which is the go-kart is fully functional and solar-powered, so it will never die and charges itself. We learned a lot about this project. It was more of a journey. A lot of weeks went by, where we were stuck in the same stage, but go through it. We learned time management and other things that can help us in the future and I’m proud that we finished it.

Philadelphia student union has been a great resource for young adults interested in social justice. Throughout my senior year, I have been working on rebuilding the Beeber chapter. We have built a wonderful archive with PSU from our police free campaign which included three SLA Beeber students, to our continuous fight with the School district of Philadelphia about over-policing. Choosing to amplify PSU’s presence in our school is the best way I could serve my community. By doing this project I will amplify a great learning space and outlet for young people. I will also be ensuring the community of this resource that has been helping many young people at SLA. Allowing this space to grow will be very influential in the way young people at SLA lead in their everyday lives outside of school. This will help the SLA community by giving students an additional community outside of the one they have with their peers and teachers. This will also be a great way for them to get involved in issues that are impacting their neighborhoods, city, or personal identity.
More.. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oncVM7Y5zUm2t1rBoukG0ayUjDFTkW8O0wQXBZA5cyQ/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone project, I’ve decided to make letters to the freshman of next year in a welcome way and give them resources to inform them about mental health. I think providing first-year students with access to websites with strategies to get on top of school work and to stay healthy. Health is affected by sleep and food choices like stressing the importance of breakfast. The kind of health which is overlooked by many, especially students. Having somewhat of a jump start to better habits is very important to me. I want to make people feel welcomed and enforce healthy strategies for their health physically and mentally. Originally I wanted to make care packages to inform people about mental health to anyone. Making those care packages though was a lot more time-consuming but especially more expensive. I got the idea from my advisor to switch to making a letter. Inside the letters, I would have QR codes to a website that holds the information! Instead of just having a website I thought receiving custom letters with unique art and stickers in them would be a lot more fun and incentivize to check out the website. After I got the final draft down the actual process of making the letters was thankfully straightforward. I made 22 for Mr. Cunha’s advisory next year. As I got a gift when I came to SLAB I think this would count as bringing things full circle in a way. It came out great.