This capstone focuses on paying kindness forward both within and outside of the Science Leadership Academy @Beeber community while passing out bracelets and pursuing an Instagram account for the project as well. To both Khayla and I this was more a movement and it was also seen as an escape making the bracelets as this part of the overall process was the most therapeutic and completely free for peers and members of various communities to support. Our main focus was getting people in our community to tell us what kindness meant to them. The best part of this entire experience definitely has to be brightening the days of those who have been gifted a bracelet to show our kindness as well as pay it forward with empathy and various acts of selflessness, not to mention this was a completely non-profit organization. As the end of the 2023 school year ends for seniors such as myself, I have understood on a more personal level the importance of kindness and simply paying it forward. The concept of paying kindness forward gained popularity through the phrase “pay it forward,” which was popularized by Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel and subsequent film adaptation, both titled “Pay It Forward.” The idea behind it is to promote altruism, empathy, and compassion in society by encouraging individuals to perform acts of kindness without expecting anything in return, with the hope that the recipients will continue the cycle by helping others. By paying kindness forward, you contribute to a positive ripple effect, spreading acts of goodwill throughout the community. It emphasizes the power of small gestures and highlights the potential to make a difference in someone else’s life.

For my Capstone I made a mini-course along with Justyn Griffin, David Bolling, and Bernard Hogue. We called it Money Makers and taught the 9th graders in it about financial literacy. Every Wednesday we would introduce a new topic about financial literacy and go from there. We would teach them about that and also ways to make money. We gave them projects and such while also teaching and building bonds with them in class I think we did a service to the community by not only helping the future generation with how to make money but also helping to make the money and such to do so.

While my original plan for my Capstone was to work with English and Reading-challenged students to help them better understand and comprehend what they’re reading, the actual practice rapidly diverged from that plan. While the core of the project remained, that is helping students comprehend their work, what work I assisted them with broadened into anything they needed help with. At school I helped them keep on task, reminding them they have work to do and even assisting with some work, and after school, I’d tutor one of the students in math over a Zoom call. I’m particularly proud of the tutoring sessions because it wasn’t even my idea, it was kind of sprung on me and I adapted to it, even coming to enjoy it somewhat. I feel that my work benefited the community of Science Leadership Academy at Beeber, which is both the students and faculty. The students benefited by receiving assistance with their work and staying on task, as well as the enrichment of their experience. The faculty benefited because by assisting the students myself, I freed up some of the workloads from the teachers because they don’t get paid enough to deal with us, so any help is probably appreciated.