Ethan Chen - Capstone

For my capstone project, I wanted to use my passion for running to somehow help the SLA community. What I came up with was to create a virtual 5k race. People inside or outside of the SLA community are welcome to sign up for the race. Participants of this race are allowed to complete the race however they like. They can walk, run, bike, swim, or a combination of other activities. The participants had a one-week window to complete the race. They have the freedom to choose a time, a route, and a method to accumulate a distance of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) They have the option to do it all in one go or break it up over the week. My first step was to get the word out to the community about an upcoming 5k race. I sent out an interest survey to get an idea of how many people will participate. After getting my responses I was able to gather a rough estimate on how many people were interested. I started to budget my expenses on Google Spreadsheets and create three columns on the Sheets: a low bar, a middle bar, and a high bar. In the meantime, I attended Braskem meetings and pitched my proposed budget for my race. Once I reached full funding from the race, I ordered T-shirts and medals for my race. I set up my registration site and marketed my race all over social media and in the SLA advisory memo. The race sold out with 104 participants in total and raised $1942. After race week half of the participants submitted their results onto the result page and a few have submitted photos of themselves doing the race. Throughout the process, I learned a lot about what it takes to create a race from scratch and get people on board to participate in it. The COVID pandemic also presented me with challenges like how large gatherings are prohibited and not being at school to market my race in person. I had to work my way around those challenges but I am proud that I complete my capstone in an all-virtual learning environment.

Link to the registration site: https://runsignup.com/Race/PA/Philadelphia/SLAAnyWay5k

My annotated bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TwxOZmRq4nalAj4PMKo7IAcx7P8YnKOQSp0zqGG_FZY/edit?usp=sharing