Since the begging I knew that this brenchmark will be specially challenging because our teacher give us options to select from, which was nice but at the same time scary because each option was hard in a way, wasn’t a safe choice. I chose the uncover story to find a good news in the city and show it because sometimes I feel like the people in Philadelphia underestimate the city and think that everything is bad.

For the reason that is a news article I couldn’t stay set in front of my computer and write a paper, I had to research and find people who will support my story in order to show that is real. Rotary Club is the organization that is sponsoring my exchange program and besides that they do a lot of good community service so was a pleasure for me talk about that fantastic people. 

A Study of Thematic Evolution

By Michael Dea

Capstone Mentor: Ms. Larissa Pahomov

Topic:

The goal of this capstone was to examine poetry and short stories over the course of four years to see how, if at all, the themes of the writing change over time.

            During the proposal stages of the capstone process, I looked at what I found interesting and what I enjoyed doing. As a result, I chose a capstone with a creative writing basis, given that I wrote as a hobby previously. Once the plans for what the end goal of the capstone were determined, the process of selecting what works would go into the end product was begun, supplementing some areas with works that were begun within the year. After this step’s completion, the selected works were analyzed for possible connections, the details of which can be seen in the process paper. Throughout this process, given that the works were written, they were reviewed by others for input on things such as themes, revisions (for newer works) etc.

Globalization In Philadelphia: A Small Photo Gallery 

I found this project to be very challenging in most areas. I found it really hard to think of the different themes of globalization and then when I had my themes ready, I found it hard to find a variety of pictures that represent each of these themes. I often found that the themes all intertwined in the photos that I gathered. From what pictures I collected and what themes I had thought of, my project focuses on the language issues, communication issues, marketing, adjustments that are needed for non-English speakers in America, and the indicators and facts of growing populations in certain cultures. Overall, I felt every aspect of this project was challenging, especially when trying to find photos that I could take around the city that would touch upon everything I wanted to talking about. Last, but not least, finding sources to back up my themes and the arguments that I made or points I was trying to get across was another very difficult aspect of the project. 

I collected my images by simply planning on taking pictures of things that I have seen before in my neighborhood and around the city. Once I had planned what photos I could take, I went out and took them. Some photos happen naturally as I came across certain things that represented globalization such as the picture I took of the group of Middle Eastern kids going to play cricket and the Hispanic bilingual news paper bin. For the images that I had planned to take, I based them around themes that I thought up, though I struggled to think of a wider variety of themes. My favorite image that I took is the one of the grand opening sign posted on the store that opened up across from the fruit stand. That picture holds a lot of significance to me because it represents the growing population of the particular culture in my area. The image also tells a story of how many businesses have become more ethnically diverse in Philadelphia, how much our city is changing due to diversity and the growing population of various cultures, the lack of consideration of many businesses and how they compete, and the racial tensions that are caused because of different cultures competing in business. This picture, for me, holds a lot of depth, that if I could spend more time on the project, I would probably write a whole lot more about. 

Evidence of globalization is so prevalent that it is virtually everywhere and as I found with the pictures I took, the evidence is primarily the various cultural businesses around the city. Every single place you go in Philadelphia, you come across ethnic restaurants and businesses and in some places more of the same ethnic businesses, which indicate that population of that particular ethnicity in that area. Aside from looking at businesses, there are people of all sorts of ethnicities and cultures walking around everywhere each and every day. I would say that globalization in Philadelphia is definitely more obvious than in states in the South and West. In states like Arizona, Ohio, Georgia, etc. there is a lot less diversity as I have observed in both Georgia and Arizona. Larger cities like New York, L.A., and Chicago would likely have globalization evident. In one of my sources that I used, there is mention of how urbanization and globalization tend to go hand in hand as many cultures try to populate urban areas for the resources that they have to offer. 

From this project, I learned mostly about how the various markets all over the Philadelphia area serve as an indicator of cultural diversity and the populations of each of those cultures. While compiling my photos and writing on the themes of each of them, I couldn't help but find myself going in circles with the mention of ethnic businesses and how they indicate so much about globalization. I also learned that we depend on globalization to keep the economy going as do other countries depend on it as well. I never really thought about how America benefits from cheap or less expensive trade from small countries and how they benefit from out trade as well. Another thing that I learned and found very interesting is that America has a higher percentage of exports than imports, but most of the products on the market are either from another country or made here and assembled in another country. The main thing that I learned is that globalization is all around us and affects all of us each and every day as language, marketing, cultural populations, and so on are constantly playing a role in our daily lives. 

My capstone was working to create a mural with a youth group in Pennsauken, NJ called BPSOS Delaware Valley Basement Breakers (B₃) on a project called Inside/Out.

The Inside/Out project was started by a French street artist who goes by J.R. He won the TED global prize last year for his idea of using photography to turn the world Inside Out. People from all around the world participate in the project, as they take photos of facial expressions, submit to the website, and receive large black and white copies to paste in a public space. SLA had done similar project under the JFK bridge. Through this project,  participants journal extensively with questions about their identity and hopes. Through exploring questions such as “where is your home? Where do you come from? Have you ever felt like you are the problem?” participants would be able to have a space to start thinking deeply about themselves and the world around them.

Digital Artifacts come soon!!!

     Step team performance &

      The “Show your colors” show

Ashley Etheredge

Mr. Bey

Manuel Advisory

Summary

I helped create a club (SLA’s fist pep-squad), I put on a show as well as choreographed a step routine that was performed in the show.

Abstract

My project was a performance that was based around SLA’s new pep-squad; I put on the show; including getting acts, setting up the performance space and setting the date and time but I also choreographed a step routine that was performed in the show. My step team performed in my show the “Show your colors” show, which was originally going to be a Black History Month show however; due to complications (of which I will explain in depth later in this paper) I was unable to meet my deadlines and missed Black History Month. I wanted to create a club that would continue on at the school after I was gone, that girls and boys could continue into college if they wanted to. I felt that this club could bring people together from all grades like other clubs such as SLA capella, Ping pong and the Poetry club but in a different way that people might not have seen before. I wanted to give insecure teenage girls and boys more self-confidence while having a ton of fun and meeting new people.

The Transit Navigator uses a website and other web tools to improve the usability of Public Transportation ("make public transit navigation simple").

I will be creating my own line of Liberian-Inspired prom dresses. There will be hopefully about six or seven dresses in the collection and I will be having full involvement in in everything that goes one. I plan to study and learn more about fashion design and more in college and it’s practically all I could think about since ninth grade. The product I’m creating is even more appropriate because then I’ll have something to start up on when I head to college and when I create my own business. Like I said before I’ve had this project in mind since ninth grade because I knew it would make applying to colleges much better since I would have my own line already out and doing well.

My topic was how does teens go through High School with having high Functioning Autism. In order to complete the project I had to develop questions to ask the students to help me go through this process. To understand the capstone process it takes a lot of researching, collaboration, Inquiry that are the main components of completing any project at Science leadership.

First of all: This is the settings for characters.
This animation is intended to reveal the corruption and devastating influence of money and

money-worship upon human spirit and human relationship by means of narrating the experiences

and observations of two young people.

Two major characters:

1) The Young Man

The young man is well-educated, and culturally and physically strong, and good at martial arts.

He has been told that he is an orphan and was taken and brought up by his stepfather. In fact, the

stepfather is the young man’s biological father, who, a wealthy businessman, has an illusion that

his son was adopted instead of being his own son just due to his strange psychological disease

which was caused by his great sorrow over the death of his wife, and thus puts his whole heart

onto money-making.

The young man is struggling between two values. On one hand, he is tired of the crazy wealth-

hunting acts and money-dominated values of his father and his father’s business partners. On

the other hand, he believes that he cannot live without money. Driven by such a dilemma, the

young man decided to live away, asking his father to give him the money just enough to support

himself.

The young man moves to a small and shabby lane, where poor people of different walks of life

stay.

This young man tends to humiliate people by showing them his money purposefully when he

comes to find somebody covets his money but never giving any chance to the latter.

He enjoys this kind of tricks, but in fact he is hurting himself at the same time. The more he

behaves in this way, the more evident the power of money proves, then the more it proves his

father is correct about money, and the more it proves that his values and spirit are twisted. So his

struggle and pain seems to be endless.

2) The Young Girl

The young girl’s father is also a businessman, and a business rival of the young man’s father. He

offends the powerful man over his big investment and later is killed quirkily in a traffic accident,

which the young girl is luckily absent because she is ill and is taken care of by her neighbor. The

father does not leave a will.

The young man’s father takes all measures and takes over the girl’s father’s business. The girl

moves to the home of her uncle, who works with the young man’s father’s company. The latter

cheats the girl’s uncle and usurps the girl’s father’s possessions.

Once the young man intentionally drops off some food and money when he notices the girl might

be seriously in need of money and food, and catches her when she picks them up. Then they

meet.

My process of making the animation is not fully finished because of time and difficulties of making animation and I have no way of converting the animation file from producing file into video file. However, Here are the drafts I have for the animation I am making.

Mentor: Matthew Kay

Capstone Abstract

Summary: The purpose of my project was to serve as the coach of SLA’s poetry slam team while also creating an online anthology of poetry in celebration of youth poets.

Abstract: Since the start of this year’s poetry club, I’ve been leading the group’s weekly meetings and had been coaching the team in preparation for the slam season. As the leader of the poetry club, I was in charge of developing activities, writing prompts and discussion topics that would inspire conversation and allow the group of students to open up to each other with poetry as the key. During my time leading the club, I’ve witnessed among the students that bonds had formed, confidence in public speaking developed and amazing growth shown in performances. After the end of the slam season, I sent out a call for submissions for the online anthology and was grateful that there were youth out there with a story to tell and were letting me publish it. While helping those who were just beginning to discover their voice, I in turn strengthened mine and learned many valuable lessons about revision, performing and believing in the power of telling your story. 

What I did for my capstone is write reflective essay for 9 days out of each of the month (5).  About how I deal with using a c-pap machine each night that allows me to breath continuously throughout the night.  What I learned from this is that I felt more strongly about having this disease then I thought once I had to think about it I realize it had made a bigger impact on my life then I had thought. 

For my senior year I needed to complete a capstone as a final project before I graduate. It could be anything from an event to even writing a book. I chose to create a video that captures what Science Leadership Academy is truly about and other basic information about the school. Working along side your mentor you get one on one help to create the product or event and get the chance to reflect on the whole process and product.