Emily Stephens' Capstone

For my Capstone, I held a Faculty vs. Student Volleyball Game Fundraiser. My idea was centered around community, specifically in SLA and creating an event that would not only include students; but teachers, parents, alumni, friends, and more. I saw a lack of activities that parents were invited to and wanted to have the game begin a new tradition. I knew I also wanted to do something that would include volleyball, seeing as I was the captain this past season. I thought holding a game would be most engaging for people to come to, and by having the girl’s team play the staff it included more community members. At my actual event, I had a great turn out of teachers, players, parents, friends, and even some alumni. I held two sets of faculty vs. girls volleyball team, then one set of students who wanted to play on another student team vs. the faculty, and finally the two student team against each other. I had music and a microphone so I was able to announce everyone to make it more exciting. I learned a lot from this experience, especially about how much planning goes into holding a school event. I learned how many people it takes to make one event happen and how many different people I had to connect with, which also ties into time management skills which I gained from this project. Overall I'm very happy with my capstone!

Works Cited

Centers For Disease Control, "Make a Difference at Your School" (2013). Chronic Disease. Paper 31. http://digitalcommons.hsc.unt.edu/disease/31

This source is centered around childhood obesity. There are many ways to influence obesity in school settings, like changing school lunch diets and promoting school sports programs and physical activity. Schools need to build a foundation for influencing exercise by

strengthening school sport policies, and fundraising for teams would help encourage joining the programs. The report noted that staff should promote health, involving them in the event would help influence students to become more active which is one of the goals of my event. Overall it would increase opportunities for students to become involved in athletics and school event create exposure. This source is the University of North Texas Health Science Center working with the Center for Disease Control, which is a reliable source because of it’s well known reputation and it’s first hand data from being a government-funded program for citizens.

Dervarics, Chuck, and Eileen O'Brien. “Back to School: How Parent Involvement Affects Student Achievement.” Centerforpubliceducation.org, 30 Aug. 2011, www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Public-education/Parent-Involvement.

This source mainly discusses the different forms of parent involvement. My event incorporates parents to attend the volleyball game, and this source gives me more insight on the importance of parents being more involved in the school community. It is stated that by including parents, it helps with parenting skills, communication with their children, volunteering because events will make them more interested in continuing interest in the community, community collaboration which helps them reach out to the community more, and more aspects of daily life. Parent involvement can create exposure for parents to see children’s interests and could begin new family bonds and bring the community together in new ways. This source is an organization dedicated to speaking about public education and is an initiative for the National School Boards Association.

Herman, Joan L., and Jennie P. Yeh. “Some Effects of Parent Involvement in Schools.” Apr. 1980, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED206963.pdf.

This is an article that discusses a study and some of the impacts of parents becoming more involved in their child’s school community. It discusses how creating strong relationships with parents creates bonds for the future with the child and the school, because if anything happens where the school needs people to stand behind them or advocate for them, the parents are more willing and supportive.Parents are more likely to become more interested in school events if they have positive associations and are welcomed to be active members of the community, which is exactly what my event plans to do. Higher socioeconomic class parents are more involved in school life, and since SLA is a culmination of kids from all different backgrounds, this gives me a good place to do more research on an making an event that would interest many parents. This document is credible because it was partnered with the U.S. Department of Education, a primary source for educational information.

Kuo, Roger S. “A Firsthand Comparison Between Magnet School Life and Public School Life: Academic and Social Aspects.” A Firsthand Comparison Between Magnet School Life and Public School Life: Academic and Social Aspects, Stanford University, 28 July 1999,https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/school_child/firsthand.htm.

SLA’s community is unique by being a city magnet school, meaning we have unique opportunities. This source is a firsthand account of experiencing both the public school and magnet school systems. This source is helpful because it makes me think about different perspectives and aspects that are specialized just to SLA’s community. The author writes about how students in magnet schools seem to be more supportive of each other’s academic success and build off of one another’s accomplishments, something that I see happening at SLA as well and also transfers to outside of school in our community as well. Magnet schools tend to select students based on who they are academically, which I see as accurate, yet magnet schools still tend to be contenders in sports teams and are avid about their team’s accomplishments. This is true for SLA and I hope to continue to build off of that enthusiasm with my volleyball game.

Osterman, Karen F. “Students' Need for Belonging in the School Community.” www.researchgate.net/profile/Karen_Osterman/publication/247662613_Students'_Need_for_Belonging_in_the_School_Community/links/5515a1420cf2b5d6a0eaaae6.pdf.

This book talks about aspects of community and the impact it has on children mentally. Community isn’t present without a sense of belonging and is made of 4 components: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection. It goes in depth on the importance of collaboration and how forming bonds to bring people together, much like we do at SLA and my event would encompass. Interacting with teachers also creates a sense of relatability, more accessible therefor making forming connections easier which shows the benefits of including teachers in my game. This informs me on how important making people feel included is and how to plan my event to include the most people possible and make all community members feel welcome.

Ross, James G., et al. “After Physical Education...Physical Activity Outside of School Physical Education Programs.” ResearchGate, The National Children and Youth Fitness Study, Jan. 1985, www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Ross38/publication/274620295_The_National_Children_and_Youth_Fitness_Study_After_Physical_Education_Physical_Activity_outside_of_School_Physical_Education_Programs/links/5a5fb9340f7e9b964a1dd7b7/The-National-Children-and-Youth-Fitness-Study-After-Physical-Education-Physical-Activity-outside-of-School-Physical-Education-Programs.pdf+.

Since my game involves physical activity, I researched the importance behind encouraging students to be active outside of just a physical education class. This publication speaks on the importance of creating variation with sports and fitness to introduce many different choices for students. I would be doing this with volleyball, seeing as it isn’t the most popular sport in SLA and could create new interest for students and encourage them to be more active. This helps my understanding of what sports do for students and why they matter and how I could make an impact by creating positive connections for a sporting event. This information in this source is based off of a national study surveying actual students and schools to show the impacts of physical education.

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, Vol. 1, No. 3, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act at Fifty and Beyond (December 2015), pp. 77-94. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/rsf.2015.1.3.04.

This journal discusses the role of the government in education. Since SLA and many public schools across the country are underfunded, it creates new challenges for our students. Many programs are struggling to continue due to lack of resources, like the volleyball team. Because there isn’t money, students like myself have to take matters into our own hands to change the situations. This source talks about the racial and socioeconomic gaps as an issue the government hopes to fix, and SLA is an example of a group of students experiencing these issues. This helps me analyze the problems our school faces and why.

Strauss, Valerie. “The Ugly Facts of Life in Philadelphia Public Schools.” The Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/07/the-ugly-facts-of-life-in-philadelphia-public-schools/?utm_term=.e811fe457d9a.

Up until recently, the school district was run by the State who decided our funding and performed massive budget cuts to hundreds of schools throughout Philadelphia. Teachers make less than teachers in the suburbs and also have to pay for their own health benefits, showing how the cuts are not only taxing on the students, but the teachers as well. We face many setbacks with cut funding for afterschool programs and the arts, which means students and teachers have unfair weight to carry when compared to many other school districts. This source gives me all of the information I need to fully understand our lack of funds and current situation and reminds me of the importance of making my event successful.

The North Carolina High School Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 1 (JANUARY, 1914), pp. 26-29 Published by: University of North Carolina Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/43822093 Accessed: 26-01-2018 14:41 UTC.

A study was done by the University of North Carolina discussing how the state of North Carolina put more funding into high school sports and it resulted in more interest in sports than ever before. This shows how there is a direct correlation between funding and interest, and my capstone is focused around raising money for the volleyball team which would encourage more students to join the team and make it a stronger program overall. The state also released requirements for the student athletes, like attendance and grade requirements. Not only do students want to join sports, but they must also focus on their grades as well because they can’t be a part of the sports program without improving their academic status.

Wright, Handel Kashope, and Sidonia Alenuma. “Teaching City Kids.” Google Books, https://books.google.com/books?id=YWh8ho9e2qwC&pg=PA211&lpg=PA211&dq=pros+and+cons+of+magnet+schools&source=bl&ots=Tc3IbEXfwV&sig=P_WlppFW6G4Nvf2gs0ghF18lVPk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit6v-IoPPYAhURON8KHUhDCo04FBDoAQhLMAY#v=onepage&q=pros%20and%20cons%20of%20magnet%20schools&f=false

This book talks about the unique aspects of urban magnet schools and how they are multicultural, multiracial, and high achieving alternative schools. This allows for a fuller educational experience that includes a wider variety of students and people, which includes the SLA community. By reading pieces of this book it helps me understand how important magnet schools are and how vital it is to support the system, giving my event more meaning by hoping to raise money to support our clubs and sports teams. My event is a chance to interest students of all types and across the spectrum to fully bring our community together and support making our magnet school system stronger.