Rakim Ford Capstone 2022

How can I make a difference in the world? That’s the question that drove me during my capstone and I always wanted to do more with each interpretation of my capstone. For my Capstone, I created a video and website based on the homeless crisis currently taking place in America. I chose this topic because I wanted to make a difference with my capstone. I wanted to impact other people’s lives in some capacity. The journey to do this was long and hard but thinking realistically was the key to accomplishing this capstone. The first thing I had in mind was a bench of some kind for homeless people who are not in any shelter and are roaming in the city. But given the anti-homelessness and political discourse in the current political spectrum, I deemed that too hard to accomplish. So I looked elsewhere here you can see me emailing the participant at Project Home which introduces the core aspect of my project collaboration.

Collaboration with an organization elevated this Capstone into a more interactive project and allowed me more ways to be active in the real world. I continue to contact Project Home over a series of months until eventually, I settled with John Owen In-kind - Gift coordinator the overseer of volunteering. From there we schedule a meeting over zoom for talks for me to interview John Owens for my Video Capstone.

After the successful zoom meeting, I was granted permission to interview John Owens at Project Home. This really shows my ability to lead and have the initiative to direct my capstone in the direction I wanted it to go. From there I went to Project Home and interviewed John Owens where I asked him a series of questions that were tailored to the students of Science Leadership Academy. I wanted the future Students at Science Leadership Academy to be given the video for decades to come so they always know what they can do to help the world. And to benefit themselves specifically the Juniors and Sophomores who will need a LIP so that they can choose Project Home for that. To go above and Beyond the collaboration of my capstone project, I also made a website. This website is my own personal creation to raise awareness of the homeless crisis happening right now in Philadelphia. As well as a tutorial on how to directly volunteer at Project Home to make an immediate impact.

Video Linked https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wtAfHL4DsFFqkVCpVhZwPyaEMXLwZFWh/view?usp=sharing

Website Linked https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/aslahome/hall-of-volunteers?authuser=0

Annotated Bibliography https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f8z39sibCNgOqIhzVSz31RL58hkkOaV-xiwAu_FMGwk/edit?usp=sharing