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For my senior project, I wanted to explore the possibility of venturing into a hair doing business. Hair for me had always held more than a superficial significance which I partially credit to my culture and upbringing as a black woman. And while I don’t view hair in the same manner as I used to, I still think that it can be empowering (if you give it that power), and generally and usually the feeling of getting your hair done to your liking is an almost euphoric feeling that I would love to be able to give to people. The project was aimed at me seeing whether or not I could be “successful” in attempting to start a hair business of my own as doing hair had always been something I was good at but I was too scared to begin it due to fears of possible failure. Combined with fears fo possible failure, the pandemic hit and it was harder for me to envision how running a small business such as that would operate properly. My project explored whether or not I could run a temporary hair business for about 3 months. I asked a few friends and family as well as a few random people in school whether they would want to get their hair done for free to sort of be my project models as well as broadcasting that I would be doing free hairstyles for the first 15 people who filled out a survey link that I had put in my Instagram biography section. This exploration did help me in my decision to begin doing hair whilst in college and that instead of working a more traditional job while pursuing my educational prowess, I’ll be utilizing my hair doing skill instead.

For my capstone, I wanted to get a community more involved in the environment. My goal was to use the skills I had learned from CTE- engineering, and design a system that creates opportunities for the community to learn more about the green around them. The community I hoped to impact was a community garden residing in University City. My plan was to design a self-sustaining self-watering system for plots in the garden. But after being denied the space at the community garden, I turned to a different community. I decided to implement my design into my own school’s outside terrace. Because I moved the space, I also decided to simplify my design so that any student or faculty member could use it. The garden would be able to both collect its own rain water and disperse the water automatically throughout the day, or as much as needed. Through the project research; I learned how to collect rainwater safely, how water flows and moves through piping, how to code a timing system, and how different plants grow and what they need. Though the design went through some major changes, the final product works and fits with the outside space perfectly. With the plan of going further with the project, I hope to get the word out about the design by using a website I have created. There is so much that this project could do for the SLA community. The possibilities of this project are endless, but it just needs that final push.

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nYWSpTwQNxzfRLUVL9Fef3DVMPSid5CzbLHuwV837zU/edit?usp=sharing

Website: https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/rocketgarden/home

For my capstone, I did a ten-page research paper exploring the impacts of greek life. Specifically, I focused my thesis and essential questions on how greek life perpetuates rape culture and sexual violence, promotes toxic masculinity and endorses the overuse of alcohol and drugs. In my paper, I argue that fraternities and sororities should be abolished. Through my research, I realized how greek organizations have a long history of sexual violence and how the toxic masculinity, that is promoted within fraternities, has a major connection to the sexual violence that is disturbingly common within greek life. Along with the connection, toxic masculinity has to sexual violence, it also is a key factor in why fraternities and sororities participate in acts of hazing. As a woman about to enter college, these are topics that are very relevant to my life. Greek life is surrounded by incidences of sexual assault, rape, and even death. I want to make sure that others around me also understand the detrimental impacts that greek life has on everyone, not just women.

For my capstone project I started a prom committee so there would be decorations and a theme for the senior prom. This idea came to me during the summer last year and I thought it would be a really fun capstone project. Last year we didn’t get a junior prom due to covid and being online so I really wanted this to be the most memorable prom possible. I wanted to combine my love for planning and art through decorating to come up with a night to remember. I started off by making a presentation to pitch to Braskem in hopes of getting funds to decorate. It was a really amazing experience. In the following weeks to come I waited for news on whether or not I’d gotten the funds, and about 2 weeks later I was notified that I got the money I asked for and a mentor to help guide me. I’d meet with my mentor every once in a while depending on if I needed help. After this I started to plan meetings out for the committee. Unfortunately not too many people showed up the times I tried to have meetings so I ended up reaching out to my friends and other seniors that were interested in helping me with decorations. I already had a theme in mind from a “Prom decor” Pinterest board I made a while ago so it made it easier to decide. I also made a mood board of the things I ordered with the title “ An Enchanted Evening”. I also visited the venue to see where the decorations would go. There were some bumps in the road with the venue at times but everything worked out in the end. In addition to all this I also sent out a google form to gather songs from seniors so everyone could have at least one song they like played at prom. I’m still waiting for decorations to arrive but I have a plan for when they do and have support from friends, family, and other community members at SLA to help make this a memorable event for the seniors.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iIrejrrhgggQ5e0f971yYgKd_hpzWu19axTV8dJWTGY/edit?usp=sharing

Summary

Over the last 2 years, I have been interested in Culinary Arts. My capstone focuses on sharing new food ideas with others. The mixed cuisine that is shown in my E-book, are foods that I put together from experience working at different culinary establishments. I recently began working with a catering company that is helping me in achieving my ultimate goals of, finally getting experience in an actual kitchen, and becoming a chef. I want to share my experience from the last 2 years through food and recipes that I have perfected and learned, from mentors that have guided me with intent. As a result of this guidance, I decided on a capstone project solely based on the results of the lessons I have already learned and will continue to learn.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11pv4oFVVG9MdLDM5zSvThscIVjU55P38OP63ZvBzlHw/edit?usp=sharing

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFAntLn4W4/ePumEzm2femJwa5ha9OKiA/view?utm_content=DAFAntLn4W4&utm_campaign=share_your_design&utm_medium=link&utm_source=shareyourdesignpanel

Growing up I always wanted to solve problems and help others going through difficulties. Because of this, I decided I would use my Engineering Skills and design a solution that could help the homeless. At first, I had quite a few ideas about what I could create and I was pretty indecisive about what I wanted to make for my Capstone early on. However thanks to Mr.Kamal the Engineering teacher at SLA and Mrs.Hersch the director of homeless services I was able to narrow my ideas down and ultimately chose to Design a Building for the Homeless. I 3d modeled a ¨Safe House¨ that would work as a place for homeless people to stay if they missed curfew which is 8 pm for most homeless shelters. With the ¨Safe House¨, they will be able to get essential supplies and things they would need and be able to rest at a safe place for the night. I learned while going through this that we can help homeless people every day but that’s not going to end homelessness. The only true way to end homelessness is affordable housing. Housed people are not homeless.

Below is the 3d Model of the ¨Safe House¨ with each object being its own individual model

For my Engineering Capstone, I wanted to explore the intersection between art and engineering - how engineering influences, and is built into art, and the artists that utilize engineering as a tool to further their creation. Researching the processes these artists use to create their various works - paintings, movies, mobiles, and sculptures made from all different materials - is such a tangible way to see how engineering skills can be applied in the everyday world, and used to make that everyday world extraordinary. Specifically, in my capstone, I decided to put together a book full of countless pictures, and visuals of these art pieces created by my favorite artists and even filmmakers, to display how the influence of engineering can be easily seen in various art fields throughout the world, spanning continents and decades.

Sections from my book (to be turned in physically)

Powelton Village is a beautiful historic neighborhood located in the northern part of University City. It is also the neighborhood in which I grew up. Growing up, I have always been very close to my neighbors. The community that we have formed together over the years has been a very influential part of my life. While brainstorming how I wanted to capture the past four years, I immediately gravitated towards Powelton. There are many topics of interest that I could have focused my project on: from the history, to the architecture, to the people. When thinking about all of the unique stories that I could tell, I quickly realized that many of the names that came to mind were names of artists. And then the question hit me: Why are there so many artists in Powelton Village? This became my guiding question as I set out to make a documentary exploring and celebrating the diversity of talent condensed in this small region. I made three short individual profiles where each artist got a chance to share their backstory, their process, and to show off their work. Each one describes their own unique connection to Powelton and how the community and the region has influenced their art and their lives.

Here is a link to a website that I created to compile everything into one place: Artists of Powelton

Bibliography

https://phillycourtfinder.wixsite.com/pickupball

When trying to decide what to do for my capstone, I thought about what hit home to the youth of Philadelphia. I know when I’m bored or feeling down, nothing else helps like getting outside and being active. Especially after our tedious year(s) in quarantine, I thought it would be a great idea to make a website that would bring people together under one common interest: Basketball. I faced some challenges during the creation of this website, but I still pulled through and tried to take initiative to create a useful hub to unite basketball players all over the city.

My passion for baking has turned into a modest business since the epidemic began. During quarantine, Treatsbyliq officially began on April 7, 2022. Many prominent corporations use social media to make it appear as though they contribute back to the community when this is not the case. I plan to fundraise to make care packages and donate them to shelters as a way to give back to the community. This is something I will accomplish to help people that are in need.

My initial step will be to collaborate with others to find shelters where I can donate care packages. From there I plan to figure out what days would work best for me so that I can do a bake sale. In addition to that, I want to create 50 care packages so that I can donate them to the shelter. I will be using the money to buy small necessities such as toothpaste, soap, and toothbrush, and maybe bake a cookie and put them in each bag. I’m also going to take a closer look at companies that don’t give back to the community. I’m also planning to take pictures of me and the freshman creating care packers along with a picture to show that I donated them.

For my capstone project, I did a neighborhood cleanup with the help of my friend and parent. I live in southwest Philadelphia and it’s not the prettiest neighborhood around. I wanted to take s step toward creating our environment, into a welcoming place. An environment where people like myself can walk to the bus stop without worrying about trash being all over the place. The leading cause of this “trashy-ness” is the lack of trashcans. Having a few trashcans around each neighborhood can help lower the statistics of Philly being so dirty. Taking some time out of my day and starting a neighborhood cleanup will not only benefit me but my community as a whole. I wanted to help my community in some way before I leave for college and this is one of the many ways to do so. My contribution and project were the start of possibly, something bigger. I spent time after school with friends and cleaned up as much as I could. The challenges I anticipated were volunteers and weather; I did have a lack of volunteers. The weather wasn’t an issue and at first, the lack of volunteers bothered me, but once I started the project, it was pretty easy and fun to do. I took photos of our progress and how we managed with everything we had.

Annotated Bibliography https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v1Ag_bEoKELp3SvkvyR1ACDFSBAoOmH5jUTChZyfFy4/edit?usp=sharing

Pictures:

Through my capstone project, I got a chance to embrace my career goal in life. Down the line, I would like to have my own pro-black topic-centered podcast/news channel in the future after college only celebrating blackness in a light that motivates, elevates, and inspires others. Being that the core values of SLA are inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, and reflection, I made my project centered around all 5. Beginning with Inquiry, I developed a question, What leads to a healthy discussion about deep philosophical questions that don’t have a yes or no answer and are completely opinionated? Journalism is centered around philosophy and asking questions that cannot always be answered making it objective. The second aspect of creating my podcasts was research, using sources that I found while forming my annotated bibliography, I discovered new ways to articulate my stance and direct facts from articles that fit my opinion. The difficulty I had with collaborating was getting volunteers to feature on the podcast, understanding that recording podcasts with minors is difficult due to liability, I decided to record on my own instead of creating a new model of collaboration. Instead, during black student union meetings, I decided to play clips from podcasts every week to discuss creating new opposing opinions. Presenting a podcast is hard when I worked from my room, however, I still managed to find a way to present. Below is linked a compilation of clips from each podcast that I created, this way those who are reviewing my work don’t have to listen to each podcast one by one, instead, the 5-minute compilation sums it up generally. Overall, while reflecting, this project has made me see how much I really do want to talk about these topics as a career in life and how much I could teach others through my knowledge of these significant topics about black people. I am excited to see what life brings after college due to this project.

Digital evidence-

Below is a link to a compilation of clips from each of my podcasts;

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2688277088

Annotated Bibliography-

Below is a link to my Annotated Bibliography;

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nqFTWio6qcP6KGsrR_sKQ3fx0359eMlv5cXZ8rvfNw8/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone, I decided to learn how to use a sewing machine and build up my sewing skills. I choose to start off by doing some research on garment making and creating some boards on pinterest for inspiration. I started with thrift flips and then moved on to making some pieces from scratch. I used Adobe to make visuals of what I wanted the final product to look like. My final product is a portfolio of all of the pieces I created.

I had a few main goals here. My primary goal was to learn how to sew and compile a list of resources for anyone else that would also like to know but might not know where to start. My second goal was to help make others feel good about themselves by photographing them wearing the pieces that were made. Lastly, I wanted to use this as a way to combat fast fashion and see how affordable making your own clothes can be. I found that it can sometimes be a challenge if you don’t have the resources or time.

Google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Fy_JTHtOVy6VVV6s5xZAY-GkQ_g9Gzz3?usp=sharing

Pinterest board: https://pin.it/5MJYMvW

Youtube playlists:

Annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yx0AKjfm7m4gnHwco8qwcos57oVWqX-eVTUcD5iBsIg/edit?usp=sharing

Over our childhood years, Society has imprinted on our brain that a princess only consists of a white cisgender woman. Thinking of princesses African Americans or black women has always been the last to be imagined in people’s minds or at least everyone but my own. My Capstone was to re-imagine the classic storybook tales that we all read as kids and a black perspective to give black women the acknowledgment that they have always deserved.

Links

Bibliography-https://docs.google.com/document/d/14mVCFx-MPAe5OBuvCTBeVoYLTDEs9V8MMnz1NbQ5pds/edit?usp=sharing

Book-https://my.visme.co/view/mxy1j0mn-e0654k8q0rvy2np9

My capstone focuses on the importance of trees in today’s climate, where the world’s temperature is constantly increasing due to the increase of greenhouse gases generated from the constant use of fossil fuels. I have read many articles on the subject of trees and their benefits on areas in the city with no trees. I have also talked with my neighbors who also find this to be a huge issue in our city because they find it so hard to find shade in the summertime.

I have learned about so many tree planting programs that are local to our city or open to the entire world that give out trees everwhere and I felt that this capstone should help by showing these resources we could use, while also showing how our city should act now and try to get a tree planted in as much places as possible.

Link to Capstone:

https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/a-greener-paradise/home?authuser=0

Link to Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ju1RA7vOvtUIM-c9luiSABnwH1WENeXXm0gQ_hHQuVg/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone, I decided to combine my love for computer science and my passion for sneakers to create a website that I felt could benefit my fellow sneakerheads. The website is called Sole Searching and it is a website that will allow you to compare prices of sneakers, read weekly articles about different sneaker brands, find release dates, and even some trivia! To create this website I had to first research how to scrape data to compare the prices, how to implement that data onto my site, and how to make it look nice, all for FREE! The sneaker resell game is crazy and it can be difficult to find authentic sneakers for a reasonable price, so I wanted to try and give the community a place for that. When creating this project I began to think about all of the times I wish I had something like it to help me out when I was first getting into sneakers. So I hope that this project will be the place people go when they want to know more about sneaker culture and allow for anyone who visits, sneakerheads, people just getting into sneakers, or just the average consumer, to have an easier sneaker shopping experience and eventually Find Their Sole!

Website Link: https://solesearchingcom.wordpress.com/

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UugkwRzmVqXvhWb96NKajc2HWSsSsM-er-3btCeLiCg/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone I wanted to really reflect on my time at SLA,. In order to do that I decided to start from the beginning, my first time walking through the doors. SLA in itself is truly a unique and wonderful experience and I wanted to represent that in the art work I created. Each canvas was created to represent each subject that SLA offers, not only to capture the uniqueness and what I learned, but also to leave beautiful artwork to look at.

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZeZx8806AnE9VuNlqGq_dgQjsbKgOT4nX5nr1_3Oh88/edit?usp=sharing

Timeline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tUoSBtDe79LnelJdm8PrldpJ8CyQv9U5eI6CpyP-7Js/edit?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RX65hXksl9Wd0iYqqkrVx5Fm06DhDb79hiEaTFCDDiE/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone, I wanted to bring attention to current fashion trends in society and how they are influenced by black culture. As an African American woman, I feel passionate about my capstone as I believe my culture is often appropriated. I believe that today’s society is highly influenced by black culture. A plethora of people lack understanding and are uneducated on where these “fashion trends” originate from which causes cultural appropriation. Black culture includes specific hairstyles, jewelry pieces, long acrylic nails, velour tracksuits, accessories, etc. For this project, I knew a substantial amount of research and collaboration would have to be done. I knew having a photoshoot would be the best way to capture the importance of black culture and the points I wanted to emphasize. My finished product is a presentation consisting of photos from the photoshoot and research that I did.

Throughout this entire process, I learned how to effectively collaborate with my peers. I was challenged to use outside resources and work closely with them as well. I gained more knowledge about the history and origins of black culture, which is important to me because it is my culture. I hope after diving into my capstone everyone can grow an appreciation and gain respect for black culture and its history.

Capstone: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1x8zzVQLG_p8N0eEPXuMxshhUL2rd8Xjm7DGgEKIEtBg/edit?usp=sharing

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19PhvJPNW-T4zBJHUsgdzm8zFfTGW6M8QcVN1Jfxf6MQ/edit?usp=sharing

My Capstone is a 50 page book documenting my 4 years at SLA through a mental health lens. I collected artwork, writing, and pictures that I felt best represented my experiences, and created new work to help tell the story. My goals in mind were:

1. Create a piece of work that helps people who are struggling find hope.
2. Create a resource for people to better understand how depressed people view the world.
3. Create a body of work that allows me to view the progress I’ve made over 4 years.

In the end, I created a project I’m not even comfortable with people reading, which I hope encourages people like me to open up about their experiences too.

For my senior capstone project I constructed a few bulletin board pieces based on mental health. These boards were interactive and all the art pieces were made by me. The reason I chose to design my project around this topic is because mental health has always been a topic of interest to me especially because it’s a huge part of my life and others around me. Being high school students, I think we can all agree that is when everything changes, and students need help more than ever. Not only am I doing a project based on this, but I am also taking it further into my college career which was one of the main reasons as to why I made sure I created something along the topic. This project let me be as creative as possible and I was able to incorporate art into it which again is personal for me. With these bulletin boards the SLA community was able to interact with the board. The goal was to educate and allow people to check in on their mental state from time to time. It might have been something small but sometimes people forget how important that small check in can be. This project allowed me to give something to the community, but it also helped me during the process. What I have here is a slide presentation with the boards I was able to create and put up. Then there is a video in the end that shows some of my process for the boards and some interactions within the community.

Link to slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DZ9sZOOq5T1FZAfhfbWVX3BvKUpaWIBl7DsZ-RKytZk/edit#slide=id.g12a1203c317_0_25

Link to annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vHrlRdYqmjW3ArlTqdJ2bIzpF-hML75nTFbWa2KGk8A/edit

Over the last four years, I’ve worked in the Chinese Youth Organization Project (CYOP) as a committee member and intern. I work with other youth and mentors. Sometimes working with people around my age is hard because everyone is so strong on their own ideas. The experience I had throughout working with others inspired me to choose Communication as my topic for my capstone. I decided to create a workshop about Communication. I researched the different types of communication and some tips on communicating. Finally, I planned the entire workshop and presented on CYOP ‘s school year events to other youths.

Orginal Capstone Final Product - in Chinese

Translated Capstone Final Product - English

Annaotated Bibliography

I decided to do my capstone about the student athletes at my school and why they are so important. In the video I asked them questions about life of being a student athletes and some ups and downs about them. I choose to focus around student athletes because I am one and I know the life of one but not everyone does in the video I show what athletes do how they maintain both lives and how SLA impacts us student athletes.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C3VNcRFqvSGxx-VeQ5kq4DXpJLHv1zRJucGjRe9snO0/edit?usp=sharing - Annotated Bibliography

https://youtu.be/Ylp-1Xdcx2g - Video Link

The Abstract:

According to Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability, 35,000 tons of clothing and textiles are thrown away in the city each year. I created Drop and Shop to lower that number. By providing a place for students to drop off clothes they don’t want anymore and others to shop for free, new-to-them items, fewer clothes go to landfills. Students can stop by anytime, and anyone is allowed to shop, regardless of whether they’ve dropped clothes.

I officially started in March by putting a poster and collection box out on the first floor. I also launched an Instagram account to promote the project. The racks and hangers are borrowed from Ben Franklin Community Closet, and SLA’s vocational training program helped me organize everything. In the past five weeks, over 200 items have been dropped and 85+ shopped.

I created a spreadsheet for inventory of the clothes and updated it at least once a week. I then made graphs showing how the number of items each week varied, as well as the frequency of items and sizes. I’ll provide an analysis during my presentation.

I’ve heard lots of positive feedback so I decided to keep the Drop and Shop running until the end of the year. My goal is to find a purpose for each item, meaning that none will go to landfills. There is also a 10th-grader who is going to continue it after I graduate.

As clothing production and processing exacerbate the climate crisis, programs like these are the future.

The Product:

A google drive folder including the guidelines, some people shopping, posters I made, and pictures of the setup throughout the weeks.

The Instagram account: @sla.drop.and.shop

Annotated bibliography

Solar panels on SLA? Yea I said that correctly! My capstone explores the idea of having Solar Panels on SLA. With this brilliant idea, I created a rough and not-so-accurate digital model on tinkercad to help the audience visualize where solar panels could be placed. Again this isn’t an accurate model but it is supposed to be something close to it. Throughout my eighty beautiful hours of research and modeling my digital artifact I learned many things. Throughout my presentation, I will be explaining the positives and negatives of solar panels and why they should be on SLA. But still keeping in mind the cost and if it really makes a difference.

bib- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZsAudKIIc7ZT0zn5Nw0dZICkF70nhQnfPPSkKWhd3CU/edit?usp=sharing