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Clothing is a necessity, people don’t realize that when they purchase clothing it mostly uses non-renewable resources in the material and production. A large portion of clothing ends up in landfills and waste. For my capstone, I wanted to inform people about an environmental problem known as Fast Fashion Waste. I not only wanted to provide valuable information but also inspire people to be creative and learn new ways to help prevent global waste. I learned about waste creation and the multiple effects fast fashion has on our world. Fast fashion is economically, socially, and environmentally very harmful. I created an informative magazine filled with articles and fashionable outfits that are fully recycled. The articles include research I have done on fast fashion and how to prevent it. These articles are connected to photographs I took of friends in fully recycled outfits. There are multiple different sections of the magazine that demonstrate different ways to recycle clothing. The reader will learn about creative recycling methods as well as the overall effect fast fashion has on our environment

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dFgCaapfTWb5oiJu9uts0_NGfCEKbYULRRTwy13hapc/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone, I wanted to study the relationship between film and music. Music and film are two things I enjoy and I have always been interested in the relationship between the two. I wanted to explore what techniques composers use to draw on specific emotions and connect their music to what is happening onscreen. My main goal was to get information about the way that people react to music, especially in the context of film. To accomplish this, I split my project into three different parts. First, I filmed a short video, with a couple of friends as actors. I intentionally shot this video in a way that was very ambiguous, without a clear story. The reason for this is the second part of my project: the music. I composed three different pieces of music with the goal of having each evoke a different mood or emotion. For the last part of my project, I sent three groups of people a version of my film, each with a different score. The video is exactly the same in all three versions, only the music changes. I then had each person fill out a form asking them what they thought about the tone and plot of my film. This allowed me to analyze the influence each particular piece of music had on my film.

All versions of my film:

Responses to my form:

I changed my project after I had already done my bibliography, so I don’t have a bibliography for this project. Here is the bibliography for my original project:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v8Fnk4PbAweOwRG8pwYk11ytn6q6T42VJPpMgo0H5qw/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone, my goal for my final product was to create a 3D printed model of one of my characters. I briefly worked with people to create a character. I did this by interviewing and collecting data about characters people want to see. I learned styles of art to draw this character. I learned manga style art because that’s where my style developed from and was my inspiration for this capstone. I communicated with people in order to create some backstory for the character. Over the course of a year, I spent time learning tools and techniques used for fusion360( a 3D modeling platform I created my 3D model on) and modeled my character using the techniques I’d learned. I also learned how to use two types of 3D printers in order to make my final product.

These are my models from fusion 360

This is my model being uploaded to the 3D printer i used

These are the final products

annotated bibliography:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivkqXwU8-vNo64Kt99EUjnuYueprdYqj7MDDwUQ81Pc/edit

For my capstone, my goal for my final product was to create a 3D printed model of one of my characters. I briefly worked with people to create a character. I did this by interviewing and collecting data about characters people want to see. I learned styles of art to draw this character. I learned manga style art because that’s where my style developed from and was my inspiration for this capstone. I communicated with people in order to create some backstory for the character. Over the course of a year, I spent time learning tools and techniques used for fusion360( a 3D modeling platform I created my 3D model on) and modeled my character using the techniques I’d learned. I also learned how to use two types of 3D printers in order to make my final product.

These are my models from fusion 360

This is my model being uploaded to the 3D printer I used

These are the final products

annotated bibliography:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivkqXwU8-vNo64Kt99EUjnuYueprdYqj7MDDwUQ81Pc/edit

When we moved to the new building I couldn’t help but notice the bare walls. At the old building on 22nd and Arch, the walls were covered in paintings and student expression. 2 years after the move, after asbestos and after a pandemic the new school building still didn’t feel like SLA. In March I interviewed students, 100% of students interviewed said that a mural would make the new SLA building feel more like home. After that survey, I was sure that a mural had to be painted. The mural was painted by mostly seniors and freshmen. I designed it based on parts of the SLA experiences. The whales in the mural are based on my favorite mural in Philadelphia which was the whale mural near the Schuylkill River Trail. The mural ended up being 8ft by 10ft and was painted using acrylics on masonite panels. After lots of hard work by not only me but the SLA community, the mural was finished. I hope that this mural inspires other artists at SLA and helps make the new building truly feel like SLA. I also hope it shows what happens when people come together as a community to create something that will leave a legacy. Thank you to Braskem who helped fund this project.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sb1LGF-tBWEL8SguLKSPqpplGPKNFCAzr2lWmtg-MYQ/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone project I decided to make a documentary/interview series about how mental health and tattoos are connected; as well as why people get tattoos. I interviewed several people, unfortunately less that I anticipated, but ultimately I learned a lot through this process. Throughout this process I learned a lot more about how to communicate and collaborate with people during the making of a film. The final product is a collection of 8 interviews talking about their experience with tattoos and the meaning behind them, finally talking about the connection with mental health and tattoos. I spent half of my time planning interviews, scheduling, and recording the interviews and the other half was spent editing. For the final product I had to come to terms with the fact that this is not going to be perfect. Although that’s what’s great about capstones, you can keep working on it; capstones are more about the process than the final product, as long as you have something to show for it.

Below is the link to the final documentary and my bibliography.

For my capstone I made a documentary. My documentary is about the skateboarding community and is titled go skate. This film highlights the struggles of misogyny within the skateboarding community. I interviewed multiple women skaters about their personal experiences with skateboarding. I also interviewed several men about what they think of the skateboarding community to bring to light the sexism within it. The end of my documentary is finished up with a collage of skate clips I have collected throughout my years of being a skateboarder in Philadelphia.

Here is a link to the documentary:

https://youtu.be/ylHbQo0-5q0

Here is a link to my bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XL76lY2fpYKdh-tE9gHQqoIxgEV10VLqxuaEh3kkSzU/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone, I explored whether or not schools are progressing or regressing and also whether or not students enjoy the content they are learning. I chose this because I have personally felt like schools do a poor job of preparing me for the future, and where I once found joy in learning, I now find boredom or hatred.

So there were two main goals in mind, one to look at ways how schooling has progressed and then how it has regressed as well. I then wanted to see if any of these had an impact on the way people view schools. That would all be done through my own research online. The next goal was to hear from some of the students how they felt. I know how I feel, but am I alone in this? I also found out that I needed to also hear from the teacher’s perspective as they can also become annoyed by the school and the people within it. With that in mind, I interviewed students and teachers about their feelings surrounding the school system. In the end, I made a slideshow to talk about what I found and came across and the ways that we can all work to improve these things. The slideshow not only addresses students’ concerns but teachers’ as well because oftentimes their emotions and feelings get pushed to the side and ignored. I truly hope that people listen close and well because this is our education and it is to my understanding that we are not learning nor catering to what people really need.

Most of my time was spent reading this book, Tinkering Towards Utopia. This book was provided to me by my mentor Mr. Clapper. This book essentially covered many of the major questions I had stepping into this project. What does reform look like? How does reform happen? Has there been any sort of progress since 1995 when the book was first published. This was my starting point. After that I started my interviews.

From left to right you can see Mr. Clapper, Ms. Gasser (the best advisor), and finally Profe Hernandez. Each of these wonderful teachers allowed me to interview them and gain insight into what makes them enjoy their job and what also makes school difficult for them. It is essential that I was able to speak to them seeing as they become just as affected by school life as us students.

We then have four SLA students that I also interviewed. From left to right you can see Isabel Boix, Cia Klot, Mikkel Watts, and Maya Robinson. The purpose of their interviews were to gain some of their insight within not only SLA but their middle schools as well. From their interviews I gathered that most of their opinions around school started to generally shift in middle school, and those opinions were only enhanced in high school.

These lovely four people are some of my friends from CAPA and my cousin. From left to right, we have Leah, Charlie, Lily, and Cinnamon on the bottom. Seeing as I had the perspective from teachers at SLA and students at SLA, I knew I needed to know what people thought about school outside of SLA. The overall opinion for them is that school needs to be reworked. There are things that work and things that don’t. Lily, goes to school in the suburbs so it was a key part that I get the perspective from outside of the city.

From conducting my own interviews and reading, Tinkering Towards Utopia, I have learned that majority of the problems that were once present in 1995, we don’t see as much. There are others that have stood the test of time, such as standardized testing. To learn more about what the teachers and students have to say you can see the slideshow I put together here.

Annotated Bibliography

Dickinson, Kevin. 2020. “7 subjects that should be taught in U.S. schools.” Big Think. https://bigthink.com/the-present/subjects-taught-school/. This source brings up a really good point as to why we need these classes taught in our school. However I disagree with religion being its own separate class, I think that it should be taught in a world history class setting as a unit. Only because of the multiple ways religion can be connected to the atrocities throughout history. Religion connects to the world’s development and that’s why it should be taught in a World History setting.

Douglas, Nick. 2018. “You Shouldn’t Have to Read These Books in High School.” Lifehacker. https://lifehacker.com/you-shouldn-t-have-to-read-these-books-in-high-school-1828549376. Ok I completely agree with this for the most part. I don’t like the Great Gatsby. It is completely overrated and being asked to break it apart and interpret it makes no sense after how many times it has been interpreted. Books in general at school have a way of telling one single narrative to teach a different lesson but ultimately nothing is different. During my time at SLA I have only read 3 books written by women all of the rest have been written by men, mainly white men. This is where I am telling you that there is only one narrative, there is hardly any diversity. Most books, I, at least haven’t been able to to connect with or enjoy reading.

“Filing Taxes Should Never Be Taught In School.” 2017. Integrated Social Studies. https://integratedsocialstudies.com/2017/10/29/filing-taxes-should-never-be-taught-in-school/. The problem with the source is that they think there isn’t time to learn these things, or that children simply would not be interested in learning how to prevent themselves for being thrown in jail for tax evasion. It’s not that we don’t have the basic skills of reading and writing, it’s the fact that when it comes time to pay the government we have no idea how much we could possibly owe to the government. This is not on teachers to know because even if they don’t, teachers should be teaching students the basics to taxes, how much they should hold back incase of a situation where their job didn’t take enough money. They can also talk about the different forms of taxes so people can understand what they are being taxed on and why it is important.

Fischler, Jacob. 2021. “Understanding Charter Schools vs. Public Schools | K-12 Schools | US News.” USNews.com. https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/understanding-charter-schools-vs-public-schools. This source provides information on the differences between a public school and a charter school. It allows one to gain insight into what the benefits are, the amount of control the schools have by themselves, and what class size and course work.

Lynch, Matthew. n.d. “18 Reasons the U.S. Education System is Failing.” The Edvocate. Accessed January 28, 2022. https://www.theedadvocate.org/10-reasons-the-u-s-education-system-is-failing/. Although this lists some reasons as to why the school system is failing us it does not always apply to every single school in the private curriculum. However it is nice to know that there are other ways people see the school system is failing students.

Pierce, Emily. 2021. “Private School vs. Public School | K-12 Schools | US News.” USNews.com. https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/private-school-vs-public-school. Similar to the first source, this one compares Public Schools to Private Schools. All of this information can help me compare and contrast the differences for all three to help make a distinction between all of them and how each one suffers in its own way.

Porter, Sara. 2019. “Reader suggestions: Books we should teach in schools.” MPR News. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/08/custom-required-reading-list-for-high-schoolers. Books taught in school should be something that kids can identify with to some level and relate to the world they are in. Especially if they are going to be required to write an analytical essay. Granted yes, there will be those who don’t connect with the material, however I do believe that more students would enjoy and connect more with a book that relates to the world they are in or experiencing rather than the books that were taught to our teachers, and their teachers, and their teachers.

Srinivasan, LaVerne E. 2021. “What Changes to the US Education System Are Needed to Support Long-Term Success for All Americans? | Future of Learning & Work.” Carnegie Corporation of New York. https://www.carnegie.org/topics/topic-articles/future-learning-work/what-changes-us-education-system-are-needed-support-long-term-success-all-americans/. This source is beneficial for me to start taking already processed ideas of how to change the school curriculum and adding it to my own. It also touches on the effects that the pandemic had on students and their education, and how many people noticed the flaws in the curriculum.

“The Times Have Changed—Our Schools Haven’t | What Isn | Oregon’s Challenge.” n.d. Oregon Learns. Accessed January 28, 2022. https://oregonlearns.org/oregons-challenge/what-isnt-working/. So this one takes all thoughts I already have about the school system and organizes them perfectly. The entire school system is completely ridiculous with the things that are taught. Most schools are extremely competitive and look for you to not make mistakes. When in the real world you need to be able to work with people and not only make mistakes but learn from them. Not be reprimanded for them. Also school itself is just straight forward if that makes sense. Like we sit all day, have to ask permission to use the bathroom, we’re only supposed to speak when spoken to and just no no no no.

“Why School doesn’t Prepare us for Life?” 2022. The Black Sheep Community. https://www.theblacksheep.community/school-doesnt-prepare-us-for-life/. This is gold yes ma’am! It speaks on the ways the school system itself has not prepared students for the world. They talk about the lessons we are taught in school and how they are useful to those who are going into specific fields that require these kinds of things. But they also go into the lessons that aren’t taught to us, the ones that we have to figure out by ourselves; and some do figure them out, but others need guidance and help and never get that help!

For my capstone, I created a mini-course centered around bringing awareness about climate change. Climate change is an overlooked topic that I thought everyone should be concerned about, especially the 9th grade class because they are the youngest generation in our school. I thought that art was a great way to capture someone’s attention. Therefore, I had the freshmen design rockets, which is our school’s mascot, completely out of recyclables. Each rocket they designed pertained to a different aspect of climate change. I split them up and allowed them to get to work. For the display, I will be hanging the rockets from the ceiling to give the effect that the rockets are flying through the sky as well as have people become more concerned about climate change issues. My next group of freshmen that I had was given the task to come up with ways they contribute to climate change. I created a Padlet and allowed them to put weekly challenges for them to slowly become self-aware about their effect on the environment. Their next project I had with them was to design a poster board that sheds light on the ways people contribute to climate change. They were inspired from their Padlet task and got to work making a giant poster that could be a self reflection. For the display, I will be hanging up the boards and connecting them like puzzle pieces. In the end I hope that the freshmen are more encouraged to be environmentally aware and continue to use creativity to speak out about a cause.

In the future, my goal is to teach students, specifically highschoolers, an English curriculum. Because of this, I wanted to put myself in the shoes of a teacher in order to better prepare myself. For my Capstone project, I created mock lesson plans as if I was an English teacher. I created two main units based on my own interests. One of them is called Passing Gatbsy, in which the unit is based around the books Passing by Nella Larsen and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The other is a Cinema Studies unit, which works as an abbreviated introduction to film course. I started with an inquiry into teaching in a way that was creative, engaging, and effective. I also wanted to explore how to incorporate film into an English classroom, as I am a CTE DigVid student, and film is a passion of mine. I figured that the best place to begin my research was all around me, interviewing my own teachers as guides. From there, after conducting my own research, I began to assemble my lesson plans. Each lesson plan, done in a UBD (understanding by design) format, contains several links to resources that I created or curated for the course, including relevant articles, project descriptions, and slide decks.

For research, I emailed (see above) several of my teachers, both past and current, asking if they would be willing to talk with me about the process of creating lesson plans. In addition to physical notes (see above),I voice recorded each interview, which can be found in this Google Drive folder.

In addition to the research via teacher interviews, I also researched on my own. For the filmmaking curriculum, I watched and took notes on (see above) several films and analysis videos. I also physically traveled to the Museum of Moving Images (see above) to deepen my understanding.

You can find the links to the lesson plans here:

Passing Gatsby UBD

Cinema Studies UBD

Each UBD doc contains hyperlinks to the other learning resources.

[Annotated Bibliography] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z3nk-BjRiqpxi5nvDKiqjkPNWpBvw3fwhA4iEyJHx1E/edit?usp=sharing)

SLA’s Inquiry Capstone Project is a senior project worked on throughout the year to consolidate the project management skills we have learned during benchmark seasons and SLA’s core values of Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation, and Reflection.

I wanted SLA to be at the heart of my capstone, either by giving back to the school or creating something based on my experience at SLA. This school has provided me with a caring community and unique education, and I feel incredibly grateful for my four years here. I was also curious to learn more about others’ experiences at SLA. My guiding questions were ‘how has SLA’s uniqueness as a school impacted individuals in the SLA community?’ and ‘how can I represent those experiences theatrically?’ Based on those inquiries, I chose to create a one-act play based on a series of interviews with various members of the SLA community that combined my curiosity with my love for theatre and acting. The project challenged me to explore a new aspect of theatre, push myself as a writer, and discover new experiences within SLA. Overall, I hope to have created a play/collection of monologues and scenes that capture a piece of the heart of SLA and teach people more about what SLA is truly like as a school.

Linked here is my annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1goRgkD89rVSNXxcbco2YbTA3PXfAPU6rCskTX4rAQ7w/edit?usp=sharing

And below is the pdf of my final one-act play.

Softball has been a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. Many months ago, when brainstorming ideas for my capstone project, I knew that I wanted to do something having to do with softball. After a lot of thought and talking with family, friends, and coaches, I decided to create and host a clinic for younger softball players. I spent months doing research, reaching out and communicating with people and organizations, and planning specifics of my clinic. I had everything planned out down to the small party favors that I would give out at the end. At the last minute, disaster struck. I was informed that I wasn’t going to be able to host my clinic at the field that I had planned to. In panic, I tried to find a new field to run my clinic but I was not able to. Every field that fit my criteria: safe, reliable, somewhat close, etc, was filled and therefore my clinic that I had spent months working on and planning, could not happen. Not that my two hour clinic would’ve been life changing, but now these kids aren’t able to improve their skills, meet other young softball players, and grow their love for the sport. Once I got over the frustration and sadness that I felt, I became frustrated for a different reason.

With technology being an ever-growing and evolving field, schools must continue to evolve and grow with it. Science Leadership Academy prides itself on being a very tech-savvy school. It is here where technology is ingrained into the curriculum itself. However, there is always room for improvement when it comes to how SLA uses its technology.

With that, I took up the challenge to try and answer the question, “How can I improve the way SLA uses technology?

Over the course of several months, in answering the question of what can be done, you can see the results and final end product here. Thank you!

-Alonso Lai

alai22@scienceleadership.org

alonso.lai004@gmail.com

For my capstone project, I created posters and a website to help low-income families find the resources they need and to also get people to take action and give back to the Philadelphia community. The posters are meant to attract people to my website in the case that a student at SLA finds themselves needing these resources. I chose to focus my topic on low-income families because it affects many families and students in Philadelphia. Some families may not want to ask for help or may not know who to ask. My goal was to do research on resources that would be helpful for low-income families or SLA students. For example, bill assistance, food drives, affordable child care, how to apply for FAFSA, and ways we, as members of the SLA community and Philadelphia citizens, could help.

Link to website: https://heretohelp.squarespace.com/

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w0Ej1Ly6Geu5FlXXQOqsG0nClOItxILU5nCZAFtN_Y4/edit

We all consume digital media everyday, whether that be movies, shows, or simply social media posts about such content. Representation of different kinds is becoming more normalized as time passes, however it’s still important to recognize and analyze the possible subtext of representation. While many people are aware of LGBTQ+ and autism representation in media, I find that they are less aware of the often more abundant queer and autistic-coding in media, or do not know of it at all. For my Capstone, I wanted to create a duo-logy of video essays, with one focused on queer-coding and one focused on autistic-coding. Prior to this, I didn’t know exactly what went into making a video essay, and so researching the basics and what made an engaging and thoughtful video essay was my first step. I then wrote each essay and had it peer-edited, story-boarded each video with its respective writing, gathered my clips, and then edited it all together. I learned more about not only about my style of editing and creating a digital project, but I, myself, was also exposed to more films and TV shows that included queer and autistic-coding. My ultimate goal was to educate more people on these concepts and expose them to looking at media through a lens that they might have not considered before.

Each video essay had approximately four pages of storyboarding to plan out the visuals with the accompanying voiceover. A page from each one is pictured above. Not every aspect of the story boards came to fruition as I altered and changed some parts, but creating the storyboarding made assembling and sequencing all my video clips much easier.

To make my capstone accessible to anyone, it’s uploaded on Youtube and you can view them here:

Annotated Bibliography

Where I come from, the youth depend on hobbies to get them through life as they get older and a common hobby while growing up in the city of Philadelphia is playing sports. From Peewee Little Leagues, to Pop Warner for elementary, middle schoolers, and freshman, and then working on your game to becoming a bright high school football player. As you get older, the priority of becoming an athlete, being very successful at it and taking care of your family is a great feeling. So, with this capstone, What I plan to do is launch a 1 on 1 interview with a special guest of my choice, who is also a family member of mine, that will send out a message to Young Student Athletes. This Interview will be then used to inspire these Young Student Athletes, teaching them how to balance the life of becoming a future college athlete and also living your life outside of school. Pushing them to focus on the ups, downs and accomplishments of pursuing that dream.

My Podcast/Interview: https://youtu.be/YhtGYqEgBcI

My capstone is centered on ensuring that the Student Action Board at Science Leadership Academy @ Center City, a part of the Philadelphia school district, is beneficial to the SLA community. Student Action Board is a student-made and led club whose purpose is to bridge the gap between students and staff. I was able to achieve this goal through various projects. One was creating a template to improve the organization of the advisory memo. Another was helping a Digvid group make a flyer to recruit background actors for their film. The last one I’d like to share is how I worked to get menstrual buckets in various bathrooms around the school. The process was difficult, there were multiple hurdles to jump through inside and out of school. By clicking on my artifact link you’ll find my Capstone Folder. This holds my portfolio of resources that helped in getting student needs met. I collaborated with Ms. Ryans to get the buckets, as well as another student, Paula Vekker. I collaborated with S.A.B participants to come up with ideas and pursue them. I also learned that I have a few more projects I am bringing to fruition, so my process will continue. One will be an end-of-the-year fundraiser, another will be an E-book for the next S.A.B leaders, and my last one will be a pitch to the staff to help them make decisions about the 2022-2023 senior year.

Artifact

Annotated Bibliography

Products:

My senior project, at first, was to find out how to make some sort of shelter for homeless people. Then, I switched to just building a small and affordable housing for a couple or a single person with a pet. I got to thinking and I came up with the tiny home that I have now. It is big enough and equipped with all the housing needs such as a bathroom, loft bed (with space underneath it to store items), kitchen space and then extra space. I wanted to make this project with my hands but I chose to have it digital so that it would be easier to present to all of you. I have learned that making a house is not as easy as you would think. It takes a lot of thought into how to use the space that you are given and how to position everything.

Annotated Bibliography

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14pf4n5iuI4HpahyLWLbrWteipw4Dk46gkKjtk9DAzK0/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone, I decided to visualize myself creating my own school. Not just an ordinary school but a school that specifically focused on mental health. I want to make my school a place of learning but also learn the importance of life and what’s ahead of it. Mental health plays a big role in people in general, don’t matter what age you are but adolescents struggle with it the most. Some schools only care about the importance of attendance and the grade more than the understanding or how you feel. School plays a big role in your life as well but sometimes you need to put yourself first. I didn’t just search up schools that have that, I searched up different proposals due to the simple fact that every school is different. All of the sources I used definitely answer all the questions about how much will it cost, why it’s important, and where will it be located. They talked about every grade and age especially young teens and young adults because once you get into high school it’s a different environment, and different work depending on where you go. As we know depending on what district you are in it is very important to follow the rules as how many days we have off, the early dismissals, time that school starts and ends. The funding is very much important because without funds the school will definitely fail or eventually get shut down if we aren’t doing our jobs as a founder, principal, or anybody with a higher position.

Bibliography

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mTJwy8VPhylBRq22kQGbPI5XupnzkGFXsVaf5lfnqFo/edit

My capstone is soundproofing/sound dampening the room attached to the music room. When I first heard about the project I wasn’t entirely sure what I was signing up for but I had heard how loud the music room was and I needed a capstone. I immediately set out researching different products and methods and which would work best for our situation. Once I’d done that I started comparing different brands based on their price, effectiveness, and accessibility. I haven’t finished the installation yet, but I think it will turn out great. I am hopeful that next year and the years following even more kids will get to use this room and use it without damaging their hearing. I imagine all of the future bands and musicians that will start in this room, and I can’t wait.

The picture above is of the music studio after decluttering and reorganizing. As of submitting this I have not yet begun on the addition of the sound dampening panels or the rugs in the studio. I plan to install both of these things within the upcoming week. I also did a lot of research for this project, I had to look into different methods of soundproofing, which materials would be best, and which brands were most reputable. I also researched how to install the materials that we are planning on using.

Pictured above is my top down drawing of the music studio. Within the drawing I have dimensions of the room and it’s walls, I did this so that Mr. Clapper and I would have a rough estimate of how much materials to buy. To find this out though I had to take the length and height of the walls and calculate how much area we would need to cover, I initially thought this would be very easy, but I forgot to convert the units so it ended up taking longer than anticipated.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10BqjtcdNE0TFHxUaxeLl26MwqOxyLTmHksfL8AqaqXQ/edit?usp=sharing

The SLA AnyWay 5k was started in 2020-2021 by Ethan Chen, a former SLA Students Run member. In hosting the second annual race, my hope was to establish the AnyWay 5k as a yearly event. To build off of last year’s race, I held an in person race in addition to the virtual event. I kept participation free in order to foster an inclusive and accessible race and, like last year, gave every runner who completed the race a medal. Money raised from shirts and donations went to the SLA Home and School Association, who will use it for freshman mini-courses next year. See the numbers below:

The main challenge with planning this race was reigning in its scope. With the help of my mentor, I was able to eliminate expectations of needing chip timing, or large event permits. After creating a more realistic plan for my race, I started by pursuing funding from Braskem for shirts, medals, a timing system, as well as for food and water at the event. After receiving full funding, I began advertising the race on RunSignup and Instagram. My goal was to reach new participants, as well as participants from last year’s race. I also put up posters around the school with scannable QR codes. Leading up to the race, I held three group runs, open to all race participants. For the in person race, I marked a course from Lloyd Hall to about 2.5 km out. Runners would turn around at this halfway point and cross the finish line where they started, receiving their medal, a bottle of water, and a soft pretzel.

   ^^^Poster^^^

I designed this poster during my capstone marketing campaign. These were put up during report card conferences with the hope that parents would see them and sign their kids up for the race. I used a QR code to make it easy for people to access registration, and placed the poster strategically in the stairwells and hallways.

   ^^^RunSignup, Instagram, Shirts, and Medals^^^

Runsignup is the website that Ethan and I used for race registration, as it allows the user to integrate virtual racing into a 5k event. The race was mainly advertised on the Anyway 5k Instagram, which features photos from group runs, and the in person race. The shirts were ordered from custom ink, and feature the race logo on the front, and Braskem logo on the back. The medals were ordered from Crown Awards, using the same design as last year, with no date printed on them. This is so that uncollected medals can be reused across years.

   ^^^Braskem Pitch^^^

This is the original Braskem funding pitch. It features 3 separate funding levels, based on participation, for shirts, medals, food, water, and a timing system. This setup was based on Ethan’s pitch, allowing me to compare and contrast this year’s funding to last year’s during my pitch presentation. This also allows Braskem to get a better understanding of how their funding will be used based on how many participants show for the race.

Links -

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qrVcleoJv_7z8cCWqntOgdCPD4zMi47XoW_dKcD2kWE/edit?usp=sharing

RunSignup Page: https://runsignup.com/Race/PA/Philadelphia/SLAAnyWay5k

Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/slaanyway5k/

Mya Fleming May 11, 2022

Capstone Abstract:

For my capstone project, “Five Entrepreneurial Brands to try in Philadelphia [2022]”, I promoted five small entrepreneurships in Philadelphia using marketing tips. The businesses include baked goods, photography services, clothing, and nail services. The goal of this project is to help support entrepreneurs by emphasizing their strengths and talents. In the process, I learned more about marketing, which is one of the subjects that I want to study in college. After researching marketing strategies, and talking with my mentor, Torian Ugworji, I decided to promote these businesses through a website.

The entrepreneurs who participated put a lot of effort into their work and were easy to communicate with, showing their leadership skills. Each business is marketed on the website with pictures of the products and a written description of the services provided. The quality of each product reflects the importance of presentation, which is a big part of marketing. This project shows the business owners’ talents and helps others see them. It also allows people to hear and learn more about the entrepreneurs and their businesses.

I learned how important presentation is, both for promoting the entrepreneurships through the website, and for the entrepreneurs’ products. Presentation skills in particular are useful for anyone, whether starting your own business or working for someone else. Hopefully this website inspires people and makes people want to share their talents with others.

Website Link: https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/myaflemingseniorcapstoneprojec/five-entrepreneurial-brands-to-try-in-philadelphia-2022

Annotated Bibliography Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JchDxFZ0IDCcxF0tP3-fkAXNU-B2tA9NwgF-GclgnQM/edit

Presentation Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1obsXVYNWnsHA8yQKrd5LigRF_iPTDT1OXh0ZUJwe1d0/edit#slide=id.p

My capstone project focuses on society and experiences on gender inequality in the automotive industry. During this process I read articles, watched videos, and interviewed people to further my knowledge and understanding of the automotive job and society’s views. I learned how to do basic car repairs like changing the oil, changing the windshield wipers, and changing a tire. Unfortunately the girls auto clinic in Upper Darby was unavailable for an interview, so I was only able to have an interview with my mentor on his experiences. While Steven, my mentor, is not someone who would’ve felt that oppression he has a behind the scenes experience of “garage talk” and stereotypes that have been said that he’s witnessed. I decided a video representation would be better because it could be educational and a fun thing to view. Just photos of a car fixed wouldn’t do my project justice because I wanted people to really think about where the prejudice from society comes from.