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In my first post and in my second post we talked about what I would like to call the Social Decline. The “ Social Decline” is basically in my view all the negative effects of technology and how we are oblivious to the changes that are happening. Other the the overall idea of my You & The World project, we went into details of a list of things that affect us as teens negatively varying from, sleep deprivation, addiction, and self consciousness. So far we did some research and then we wrote a essay on it along with pictures and caption. Then a month later I furthered my research in social media, and ironically we used social media to at first record interviews of teens and there phone usage but we weren't getting to the point or coming up with the solution that we needed. That is when I created a ten question survey that I asked people to fill out in the span of 2 days we came up with enough answers to sort of weigh it out and come up with a final product.

Another terrible effect of social media to add to this list is the most important is cyber bullying. It is sad to say , but it has become so common in the average teens daily life. In many ways social media relates to cyber bullying a website  stopbullying.gov says “Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content.”.  With all that said cyber bullying can happen anywhere anytime where there is an online device in reach. The topic is very aminstrema but for reasons of trying to move forward and get rid of the cyber bullying.

Moving on with this project we were assigned to make change, which is smart because what is the point of the research if you can’t apply it to the world and do something about it rather then speak about it. So it honestly took me a while for me to get the wheels moving, but eventually I came up with a simple idea that can make change in a way. I decided to present the issue and I was going to originally present a solution but I gave the audience the choice t be able to decide what they were going to do after they learned some new information about how social media can affect you negatively. Before all of that I got another thing or affect to share. And then I started to make a short and simple slideshow with little bullet points( so they can focus on me rather then the powerpoint).

(Shown Below is my Attempt on making a change)

In conclusion to my attempt on change, I found the experience to be very satisfying. When I say satisfying I mean it in the way that you feel good when you make a change. I feel like I could;have planned a little better but it wouldn’t be game changing. This project overall was a good experience even if the process was not as smooth the end result is a positive one. I personally learned a lot about myself  and that I am highly involved in social media and how I need to make a change in myself as well as other people.

Abstract

For a long time now, maybe since middle school, I have always taken an interest in SEPTA and public transit in general, but especially public transit in Philadelphia. It is for this that I chose to do my project on the concept of establishing another SEPTA line, similar to the Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines that already exist here in Philadelphia.

Since about 7th or 8th grade thereabouts, I have taken an interest in the concept of public transportation, for various reasons. From the various ways in which it can make for so much more efficiency, to how it moves through cities  and what parts of the cities, to the various different types of it, there is really a lot more to it than we think about. We take for granted a lot of these systems. People don’t know, or really think about this for that matter, but there is a lot to deal with, and a lot of planning and maintenance that goes into these “major arteries and veins” of sorts.

For my project, I came up with and designed a fictional SEPTA metro rail line that would connect some of the major inner suburbs, such as Upper Darby, to South Philadelphia and Penn’s Landing and the Delaware waterfront of Center City. The line was created with the goal of connecting areas that are not well connected at all by the current public transit system. These newly connected areas, of course, include rather important locations, notably the stadiums. This line is the Suburban Hook Line.

The Line follows a “hook” shape, giving it its name. Looking at the map, the line has three services. The First one is the local, which stops at every stop between Upper Darby and the Stadiums. The Second, is the express which stops at a few stops between Upper Darby and the Stadiums. The third is the Penn’s Landing Special, which stops at a few stops between UD and the Stadiums and then goes local to Penn’s Landing. I had decided that this would be the best schematic when creating this. To determine all of this, I did a lot of research. I did research on where the tracks would be, what kind of vehicle would be best, and how the system could run the best.

For what I learned, well, I’m really not quite sure what to say. I learned about old train right-of-ways that I did not previously know existed. When I went in to this though, I already kind of knew a lot of this stuff. I suppose you could say I learned more about certain transportation connections and suburban areas that I previously did not know much about. I also learned about a few new SEPTA plans and projects, including the “Direct” BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) Line.

I am honestly, as of now, not sure what the future holds for this idea. I may drop it due to coming up with an even more efficient improvement on it. Or, I may go big with it and one day take it to SEPTA as a legitimate proposal, who knows. Where I stand now though, I am not sure what I am going to do in the future with this idea, but I will likely still hold onto it.

file:///home/chronos/u-118b8822b40d051c00c2f7d9b2b7a1df51402a4e/Downloads/Suburban-Hook-Line-Infographic-.pdf

Bibliography/Sources can be found here.

Baseball has always been a big part of my life, so I wanted my capstone to have something to do with baseball. After some thinking I decided to have a youth baseball clinic to try to give the new young players things to work on to make them better players. I organized it so I could have a younger group which consisted of kids from grades 3-5 and an older group which consisted of kids from grades 6-8. After deciding what my capstone would be and who it would be open to, there was a long process that followed so my capstone would be complete.

First, I had to find a spot to hold my event. My old baseball coach has an indoor baseball facility so I felt like that would be the best place to have it. To let people know about my capstone I had to do some advertising. I thought it would be best for me to make a flyer and pass it out to various teams and parents. I did some research and found out when teams would be practicing and where. After I gathered this information I went around to these practices and gave my flyer to team coaches and parents and I explained what my event would consist of. I also had people myself included post about the event on social media. After the advertising aspect of my capstone was complete, the organizing part had to start. I had to design what I would be doing in my event. I did some research and found some good drills for youth players and I found a way to incorporate them into my event. I realized that with all the things I would be doing it would be a lot for one person to handle. So I asked some of my friends who play baseball to help me run the event. I continued to advertise for my event until the week before I held it. After all of that the only thing that I had to do was hold my event.

Capstone Annotated Bibliography

“5 Tips For Running A Great Baseball Camp.” Baseball Brains, 21 Nov. 2016, www.baseballbrains.net/5-tips-for-running-a-great-baseball-camp/.

This source could be very helpful for the organization part of my clinic. It basically tells you the steps to follow to hold  successful baseball clinic or event. Some of the things it told me to do was get plenty of people committed to help you during your event, do not over price it, reach out to baseball organizations in your area to promote the event, plan out every part of your event and know how much time you have. I find that this source is reliable because the organization that wrote this article holds baseball clinics of their own.

“10 great hitting tips for youth baseball players.” Youth1, 13 Mar. 2017, youth1.com/baseball/1144317823-10-great-hittingtips-youth-baseball-players#.

This sources provides information on hitting. Hitting is going to be one of the focus points in my baseball clinic so this source can be very useful. I could teach the player everything I know on hitting and give them some tips from this source. This source can also tell me what to look for in a hitter swing. Any small cretics can be crucial in a hitters swing. Hitting a baseball in one of the hardest things to do in sports so with any tips and drills will be very useful for a hitter.

Aacap. Children And Sports, www.aacap.org/aacap/families_and_youth/facts_for_families/Facts_for_Families_Pages/Children_And_Sports_61.aspx.

This source focuses on all the positive things that children gain from playing sports. I choose this source because it provides information that relates to my capstone and I would like to learn as much as I can about the positive and negative effect that sports has on children just to get a better understanding of my topic. This source also talks about how the parents have to be involved with their child’s sports career. A parent or parents plays a very important role in their child’s development in sports

“Defensive Linup Strategies For Youth Baseball.” PRO TIPS by DICK'S Sporting Goods, 11 May 2017, protips.dickssportinggoods.com/sports-and-activities/baseball/defensive-lineup-strategies-for-youth-baseball.

I found this source very useful because it talks about what to look for in a player to fill each position in the field and where to put them in the batting lineup. This can help me point out things in players that I see and I could give them advice on where I think they would fit best on a baseball field. This source focuses on the defensive end of baseball. My clinic is going to be mostly on fielding and hitting so this source will come in handy.

Miner, Julianna W. “Why 70 percent of kids quit sports by age 13.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 June 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2016/06/01/why-70-percent-of-kids-quit-sports-by-age-13/?utm_term=.a369c1641bd3.

This source talks about why kids usually quit sports by the time they are a teenager. I choose this source because the things that this article says are the things I should try to avoid. According to this source one of the main reasons kids quit sports is because it is not fun because it is not designed to be. With that being said I want to try to make my clinic serious but also have fun parts. I think this will be a very good learning experience for the kids and also for myself.

“Nutrition tips for youth baseball players, families.” Triple Crown Sports News, www.triplecrownsportsmedia.com/nutrition-tips-for-youth-baseball-players-families/.

This source will be useful because it will help me with the teaching aspect of my baseball clinic. This source focuses on the nutrition of youth athletes. This could also be a learning experience for me. Teaching the young players about nutrition, drills, fitness, and the mental aspect of the game could also help me and the way I play. I could use some of the things I teach to improve my game.

GraphX, http://coyote6.com Coyote6. “One Reason So Many Youth Baseball Players Are Injured.” Baseball Think Tank, 22 Sept. 2017, baseballthinktank.com/one-reason-so-many-youth-baseball-players-are-injured.

I selected this source because this source talks about how most youth players get injured. It also talks about how to prevent injuries for youth players. I think this source will be useful because not only do I want to run drills and help kids with their baseball skills but I also want to teach them new things and how to take care of their bodies and stay healthy. I want to teach them certain stretches for the parts of the body that baseball stresses the most. This source provides very quality information on how youth athletes get hurt and how to prevent injuries.

“Preseason Training for Youth Baseball Players : Strength & Conditioning Journal.” LWW, journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Fulltext/2013/06000/Preseason_Training_for_Youth_Baseball_Players.9.aspx.

This source provides me with a scheduled training routine that would be helpful for youth baseball players. The workouts that are provided focus on one specific body part or muscle group related to baseball each day. For example you train your rotator cuff on monday, then on tuesday you train your legs. This source also provide you with some drills you could do to get your arms stronger so you can throw harder. These all are things that I could use or mention in the baseball clinic that I will hold. I found this source very helpful because it really relates to what I would be teaching.

Thomas, Jessica L. Youth sport programs: an avenue to foster positive youth development. areas.fmh.utl.pt/~arosado/Repositorio/ficheiros/LONGTERM/Ref11.pdf.

This source provides information about the positive and negative effects of sports on the youth. With my capstone revolving around kids and sports I thought it would be a good thing for me to read about what kids turn to and what pushes them away about sports. I found it very useful how the author of this article went into detail on the positives and negatives that kids encounter while playing sports. To be specific they mentioned Emotional psychological development, social development, adult influences, program design, intellectual development, and many more factors.

TroskyBaseball247. “TroskyBaseball247.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/user/TroskyBaseball247/videos.

For my capstone this source could be very useful. It is a youtube channel named “TroskyBaseball247.” The channel is run by coach Nate Trosky who is a baseball instructor. The channel consist of a lot of baseball drills and workouts that I could use in the clinic that I will hold for my capstone. This doesn’t only help me by providing me with things that I can use in my clinic but it also helps me on how to present and explain those drills and only things to the player that will participating in my baseball clinic

For my Capstone project, I decided to write a short album. I tried to write one song each month which tied into my experience throughout senior year and my High School experience in general. It was fun to work on, and I’m proud of the final product.

I wrote a whole bunch of music, but, as time went on, I tried to slim it down to the seven songs I felt were best suited to the project. I spent a lot of time writing, bits and pieces here and there, and towards the end I started to flesh out a lot of the parts I had written, and trimming many bits I didn’t think made sense. I spent a lot of time recording it through the equipment I have at home in GarageBand. It took a while, but I feel like the recordings themselves turned out well.

The songs are on a broad range of topics, from my experiences throughout my time at SLA, both in school and out, people I’ve met, things I’ve learned, and more. For better or worse, I’ve tried to condense my time here as much as possible.

I’ve posted the music online publicly, and I’m attaching a link to this post. Check it out if you want to.

The topic of my senior capstone project is Puerto Rico. I am Puerto Rican so this was a way for me to take advantage of learning more about my homeland. By doing this project I hope to learn more about my lineage. This project will helped me improve my research skills, and by the end of this project, I hope to learned a lot. I got to interview and meet a lot of people, one of which was a hairstylist who upon arrival to Puerto Rico, after the Hurricane Maria, found out her father had passed - in which she is pictured. I learned about the culture and the highly catholic population, in which people always had faith in unity. For this project I created multiple art pieces 5 of my favorite are attached, each corresponding stories for art piece for each piece created, creating a double portfolio. During this project I collaborated with clubs in Science Leadership Academy (SLA) to coordinate, drives for Puerto Rico, as well as doing some on my own in collaboration with the first Spanish Baptist Church of Philadelphia,  during the hurricane recovery after hurricane season. I also, used Latino club as an outlet to interview students. The people of Puerto Rico were beyond grateful for things such as canned food, and paper towel. In some places, people didn’t have water and food for weeks and were left to eat dogs and cats. I have gained a new appreciation for Puerto Rico as a whole, their unity inspired me beyond words.

Works Cited

Santiago, Roberto, editor. “Boricuas: Influential Writings - An Anthology” . First ed., 'A One World Book' by The Ballantine Publishing Group, September 1995. Print.

This anthology of puerto rican writing helped me put into perspective what I wanted to exemplify in part of my capstone. Taking different writings and then having an artist create a small art piece was one of the key component of something, that I did in a similar manner with taking interviews and stories and turning them into art pieces. Also, the anthology of writings gave me an idea to do an anthology of art along with my personal gallery inspired from gallery

Silva, Daniella. "Trump Defends Throwing Paper Towels to Hurricane Survivors in Puerto Rico." NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, 08 Oct. 2017. Web. 27 Jan. 2018.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-defends-throwing-paper-towels-hurricane-survivors-puerto-rico-n808861

I know that usually the news isn’t the best source of information, but for my project I also wanted to portray how current events are affecting puerto rico and how politicians think of or respect Puerto Rico. This puts into perspective a different lense than what I would normally see, and gave me another idea for an art  piece. (j.b.)

Benítez, Marimar. “Neurotic Imperatives: Contemporary Art from Puerto Rico.” Art Journal, vol. 57, no. 4, 1998, pp. 75–85. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/777929.

 Looking at contemporary art gives a new style of art for me to explore. This displays very boxy picasso like inspired art pieces with a traditional spin, as well as art work that was composed of many lines.

FELICIANO, HÉCTOR, and Francisca González Arias. “The Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, or, the Reconstitution of a History of Art.” Remix: Changing Conversations in Museums of the Americas, edited by Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2016, pp. 34–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt19rmbt3.10.

Viewing a historical standpoint this is very important because its about the first museum dedicated to Puerto Rico.  The subject with-in itself opens the world up to history that was kind of left behind for a while. I think this museum is something to consider because what happens to the Puerto Rican artist, work today and it leads me to asking myself how to make sure people will have access to art made today, tomorrow?

Ward, Sarah Laleman. “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Story of the Hunter College Collection of Puerto Rican Graphic Arts.” Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, vol. 34, no. 2, 2015, pp. 204–222. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/683381.

Including around 150 art pieces between 1954 and 1985, This book gives me a really good view of art development and changes and techniques. It even helped me view the changing architecture through art, which looked very similar to that of what my Great grandmother illustrates of la Isla.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703797003359

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vyQDYqz2kFsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=puerto+rico+art&ots=A0LSrhq9t4&sig=hLtCaJzq9IAK0yiTPYCaZlRP9JY#v=onepage&q=puerto%20rico%20art&f=false

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0094582X9802500308#articleCitationDownloadContainer

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/24/americas/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-aftermath/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/12/29/power-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-pkg-santiago-erin.cnn

Capstone

When I started my capstone, I had a vision to engage kids from my area in STEM. By the end of the project, I hoped to gain a deeper understanding of how to work with younger kids. I also hoped to refine my coding and engineering skills. Overall,  my most important goal was to actually inspire the kids to pursue engineering when they get to highschool and college. These goals were appropriate for me because I have been involved with engineering every year at SLA. Personally, growing up in a school lacking in resources and with a weak STEM curriculum, I was not exposed to any substantive science, technology, engineering, or math projects until high school. I have had the privilege of attending a immersive, project-based high school. This is a privilege that unfortunately many kids hailing from my socioeconomic background do not have. Partnering with the West Philadelphia Community Center, in addition to my debate mentoring program, I explored several STEM related topics with a group of black children over 5 sessions.  During these sessions, I gauged their interest about circuitry, NXTs, and Arduino to design an event that is an appendage of my capstone. This event will be open to disenfranchised youth across Philly and will be funded by Braskem. I felt that I could not just cap my capstone at the five sessions because I have the capacity to do more given my funding. I will also be designing a website that will include all of the STEM programs I have participated during my high school career, to keep the kids engaged even after the two hour event is over. I will launch the website during the event to solidify the kids’ interest in STEM and ensure they will continue to pursuit STEM programs afterwards. I am so happy to have had this experience because I met a group of talented, underprivileged kids who taught me more about myself than I could have ever anticipated. The sessions became more about STEM and we had discussions about issues affecting black inner city youth as well. I really feel like I planted a seed of curiosity in their lives, but also acted as a big sister/mentor to these kids.

Bibliography:

Williams, Joseph J. “Bringing STEM Education to Underserved Communities.” US News, www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2014/05/29/bringing-stem-education-to-underserved-communities.

This source is effective in providing a basis for the impact of my capstone. My ultimate goal for my capstone is to create change within my community by exposing sixth and seventh graders to engineering. I think this will come in handy when I am articulating my pitch for Braskem funding. It specifically details a non-profit organization’s journey of bringing STEM to less affluent communities. Although my capstone is not a non-profit, I can still gain insight on why there is such a need for a capstone like mine. It will educate me so that I will be able to inform others on why I am doing my capstone, not with emotion, but with empirical data that highlights the lack of representation in the STEM field.

Camera, Lauren. “Low Income Students Nowhere to Be Found in Stem.” US News, www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2017-05-25/low-income-students-nowhere-to-be-found-in-stem.

This source is effective in providing a basis for the inquiry aspect of my capstone. When brainstorming ideas for Capstones, I knew I wanted to created change within my local community by using something I learned in high school.Before SLA, my knowledge of engineering was very minute because the science department at my local neighborhood school was terrible. I knew that I had to do my part somehow in exposing younger underrepresented kids in southwest to engineering before they apply for high schools, in hopes that they apply to SLA or schools offering similliar engineering programs. Over the years, I have learned that programs that preach about career opportunities do not really engage and inspire young children.  This article corroborates the fact that programs that allow low income students to work with circuitry and robots are the ones that actually plant a seed of interest.

“STEM Education: Helping a Generation of At-Risk Youth.” Evōk Advertising, 6 Oct. 2017, www.evokad.com/insights/stem-education-at-risk-students/.

This source will be effective in articulating the impact of my capstone when I am pitching for funding from Braskem. Exposure to engineering can inspire at-risk teens to focus on their academics and dissuade them from engaging in high risk behaviors and succumbing to peer pressure. This is the larger goal of my project, A lot of the time, low income, teens of color feel trapped in their situation. They do not see any form of social mobility in their neighborhood so they are often discouraged when it comes to school and their future. I want to solidify that confidence in them and make them realize all that they are capable of through these workshops.

Porterfield, Ph.D. Daniel R. “Bringing Low-Income Students Into STEM Education.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 31 May 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/dporterfield/2014/04/03/bringing-low-income-students-into-stem-education/#43b895963ae8.

This source outlines an initiative that already exist that is helping to enroll low income students into the top schools for engineering.I will use this source to justify why there needs to be intervention at a much earlier stage.  I want the kids in my program to become involved in various engineering programs during high school because engineering will expose them to a plethora of opportunities. Just by being involved with SLA’s robotics team, I have had access to scholarship, extracurricular, and mentorship opportunities. Being involved with engineering could even inspire the kids in my college to seriously pursue a college degree when they are older.

Wilson, Donald, and Marcus Conyers. “The Teenage Brain Is Wired to Learn-So Make Sure Your Students Know It.” Edutopia, 8 Nov. 2016, www.edutopia.org/article/teenage-brain-is-wired-to-learn-donna-wilson-marcus-conyers.

This source delves into the science of neuroplasticity and the teenage brain. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to expand. Neuroplasticity occurs during normal brain development when the immature brain first begins to process sensory information through adulthood.  This is important to teens because you can train your brain to study better and instill a growth mindset in your brain while you’re young. Neuroplasticity is especially high among teenagers, whose synapses are proliferating by the second. Teenagers are very impressionable due to this reason. I will utilize this source to corroborate why i chose sixth and seventh graders for my target audience. Their brains are developing and new information makes a resounding impact on them. I know that if I can get these kids to attend two or three workshops, the experience will stick with them for a long time.

“Article: How Do Electric Circuits Work? .” How Do Electric Circuits Work? | Discovery Kids, discoverykids.com/articles/how-do-electric-circuits-work/.

I will utilize this source to give a basic description of circuits so that they can understand it on a basic level.

Soclof, Sidney. “How Circuits Work.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 21 Jan. 2008, science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/circuit.htm.

This source will help me create the curriculum for the workshops. It is informative and thoroughly explains how circuits work. I will refer to this article when I am trying to communicate what circuitry is and the components circuits entail.

“{{PageGeneralData.HeaderMainText}} {{ContextHeader}}.” Help 2 - Help 2 - Help 2 - Help 2 - Help Topics - Service LEGO.com, www.lego.com/en-us/service/help/products/themes-sets/lego-education/lego-mindstorms-nxt-software-downloads-408100000007850.

This source will also help me create the curriculum for the workshops. It is informative and is a library for the NXT software. Lego Mindstorms are very helpful  for understanding the logic behind engineering and coding. I initially wanted to frame my workshops on my summer internship working with Arduinos. Upon talking to my in school mentor, I realized that coding from scratch would be a hard feat for middle school students. Working with circuits and NXTs will inspire the kids to think about engineering in a building-block kind of way. Once they learn these rudimentary skills, developing raw coding skills in the future will be much easier for them.

Cawley, Christian. “DIY 10 Jaw-Dropping Lego Mindstorms Projects.” Make Use Of, 7 Sept. 2016, www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-jaw-dropping-lego-mindstorms-projects/.

I will utilize this source to introduce the kids to really cool lego mindstorm projects. I want them to get interested before I officially begin my presentations and demos. It would be really bad if they were bored while I am trying to spark their interest. I plan to show them the videos to get them hooked and then move onto some hands-on activities.

Fronderville, Tristan De. “How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class.” Edutopia, 3 Aug. 2009, www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips.

This source explains how educators can keep the attention of the students they are teaching. This will be useful for me because I will be directly interacting with younger children and I do not have too much experience with this. The only experience I have working with little kids is tutoring them in basic algebra concepts. This did not require too much creativity, especially since their parents were making them come. My workshops will be voluntary so I need to make sure that they are interesting so that people actually come. I found some helpful tips such as starting class with a warm up using movement to keeps kids focused. I will incorporate these tools into my teaching.

Capital gains is a miniscule part of federal revenue, it is about rewarding or punishing different economic behaviors for rich people

They change how rich people use their money,

Encourages rich people to invest wisely

Eliminate capital gains tax to encourage rich people to make smart choices

Bibliography:

"College Now | Leaders in College Access & Completion." College Now Greater Cleveland. Accessed January 24, 2018. https://www.collegenowgc.org/leaders-in-college-access-completion/.

This is a successful peer college mentoring program that is established in Cleveland, Ohio. I wasn't sure how effective of a source this would be for me at first but then I realized that it is really effective. It shows how to really run an effective program, and gives data on their success rates running this program

Chajet, Lori. "“We’re All in It Together”: the Role of Youth Leadership in College Access ." The Role of Youth Leadership in College Access . Accessed January 24, 2018. http://caranyc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/VUE30_Chajet.pdf.

"Preliminary data, conducted as part of an internal program evaluation, suggest that the SSCs are increasing the numbers of students engaging in and completing the college process: in 2009-2010, more than 70 percent of seniors at two of the sites applied to six or more colleges (there are no data yet on the third site)" This is interesting that with the implementation of this program for New York students by this school teacher the amount of applications to college went up as well as the amount of students that are even engaging in the college process that just goes to show that program implementation like these help kids out with the process.

CONSORTIUM ON CHICAGO SCHOOL RESEARCH. "From High School to the Future: Potholes on the Road to College." March 2008. Accessed January 25, 2018. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED500519.pdf.

The University of Chicago did a research on the life of a high school student and the many bumps on the road that they encounter throughout their high school career and gearing up for the college application process. This is a really great insight into seeing what resources people applying to college will need, and allows me to see how the process is different for people that aren't me or from SLA.

For my capstone, I decided to work with holograms, as a hologram is something that interests me, and holograms involve different kinds of engineering that I am not very familiar with, electrical engineering and coding.

In my final product, there is a port which takes the input from a laptop, process it through an Arduino Nano, then display it on a TFT LCD screen. Then the information displayed on the LCD screen reflect onto a mirror, then to a piece of translucent acrylic glass. The whole thing is connected to a pair of glasses frame, and the wearer can read information from the acrylic glass through their right eyes.

My capstone did not end up exactly where I wanted it to be, I was imagining something better, but I did not have the skills to do that yet. I do plan to continue working on it throughout college. Since it did not turn out to be as good or as small as I wanted it to be, I decided to have some fun in the end, and I made the case very spiky, and I named my final product “Spiky”.

In the end, not only did I learned electrical engineering and coding, I also had a lot of fun and learned things about myself.

For my capstone, I have reopened the SLA library. We had a soft opening on Thursday, and plan to be fully reopened on Monday. All of the prelabeled books have been restored and reorganized according to traditional library standards. This took longer than I had hoped, I wanted to be open by the new year. Unfortunately, because there are often events and meetings hosted in the space, I could not have proper time in the library in order to move this process along speedily. I also had a lot of hard workers (Thank you Pablo Salvatierra, Matthew Yemola, Harrison Wellner, Zoe Chernowski, Claire Byrnes and CJ Irwin-Diehl) to help me move the hundreds of books into a system that made sense. I hope to be able to hire my interns soon, and begin to discuss the move to Ben Franklin!

“15 Interesting JavaScript and CSS Libraries for April 2017.” Tutorialzine, tutorialzine.com/2017/04/15-interesting-javascript-and-css-libraries-for-april-2017.

This is a really interesting source about different library programs that could be used to code a library system. I am not familiar with computer code, but most of the programs come precoded and you can make adjustments to the code if you like. These would be interesting model to follow in the future, if the new head of the library after me is interested in computer sciences and could program their own library system as a capstone. I do not have the knowledge, but it is still good to have these programs in my head in case I decide to choose one of them, and know that I do have the power to arrange the system as I please.

Baird, Nicola. Setting up and running a school library. Peace Corps, Information Collection and Exchange, 2012, files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED536911.pdf.

This is a short book that gives step by step instructions on how to open a school library, which I have been following and found very helpful. This book was my inspiration for opening SLA’s library, if the Peace Corps can condense opening a library into 146 pages, I can do it in a school year. The book is written for teachers, but I believe a student could also take this advice to help open the library. On page 16 there is a list of steps a teacher should take generally to open the library, and I have been following the guidelines so far and have been successful in my plans to reopen the space.

Barile, Nancy. “Encouraging Students to Read: How to Get Your High Schoolers to Embrace Books.” Hey Teach!, 6 Dec. 2017, www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/encouraging-students-read-how-get-your-high-schoolers-embrace-books.   

This resource is just a small article concerning how to get teenagers interested in reading. My biggest worry with the library would be that I would do all of this hard work, and the community would not use it. I think that with the advice given in this article, I can help get more kids interested in reading, and be able to put the space to it’s best use possible. It’s important to me to not only get the space to be functional again, but to also give the space meaning. This is more of a classroom guide, but I also think it will help the library promote reading in a positive light.

“DestinyExpress.” DestinyExpress.com, www.destinyexpress.com/.

This is a general guide for pricing for most of the library equipment that I would need in order to get the electronic equipment. This is really important for my Braskem pitch in figuring out how much money I will need for all of the equipment, and what equipment I can already get within the school. This source was a really important step for me to figure out if my capstone was a financially viable option for me to do. This resource provided a general price range for scanners, barcode labels, and printers.

“Dewey® Services.” Dewey Services, www.oclc.org/en/dewey.html.

This source is where I can buy the physical copies of the complete Dewey Decimal classification and the online version. This would be a helpful resource to have in the library mostly for the people working there, but also for anyone very interested in the system. The web version is very helpful because it constantly updates and changes, with new revisions being added instantly. It would be really great to be able to shelve our books in the most correct way possible. The physical book would be a really great resource to have, but I would choose the web version if I could only have one.

“Follett | K-12 Education Technology, Products, Materials, & Services.” Follett | K-12 Education Technology, Products, Materials, & Services, www.follettlearning.com/.

This is the website for the creator of an app that could actually link the whole library system to everyone’s chromebook through an extension. I would allow all of the students to check the libraries inventory, status of books, and the status of their checkouts. This could also allow the incorporation of ebooks into the library, which is something that I hadn’t thought of, and would be a great option for the library in the future. This is also the system that the School District of Philadelphia uses for organizing all of the districts libraries into their own systems.  

John, Chad. TED-Ed, TED-Ed, ed.ted.com/lessons/what-s-the-fastest-way-to-alphabetize-your-bookshelf-chand-john.

This video presents a couple different organizational theories for libraries, and teaches the most efficient organization theory for alphabetizing, called Quicksort which could allow you to sort over 1,000 books in hours, compared to the days it would take others. This video is presented by TedEd, a nonprofit that believes in the spreading of knowledge. I found this source useful because it presents ways of organizing books that I had never thought of, and will save me a lot of time in the future, when all of the books will need to placed in their respective order and when I am returning books to their order.

“LibGuides: Library Organization and Classification Systems: Dewey Decimal Classification.” Dewey Decimal Classification - Library Organization and Classification Systems - LibGuides at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 26 June 2017, guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=439687&p=3091563.

This source is from the Illinois University and is an informational breakdown of three different types of official library organizational systems, such as the Dewey Decimal System, and the Library of Congress Classification. This source was really helpful in explaining the Dewey Decimal System, since that wasn’t taught in the classrooms. It also has a really great infographic that explains what all of the numbers on the labeling mean, which would not only help me, but educate other people on the importance of the system. The site also includes an extensive list of all the classes and subdivisions of the system, which is really helpful since I do not have all of the numbers memorized of the system.

FitzHenry, Sarah. “Fitz Between the Shelves Home.” ...Because libraries should be magic., fitzbetweentheshelves.com/.

This is a great blog recommended to me by Ms. Giknis. It’s a librarian who posts a lot about how she runs her library, and the events she hosts there. She’s a great person of contact should I ever need one, and she runs a great instagram page. This page is most of my influence for how I want to run the SLA instagram page for the library, and shows not only instagram organizational techniques, but library organizational systems and lists of books to include in the library. I really like the style of how Ms. Fitz-Henry organizes her library, and I hope to run the SLA library in a similar manner

Schroeder , Donna . “DDC 22 - Dewey Decimal Classification Edition 22 – Just ...” Kent State University Library, Ohio Library Council , Aug. 2003, www.bing.com/cr?IG=C79E4AE39A4E476BB80FED3A4B95899D&CID=0F8258BD5328611533D1533E52876070&rd=1&h=-IQISb6UubsB3iqo-hmCLZOf8QBMGXBBQO6FJ_OWtf0&v=1&r=https%3a%2f%2fwww.library.kent.edu%2ffiles%2fTechKNOW-July2003.pdf&p=DevEx,5064.

This source is an article written by the Ohio Library Council about the the Dewey Decimal Classification Volume 22, and what has changed since volume 21. This includes information about the newest changes to the Dewey Decimal System. I want to keep our non fiction section in it’s traditionally Dewey Decimal Organization, but all the new changes may prove this to be very hard. I think this source really brought to my attention that the Dewey Decimal system actually changes a lot, and is still a relevant and ever changing library subject.