Trying to be original without repeating “For my capstone” or “This year…” is extremely difficult so i’ll let this serve as my introductory sentence in hopes that it might provide some type of variety for the students, staff and human beings on this blog today. One could say, my capstone, encompassed a plethora of topics and enterprises including, early child development, constructive community development, peer/ teacher mentoring and mindfulness skills and practices. Although, this list of subject matters may appear scattered and somewhat unrelated, it was my job during the time spent on my capstone to use all of these skills/tactics to guide and mentor students ranging anywhere from kindergarten to fifth grade.

The locale of my capstone activities took place at “The Common Place”, located on 58th and chester. Here, they provide empowering, enjoyable and impacting after school programs such as anger management, art therapy and general homework help and horse play. The purpose of these programs is to serve as a positive and productive outlet for children that, otherwise, may not be lucky enough to have. Although, to the kids, i may only be remembered as a double dutch champion but during the time not spent skipping, I worked hard on creating programs of my own to help them utilize some skills they may need in order to become more productive and effective adolescents and adults. My two largest projects during this time were the diary card and the hip-hop music therapy program.

The diary card was a mindfulness tool that the kids were to take home weekly. It’s function was to afford a more observant and advantageous way of expressing emotions and events that happened to them throughout the week. A list of mindfulness skills and stress tolerance practices were also included on the bottom of each sheet as a reference and reminder of more productive emotion regulation techniques. I also helped my super in the crafting of a hip-hop after school program that incorporated music therapy techniques. It did this by allowing the children to express themselves both lyrically, and rhythmically using music as an emotional and creative outlet making both of these projects an asset in the betterment of the kids emotional intelligence.

All in all, my time spent at The Common Place was anything but common, it was life changing, inspirational and everything else cliche. In truth, it was an amazing experience helping impact and guide these children’s lives and i'm excited to share my full experience in june. Thank you!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately the presentation/ visual aspect of this project is still underway. Due to privacy violations and possible confidentiality breaches parts of my visual are pending approval requests. You’re patience is appreciated! Thanks!

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13iZKa-KZiMxT8l2bHFUR-7lKirl38Q7-kYil9oe0uOM/edit?usp=sharing