For my capstone I wrote a business paper that outlines how to create a program that conducts research and activities in the subject it was built around. As for why I chose the project, I chose this project because for the past 4 years I have founded and built a program that focuses on doing research in the Astronomy field along with improving Astronomy education and STEM education in general. While I was creating and building the program from scratch, I had no guideline in how to build a program while creating my program, so for my capstone, my program advisors and I came to the agreement that I should write a guide to creating a program so that people aren’t building a program without guidance.

            My capstone addresses the core values in two different ways. The first way is was my process of building Project S.P.A.C.E (Scholastic Program for Astrophotography and Celestial Events) since during that process I went through Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation and Reflection numerous times to refine the program and bring to where it is today. The second way was the actual paper writing because while I wrote the paper I had to ask myself questions in the shoes of an outsider to identify what I actually did at the start of my process for Inquiry. For Research, I recalled my memories of actually creating the program and looked through documents I had written at the start of the program for resources we used. Collaboration was my capstone mentors helping me recall memories and identify steps I took that I missed. Presentation is the 25-page paper I put together at the end explaining how to create a program and Reflection was the constant refining I did with my peers to make the paper great.

            My process for the capstone was complex due to trying to recall precisely every step I took to create my program. The steps I took to complete the paper were Recall steps, Approach mentors about whether the steps recalled were accurate or there were some before it and then repeat this process until I had an outline for the steps so that all I had to do was to fill in information for each step. While I was recalling, my mentor Derrick Pitts had to point out some steps I missed because those steps seemed natural for me but he pointed out that they might not come naturally to others as they did to me. To overcome this, I went to Derrick when I completed the outline and went over what each step in the outline represented and meant which allowed him to point out steps I skipped over.

            A lot of the resources I used to complete my capstone were human resources like Derrick Pitts and my original founding members of the program. Although they made up most of my resources, they did not make up all of them. I also used the same resources I used when we first started to help me remember some of the tools I used to start researching in Astronomy. I also used notes and random writings on my computers to piece together memories completely.

            What I’m most proud of in this capstone is what others stand to gain from this paper. I’m most proud of that because I remember why I created my program: to improve education in Astronomy and STEM. This paper allows others to create programs similar to mine whether they have the same goals or not, it doesn’t matter because the programs are created to improve an aspect of a life. Whether that aspect is education, environment or a concept, I’m happy to know that my paper can help to improve things faster due to those innovators having a guideline to make creating a program easier for them than creating it from scratch. I learned a lot from my process because I reflected on everything the last 4 years related to my program. It’s helped me to see where I could do better and what I need to work on moving forward. One of those things to work on is notifying the program members far ahead of time since I’m still not doing well with that.

            If I could do this capstone over again the only thing I would change is getting more people to help me recollect the steps I took since although I got it done and wrote the paper, there are still pieces that come to me every once in a while that I wonder if I should of put into the paper. SLA is a better place because I was a student there because I created a student-led program at SLA that is soon going to become a national program. I remember hearing one of my superiors at The Franklin Institute telling me in a meeting this, “There are two things that came out of SLA that are no place else: Educon, the educational conference held and run by the school, and your program, Project S.P.A.C.E, the only student-led program to be created by a student for students that does research into a subject like Astronomy with minimal adult direction.” One of the biggest ways that I’ve made SLA a better place since I was a student there is that through running and building my program, I’ve created awesome new connections and opportunities for students at SLA whether its still being able to go to Wednesdays at the Franklin as freshmen or giving students more ILPs to do at TFI. Personally, I think I have done what Lehmann once told me which was, “You’ve ‘maximized’ your experience at SLA”. I truly believe I have since I don’t think I could answer how I could of made better use of the time I had at SLA. 

Nowadays there isn’t a central format for how to create a program at an institution or organization.  Many people start their own programs from scratch because they have no real guideline for how to start. The hope for this paper is to teach the reader how to create a program step-by-step. The process of creating one includes 6 steps that cover it all: Creating an Idea, Create a Team and Present your Idea, Research, Experiment, Cycle of Refinement, and Make it Accessible to Youth/Adult to Join. The results are you get a functioning youth or adult program out of using this detailed process. The other results are the accomplishments of the students in Project S.P.A.C.E. which is used as an example for the paper.

There has been a number of terrorists plots stopped thanks to the Patriot Act that most people don’t here about since if you look at the charts for violence in America compared to the other countries, America tops most charts for having the most violence.  There are many other examples since it helps the government keeps tabs on potential terrorists and even if its not many people that protects from being hurt, its still protecting people. If “lone wolves” are out there, America needs some way to make sure that they aren’t still working with the terrorist organizations outside the country to attack America and this is the most effective way since it allows the FBI to tap their phones so that they are in the loop. 

Although it is a breach of privacy, the need for tightened security after how a security breach on 9/11 turned into the most horrendous experience for Americans in its recent history shows how much we took our freedom and lifestyle for granted if it can be attacked that easily. In other words, you can say that giving up a some of your privacy should be okay if it can stop someone from turning in a terrorist and blowing up something, killing lots of people. 

            I conducted my research in many different ways. At first, I typed “Invasion of Kuwait” into google and got some sites but not many. Then I used DEVONagent, a research database browser, and did more in-depth research on the Invasion of Kuwait, the Allied forces taking back Kuwait and the sanctions that the UN put on Iraq. To get the modern day information, I talked to my brother who recently went to Afghanistan and knows about the conditions over there and in Iraq and used some emails we shared while he was over there.

            To select my project format for NHD I chose what category I’m best with which is site creation. I normally make sites for my projects so I decided to do another one.

            My project related to the NHD theme of Revolution, Reaction and Reform because the Invasion of Kuwait was the reaction to many actions that occurred between Kuwait and Iraq that made Saddam Hussein invade Kuwait. The Take back of Kuwait by the UN forces was the Revolution because the Kuwaitis revolted against Saddam along with 31 other countries to end the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. Finally, the Reform is the sanctions placed on Iraq after they were kicked out of Kuwait because to prevent the Iraqis from occupying another country, the UN placed economic sanctions that prevented Iraq from importing anything but essential needed to maintain life in Iraq into Iraq. 

• What is your refrán supposed to communicate? 
  I come from New Jersey and it was very boring there.
• What are you especially happy about with your first draft?
  I tried explaining that my house in New Jersey was boring
• What would you like to improve about your refrán first draft?
  Make it rhyme, I couldn't think of words and find some that rhymed
• What was difficult about writing your refrán? 
  Thinking of what to put in my refrán.

An example of how I am moving towards fulfilling my responsibility as an innovator is my Op-Ed. My Op-Ed is about the differences between Nuclear Fusion and Nuclear Fission and it was more of a science paper but there is a quote from it that shows I’m trying to improve the world. “Overall, the need for fusion is desperate, especially after what we have and are witnessing with the Fukushima Incident in Japan, with all that radiation from the nuclear fission in the reactors.”

Over the year, I realized that I can create incredible works and teach about what is needed and what is going on even though I’m not a specialist in any field. This is part of another understanding I came to learn, that Experts aren’t the only ones that can create great works of art in certain fields.

My benchmark for the second quarter was the religion benchmark I named “The Huge Psychological Deception. In it I explained how religion affects the world from a psychologist’s view instead of my view. Here is a quote I included in the article by Sigmund Fraud: "In the future of an illusion, the latent content behind religious conceptions remains associated with the 'father complex,' but here this is linked to the helplessness that elicits innate infantile desires for wish fulfillment." 

The final fact I came to learn is that collaboration is key to pro level work. Collaboration is what every person needs to do to create pro work, no matter how many times they need to peer edit, record as a group, or whatever is needed through collaboration. 

An example of this is the video of an edited scene from a book called Their Eyes Are Watching God in the Marxist lens and normal lens. It took us three days to produce it and we had to do many, many edits to the video.

To give a bigger message about what I learned this year, it would have to be that effort is what brings out the greatness in people and changes the world. I can envision truly changing the world in the future through science, the kind of change I want to make in the world. Specifically, Biomedical Engineering in space. 

Monologue 4:

(Takes place in Cheng’s Grandfather’s house)

(Grandpa is at the market with Grandma. He stops at the fruit store.)

(Says hello to the store clerk in Mandarin) 

Nǐ hǎo. 

(Walks around the store browsing the store’s collection of fruit and eventually goes up to the store clerk) 

How much do 3 of these jackfruit cost? 

66.05 Yuans, Are you crazy!?!?!?!?!

(Throws his hands up as if mad and pointing towards stuff and complaining) 

Thats a rip-off! The economy is poor I know that but that doesn’t mean you have to raise the cost 7 Yuan more!! 

(Looks away in disgust) 

Hmmmff! How much are 5 of the Dorian? 

98.92 Yuans!?

Are you crazy!? 

(Swings his cane around and causes the clerk to think Grandpa is going to hit him so he reaches under the desk and pulls out a shotgun which he loads and points at Grandpa)

(Grandpa looks at the clerk and then at the barrel of the shotgun and gets a frightened and mad face and voice) 

W-Why are you pointing a shotgun at me? 

What are you talking about? 

I was swinging my cane around in the air because I was angry but I wasn’t, am not, and will never hit you with my cane, I would get sued. 

(Grandpa tries to calm the clerk down and tries to convince him to lower the shotgun and puts his arms up as if trying to stop something from hitting him.) 

So would you be so kind as to lower the shotgun and I will pay for these fruits? 

(Calms down and speaks in a tired voice) 

Well I guess that isn’t that much of an increase since before it was 81 Yuans. 

But still this economy is killing the population and bleeding the civilians’ accounts dry. 

(Starts to try a barter. So move your hands in front of you as if trying to reason or explain something to a person) 

Are you absolutely sure you can’t lower the price on the fruit for me? 

(His face turns to a sad face due to the clerk not lowering the price on the fruit) 

Ugh, fine i’ll buy 2 Jackfruit and 3 Dorian. 

(Sighs) 

42.85 Yuan is such a rip-off but i’ll buy it for my grandkids. 

(In an angry and sarcastic voice) 

Have a nice day. 

(Walks out the door with Grandma)

The process for completing my project was brainstorming, outlining the content, writing sentences in spanish, peer-reviewing sentences, re-writing the sentences, gathering the pictures needed, putting them together into a book. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the book printed in time so attached is a pdf with all the pages in it.

I feel like I did very well on putting together the pictures into book in Aperture.

I would use my time better and finish it very early so that I could order the book and have it be in my hand on the day its due.

I learned how to describe what I want to be when I grow up, what i liked when i was younger, what i like now, what i will like in the future, what i don't like, what i didn't like in the past, what I will not like in the future, what Im doing after i graduate high school, and how to describe what i was like when i was young and currently.

Ready, split, swing, recover. Thats all that was going through my mind as I hit the ball as best I could and won each point. This was the day I surpassed my limits by about 200%. It was Canadian Doubles so it was like playing a brick wall on the other side of the court. Drop shot, overhead, volley, half-volley, swinging volley, every shot in my arsenal I used and still just barely won the point. 

I walked over to get two tennis balls and told myself, “Devoid of emotion, don’t let it stick”. Being devoid of my emotions allows me to concentrate better than anything else. Got ready to serve, decided this time to use the abbreviated stance for serving in hopes of surprising them. The abbreviated serving stance was a serving stance I only used if I needed to gain a lot of points in a short period of time since its the only stance that I can hit a kick serve with. Using it too much puts too much strain on my arm so its a sort of last resort shot. I bounce the ball 4 times, have the ball and racquet touch in front of me slowly separating and getting ready to throw the ball up. I release the ball and swing....it goes in the box and out to the left dragging him off the court and opening up the court if he is able to get it back.

He got it back but it is short so I approach the net and decided to use the two-one punch strategy so my approach shot goes straight back to him. The two-one strategy is a strategy in tennis normally used in singles but my doubles partner, Hefei, and I are able to use it in singles and doubles. What it is, is you hit the ball to one side, then if he returns it you hit it again to the same side and if he gets it back again you hit it straight down the middle in doubles or in singles to the other corner. So I hit it back to Andrew who I was able to pull off the court with my serve and perform the two-one punch perfectly, hitting his return back right down the middle too fast for his partner, Andrew G. at the net. 

It was 3-6 for the first set, 2-0 right now in the second set and I realized that the only way I could win is if I used all the strategies and shots in my arsenal. Since it was their serve now I decided to use the creeping split so I could use the return & volley tactic. The serve was a moderately fast ball and I approached after returning and put that ball away immediately. Next I decided to use a system Hefei and me created for doubles but adapted it quickly to singles and told myself 5 groundstrokes than approach as in a diagonal line. I did it and got the point.

Over the course of the set, I was gaining points at an incredible rate. It was now the third set and the score was tied 3-6, 6-0 now so we had three more sets to play out since it’s best 3 out of 5 sets. I was getting emotional again so I had to tell myself again: “Devoid of emotion, there is no velcro on me”. The only way I would get the next two sets straight was if I pulled myself together and focused less on the amount of power on the ball to get in and instead did what one of my coaches told me: “If you get nervous or can’t concentrate, focus only on your feet”. After I did that, games flew by quicker than a bird. After two more gruesome sets it was the middle of the last set and the score was 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, 5-7 with the score 6-6 in the last set. We had to keep playing until one side won by two games. It was my service game and I served kick serves, slice serves, flat serves, topspin serves, everything I had left in order to win the game and finally did. This was it I told myself: “This is it, don’t screw up or it’s 3 extra hours of Cha-Cha training.” I used all the splits and shots I had left in me until it was match point. I felt like I was going to collapse from the combination of the heat and the tiredness from the last 4 hours of playing. Andrew served, I came up to the net and started volleying back and forth with the net person when he hit a lob up over my head. The only shot I had left in me was a Reverse Contact Move. I got into position and hit it...It bounced in and....HE MISSED IT!!! I told myself: “Thank you, Lord” then ran up and shook their hands. 

The ending score was 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, 5-7, 8-6 and it was one hell of an intense match. I couldn’t believe I WON when I was literally out of energy. Cha-Cha came up and told me, “Why can’t you always play like that, man?” I said, “I don’t know Cha, but I do know I can’t be a champion, without you.” and began to laugh. That was the longest match I had ever played in my life; 4 hours and 15 minutes. The lesson learned that day was the only way to win is if I push myself past my limits like I do in Cha-Cha training

Key:

Ready Steps- a foot movement where you move your feet like a pendulum while your waiting for the ball to come.

Split Step- A foot movement where you jump into your foundation once your opponent makes contact with the ball so that you can get the ball quicker.

Recover- After hitting the ball you move back to the middle of the baseline

Topspin Serve-a serve that when landing into the box curves into the body

Kick Serve-a serve that when lands into the box curves out of the court and is used to drag you opponent off the court.

Flat Serve-a serve that is hit with pure power no spin and is normally used as a first serve.

Slice Serve-a serve that lands in the box short and curves into the court.

Drop Shot-a ball hit with so much topspin that once it goes over the net it literally drops in extremely short and is one of the hardest shots in tennis to get.

Half-Volley-a volley that is hit as the ball is just coming off the ground.

Lob-a ball hit high in order to force the person at the net to back away from the net in order to get it or in order to create time to recover.

Cha-Cha Training- My coach’s nickname is Cha-Cha and his training is more intense than any other coach I know’s training so I refer to his training as Cha-Cha Training or Military Training.

When it comes to Code-switching, I switch based on the situation and how old the person is that I’m talking to. There are times when I will talk polite to people, those people are normally older people, Organizations, Strangers, and people I admire. Here is a conversation between Mehdi Adineh and I: 

“Hey Mehdi,

Sorry for not getting back to you lately. I've been busy with different projects and tennis. I just wanted to tell you for the TFI Project I'm doing the image outputs are JPEG. The other project for engineering on Pattern Recognition with cancer in medical imaging, I haven't been able to find many things on it but I've been working with my school librarian to find sources both in the library and on some internet databases he knows of. I'm going to be going back to him this week a couple times to work on it. Also, my Advanced Engineering teacher extended the due date to in a couple weeks so once I get a rough draft done I'll email it to you and any sources I find I'll email you the link or name of the book/article/magazine so you can check it out and confirm if it is a good source to use. Thanks”

As I get closer and closer to a person whether its Derrick, Mehdi, or TFI Employees, I start to become less and less formal as we are becoming good friends. For Derrick Pitts, I’ve known him since March and we talk both formal and casual to each other. Here’s a conversation between him and I:

“Is there a certain time I should come to talk with the vice president about the adobe licenses? Or are you just going to talk to him? Thanks”

One thing that I always do in my emails is say “Thanks” at the end. It’s a habit I have and use all the time. What happened was Derrick asked me to do a project for him last year as my science fair and I continued it into this year and possibly next year so it is my ILP and I work with Alex, Jesús, and Allen who I recruited to help me last year. We need adobe lightroom licenses to advance in the project so I need 2 licenses for it and Derrick suggested meeting with the vice-president of the Franklin Institute to discuss buying the adobe licenses. Derrick decided to go meet with the vice president himself though. There are many other instances I have that show my Language identity around strangers but then that would be boring, now wouldn’t it?

Another time I code switch is at tennis, especially around friends. When it comes to my friends and coaches I hang out with and hit with all the time I speak informally, but when It comes the the Board of Directors at Ashe, the president of Ashe, and the employees I don’t know I speak formally. Here is a conversation between Kein and I: 

T:“Kein, don’t tell me your actually going to play while eating pizza?”

K:“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?”

T:“That’s true, you are Kein and you do have to teach a lesson.”

K:“That’s right and you have a long way to go to play while eating.”

T:“Oh well thats too bad since I’ve already eaten food while playing. I ate 2 soft pretzels while playing and a cookie another day. So ha.”

K:“Oh damn, Tyler’s bringing it on.”

This is what I remember from the conversation but the entire background behind it is I buy pizza for the coaches and me every Saturday I go to Ashe since I normally stay for the day and the coaches are like my second family to me. Kein is the silly, playful, and full-of-energy coach at Ashe, who likes to mess around with me. I remember one time during one of the tennis clinics, Kein ran out on court in a bunny suit and a humongous tennis racket (I’m serious, it was huge, it must have been at least the size of 5-6 tennis rackets put together) and he told the person I was rallying with to let him rally against me for a minute (with the humongous racket). It was one of the biggest fails I had ever seen in my life since I hit the ball once and I guess it was heavy for him so he couldn’t swing it as fast as with the racket he normally uses.

Another time I Code-switch is when I’m at school. I will speak informally to friends and some teachers, and formally to the other teachers and guests. I speak informally a lot to my advisor, Mr. Sanchez. Here’s a conversation between him and I:

Sanchez: “Hey, thanks for the update Tyler. I'm sure your teachers appreciate it, too.”

Me: “okay and are we playing ping pong after school today? I should be back from the art museum by the end of the school day.”

Right now its tied 3-3 in matches won between me and Mr. Sanchez. What I mean is Mr. Sanchez challenged me to ping pong (My nickname at SLA is King Ping) and we agreed that if I beat Mr. Sanchez 99 times before he beats me 99 times, then he will give all his classes A’s, but if he wins 99 times before I beat him 99 times, I have to do pushups till he says stop I think it was. I love ping pong and I’m called King Ping by classmates since I haven’t been beaten by any student at SLA. It really fun talking to Mr. Sanchez and playing him in ping pong since he continuously thinks he can beat me.

The last Code-switching I do is when I’m around family and people I love and admire. Depending on which cousin, uncle, aunt, and grandparent I’m talking to I change. When I am around my brother, Ellen, Grandpa Morales, Grandma Morales, Jen, and Cha Cha and others, I talk to them both formally and informally. Others I in my family I talk to either just informally or formally. The 4 people I love to talk to the most are Ellen, Grandpa Morales, Grandma Morales, and Cha Cha. Here is a conversation between Grandpa Morales and me:

Grandpa: “So Tyler, did you see the U.S. Open match between Nadal and Verdasco?”

Me: “Yeah that match was amazing and the intensity of their play was overwhelming.”

Grandpa: “You’re right, did you see the new guys play too?”

Me: “No I only saw the Nadal matches since whenever I turned to the US Open it was a Nadal match. Why are the new guys any good?”

Grandpa: Yeah, they are but not as good as Nadal. At least, not yet hahaha.”

This is one of my most favorite people on the planet for a lot of reasons. The major reason is because he is the person who inspired me and got me into tennis, which now makes up most of my life. Also because he gives me tips on tennis and who to watch, he is also the person who taught me how to hit drop shots. Its actually pretty funny because my grandpa plays regularly at a club and all his fellow tennis players called him the “Hermanator” since he always wins the point when he hits a drop shot, which is why he always wins. They used to tell people who got drop shotted by Grandpa, “You just got Hermanated”. He’s also the grandpa who is silly, fun to be around, and acts like a little kid, like me, even though he’s 86. When I’m with my grandpa, I usually speak both formally and informally because I admire him and am really close to him.

That is how I code-switch daily and why do I code-switch? I code-switch because it makes me feel comfortable around whoever I’m talking to so I don’t feel like I’m being mean or too nice. It’s also just something that I grew up with. Well, thats how I code-switch.