I created a mini-course at Science Leadership Academy Middle School (SLAMS). Although I couldn’t do my exact idea, I used the space that I had. I wanted the kids to be as safe and happy as possible.

My original idea was to create a lacrosse sports clinic. It was supposed to teach kids how to play the sport but because of the limited space, it would have been difficult to play. I was given a small room similar to the size of a storage closet. So instead of teaching the sport, we talked about how to stay “fit”. Staying fit means a lot of things. We did stretches, exercises, and learned how to eat right.

Over the 8-week long program, we alternated between legs and arms every week. When we worked on legs, we played games like The Fox vs The Squirrel, it’s similar to tag but there’s a fox that is trying to get the squirrel, and The Great Wind Blows, a mixture of musical chairs and show-and-tell. It keeps their legs moving. For arms, we played a lot of hand games. I taught them how to play Numbers and have competitions on which group can go the longest. Along with that after the mini-workout, I gave the kids a snack as a healthy reward. Some snacks we shared were fruit and trail mix.

SLAMS would usually have a performance for their last day of mini-courses, but it was canceled because not all of the classes were ready. Instead, we passed around a basketball outside. This was a really amazing experience for me because I have a trail an error in trying to get the kids attention. I have to learn about what they liked in order for them to enjoy their mini-course. In the end, I felt like most of the kids enjoy these activities as well as learning about their bodies and health.

Here is the link to the original LAX form idea. I made it so the student can tell me a little bit about themselves. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1H6dkN7FanDkZrHm0iRVTa380f-GoUh8Uwm03h_oPHZE/prefill

My capstone was centered around the prevalence of a stigma along with general discomfort and misunderstandings surrounding the discussion of mental illness in the SLA community. To address this, I held a Mental Health Visibility and Education Day. For the educational aspect, I researched numerous disorders using the DSM-5 and created posters that provided simple definitions of each one. For the visibility aspect, I made pins and stickers that were color-coded to represent different illnesses and encouraged people to wear them on the day. The idea behind this visual identification was that mental illnesses are usually hard to see, but on that day, suffering people would feel less alone and others will see the reach of the illnesses. My ultimate goal, however, was to spark conversations about the topic. I believe that my capstone was successful. While I cannot definitively say that people are now more educated, I did see many kids stopping and looking at the posters, and there was a larger amount of participation in the Visibility Day than I anticipated, as I gave out 73 pins and more stickers. In fact, I had to stop halfway through the day and print more of the white stickers, which signified general support of the cause. Most importantly, I witnessed and took part in several conversations about mental health that I normally do not see happening.

Posters: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sICQrBXYCY35o0QVPHxMCVKSelCG25bf?usp=sharing

Bibliography:

For my capstone, I wrote and directed my own play. I wanted to perform my own play because I wanted to demonstrate my own vision and ideas, rather than take another play and attempt to replicate someone else’s idea in my own style.

Over the winter break, I just let myself write. Before I knew it, what started as one scene about a boy getting dressed turned into a story about events that took place in my life with jokes brought in that highlighted this story of a boy wanting to tell his mother the truth.  After a hefty amount of edits from close friends and mentors, I was finally ready to get people to audition.

With just enough people coming to auditions and enough stage crew members, I had put together a team. Every Monday and Thursday after advisory, we would practice simple acting techniques and scenes from the play for about two hours. This would go on for two months. It was more challenging than I expected to get people to simply walk and talk on stage. It wasn’t until the final practice, the day before the play, that I had realized how far we had come as a group and how much work we had put in.

On March 22, we performed “A Year to Remember” during X-band lunch only expecting twenty audience members and actually had triple the expected amount. I left the drama studio with a handful of flowers and this warm feeling that took over my entire body. My capstone allowed me to display a story that I believe SLA will never forget and that I can be proud of.

Link to bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bDNL68hIhcunZMIIHU-z9vFFQIS7bk2Nczs73mrViUY/edit