For my Capstone, I wrote a play to share with my community. Originally, I would have also put the play on had the school year not ended too soon. I wanted my senior project to be about something that I find joy in, but also challenged me. Theatre has always had a special place in my heart and is a passion I know I will have for a long time, leading my interest to a project in that field. I knew that putting on the play would be the easier and more enjoyable portion for myself, but writing a play from scratch would be the part of this project that challenged me the most. I wanted my project to be something that other students at SLA interested in theatre could be a part of and create together. Now, I hope my play can teach students about playwriting itself, or give them inspiration for a topic. In order to complete this Capstone, I did the most thinking without writing for a long time. I continued to go back and forth on my ideas, struggling to stick on one. However, after the huge amounts of brainstorming and doubting my own ideas, when I eventually landed on one I felt excited about, I began to write. After that, a large part of playwriting was receiving feedback from my peers to then revise and make it better. I am incredibly proud of myself for putting the work in and making something that I enjoy. Secondly, I am very proud that I so accurately captured the feel of the story I told.

Below is an excerpt of my play:

(Dimitri stands up, removes an inflatable couch from his backpack and shakes it until it’s inflated. While this is happening the rest of the counselors are having low murmured conversations, laughing, and lounging around. Also while this is happening Reese and Ella are close together and laughing.) (Dimitri sits down on the couch. Reese goes and sits beside him, while Ella follows behind. Everyone is still in their respective groups. The three of them sit on the couch, Ella and Reese remain looking at each other and sitting close together)

The question is “How to start a nonprofit?” Not just that but also know the information about what’s happening in Venezuela. These two main topics of inquiry are based on how to go forward with helping the Venezuelan community. As a native, I had the first-hand experience of what’s going on in Venezuela. So coming to the United States I investigated more the backbone of these issues causing a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. But as I got into the nonprofit world I saw the possibilities of helping not only in Venezuela but in other places around the world. It starts with establishing a mission, goals, and persistence for the nonprofit. I have the primary vision for my nonprofit while I have the research. Now, having done intensive research, many hours planning for fundraisers and networking, I’ve had a budgeting system that I will present to donors. This budget will present based on research for fundraising also evidence for the 990 forms. As for the changes in social distancing, I will be working on professional cards, websites for the non-profit, and merchandise to sell. Since 2018 I’ve been keeping records of fundraisers and the collection of ideas. Now in 2020, I’ve gathered much information about nonprofit development but also receipts of fundraising in school and other events. I’ve also been able to network in Rebel Venture’s Expo and also at an Enterprise. Maintaining a steady place to fundraise but also expand to different environments where I’ll be placing the La Luz De Aurora nonprofit flourish. I want to be able to have a better way to market and have a diverse taste of food in fundraisers.

For my capstone project I created a short series of videos about the college process. Working alongside Ms. Hirschfield, I chose three topics for three separate videos that she thought could be beneficial to future senior classes of SLA. Some of the guidelines we set for the videos were that they had to be short enough to keep people’s attention, but long enough to give a good amount of information. It was also important to me that I would be able to give the future seniors advice about the college process from the perspective of a current senior. The topics of the three videos I made are: using Naviance College SuperMatch, Applying for financial aid in college, and answering frequently asked questions about the college process. The process for making these videos was pretty consistent throughout. I first researched the topic of the video, and then used that information to form a script for each video. I then filmed and edited the videos and the final step was polishing them and uploading the videos to my YouTube channel. I am very proud of the final results of my project. I think that I was able to create something that can be used to help guide future seniors through the very stressful process of applying to college.

Here is the link to a document with the links to all three videos: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b_AKSCrVqBB3VWEs1LbUsAXiP5-hL54psoHbFt8EOvM/edit?usp=sharing