For my capstone, I did a ten-page research paper exploring the impacts of greek life. Specifically, I focused my thesis and essential questions on how greek life perpetuates rape culture and sexual violence, promotes toxic masculinity and endorses the overuse of alcohol and drugs. In my paper, I argue that fraternities and sororities should be abolished. Through my research, I realized how greek organizations have a long history of sexual violence and how the toxic masculinity, that is promoted within fraternities, has a major connection to the sexual violence that is disturbingly common within greek life. Along with the connection, toxic masculinity has to sexual violence, it also is a key factor in why fraternities and sororities participate in acts of hazing. As a woman about to enter college, these are topics that are very relevant to my life. Greek life is surrounded by incidences of sexual assault, rape, and even death. I want to make sure that others around me also understand the detrimental impacts that greek life has on everyone, not just women.

My passion for baking has turned into a modest business since the epidemic began. During quarantine, Treatsbyliq officially began on April 7, 2022. Many prominent corporations use social media to make it appear as though they contribute back to the community when this is not the case. I plan to fundraise to make care packages and donate them to shelters as a way to give back to the community. This is something I will accomplish to help people that are in need.

My initial step will be to collaborate with others to find shelters where I can donate care packages. From there I plan to figure out what days would work best for me so that I can do a bake sale. In addition to that, I want to create 50 care packages so that I can donate them to the shelter. I will be using the money to buy small necessities such as toothpaste, soap, and toothbrush, and maybe bake a cookie and put them in each bag. I’m also going to take a closer look at companies that don’t give back to the community. I’m also planning to take pictures of me and the freshman creating care packers along with a picture to show that I donated them.

My capstone focuses on the importance of trees in today’s climate, where the world’s temperature is constantly increasing due to the increase of greenhouse gases generated from the constant use of fossil fuels. I have read many articles on the subject of trees and their benefits on areas in the city with no trees. I have also talked with my neighbors who also find this to be a huge issue in our city because they find it so hard to find shade in the summertime.

I have learned about so many tree planting programs that are local to our city or open to the entire world that give out trees everwhere and I felt that this capstone should help by showing these resources we could use, while also showing how our city should act now and try to get a tree planted in as much places as possible.

Link to Capstone:

https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/a-greener-paradise/home?authuser=0

Link to Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ju1RA7vOvtUIM-c9luiSABnwH1WENeXXm0gQ_hHQuVg/edit?usp=sharing

For my senior capstone project I constructed a few bulletin board pieces based on mental health. These boards were interactive and all the art pieces were made by me. The reason I chose to design my project around this topic is because mental health has always been a topic of interest to me especially because it’s a huge part of my life and others around me. Being high school students, I think we can all agree that is when everything changes, and students need help more than ever. Not only am I doing a project based on this, but I am also taking it further into my college career which was one of the main reasons as to why I made sure I created something along the topic. This project let me be as creative as possible and I was able to incorporate art into it which again is personal for me. With these bulletin boards the SLA community was able to interact with the board. The goal was to educate and allow people to check in on their mental state from time to time. It might have been something small but sometimes people forget how important that small check in can be. This project allowed me to give something to the community, but it also helped me during the process. What I have here is a slide presentation with the boards I was able to create and put up. Then there is a video in the end that shows some of my process for the boards and some interactions within the community.

Link to slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DZ9sZOOq5T1FZAfhfbWVX3BvKUpaWIBl7DsZ-RKytZk/edit#slide=id.g12a1203c317_0_25

Link to annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vHrlRdYqmjW3ArlTqdJ2bIzpF-hML75nTFbWa2KGk8A/edit

For my final project of my entire high school experience, I chose to do a talent show. I wanted to do it because I feel like SLA as a whole has people with amazing hidden talents. I wanted to portray that in a way that would bring students together and show how much they can do. In addition to people just showing off their talents, I thought it would be great for others to watch and enjoy them as well. It gives the person a confidence boost that a lot of people need once in a while and could also encourage them to branch out and show it even more. I believe that this would be a great opportunity for students that they would always remember. 

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tTcwp—11BErSoJr5_UHyWep3AmsNA62e97B6PoCuQ0/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone project, I designed the costumes for the play “You, the jury”. This play is about a college student named Bill who is accused of theft by one of his employers, the audience members are the jurors and they get to decide whether he’s guilty or innocent.

I decided to do this for my capstone project because I love fashion and in the future, I would like to be part of the fashion industry. The fast fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global co2 emissions, in the future I would like to have my own sustainable clothing brand, ideally it will be affordable and all the clothes will be made with scrap fabric/clothes people don’t want anymore.

Most of the pieces used in the play were thrifted or borrowed from close friends/family members. My partner (Lily Weston) and I decided to thrift most of the pieces we used because we didn’t want to contribute to fast fashion since it negatively impacts the environment. We purchased most of the pieces from Philly AIDS Thrift, a store where people can donate clothes and other items to help organizations involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Slide presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jbBi3UnQ3tXYi8nJRlAG4J_Knx11ujNjiObIcvfX8tI/edit?usp=sharing

Annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VqLQ4PxE7HFHKo_eRICwFWOCKVouVjk4zyHr4JjFUjc/edit?usp=sharing

Mya Fleming May 11, 2022

Capstone Abstract:

For my capstone project, “Five Entrepreneurial Brands to try in Philadelphia [2022]”, I promoted five small entrepreneurships in Philadelphia using marketing tips. The businesses include baked goods, photography services, clothing, and nail services. The goal of this project is to help support entrepreneurs by emphasizing their strengths and talents. In the process, I learned more about marketing, which is one of the subjects that I want to study in college. After researching marketing strategies, and talking with my mentor, Torian Ugworji, I decided to promote these businesses through a website.

The entrepreneurs who participated put a lot of effort into their work and were easy to communicate with, showing their leadership skills. Each business is marketed on the website with pictures of the products and a written description of the services provided. The quality of each product reflects the importance of presentation, which is a big part of marketing. This project shows the business owners’ talents and helps others see them. It also allows people to hear and learn more about the entrepreneurs and their businesses.

I learned how important presentation is, both for promoting the entrepreneurships through the website, and for the entrepreneurs’ products. Presentation skills in particular are useful for anyone, whether starting your own business or working for someone else. Hopefully this website inspires people and makes people want to share their talents with others.

Website Link: https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/myaflemingseniorcapstoneprojec/five-entrepreneurial-brands-to-try-in-philadelphia-2022

Annotated Bibliography Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JchDxFZ0IDCcxF0tP3-fkAXNU-B2tA9NwgF-GclgnQM/edit

Presentation Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1obsXVYNWnsHA8yQKrd5LigRF_iPTDT1OXh0ZUJwe1d0/edit#slide=id.p

My capstone project focuses on society and experiences on gender inequality in the automotive industry. During this process I read articles, watched videos, and interviewed people to further my knowledge and understanding of the automotive job and society’s views. I learned how to do basic car repairs like changing the oil, changing the windshield wipers, and changing a tire. Unfortunately the girls auto clinic in Upper Darby was unavailable for an interview, so I was only able to have an interview with my mentor on his experiences. While Steven, my mentor, is not someone who would’ve felt that oppression he has a behind the scenes experience of “garage talk” and stereotypes that have been said that he’s witnessed. I decided a video representation would be better because it could be educational and a fun thing to view. Just photos of a car fixed wouldn’t do my project justice because I wanted people to really think about where the prejudice from society comes from.

For my capstone, I did a podcast on BATMAN as you may know. There’s something unique about what I did here because I took my favorite superhero and tried to figure out if I was right if Batman was the greatest superhero of all time. Why did I choose to do this well it’s been something I was urged to do especially ever since I got obsessed with video games and movies. During my childhood, Batman was my favorite superhero but at that time I was never really sure if it was him or spiderman. What I did for my project was a lot of extensive research on essentially everything having something to do with Batman, his villains, gadgets, family, sidekicks, storylines, suits, why he is the greatest superhero, and what makes Batman Batman. The point of this research was for me to find out “am I right?” or “am I wrong?” Now this was the hard part especially since that is more of a theory than a question. Is Batman the greatest superhero of all-time? I mean is he? Ok I asked that above to possibly get your opinion on the matter but from my perspective Batman does have everything that a great superhero should and more. The best villains of all time and it’s not even close because he has arguably the best villain in the Joker, but also the Riddler, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, BANE, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Court of Owls. So many great villains there’s really nowhere to begin and nowhere to end. Batman has a gadget for everything, something most superheroes dream of and to most this is an impossible feat. You’re not wrong if you think it’s impossible though. What can be said about the suits, there’s a suit for every situation every criminal has to fight regardless of what the outcome ends up to be. And finally the sidekicks man has one great partner after another’ five Robins, Catwoman, Batgirl, Arzael, James corden so many sidekicks one could say one too many for a single hero’ however this is BATMAN we’re talking about. I learned more than I could imagine about the caped crusader more than I needed but it was certainly helpful to me to gain an even greater understanding of my favorite superhero. Before this capstone I didn’t know there was a zebra batman, or that he was the flash for a brief period of time, or that bruce wayne was the first robin or that Batman is bruce wayne’s true personality of who he is and strives to become. So much that I accomplished during this capstone for starters I did my first ever podcast and keep in mind I did it by myself which I still can’t believe. All in all this was the biggest project I’d ever done and I owe it to myself for being able to stick with it all the way through because I was stuck a lot during this capstone. I hope you enjoy!

Link to my podcast - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FkA5lCqYBc3_Xs-bCxjKjNtOIXRsDKF6/view?usp=sharing

My capstone project is a presentation for teachers and staff on how to help students with Anxiety and Depression in school. One of the main reasons I wanted to do this project was because a lot of my friends and I have dealt with issues like this in school and it’s hard to get support when teachers don’t always know what to do. Anxiety and Depression are very common in students so my hope for this project is that in the future when students are going through similar situations this project can sort of guide teachers through helping them.

Slide Presentation Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CrfsccpqcY1AMSuBfPv8tcaJJJ8aWm4twda_pArPstk/edit?usp=sharing