For my capstone, my goal was to create an insightful website about Complementary and Alternative Medicine, especially in regards to mental health and overall well being. I have had an interest in this field for a while, especially due to the fact that my family has always loved encouraging each other to try out different forms of CAM therapies in their spare time. My idea for this project sparked last year when I read an article about how a majority of CAM therapies were for the most part only used by adults. I have always had positive experiences with different forms of CAM therapies so I wondered why more teens with mental health issues did not try this out more often. This then led me to the idea of a website that could teach teens about CAM therapies that they could be doing from home and the benefits they could potentially have on their physical and mental wellbeing.

Final Website: https://camforteens.weebly.com/

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eLgFH4E461vybvyl89JL_N5LxEYFKOd_oadeLycypZA/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone project, I created a collaborative mural that helps brighten the walls at our new school building. I came up with multiple ideas like doing a mosaic tile mural but due to time constraints I landed on doing a much simpler mural. I also had to come up with multiple sketches for my mural taking heed to the feedback that was given. I did have a couple of setbacks when completing the project like having to change mentors. But I’ve learned to push through them and come up with a solution and continued working on my mural. I traced the tree with a projector to create perfect lines so I could paint over them. I also made stencils of the leaves for the tree by using the cricut machine. It took me three days to complete the trunk of the tree. Then after spring break, I had the senior class start to paint their leaves. Several changes were made in the beginning due to different trials and errors when it came to having the seniors paint . But what was once an empty boring wall now has a mural of a tree with beautiful, colorful leaves that the Senior 2023 class will leave behind in SLA history.

Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10nLTQx38AMI6rA41tfQYWqRsffsyfNgbi6qTYFV7gf4/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone project, I focused on plumbing and HVAC. I worked during the days I didn’t have school or holidays. The main purpose of my project is to teach others about plumbing and HVAC and why it is important. That’s why I decided to make slides and show pics of the work I do and my experience doing it. The process wasn’t too bad. It mostly consisted of showing up to work and taking pics of everything necessary for me to finish. I always wanted to be a plumber since I was 12 years old so I thought that this was the perfect project for me to do. I learned a lot from this project. I learned a lot of new facts about plumbing and HVAC that I didn’t know, and learning new things to me is something that will always be important because when you learn new things you can teach others about it. Learning from mistakes is another one because mistakes will make you more aware of what to do next time that’s how I learned some of the time while working during the days I had off its good and bad sometimes

Annotated bibliography  : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gAcBczeWqYsiifHPCRcxNplEH12-2tGFhtnr6C3n0i4/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone I created a website that can be used by students of SLA and other Philadelphia schools to help find internship and volunteering opportunities across the city. My website has 30 different internships, a section explaining the importance of internships and a place where you can submit any other internship you have interest in doing. To complete this I used Wix to create the website and conducted my own research on why internships are important. In addition to researching why internships are important I also researched where to find internships in the Philadelphia area. I decided to do this for my capstone because I never got a chance to have an internship in my time at SLA and I think that they can be really beneficial for a student’s growth into a working person. I enjoyed this challenge because I got to apply information that I learned through SLA while also learning a new thing like website building.

Link to Website: https://ohyland23.wixsite.com/slainternships

Link to Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1StFCD-ijbm1PnXGe0mavbF7ZtM4Al_7P1X-ljiTeiK8/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone, I present a floral garden in the community of my Buddhist Temple. I chose this capstone as a way to connect with my religion in a deeper meaning, and to understand the importance of how big of a role nature has to do in relation to Buddha. In reference to the process of this project, I was required to do research on techniques of gardening in terms of how to build one, different soil types and flowers, and the understanding of nature and my religion. The weather has also been the biggest obstacle in building this garden. Based on this capstone I learned so much about nature, talking about how there are different soils for specific plants, and how certain plants cannot be planted together. I started off with picking and deciding which soil is best with the circulars that I was working with, and what plants are appropriate to proceed. I then mapped out what and where I wanted to structure and plant the flowers. Once I figured that out, I went ahead and dug out holes in the ground to plant the flowers and layer soil on top as a,” finishing top coat.” To prevent a damaged and dehydrated garden, I plan on watering them daily with water mixed with miracle growth. This has also taught me as a whole that gardening is more than just putting plants together and calling it a day, but it taught me that nature is vibrant, beautiful, and enlightening.

For my Capstone, I chose to focus on the topic of Mental Health and made “Mental Health Awareness Check In”. Mental Health Awareness is very important especially within a high school. Especially with the transition period from pandemic back to a “normal life”, it is hard because we were so used to the lack of social interaction. With us, high school students, trying to navigate high school after such a mentally draining time took a toll on us. So I thought of the idea to post Mental Health Check In posters around school so that it gives the students and/or teachers a space to check in with themselves. After doing research on each of the mental illnesses, I learned how much each illness can affect people and the age group that they fall in. After finding out this information, I thought it was important to do some sort of check in to where students or teachers didn’t have to necessarily speak out about how they felt to make them feel uncomfortable but to be able to show it without anyone knowing it was them. My goal overall was to help the SLA community understand that our mental state is very important and that it’s okay to not be okay at times. Also to let them know that there are people here that they can talk to about anything that’s going on with them.

Over the course of this year, for my senior capstone, I have been curating/developing my portfolio as a first-year student filmmaker and gaining experience/hands-on training with operating industry-grade filmmaking equipment (Microphones, Lighting, etc.) I chose this capstone because due to joining Science-Leadership Academy in my junior year, I was unable to enroll in the CTE Film/Video course as I originally desired and I knew entering into my senior year, that I wanted to pursue my passion for screenwriting and filmmaking before I graduated from SLA and entered into the Post-Secondary Phase of my Life. I began my capstone process by approaching my mentors, Torian Ugworji and Ms.Ustaris by asking them if they had any opportunities for an aspiring filmmaker, anything at all and they managed to find me a spot in a Photography course at WHYY Studios, a public radio station licensed to broadcast and serve the wider Philadelphia region. Through working with my instructors at WHYY I have been fortunate enough to have:

• Directed a 3-min Journalistic piece on a sustainability-based non-profit

• Gained Experience with Collaborating in a Filmmaking environment.

• Gained Experience with operating Audio Equipment, Cameras, and more.

How I have centralized the SLA Core values in my capstone process is through collaboration, inquiry, and research— I have researched various opportunities involving film, inquired with my mentors on whether or not those opportunities would fit for me, and I collaborated with the people I´ve met along the way, The journey I´ve been on through my capstone process has also led me to participating as a judge in the film-festival hosted by my mentor and advisor, Ms.Ustaris called ¨SLA Rocketfest¨, where I was able to watch various, different yet inspiring films from other student filmmakers.

Overall, I approached this capstone with the question, Is it ever too late to pursue your dreams? and I can confidently say No.

Mekhi Evans-EL Capstone Index/Related Media-Links:

• (Mekhi Evans-EL: Capstone Annotated Bibliography) — [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fTWgIBFlHch1MELFLT1kf5K6yz93e9DTAY5SutGChzY/edit]

• Achieving Zero Waste Through Sustainability | Bottle Underground & Remark Glass (Directed by Mekhi Evans-EL and Produced By WHYY Spring Break 2023 Pathways to Media Career Students—Embedded Below)

• WHYY Spring Break Pathway to Media Careers — Blue Team II: ¨Achieving Zero Waste Through Sustainability | Bottle Underground & Remark Glass¨ (Production Planning Document). [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1enaO0qD_yyk81TtkvEQTqrZFUFNGgs9Hic6-HcpVBGs/edit]

For my capstone, I created a few videos for a social media account talking about stocks. I chose to talk about stocks because I found it interesting that you can get money from a company just by investing in them when I just started getting into stocks. I originally invested roughly 900 when I first started going in my Junior year which gave me the idea to do this as a capstone. I had a ton of trial-and-error moments where I lost a good chunk of money but with the problems I had it would be telling people how to avoid my previous issues. I wanted everyone to have a building block for investing in the do’s and don’ts of what to do and to have a better financial future. Each episode took like 3 hours to make with the ever so much changing stock market and along with script writing to try and cover most in a certain time limit.

Over the past year Zivia and I have been planning our a mini course that we taught to the freshman at SLA, showing them how properly to create a mural from start to finish. The full class lasted 8 weeks, where the students were learning and working to create a set of murals that reflected the SLA student body as well as the 5 core values at SLA: Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation, & Reflection. We began at the beginning of 2023, after researching and preparing for several months, by teaching the students the basics on sketching and color theory to make sure they understood how to design and create a mural. We touched topics such as simplifying forms, movement, texture, and Layers. We worked together to come up with designs that fit our space and painted them on the 4 columns in the SLA common area. The final Mural that sits along the short staircase at the entrance of the school displays a road map of the current SLA seniors and all the bumps in the road that affect each and everyone of us. On each column is roughly a 4x4 ft design that reflects the SLA core values.

Over the past school year, I have made a video game podcast. The number of episodes I have produced is twenty videos, each ten to twenty-five minutes long. The reason why I chose this podcast was that I was inspired by a previous capstone last year on a student who made a Batman podcast. The reason why I like doing this style of project is because I know a lot about video games and I felt as though this medium would be the best outlet of choice. When making this capstone I went through a lot of trial and error with my first idea involving my love of comic books but after much thought, I wanted to talk about a topic that more general people knew about. Despite the base idea of having a video game podcast sounds easy at a glance I put a lot of effort into all of my videos. Some episodes took hours of research and finding time to record and edit was hard due to scheduling mishaps. That being said I still had fun with my podcast and I learned a lot through myself and made sure it envisioned SLA core values and made me happy.

(Link to playlist) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOdwi7XiJ9ZHi5nvfZOG6I-ifns8aMXJA L

( Annotated Bibliography ) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gNVFczFOl-68xD4iRF8X3EYKizqJyhrBA7D0I5PZ_18/edit?usp=sharing