Hii, my name is Angelina. My capstone project is a series of podcasting interviews mainly with attending students and some teachers. I wanted this series to be used to understand the depth of a Project based school. SLA has two exceptionally strong CTE programs, along with many clubs, sports and different activities within the school. I wanted opportunities to be highlighted so a different sense of the school and student input would be recognized. This High School is very student centered & driven, so to play on that theme, the questioning and research of high school students is essential. In my project the conversations are raw and honest, unfiltered, and some more edited than others, but all honestly reflecting SLA in the midst of wide experiences. My podcasting project is designed to assist prospective 8th grade students + families understand how project based learning is implemented in the curriculum and classroom.

Link to Presentation & Published Website Containing Interviews: https://www.canva.com/design/DAHIuFm7k1E/l3d6BPdGF-fjO54iifWpVw/edit

For my Capstone project, I organized a city-wide clothing drive called The Drive & Access Guide. The initiative involved the collection of donated clothing from multiple sources, including Church groups, family members, friends, and community members who saw and responded to my Facebook posts, and then making those items freely available to people in need through a series of mobile pop-up shops driving across Philadelphia between November and April, giving the clothes away to the local community and people who needed them. To ensure that the process remained clear and accessible, I created a professional poster guide that explained exactly how and where community members, including unhoused individuals and those facing financial hardship, could acces the collected goods. Any item that remained after each drive pop-up was donated weekly to a local homeless shelter and distributed to people on the streets. I chose this project because I saw a gap between my community’s generosity and the ability of those in need to access it. Donation drives happen all the time at SLA for a variety of reasons, especially for capstone projects, but most people who need the items don’t know where to go, what to expect, or whether they will be treated with respect when they arrive. I wanted to close that gap by making the process as transparent, organized, and dignified as possible. Clothing is a basic human need, and no one should have to feel embarrassed or confused about accessing it.

Link to my overview: https://yadiangeles.my.canva.site/capstone-slideshow-final-html

For my project I decided to create a YouTube channel that people at SLA can see to learn more about their school and also get familiar with the staff members. students should be able to know who they need when they need help or have a question about a certain situation. They should know who to go to and also learn about the office more. When you’re in 8th grade going to your freshman year if you think about the office as a scary place but at SLA it is the complete opposite. I direct multiple interviews with staff members in order to know exactly what SLA is and what roles they have at SLA. I learned how to create videos, how to script videos, how to create interview questions, a lot of research was put into this project. I had to learn how to create a YouTube channel and how to keep up with that. I learned how to have a professional interview by meeting multiple people. I had a mentor to help me through these videos and what they should look like and come up with this project. A Capstone can be anything that you put your mind to a Capstone is something that benefits everyone but also leaves a trace of you behind I wanted people to see that the office and the staff aren’t scary and I wanted to leave behind that I’m a person to always know where I’m learning and why a school should benefit you.

Here is the link to my YouTube Channel for my capstone and I hope that people will start adding to it if they need videos uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/@CapstonesFromSLACC

Here is the link to my bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13DwlzKXrxILu1lepP8CAwNY26ZQYAgE9v7Cfa0T8ono/edit?tab=t.0

For my project, I wrote a paper about the benefits of taking a personal finance class and learning proper financial literacy. Throughout this process, I learned a lot more about the importance of personal finance and how it correlates to everyday things such as mental health, college prep, and, most importantly, taxes. Overall, my capstone is meant to educate people on how many aspects of their lives financial literacy truly can impact.

This website contains the results of all of my research, a small guide on taxes, my annotated bibliography, and another bibliography for additional sources that I used later on.

Website Link To Final Capstone: https://themoneyblueprint.tiiny.site/

Link to Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dD2GlesPsvFw5uvh1s7uEAQ3UuaS3AgbvU1GhrhNsQQ/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone project, I planned and designed a raised wooden boardwalk at the Penllyn Natural Area to make a consistently muddy and difficult section of the trail easier and safer to pass through. I chose this project because I wanted to build something that would actually help real people, not just complete a school project. I started by meeting with my mentor virtually to figure out where to begin, then spent most of my time researching different types of wood that hold up well outdoors and studying different boardwalk designs to figure out what would work best for the specific trail. I also visited the site twice in person to walk the area and take measurements so my design would be accurate. By the time I finished the planning phase, I had put in around 80 hours of work. The biggest obstacle I ran into was the weather; the ground stayed frozen for a long time, which pushed back my timeline, so I used that extra time to make my research even more thorough. My dad, who is an engineer, helped me think through the structural side of things, and I also relied on websites and videos throughout the process. Beyond making the trail easier to walk, the boardwalk will also protect the ground underneath from being worn down by foot traffic. This project taught me that planning and research are often the hardest parts of building something, and that patience and following through on a long-term goal are skills just as important as any technical knowledge.

Works Cited DecksGo. “build a boardwalk with deck foot anchors.” DecksGo, build a boardwalk with deck foot anchors. Iron Woods. Boardwalk Bridge Pier Decking. PDF. Iron Woods, https://millwork1.com/sites/default/files/Boardwalk-Decking-Brochure-REV031515.pdf. Iron Woods. “Iron Woods.” Boardwalk Decking, Iron Woods, https://www.ironwoods.com/decking/boardwalk/. “mtBr.” Boardwalk design, mtBr, 2 July 2013, https://www.mtbr.com/threads/boardwalk-design.863264/. PermaTrak. “Timber vs. Composite vs. Concrete: Choosing the Right Material.” PermaTrak, 12 July 2023, https://www.permatrak.com/news-events/bid/102385/comparing-boardwalk-materials-timber-vs-composite-vs-concrete. Accessed 19 February 2026. Quigley, Annie. “DIY Boardwalk: How to Lay Down a Planked Path Yourself.” Gardenista, 21 June 2024, https://www.gardenista.com/posts/diy-boardwalk-off-grid-couple/. Accessed 19 February 2026. Rainforest Relief. “Boardwalks.” Rainforest Relief, 2003, https://www.rainforestrelief.org/What_to_Avoid_and_Alternatives/Rainforest_Wood/What_to_Avoid_What_to_Choose/By_Product/Boardwalks.html. Wilkerson, April. “Easy DIY Wooden Walkway | Path To My Outdoor Kitchen.” Youtube, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTBmYG2JEyE. “Wooden bridge, Floating bridge, Timber Boardwalk Construction.” Accoya, https://www.accoya.com/products/inspiration/wooden-bridge/. Accessed 19 February 2026. York Bridge Concepts. “The Ultimate Guide To Wood Bridges: Design, Construction, & Sustainability.” York Bridge Concepts, York Bridge Concepts, 12 August 2024, https://www.ybc.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-wood-bridges/. Accessed 19 February 2026.

For my Capstone project for the 2025-2026 senior year, I decided to create a veterinary based class for freshman mini-courses for those who were interested in learning more about what to expect in the veterinary field and some of the daily jobs that those in the field of veterinary have to do every day. I decided to base my project off this field because it is the field I will be studying next year in college and I wanted to not only take the time to teach freshman about the different parts of the medicine field since we don’t have any classes in our schools based off of that, but also so I can prepare myself for the different types of techniques and knowledge that I will be studying everyday for the next three years of vet nursing school. Some examples of lesson plans I had made for this class include roleplaying what healthy visit check-ins are for pets and their owners, learning how to wrap surgery tools a certain way so they don’t become contained, how to do CPR on a dog, and even having conversations with my mentor (a veterinarian) and getting her to come in with her pet dog so she could teach my students about different tools used during visits and how to properly handle a dog! I have learned so much throughout this process of my project with my students and I just hope they had as much fun as me!

Here is where I did a lot of my planning for my lesson plans, working on and off this document for the last 6 months to make sure I had exact plans for each weeks and adding more ideas if I wanted to add something into the lesson plans!

Here is a picture of my student using one of the tools Dr. K brought in to check the eyes of the dog, learning what to see in a dog’s eye to make sure their vision is still working the way it should be!

Finally, here is the result of my surgery asking my students to reflect on their time in my mini-course and giving me some feedback. As we can see here, of course I could have done better but overall very good results from my students!!