My capstone project, The Process of Praise, focused on documenting my grandfather’s church after it was burned down and showing the community effort to rebuild it. Through creating this documentary, I explored not only the physical rebuilding process, but also the importance of faith, church services, and the role the church plays in bringing people together during difficult times. Throughout the project, I spent time recording footage, interviewing people connected to the church, and capturing moments from services and rebuilding efforts to show how the community stayed strong and supportive after the fire. I also learned how much work goes into creating a documentary, including planning scenes, organizing interviews, editing video footage, and telling a meaningful story through film. During the process, I faced challenges with scheduling, gathering footage, and making sure the documentary clearly represented the emotions and experiences of the people involved. However, these challenges helped me improve my communication, editing, and storytelling skills. My final product is a documentary that highlights the destruction of the church, the rebuilding process, and the power of faith, community, and perseverance during hard times.

Student Bicycle Repair Access Initiative

My Capstone project, the Student Bicycle Repair Access Initiative, focused on improving access to bicycle repair knowledge and tools for students and community members. My original plan was to install public bike repair stands alongside a website that could help users diagnose issues with their bicycles. Due to permitting delays and time limitations, the project evolved into creating a detailed bicycle problem diagnosis sheet and organizing tools that could eventually support a student-accessible repair station. Throughout the project, I spent many hours at my bike shop’s Manayunk location learning bicycle maintenance and repair techniques so I could better understand how to identify common mechanical issues and explain solutions clearly to beginner riders. I also worked on organizing and preparing tools to be transferred for future student use. Through this process, I learned not only technical repair skills, but also how real world projects normally require adaptation, problem solving, and changes in direction while still maintaining the original focus. My final product is a diagnosis guide and collection of repair resources designed to help people troubleshoot and better understand problems with their bicycles in an approachable and accessible way.

Student Bicycle Repair Access Initiative

My Capstone project, the Student Bicycle Repair Access Initiative, focused on improving access to bicycle repair knowledge and tools for students and community members. My original plan was to install public bike repair stands alongside a website that could help users diagnose issues with their bicycles. Due to permitting delays and time limitations, the project evolved into creating a detailed bicycle problem diagnosis sheet and organizing tools that could eventually support a student-accessible repair station. Throughout the project, I spent many hours at my bike shop’s Manayunk location learning bicycle maintenance and repair techniques so I could better understand how to identify common mechanical issues and explain solutions clearly to beginner riders. I also worked on organizing and preparing tools to be transferred for future student use. Through this process, I learned not only technical repair skills, but also how real world projects normally require adaptation, problem solving, and changes in direction while still maintaining the original focus. My final product is a diagnosis guide and collection of repair resources designed to help people troubleshoot and better understand problems with their bicycles in an approachable and accessible way.

The goal of my capstone project was to improve the mental health of the staff and students of Science Leadership Academy. In order to do this, I planned and executed monthly events that I knew could help improve their mental health and give them something to look forward to. In February, I hosted a yoga session led by Ms. Siswick, in March I did bake sales where I altered between free treats and treats for sale,In April I hosted an “acts of kindness” week for people to send kindness notes to each other which included a fidget toy, and in May I provided free nail services to help with prom for juniors and seniors, and an art session. I chose this project because I find myself struggling mentally at times so, I know how much of a toll it can take on you with nobody even noticing. To execute the events I came up with I firstly gave myself a time frame of when I’d do each event because I knew I wanted to do multiple things. To let everyone know about my events I made flyers that I hung around the school, and sent them out in emails to try to let everyone know as best as possible.I’m glad to say I’ve left my mark at SLA in the most positive way possible.

Click the link below to see all the pictures and videos I’ve accumulated over the year!

To see a more in-depth view of my Capstone, click this link to view my planning doc.

For my capstone, I partnered with fellow senior Kade Cao to create a website, called College Compass, to help juniors and seniors with the college application and decision process. The website contains information about FAFSA and deadlines, resources like Xello, college myths, workshops, networking, advice and experiences from alumni, and much more. I also created a youtube channel for the post-secondary office that can be used by future CALs as another platform to share information with the SLA community.
While going through the college process myself, I realized how stressful and confusing it was. Though SLA provides numerous resources for students, it can be hard for everyone to be seen and for one person to handle all of the college needs of seniors and juniors. My goal for this project was to create a product that could be edited as things changed over time, but mainly provided additional support and information for students. I also wanted it to open students’ minds about what to consider and what other options are available to them. My portion of the capstone was to interview SLA alumni about their college application experience and how they’ve adjusted. In order to host productive and useful interviews I needed to do a lot of research about questions to ask, the differences in kinds of schools, and also research other post-secondary options. I ran into some trouble while trying to get in touch with alumni because many of them didn’t use their personal emails. However, I overcame this by finding alternative ways of getting in touch with them. One thing that I wish I did differently was include information about trade schools. I wasn’t able to get in touch with any alum who chose that path, but I included information about other options like schools abroad and gap years.
Through this project I gained a lot of helpful information for the transition to college that I’m about to make and also advice that I wish I had heard before going through the college process. I also gained a lot more confidence in my own voice and talking to people that I either don’t know or don’t know very well.

College Compass Website Link: https://vssyen.wixsite.com/college-compass

My annotated bibliography:

Hi. I developed an iOS app that helps people capture life’s smallest, fleeting moments. I believe though social media may have a positive impact like creating curated content or learning something new, it has negatively impacted most Gen Zs and even me. Addiction, comparison, FOMO, our opinions constantly changing, being un-present, the need to fit in, external validation, …

I hope that my app limits people off of social media and help them start to value the small moments of their lives. A calm walk in the park after an intense gym session, an awkward but interesting conversation with a stranger, noticing a beautiful view you’d usually pass by, playing one part of a song you couldn’t with your guitar before, or a genuine 1-1 conversation with a close friend talking about their futures.

Maybe it really wasn’t about the big things. It wasn’t about the parties, following social media trends, or pretending like you had everything figured out.

My app’s main core feature is capturing a moment. When you capture a moment, you can type specifically what the moment was, journal upon it, add your emotions (how you felt), the people you were with, the location, and photos and videos. Alongside, you can view your moments in a timeline or calendar, and organize it into albums. Simple and boring, but that’s the point.

So for those who love to journal, be introspective about themselves, grow as a person, or struggle with getting off of social media, feel free to use my app.

My name is Jaiel Lapp Yoder and my Capstone Project explores why voter turnout is so much lower among younger people and what can be done about it. I wrote a paper exploring this problem and created a website that will help new voters. Confusing registration rules, lack of civic education, and financial stress are all contributing factors to the discrepancies in voter turnout between age groups. Many new voters can find the task of registering much harder than they had expected. My free website breaks down this process. It also troubleshoots common problems that people have and provides access to resources to help new voters, or even to students not yet old enough but who still want to get involved in their community. Finally, it lists dates and upcoming events such as registration deadlines and election dates. I want to make sure I leave a positive impact on SLA, and how I did that is encouraging people to get involved and cast their ballots.

Here is the link to my research paper!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wFqol-UP26kqUNorvzzLZvdkCUFRnuZfZqzYYVrjC4g/edit?tab=t.0

Here is the link to my website!

https://votetodayphilly.wixstudio.com/mysite

My name is Yun Zhang, and my capstone is The Art Show: Beauty & the Brain.

The Art Show is an annual event at Science Leadership Academy that celebrates the creativity innate in every person. It is the culmination of every dream, experience, and knowledge I have acquired throughout my years at SLA. This year’s art show was made possible by the hard work of my incredible art teacher, Ms. Angeles; my friend and partner, Jay Vilchis; and the countless amazing volunteers, including students, staff, and other community members. Together, we put on the 2026 Art Show, Beauty and the Brain!

Our shared goal for the Art Show is to show an elevated exhibition of student artwork; Beauty & the Brain invites the greater SLA community into the magic unleashed in the mind when we create and experience art.

Through the process of this project, I’ve learned so much about what it means to plan events, what it means to be a gallery, and the ways of facilitating engagement with art.

✦ Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rzy2DBtX2daXJ_LmkoKIkbyzR_t8rV_poUkLXL07ao0/edit?tab=t.0

For my capstone, I created a podcast focused on the importance of young voters, addressing how to engage students and debunking common misconceptions about why young adults avoid civic participation. Alongside the podcast, I built a website where visitors can listen to episodes, read brief summaries, and access voter registration resources. The goal was to create a dedicated platform for students who feel lost on the topic of voting, and a tool teachers can share in the classroom.I chose this project because, as a newly registered voter, I noticed my peers had the same questions but nowhere to turn for clear answers. I wanted to build something creative and genuinely useful because I personally learn better by listening than reading.The process was largely trial and error. Researching reliable data, recording interviews, stitching audio together, and building the website. My biggest challenge was teaching myself audio editing using WeVideo to combine recordings, add transitions, and clean up sound quality. Looking back, I’m most proud of the podcast itself. I went in nervous and came out satisfied with a product I believe fills a real gap for students my age. If I did it again, I’d skip the rigid script, conversation flows better when you aren’t following lines of writing. I would also explore better audio editing software.This project reflects everything SLA taught me, to ask questions, research deeply, collaborate openly, and create with purpose. I’m proud to leave something behind that future students can actually use.

Website

Bibliography

Me and Grey want to create a 4-6 episode TV show for the sole purpose of making our audience laugh. Since we both grew up in south philly we want to highlight the culture of south philly and how the stereotypes that are often related with south philly aren’t an accurate representation of the area. I believe that it is important for students to learn about different cultures specially in philly high schools because people come from very different backgrounds. We are doing this to see how our version of philly is viewed by other people. This will help us answer the question of how audiences portray different stereotypes. We also want to inspire the youth. Since me and Grey only have a small amount of experiences with film making and script writing. We want to show that all it takes is creativity, experience, and determination to create a high quality film production.

Link to Capstone - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vt0u6s1RqTDVkKkZItcmtgsgl2SYM03d/view?usp=sharing

Bibliography -