​All throughout my high school experience, I have seen the same ole sport uniforms from each team. Each team used the same exact logo and the same colors. I wanted to change it up a bit for a more updated look for the school because we also have come a long way from when we first opened up.

For my senior capstone, I decided to come up with new designs for the sports teams in the school for seasonal uniforms and or fundraising purposes.I was first introduced to this by my coach, Mark Johnson, during our 2016 track and field season. He had explained to me how this would work for everyone because of how easy and simple it was. It’s called Ares Sportswear and it was a really beneficial and useful tool for my capstone.

1. "Welcome, Students." National Honor Society. N.p., n.d. Web. Feb. 2016. <https://www.nhs.us/students>.

This is the National Honor Society website. I used this source for a lot of different reasons. I wanted to truly understand the mission/goals of NHS. There is a lot of information on this site about how to start a chapter, renewing a chapter, getting scholarship information, a link to the NHS apparel website and more. I learned about the 4 aspects of NHS: leadership, character, service, and scholarship. Reviewing this website, I now understand that it is essential to continue building leaders for this generation and servicing our communities, which are the two aspects I plan to highlight in my chapter.

    2. "Teaching Youth to Identify Essential Qualities of a Leader." FASTEN. N.p., n.d. Web. Feb. 2016. <http://www.urbanministry.org/wiki/teaching-youth-identify-essential-qualities-leader>.

This website was a good example for how to have the leadership development. In the NHS chapter, we need a foundation in such a way that we can build off. This website concluded that the major aspects and qualities are: courage, risk taking, confidence, self discipline, honesty, and perseverance. These I agree are qualities and skills that it takes to be a successful leader. A main aspect of NHS is leadership and I was concerned with having the proper tools necessary to have a leadership course. I think the most important are confidence, self discipline, and risk taking. Without those, you probably won’t be a successful leader.

     3. "National Honor Society (N.H.S)." Central High School. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Feb. 2016. <http://www.centralhigh.net/pages/CentralHigh/7197040085141361346/Main_Nav/6675467167782716626/Clubs_1/National_Honor_Society__N_H_S_>.

This is Central High School’s National Honor Society website. The reason I used this as a source for research because this is the first time I’m being directly exposed to NHS. This website serves as an inspiration for my website. I will add much more to mine but they have links to sign up for tutoring, an introduction article, etc. This website actually didn’t much information, but it served as an example of a website because I’m making on.

     4. "Mayor Jim Kenney's Office of Civic Engagement & Volunteer Service."Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://volunteer.phila.gov/#s>.

This website serves as a volunteer match database for Philadelphia. I have used this source in the past and will continue to do so as I am looking for different volunteer opportunities. This site, in my opinion, does a wonderful job in organizing the opportunities because they are broken down into different categories. It also gives the location. NHS could use this source because depending on the time of the year, the holidays, etc, we can plan accordingly to somewhat fit a thematic scheme.

      5. El, Savannah. "What Is NHS Like?" Telephone interview. Sept. 2015.

Savannah El is a close friend of mine who is a member of NHS at Girard Academic Music Program. I spoke with her to get an understanding of what NHS is. I also looked for different ideas that her chapter have done because this is something I’m doing for the first time.

      6. Jonas, Pearl. "What Is NHS?" In Person interview. June 2015.

Ms. Jonas, who is also my capstone mentor, was a NHS member in high school. The purpose of this interview was to establish her as my mentor. I also spoke with her about how we can implement NHS (a traditional club) in SLA (a modern-non traditional school). We worked over the summer to get ready for the school year. The interview was informal, however we outlined a lot for the year.

      7. SLA Juniors/Seniors. "NHS at SLA." Online interview. Oct. 2015.

I conducted a survey for SLA juniors and seniors. I got the word out to SLA about NHS by putting information on the advisory memo. The survey was for people to sign up. The information that I gathered from the survey was that most people are interested in leadership development/networking and service. The majority of people had volunteer experience and were interested in continuing it. That is how I got the idea to emphasize on leadership and service.

      8. Perle, Elizabeth. "Is National Honor Society Membership Worth It?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/is-national-honor-society_n_3267251.html>.

This article was published on the Huffington Post by Elizabeth Perle. It is about whether or not a NHS membership is worth it or not. The article was very thoughtful is talking about what the membership actually means. The author explored the idea that it doesn’t matter if you are a member, it matters how active you are. At the end of the day, people aren’t interested in just hearing that you were a member, they are interested in hearing what you did as a member. That is something that I want to keep in mind as I am bringing this to SLA. I want to make sure that we are all active members and we keep a good name for NHS at SLA.

       9. Boyington, Brianna. "7 Essential Life Skills for High Schoolers to Build Before College." US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2014/11/05/7-essential-life-skills-for-high-schoolers-to-build-before-college>.

I used this source to get ideas for things we can talk about/explore deeply about during times when we aren’t planning for an event. I want NHS to be about leadership development just as much as service and I want for us (the members) to learn together how to become better versions of ourselves. The seven essential life skills for high schoolers to build before college according to this site are: managing money, planning, staying safe and healthy, studying, apartment hunting, getting around, and cooking. I can try my best with my mentor to see which of these skills we can talk about.

      10. National Honor Society, Handbook 17th Edition. Reston, VA: n.p., 1974. Print.

This is the National Honor Society handbook. This handbook outlines everything regarding the chapter from procedures, mission, background, etc. This handbook helps the group outline the induction ceremony, how the members are selected, the duties of the chapter officers, the advisor, and the council, graduation ceremonial things, etc.

Abstract

Over the past months I have been collecting people's stories. I have collected stories on the tattoos that people have places on their bodies, how they got the tattoo, why they got the tattoo, etc. I have interviewed people I have known my whole life, friends, teachers, and even strangers. After each interview I would edit what I had recorded into a concise podcast and share it with the public on my Soundcloud account. The Soundcloud account is really the place where my Capstone lives.

The process for my project was fairly simple, and despite its repetitive nature, it never felt monotonous or boring. After setting up a Soundcloud account for myself I was able to interview, edit, and put out a new instalment on a regular basis - almost weekly. In the end, I was able to do a total of ten interviews as well as an intro and outro of the project.

Doing this project has taught me so much. Not only have I been able to ask people the questions I have wanted to for a long time about the art on their body, but I have also gotten to form my own opinions about tattoos for myself based on what I have learned from others. Even more importantly, I have found joy in getting closer to people I know, or don’t know by asking them about themselves and their stories. I am grateful that the last few months were even more gratifying than I initially thought they would be. 

Click here to see my Soundcloud.

Annotated Bibliography

Dundon, Barbara. "I'm Tellin' Ya!" I’m Tellin Ya. Barbara Dundon, 2013. Web. 03 Feb. 2016.

This is the website of my mentor, Barbara Dundon. I worked with her in my ILP last year. She introduced me to the art of audio production and storytelling. I wanted to make sure that she was recognized as someone I learned a lot from. Because of this I am citing her website, and the business she runs producing stories for other people. Having a person to learn from as part of the process that got me to where I am right now is very important to me. I work best when I am learning from a person, because they have lived what they are telling me. it is a different kind of research than reading an article or watching a video, and I find that it sticks with me better.

"Free Music Archive." Free Music Archive. N.p., 2009. Web. 03 Feb. 2016.

This is a online library of legal free audio downloads. I use it to get most of the music from my podcast. Since music is important in setting the emotion of a podcast, I spend time finding just the right track to use when I need it in my podcasts. I know that I can safely use the tracks I find on this website.

Glass, Ira, and Torey Malatia. "This American Life." Audio blog post. National Public Radio, 1995. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

I have been listening to This American Life from a very young age. It is part of what inspired me to originally look into doing a podcast as an ILP and as a capstone. When you are learning about something, it helps to have examples to look at in detail. This American Life was one of those examples for me. I would sit and listen to an episode, and then look for the things done in the editing, or in the way that the narrator spoke, or a thousand other things, that made the story so compelling to me. I dissected this podcast for inspiration, and to make my own podcast better.

Graves, Nagee. Personal interview. 7 Dec. 2015.

I did my very first interview with Nagee. We talked about the two tattoos that he has, what they mean to him, and his plans for future tattoos. For a first interview, talking to someone who I knew, but not very well was the perfect thing for me to do. We both felt comfortable talking to one another, but had a lot to learn about each other - mainly I learned about him, but that’s the point of my project.

Lady Lamb. Rooftop. Rec. 19 Feb. 2013. 2013. MP3.

This is a song I used for the introduction to my podcast that I put on my soundcloud. Music is very important component to any audio based production. I decided to use a song that I already knew well, and that I thought set the tone for my introduction, and for what I wanted people’s first impressions to be.

Macolino, Sarah. Personal interview. 19 Jan. 2019.

I think this is the best interview I did. I say this because the tattoos had very meaningful stories behind them. It was easy for me to ask questions and listen intently, because the content really made an affect on me personally. I look forward to editing what I have, I want to do the stories justice! The only thing else I can really say is, thank you to Sarah for being so open and honest with me about things that are not easy to talk about. I really appreciate it.

Middleswarth, Jackie. Personal interview. 9 Dec. 2015.

Interviewing Jackie was more challenging than my first interview. That has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with me. I don’t think that I asked the “right” questions like I did with Nagee. He is a more outgoing person in general, so he was more willing to open up. But Jackie is less of a talker, so I had to work harder to get open answers. This was a good learning experience for me, to learn how to make people comfortable and open when they talk to me.

Paolini, Beth. Personal interview. 11 Feb. 2016.

I have known beth for all of my life. She is partly responsible for this project because I’ve wanted to ask her about her tattoos for all of my life too. Finally getting to interview her was really amazing and insightful. I am so glad she agreed to help me out, although not at all surprised.

Raul. Personal interview. 19 Jan. 2016.

I did not actually know that I was going to interview Raul when I did. (That’s why I don’t even know his last name.) But he was open and easy to talk to. We talked about his family, his mother and niece, and how amazing tattoos can be when they are well done. The importance of going to a professional to get a tattoo, because it really is an art. I appreciate a stranger opening up to me like this.

Spiegel, Alix, and Lulu Miller. "Invisabelia." Audio blog post. National Public Radio, 2015. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

Invisabelia is another podcast  that I listen to to get inspiration for my own podcast. The topics that the program covers are pretty different from mine, so I mainly listened to look for examples of how the editing was done to make an impact on the audience, or rove home a point. Other than that, this is just a podcast that I like, and think is good, so it serves as inspiration for me.

"StoryCorps." Audio blog post. National Public Radio, 2015. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

StoryCorps is a podcast that gives everyone a chance to tell their own stories. Because it only works if people tell their own stories, it is an inspiration for what I am doing. People telling their own experiences, in a way that will last, is a big part of the identity of my capstone. But the people’s stories have to be coherent and make sense. That is what I look at here when it comes to editing.I look for how the podcast is edited to best tell the story. In essence, my podcast is not about tattoos, it is about stories, so that is why StoryCorps is a podcast that I have studies as part of my research.

Since the beginning of the year I knew that I wanted to work and get involved with children. I’ve volunteered with kids before but that organization that I was with had closed down. Therefore, I thought that my senior project would be a perfect way to interact with kids again.  At the start of the project I started volunteering with a daycare but I felt like I needed to do more. In order to add to my project starting looking at other groups and organizations that I could volunteer with. After not having any luck with that I realized that I could make a difference in the organization that I was already involved with. That organization is my church, Faith Tabernacle. I noticed that the kids around weren’t really into service and didn’t really have anything to do there. Especially since children’s church had stopped. My church is also in the heart of North Philadelphia and it’s not in the best area. So now I had two goals; I wanted to get the kids back interested in church and get the community involved in a positive way.