​​For my capstone I chose to make a documentary about hispanic/latino representation in the media and how society treats hispanics/latinos because of this issue. I have conducted several interviews which feature different students and their thoughts on hispanic/latino stereotypes that they have observed in movies, television, billboards, etc. The students I interviewed gave a short introduction about themselves and where they were from, I asked them questions that ranged from personal experiences to people they may know that have been affected by stereotypes. The questions I asked will also help the audience understand how stereotypes can alter the daily lives of not just hispanics/latinos but of other cultures and ethnicities as well. Finally the last question I asked in my documentary will require the students I interviewed to define the difference between hispanics and latinos/latinas. By doing this the audience will understand how hispanics and latinos/latinas are separate from each other, my overall goal for creating this documentary is to inform those who don’t have to worry about stereotypes or people assuming different things based on topics they may see in the media and for those who may be concerned with issues surrounding the hispanic/latino community.

For my senior capstone I decided to do something that was relevant to who I am and what I love to do. I noticed that many of the cultural and traditional values in the Latino community tend to fade away in U.S. because they're not in their country of origin. My overall goal was to restate the importance of Latino values and why it’s so important to pay tribute to them.With this project I touched on the following topics; family, social justice, stereotypical views, the role Latinos play in the U.S, and Religion. These topics play a role in my personal life and also in the lives of many others, which I why I chose to do them. I wanted to bring attention to these topics to give the audience a sense of what many families with Latino/Hispanic descent have in their lives. My inspiration for this gallery was the artistic style of Frida Kahlo. Most of the work is inspired by her life and the way she lived it. This is specifically focused on the traditional ways of Latin American art. I learned more things about my culture and discovered new ways to view the world. This capstone process was a very long but has finally has come to an end. This project definitely reflects who I am as person, and defines my interests and the way that this country has changed me.

Bibliography:

"Language Positions." Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency, 21 Apr. 2007. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

This source is from the Central Intelligence Agency and it shows what positions they need filled that have to do with foreign languages. They need people who can speak and understand other languages, particularly the ones that they use while under security breaches. On this site they are explaining the different language programs they have to train their employees with or programs that their employees use to sharpen their language skills with. I can use this as a source because this source shows that there is a huge demand for jobs using other languages. This can be used as an incentive for the students now, because it means that if they are proficient in the language that they are learning, a job can almost be guaranteed.

Dounay, Jennifer. "High School Graduation Requirements: Foreign Language." 50-State Comparison. Education Commission of the States, 23 Mar. 2007. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

This source is from the education commission of the states and it is a list of the states and their requirements of foreign language education for the students to graduate. The list includes how many credits each state requires the students to have. This source is helpful to me because it shows how many states have implemented foreign language education. This shows students that they are the not the only ones learning a new language. Also it’s sad because there aren’t that many states that require language credits to graduate and this provides proof that we need to have more states have requirements.

Duncan, Arne. "Education and Language Gap." Foreign Language Summit. University of Maryland, Washington D.C. 8 Dec. 2010. U.S. Department of Education. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

This is a speech that the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, made at the Foreign Language Summit that the CIA director called for in 2010. In the speech he talks about how the U.S. is falling behind other countries in the foreign language education. He wants to bridge the language gap that the U.S. is experiencing. This helps me because this is an important figure in the education world who is speaking out about how we have to fix the education system around foreign language. This shows that people actually care about having foreign language education in schools and that they want to fix the problem that no one is requiring language credits for graduating high school students.

Franzén, Carl G. F. “Foreign Language Teaching in the High Schools of Iowa”. The School Review 29.8 (1921): 610–616. Web...

This source is a book that was written about the foreign language teaching in the high schools of Iowa. They had a program that taught high schoolers Latin, Spanish, French, and Norse. This book is a report on how the schools taught the languages and what schools offered what languages. It also noted the successfulness of the language classes and how the class sizes didn’t differ from language to language. This source will help me because it shows that the practice of learning different languages happened early in this century. It proves that students in high school actually want to learn languages and that they would excel in language programs put in schools.

Hancock, Charles R. "Alternative Assessment and Second Language Study: What and Why?" Alternative Assessment and Second Language Study: What and Why? (1994): n. pag. Digests. Center for Applied Linguistics. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

This source is talking about a different way for the people who are studying a second language to take tests because our education system is not the greatest at the moment. When you add in a second language to the testing system, the students tend to do worse. This can create problems in the student’s minds and make them want to hate the language. This is problem that only seems to appear in the U.S. education system. This source helps me because it shows that students have an unhealthy relationship with the language and then it makes them not want to study the language anymore.

Kibler, Amanda, and Sandy Philipose. "What the Research Shows." American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, n.d. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

This source is a website that has lists of why teaching foreign languages in schools are good for the students. One of the reasons that foreign language education is helpful is because the student’s academic achievement improves in areas other than the foreign language education course. Also some researchers believe that learning another language also provides cognitive benefits. This source can help me because it is a list of the sources that I can use for proving a certain point about why learning a language is beneficial for students. If there is a certain point that people would argue against learning a second language, I can point them to this page. Or if students feel as if learning a second language is not important to them, I can show them all the research and benefits.

Panetta, Leon E. "Foreign Language Education: If 'Scandalous' in the 20th Century, What Will It Be in the 21st Century?" Foreign Language Summit. University of Maryland, Washington D.C. 8 Dec. 2010. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

This is another speech from the foreign language summit, this one made by the CIA director. In the speech he says that the U.S. has a weak foreign language policy and that there are plenty of other countries that are better than us. He wants to put programs in all grades in school, which should help the children with learning languages but also with learning about cultures. He talks about the history of foreign language education and about how it fell through with the World Wars. This source is very helpful to me because he touches on everything that I want people to know about foreign language education. This source explains some of the history and what went wrong and how we can fix it to make a better tomorrow for the students of today.

Payne, William Morton. “Modern Language Teaching in Secondary Schools”. The School Review 2.2 (1894): 74–82. Web...

This report was published in 1894 about the teaching of other languages in high schools. The author writes about certain ways that they can improve their programs because they aren’t very good. The report also talks about how learning a language in high school can be the best education a man can get because they are learning other men’s languages. This can still apply to today’s students because their peers may have a first language that is not English. This research helps me because it shows that people before today, have taken a second language and had it help their lives and careers.

Rhodes, Nancy C., and Ingrid Pufahl. Foreign Language Teaching in the U.S. Schools. Rep. N.p.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 2009. Print.

This source is an executive summary of a report that the Center for Applied Linguistics produces about a national survey that researches the programs and the enrollment of foreign language education in primary and secondary schools. The data that they include in the report is all about the how much instruction the children receive, the languages that are offered, immersion schools, and how much time is actually spent speaking the language. This report is very helpful for me because it shows what schools are doing to make sure that the children are getting the best foreign language education and it suggests what schools can do better. This shows that lots of schools are trying to implement foreign language education and that the students are receiving the instruction well.

Tucker, G. Richard. "A Global Perspective on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education." A Global Perspective on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education (1999): n. pag. Digests. Center for Applied Linguistics. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

For my Capstone project I designed a piece of software called Ribbon. Ribbon is a word processor designed specifically for screenplays since screenplays have a very specific format in which they are supposed to be written. The format includes unusual capitalization and indentation to convey character dialog, actions, new scenes, and other components of film.

The process of designing and making Ribbon consisted of a lot more planning than I had anticipated. During Capstone Week, I spent a lot of time doing research on different ways of organizing the code I was writing. This was very helpful because it made the code I was writing much easier to understand and follow but it also made it more difficult to write code because I was forced to follow a rigid structure.

I learned a lot about programming and my personal capabilities. First, I learned that there are so many resources available for free and on the Internet to allow you to do things with computers that I did not think I was able to do so easily. Second, I learned that a huge amount of software development is spent on thinking about the way the code should be structured rather than writing the actual code. This makes it much easier for other developers to come along later and contribute to your work.

The source code for the application as well as the application itself can be downloaded here.

Works Cited

Buschmann, Frank, Kevlin Henney, and Douglas C. Schmidt. On Patterns and Pattern Languages. Chichester: Wiley, 2007. Wikibooks. Web. 2 Feb. 2016. Rather than focusing on the components of a piece of software, On patterns and pattern languages emphasizes the relationship between different components. These are called patterns and thinking of my software in terms of the patterns I'm using rather than the components I'm creating has become very helpful in the writing of my code. The more thought I put in to the patterns I use, the easier it becomes for others to understand what the code does and to contribute to the project. Writing using patterns introduces other problems. It’s easy for me to write code that is messy but does the job effectively. To write code following strict patterns is difficult. This source has also made me realize that I need to plan out what code I’m going to write a lot more before I get to writing it.

Demaree, David. "The Art of the Commit." The Art of the Commit · An A List Apart Article. A List Apart & David Demaree, 02 Feb. 2016. Web. 02 Feb. 2016. This article is an excerpt from David Demaree's Git For Humans. My open-source project is being hosted online by a website called Github. Each time I save my project to Github, I must save it with a short message describing what I've changed. This article describes the best way to construct those message so others (and myself) can understand how my project has changed overtime. This is particularly important for making my project open-source. If I want other people to contribute to my project, they need to be able to understand what is going on. If people want to look at an older version of my project, it will be easy for them to find which version they are looking for because every time I save the project to Github, there will be a short message associated with it.

Fedosejev, Artemij. React. js Essentials. Packt Publishing Ltd, 2015. I am using a software framework called React.js. This book is a great book to reference if I do not know how to do something in React. Using React in my application will help me make Ribbon organized and will ensure that I use effective and easy-to-understand programming patterns. React introduces a lot of new conventions and concepts to my code-writing. Therefore, a reference book about React is necessary so I can refer to it at points in the code-writing process where I’m lost. React.js Essentials comes with great examples of how to use React effectively that are easy to understand. Given the important role that React plays in my project, having a React reference book is an absolute necessity.

Fogel, Karl. Producing Open Source Software: How to Run a Successful Free Software Project. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2005. Producing Open Source Software. Karl Fogel, 2005. Web. 2 Feb. 2016. Karl Fogel writes about how to create an open-source project that gains attention and support. He does not deal with the technical, programmatic side of development as much as he deals with how to publicize your project effectively and make sure that once people are aware of your project they continue to pay attention to your project. While I’m developing my app I must be mindful of how what I’m doing may affect how other people see my project. If I’m not careful about the changes I make to my project and how I share those changes publicly on the project page (http://github.com/blockaj/ribbon) it could alienate people who may otherwise contribute to my project.

"Gulp API Docs." GitHub. Gulp, 17 Dec. 2015. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. Gulp is a task manager. While I am developing my application, it’s important that I can easily compile the code I’m writing. It is Gulp’s job to manage all of that. The Gulp API Docs are documentation about how to use Gulp. Without this, the workflow of my project would be very slow and inefficient. Using Gulp will relieve me of a lot of tedious work. Knowing how to use it is obviously essential in being able to use it. This documentation is a very good instruction on how to use Gulp so that my workload is a little less.  

Hahn, Jungpil, Jae Yun Moon, and Chen Zhang. "Emergence of new project teams from open source software developer networks: Impact of prior collaboration ties." Information Systems Research 19.3 (2008): 369-391. This source talks about why people join open-source projects. One of the most compelling reasons is that the contributors have strong ties to the initiator (in this case, me). This is important to keep in mind. The people who may contribute the most to my project may already be around me. In addition, this source is useful because I can use to market my open-source project to developers. At this point in my project, I’ve worked the least on trying to attract others to contribute to my project. If I want to start focusing on this more, I should learn more about why people contribute to open-source projects.

Kubrick, Stanley, and Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange: A Screenplay. Hollywood Scripts, 1970. While having a description of the format of a screenplay is helpful, it’s also very helpful to see a full and polished screenplay. As I progress through the process of developing my application, I will compare the screenplays I write in Ribbon to this screenplay. If, by comparison, everything looks good, I know I’m okay to move on. I can also use the screenplay to see how character and story development works in a real screenplay. Similar to the McKee source, A Clockwork Orange: A Screenplay could give me good insights on some features that would be helpful for experienced and skilled screenwriters to have in a word processor.

McKee, Robert. Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. This book describes the process of writing a screenplay. It goes over how to develop a story and characters. The reason I find it helpful is that it gives me an idea of what things are important to a screenwriter. This could clue me in onto some good ideas for features I may include in my software. It also has some good information about how screenplays should be styled which are also very helpful. If I want my software to format screenplays effectively, there should be a reputable source behind the way I chose to format the screenplay.

Mockus, Audris, Roy T. Fielding, and James D. Herbsleb. "Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla." ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) 11.3 (2002): 309-346. This case study looks at two of the biggest existing open-source projects: Mozilla and Apache. One of the things this source addresses that other sources in this bibliography do not discuss is an open-source project’s ability to compete with commercial products. This source is useful to me because it describes what makes open-source software so successful. It explains what Mozilla and Apache do right as open-source projects and what they do wrong. There’s is a lot I can learn from this source about how to make my project a successful open-source project and not just a successful piece of software.

Rising, Linda, and Norman S. Janoff. "The Scrum software development process for small teams." IEEE software 17.4 (2000): 26. This is a simple explanation of the Scrum software development process. It incorporates using patterns to develop software with a workflow. I can use this source to learn how to work more efficiently on my project while still writing good code. This source also relates to the Buschmann source which is all about using patterns in programming. Scrum software development may also be useful if others want to contribute to my open-source project. If they decide to, using a development process could help make sure that not only my code is good and organized but theirs is as well. Trust me, this is a good source.

"About Dr. Cross." Cross Plastic Surgery. N.p., 17 July 2011. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

Kevin J. Cross is the plastic surgeon who is the major interviewee for my capstone. He’s known for his highly skilled expertise of making someone who went under the knife look as though they hadn’t. He is board certified and his scores had ranked him in the top 3% nationwide. He has an extensive education background, attending Cornell University, New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University. He is an AOA honors graduate from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His success is due to his method of making an individualized treatment plan for each patients based off of different variables.

Andersen, Erika. "Please Don't Do These 9 Things In An Interview." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 3 June 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

This article was written by someone who has conducted many interviews. These tips are for higher level jobs, more professional, like newsprint companies or business-attire jobs. Each tip stems from an interview that she has done with someone before. There is the tip to be your own person, not to agree with everything that employer is saying because they could be testing you to see if you’re being genuine. There’s also the point of policing your voice to make sure the interviewer has time to actually ask questions. She had one lady who wouldn’t allow her to really say anything because she just kept talking. It’s also good to know some background about the company and not to go in blind, as you can appear as though you’re not really interested.

"Aspiring Docs." Aspiring Docs. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

This website has multiple links that explains the process of preparing for medical school starting in high school. It mentions what high school classes you may want to take and any other extra programs you can do to start your path. There’s also a page where there are many stories that are from medical student explaining different topics such as the first time they meet a patient, what’s it’s like getting married while in medical school, and other things of that nature. This site is very resourceful for people want are considering going into the medical field.

"Interview DOs and DON'TS." Virginia Tech. N.p., 07 Oct. 2015. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

This website describes what and what not to do during an interview. The don’ts are important tips,as they can cost you a good job/connect/deal. While most people will give you a quick list of the typical dont’s such as not to chew gum or come late, this list goes a little deeper. Falsification of any information reflects bad on you, and if you’re hired, the company as well. It could land them in a legal problem.

"Interviewing Skills: What to Do During an Interview." GCFLearnFree.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

This site talked about business etiquette. It was all about how to present yourself when being interviewed. One of the skills they mentioned was to pace yourself so that the person who is interviewing you sees that you’re taking time to think about what you’re going to say. It also says to cut back on the uhms or any words of uncertainty and to have confidence in your voice.

"Requirements for Becoming a Physician." Requirements for Becoming a Physician. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

This source talks the stages of becoming a doctor. You have to start as an undergraduate and go through medical school, your residency, and then your fellowship. It outlines in particular what you have to do in each one of those steps. The lengthy part to becoming a doctor comes after your schooling is done. The residency program for family practices takes 3 years, while general surgery takes up to 5 years. The fellowship, however, is only needed if you want to do to be highly specialization in certain fields, such as gastroenterology. It goes a little into certifications and license to be able to legally practice. Though a doctor or physician maybe be certified, they have to do yearly coursework to assure they are current with the education.  

"Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

This website breaks down the general statistics of surgeons and physicians. Similar to the other websites, it talks about what they do and how to become one. What this website does have that the others don’t is the breakdown of pay wages and the projected growth of employment. According to the website, there is a project  14% increase in how many surgeons and physicians are going to be employed. That’s nearly 10,000 new doctors a year. Surgeons and physicians make the most out of all the occupations, around $187,000 more a year.

Carucci, John. "Ten Tips for DSLR Documentary Filmmaking." - For Dummies. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

These are just simple, basic tips for making a film with a DSLR. It’s about the angle and the interaction with your work. When conducting interviews, you have to decide which way you want them facing  and how the lighting is going to be. In my interviews the camera is looking forward wiht me off to the right so the interviewee is not looking straight at the camera, they’re looking off screen at me. The lighting is important as well. You don’t want too harsh lighting that it makes the subject look washed out, but you don’t want too soft lighting to make the subject undetectable on screen.

Spector, Col. "5 Simple Mistakes Documentary Filmmakers Make." Raindance. N.p., 13 Nov. 2012. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

This source outlines what the common mistakes people who make documentaries do. The author has won awards for his films made with BBC and Channel 4 in the UK. The one thing that can make a documentary come off bad is if there isn’t a “vision”, meaning there wasn’t much thought and prep going into the video, If you just film and piece videos together, it’s not that special, but if you know how you want it to play out, and you do it, you’re making a masterpiece. Also, cheesy music in the back can kill the mood and vibe of the documentary. It’s supposed to coincide with the film, complementing it in  the right spots. The obvious one is to have terrible footage. If you try to film something and it’s poorly done, you can better your audience is going to know.