Through my capstone project, I got a chance to embrace my career goal in life. Down the line, I would like to have my own pro-black topic-centered podcast/news channel in the future after college only celebrating blackness in a light that motivates, elevates, and inspires others. Being that the core values of SLA are inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation, and reflection, I made my project centered around all 5. Beginning with Inquiry, I developed a question, What leads to a healthy discussion about deep philosophical questions that don’t have a yes or no answer and are completely opinionated? Journalism is centered around philosophy and asking questions that cannot always be answered making it objective. The second aspect of creating my podcasts was research, using sources that I found while forming my annotated bibliography, I discovered new ways to articulate my stance and direct facts from articles that fit my opinion. The difficulty I had with collaborating was getting volunteers to feature on the podcast, understanding that recording podcasts with minors is difficult due to liability, I decided to record on my own instead of creating a new model of collaboration. Instead, during black student union meetings, I decided to play clips from podcasts every week to discuss creating new opposing opinions. Presenting a podcast is hard when I worked from my room, however, I still managed to find a way to present. Below is linked a compilation of clips from each podcast that I created, this way those who are reviewing my work don’t have to listen to each podcast one by one, instead, the 5-minute compilation sums it up generally. Overall, while reflecting, this project has made me see how much I really do want to talk about these topics as a career in life and how much I could teach others through my knowledge of these significant topics about black people. I am excited to see what life brings after college due to this project.

Digital evidence-

Below is a link to a compilation of clips from each of my podcasts;

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2688277088

Annotated Bibliography-

Below is a link to my Annotated Bibliography;

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nqFTWio6qcP6KGsrR_sKQ3fx0359eMlv5cXZ8rvfNw8/edit?usp=sharing

For my senior capstone, I wanted to do something that I thought could hopefully have a lasting impact on the community at Science Leadership Academy as well as businesses and institutions around the city of Philadelphia. Talking with Mr. Kamal, my capstone advisor and engineering teacher at SLA, I realized that what I wanted to do was be able to educate people on how to better live a more sustainable life. But more importantly, I wanted to see how large businesses and institutions handled everything from electricity to food purchasing and disposal. With the help of The Franklin Institute and more specifically Dr. Rachel Valletta, an environmental scientist at the museum, I was able to come up with an idea to research different sustainability and climate action plans around the city and compile the information into something that can help people understand what is being done and what can be done. After researching about 25 in-depth plans from organizations and institutions that affected the city, I was able to narrow down what worked well in all of these plans and which plans do it best to serve as an example for others. I hope that this project allows for everyone to have a deeper understanding of what is possible so we can all push for a healthier earth.

Here is a link to the website:

https://alaban20.wixsite.com/mysite

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q5BmHmRafKmzUsln80bRwXlwDvTPLq4oANN8UvRJb_o/edit?usp=sharing