Amelia Benamara Capstone

For my senior capstone, I decided to focus on the overall high school experience for students. During the process of deciding on a topic, I asked myself what can I provide for the future students of the SLA community based on my four-year experience. Helping others has always been a huge passion of mine, so this was a fantastic idea. I created a short documentary posted you YouTube -- almost like a how to survive high school survival guide -- that highlights the high school experience as a whole amongst many different students, mostly including seniors since they've had the most experience. This short documentary focuses on many serious topics which include mental health, managing a job, social life, time management, what it's like attending a project-based school, relationships, sports, and college. This 'How To Survive High School' Documentary also features many students who give incoming underclassmen specific advice on many different topics that I hope they learn from. Not only does this piece sharpen the idea of high school for the students who enter it, but it also centers on specifically what the Science Leadership Academy community has to offer for its learners. As many people are aware of, SLA is different from many other Philadelphia High schools and with this video, incoming freshmen would have a better idea at what such a unique high school SLA is.

Click Here for the Documentary

Capstone Bibliography

Amelia Benamara

Carol, Britni, Adam Jack, Albert, and BritniV. "36 Super Fun Outdoor Party Games." Play.Party.Plan. June 18, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.playpartyplan.com/fun-outdoor-games/.

Not only does this source review the importance of activities amongst adults and students,

but it also gives examples of potential games and activities that a community can participate in such as the football toss and balloon down. It is very helpful in terms of what students, especially teens, need to build community and confidence within themselves. Bringing forth students in a community to especially reflect on their experiences increases their happiness

Community, and Why Is It Important?" The Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning & Dialogue | Cambridge, MA. 2005. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.ikedacenter.org/thinkers-themes/themes/community/what-is-community-responses.

The source provides adequate examples of ways to build a community and be a healthy aspect of uniting people together in any form. This adds to the purpose of having the senior class of 2019 come together during the final months of high school to compete against one another in a fun, energy building way. Riché C. Zamor, Executive Director, Professional Services Division Latin American Health Institute summarizes the purpose of having a community and constantly attempting to build the bond stronger amongst one another. This, again, brings a bigger purpose for this project, especially as a graduating class.

"5 Helpful Tips to Calm 9th Grade Nerves." CollegeVine. April 12, 2019. https://blog.collegevine.com/5-helpful-tips-to-calm-9th-grade-nerves/.

The way this website is helpful is because I wanted to begin this project solely based on how nervous my younger brother was about going to high school as a freshman. He was very frightful about managing vigorous high school work and most importantly the freshman year transition. Based on this source, tips are given to middle schoolers who are soon to enter High School which enhanced a few of the pieces of advice included in my documentary.

"Starting High School (for Teens)." KidsHealth. August 2018. https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/starting-high-school.html.

This source focuses on relieving stress in students who are going into High School. This is important to include in this bibliography and in my research as a whole because the message that I want to put out in my documentary is not to stress about things school but rather to look at school as an environment where you can seek help at the same time have fun and make the memories that you will remember years later. Many younger classmen, especially freshman, have the wrong idea going into high school -- that is a false claim and I want to change as many students’ mindsets as a whole through this short documentary.

Is It Common for People to Be Scared to Go into High School? Can You Give Me Some Tips to Survive? https://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/subjects/college/is-it-common-for-people-to-be-scared-to-go-into-high-school-can-you-give-me-some-tips-to-survive.

Much like the other sources listed above, this website gives more tips -- a little more than other sites do -- on how to relieve stress and become for entering High School. This also has positive feedback on what high school has to offer in general if you make the best of it. It also highlights how common it is to be anxious about going to high school, and with good reason. It is also important to consider that here it is said that seniors, while they seem confident now, were all in those similar shoes once before.

"High School and College Student Anxiety: Why the Epidemic?" Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201806/high-school-and-college-student-anxiety-why-the-epidemic.

Throughout this source, information and statistics about high school anxiety are included which makes my argument stronger that students who are entering High School have anxiety as well due to this very cause. Knowing that High School gives you anxiety doesn't get you excited to start and that new environment for that very reason. This also makes my initial reasoning stronger because many kids need the message to be delivered to them that high school is not scary and it is what you make it so going into Highschool with a better and positive attitude will give you better results.

"Login." TeenInk. http://www.teenink.com/opinion/school_college/article/304164/What-High-School-is-All-About/.

Here, Teen Ink explores the idea of the meaning of high school in general in a positive attitude.  As most other sources have proven a lot of students carry on the anxiety of entering High School due to a large amount of stress. However, this source gives adequate feedback on how to avoid bumping heads with stress, especially when I needed to in high school. This website also gives students the confidence of making high school what you want it to be, which is what many students failed to do when starting their journey. This also helps me obtain ideas on how to deliver these important messages to a younger group of children

Partycurrent, |. "27 Totally Silly Party Games for Adults." Partycurrent. March 27, 2014. Accessed January 25, 2019. http://www.partycurrent.com/silly-party-games.html.

This source helps and adequately demonstrate a genuine case of a sorted out arrangement of gear just as give me thoughts of certain hardware that I would need to get in a certain time allotment relying upon what kind of things they are. This site gives 27 instances of exercises or diversions that could possibly be utilized yet it additionally gives connected guidelines for each amusement that are completely clear to the crowds. A clarification is likewise included for every action that demonstrates the quality and how powerful the diversions are to the understudies/individuals that are performing them.

Schaps, Eric. "Creating a School Community." How Student Progress Monitoring Improves

Instruction - Educational Leadership. March 2003. Accessed January 25, 2019. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar03/vol60/num06/Creating-a-School-Community.aspx.

When I reviewed this article, I obtained the simple knowledge of things someone can do to bring a community together, especially in setting such as a school. Although specific activities were not mentioned, this source speaks about the importance of organizing events that will bring people together in any form. This adds more meaning to the inquiry questions I proposed to why an event like this should occur, uniting the class of 2019 through any type of activity, especially activities where reflections are included. This piece also stresses the core value of collaboration where it wise to use the resources around you, such as different organizations and teams to plan the events in mind.

Smith, Fran. "Social Networking at Science Leadership Academy." Edutopia. March 22, 2017. Accessed January 25, 2019. https://www.edutopia.org/science-leadership-academy-social-networking.

Fran Smith summarizes the importance of SLA and focuses on the core values that Center around the SLA Community which is a big part of the project that I'm planning to organize in March for the senior class of 2019.  This source is organized in a question-and-answer based style which allows the readers to understand much more about the SLA perspective on projects, events, and student life. Focusing on the main purpose of SLA, even around when it first opened, gives me a direction to go because it separates what I am supposed to focus when it comes to the student body.