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For my capstone I made a website of what to think about before deciding to go to college. I decided on this website because throughout the past few years I have been debating the pros and cons of the topic. I researched this topic in hopes that future high school graduates could use this as a resource when having to make the same decision we all do. Website: http://tmayberrycapstone2021.simplesite.com
For my capstone, I decided to focus on food sustainability and how people in the SLA community can lessen their personal food waste. I did this by creating the “SLA Pledge to Food Sustainability.” I chose this topic because of my interest in food, its systems, and its environmental impact. My first step was to gather participants of students, teachers, and parents at SLA and ask them what they knew about food sustainability. Then, over the course of eight weeks, I prompted them to try out new sustainability techniques such as meal planning, using more leftovers and trying out low-waste recipes. I also gave them tips on how to live a more sustainable lifestyle each week. After sending out four of these surveys over the course of two months, I analyzed the results to see what a small sample of people thought of food sustainability. After this, I decided to put my findings, plus all of the resources I used, on a website so more people could utilize the information. Although completing my capstone during the pandemic presented its challenges, I am proud that I was able to do everything I could do, especially it all being online.
You can find my final website here: https://mberger21.wixsite.com/mysite
Here is my annotated bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16ydFI6gOmKzcCm6kdPn3UTLntUHKzPL_WOfCcORGAEo/edit?usp=sharing
Example of planned meal through my capstone surveys
For my capstone, I created a mentorship program called “SLA’s Mentorship Program”, between freshmen and upperclassmen. With this school year being very nontraditional, I wanted to try to find a way to help the SLA community during such weird times. The freshmen class of 2024 is the first-ever class to start high school online. SLA is already a complicated and intricate school to navigate, and online school even makes it more difficult to process. With this mentorship program, I paired freshmen with juniors and seniors that helped freshmen navigate their first year of high school. I provided weekly tasks in which mentees (freshmen) and mentors (upperclassmen) completed each week which helped them get to know each other and help freshmen through their freshmen year. Mentors were rewarded 2 hours of community service each week in which I documented and kept track of throughout the school year. On the last Thursday of every month, mentors and mentees participated in a Show & Tell in which pairs would share with the rest of the program about what they learned about each other that month and what they learned about themselves. Mentorship and fellowship have always been important to my development as a young black girl. I am grateful for the many people that inspired me and I wanted to give back to SLA community the same way others did the same for me. It has truly been a journey operating my own mentorship program, but I am so glad that I was able to make this happen this year. Link to Capstone: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rX6O52CC9u__RU8QHb-AIAfYEEwXnhRlaD4Fz9BtfJk/edit?usp=sharing Link to Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HCAoR5K14cKIfe1P5R384vKaf67MCHd_MHV_l7VCyU8/edit?usp=sharing
