For my Capstone project, I restarted and ran the chess club on Fridays. I also made a poster to put in the advisory memo to get more people to hear about it. In the chess club, I had a few lessons that I made and geared toward beginner players to teach them the basics of chess.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZOCwc5W2Fsg-X8ozKaFXSe6XFEpBVsISxWMXcvMG6Ys/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone I talked about how music had evolved in the past century specify how jazz, rock and hip hop had evolved since they were first introduced but also what impact they had. The impact these genres had on the world were fashion, literature and civil rights like how rock influenced fashion jumpsuits, combat boots as well as unique fashion styles. An example of this is Elton John who used such dazzling fashion style mainly when it came to what he wore when he performed on stage. As a way to show what the music artists style that I talked about were I used some of their songs to show why people enjoyed their music.

For my senior capstone, I created a weekly newsletter that appeared in the advisory memo every Thursday. The newsletter was meant to highlight military, political, and social developments in the Middle East, with some of the articles being about Africa and the U.S. I created the newsletter to bring attention to and educate my peers on news that I felt was misrepresented or misinterpreted by mainstream news outlets. Initially, I had wanted to create a finance application that would allow students to fundraise by partnering with local businesses; however, after speaking with Ms. Pahomov had suggested that I choose something that I was more passionate about, which led me to my current project. At the time, I was very interested in geopolitics. I felt frustrated with mainstream news outlets for their failure to properly represent developments globally, specifically regarding the Middle East, which was important to me as a Palestinian-American. This led me to more individual reporting and article writing, which is when I came across an Iranian journalist whom I felt inspired by, which made me choose this project.

Here’s the link to my website to read my articles. https://aayeshtahseen00.wixsite.com/tahseen-1

Here’s the link to my biblography. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bBg3IkmJ92RIseofLrwdG0tX_iN43LXIYUu0SBBYOOw/edit?usp=sharing

My capstone was to create a lesson plan for 1 unit of physics in order to assist the new physics teacher in their next year of teaching. To create a fully fledged lesson plan I worked with different teachers such as Mr.Kamal and Ms.T(the physics substitute). To test the lesson plan I picked out a lesson and taught a physics class. It went really well and they gave me a lot of positive feedback.

biblography https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fLA0yuzu2Si7XVepAnPnStW7eNiPHNA8JtRNV2kDZV4/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Tq8hlETCWpuTKbhZCkDSs-5oOA0jzYSx?usp=drive_link

For my Capstone project, my partner Sebastian Torres and I organized a school-wide basketball tournament at SLA, aiming to foster school spirit and community engagement. We planned a bracket-style event where student teams would compete, with the top teams facing teachers in a Student vs. Teacher game, alongside field day-style activities, a concession stand, and music to enhance the atmosphere. Throughout the process, I researched best practices for event organization, focusing on logistics, participation, and crowd management, especially given the challenge of a broken gym divider. We tried to collaborate with the NHS for event promotion, used flyers and Google Forms to recruit participants and helpers, and worked closely with staff to secure a date and resources, including a trophy for the winners. Although unforeseen scheduling conflicts prevented the event from taking place, the planning process taught me the importance of communication, flexibility, and accountability in large-scale projects. I learned that building a sense of belonging and school pride requires thoughtful organization and collaboration. Reflecting on the experience, I am proud of the structure and outreach of our project and believe it set a foundation for future community-building events at SLA.

Link to guide/bibliography: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ML_UT9yrwonRS_1Vdo5m6CvHYr9UPfd3?usp=drive_link

For my capstone project, I worked with the School District of Philadelphia on their plan for putting period products in all Philly school bathrooms. I started a mini organization called Students Against Period Poverty that advocated for more student voice to be included in the decisions being made around period products in school bathrooms. This culminated in a town hall that we led in collaboration with the School District and Philadelphia Youth Commission (which I am also a part of) where students could share their ideas and thoughts. Additionally, I met First Lady Shapiro and was able to advocate for student’s needs directly. I learned a lot about how to be a leader and a student activist, and how to get people to listen to what I have to say.

For my Capstone, I created a presentation and a guide to help the teachers support kids with chronic illnesses. I gave presentation to the teachers that included the research that I did every Wednesday and different activities so they could understand how students are affected. I chose this project because during sophomore and junior year I was struggling with my own chronic illness. From this project I learned how to conduct good research and confidently present it.

Link to my Guide: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGlTToo93Y/I3UwgPCCr13mmglz4S7bRQ/edit?utm_content=DAGlTToo93Y&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton Link to my presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1i1lF62luvK-8H2XZ_Q2FI9CDCKN1mUcTG_rrpmOET0s/edit?usp=sharing

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CWX6SY7Nv1O8fYBej6YDhaCb0_bZ5RKYmh5w5ozGf3A/edit?usp=sharing

For my capstone project, I chose to continue a project originally started two years ago and continued last year by my friend. I’m the third senior to work on this capstone. The capstone was originally a greenhouse on the sixth floor terrace. However, since I wasn’t able to get funding for a new greenhouse, I had to shift the project’s focus while maintaining its key ideas. My project had two main parts, a mini-course and a Google Site that accompanied it. Each week in November to January, I would plan out, research, and develop lessons and activities to teach to freshmen about greenhouses, gardening, and the plant cycle. This was the most difficult but also the main highlight of the project because I was able to bring “parts” of a greenhouse to people without having one. After the mini-course, the plan was to make a digital handbook for my greenhouse, but that would soon change to a Google Site containing my mini-course and all things surrounding greenhouses and gardening. Overall, I really learned a lot about a hobby I rarely have time for as well as lesson planning and teaching a class about a topic.

LINK TO CAPSTONE: https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/abloomingsla/home

LINK TO BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://docs.google.com/document/d/146_uYbrQ1pZ_cLrxsPEKeH9Fvh0nZ7dRzTAkNpLazb0/edit?usp=sharing

For my project, I have used the negative emotions and misery that I have personally experienced into pieces of art that others can either relate to or maybe even feel inspired by. There were a couple adjustments I had to make to my proposal and my idea overall, but eventually I came to what was truest to myself which was creating poetry based on what I’ve been through! I have learned that the best art is created not by thinking about what others feel, but about what you feel and how you can capture that and pour it into art. I hope that by being able to express my vulnerability and put it out into the world, it encourages others to do so as well to remind everyone that we are all struggling in some way. Having that as a reminder from a person, a website, or even a poem is enough to make the world a slightly better place. Happy reading!

For my Capstone project, I wanted to do something creative that represents myself, so I decided to create a short comic that reflected my own experiences regarding self discovery. In total, there are five complete chapters uploaded online. Every panel was drawn by me; using no bases or pre-drawn backgrounds. Over the course of this year, I improved my digital art and storytelling abilities. Each panel took over two to three hours to complete, with the longest taking fifteen hours. The final product has been uploaded through a free online publisher.