For my capstone, I recreated photos of Philadelphia taken from between the 1950s and 1970s. I chose those two decades in particular because that was a period of conflicted change in Philadelphia. My final product is a booklet that compares each old photo with the ones I took of the same locations in 2021.

This project is very exploratory. There were two main goals for it, the first being to help people who are new to Philadelphia by providing ideas on where to go or what to explore. The second goal is to give historical context in an attempt to answer why and how things look the way they do today. The booklet starts with chapters about recreational areas, areas in Philadelphia that are designed and/or used for activities done for enjoyment. Its second half talks more about structures that have been present for a long time or have an interesting history. Nevertheless, anyone can pick up this booklet, read through it, and even go to the locations listed to witness how attractive they are for themselves.

Link to my booklet on Google Drive (If the file is too large for preview, you will have to download it): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sSG_4Vwroz1pFHFKa5QV_o7ERpDBLZIS/view?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CcUKHH5yYR-yPunHAxoLE8DTl5YfU5Ce8yE-HN5j5p4/edit?usp=sharing

My capstone was to create an Etsy shop, AStellarCraft, which is linked below, to see how digital media and consumer goods where connected. This would also help provide me experience and eventually lead me to my future career in marketing and advertising. All the profits that I made from this store was donated to the Trevor Project, and the receipt of my donation is also shown below. I have during the time of lockdown and coronavirus, I have been able to hone and study a new skill: crocheting. I wanted to use this skill to not only help gay youth around the country, but also investigate the ties between what I have been studying in CTE Digital Video for the past three years and the abundance of online marketplaces and stores. AStellarCraft: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AStellarCraft

Biblography: https://tinyurl.com/biblography

For my capstone, I wanted to open up a discussion about what it means to have an athlete’s mindset and how influential it can be on an individual’s life, especially for student-athletes. I decided that the best way to do this during the COVID-19 pandemic would be to host a podcast.

Hence, The Understanding Athletes Podcast was born. The Understanding Athletes Podcast contains five episodes in total, each ranging from 10-20 minutes in length. Each episode of the podcast features a different student-athlete, whom I interview about their experiences as a student-athlete and how the lessons that they have learned from those experiences better equip them to tackle challenges that they are faced with outside of sports and the classroom.

The goal of The Understanding Athletes Podcast is to educate individuals who have not experienced being a student-athlete about how impactful athletics can be for individuals who have experienced it. Athletics are more than just a sport, it is a way of life. Sports teach you how to conduct yourself on and off the mat/field/court, molding individuals into leaders, and I would like to make more people aware of how much having the mindset of an athlete can do for them.

I hope that The Understanding Athletes Podcast allows everyone to have a deeper understanding of what it means to be a student-athlete, and possibly motivates people to try a sport or athletic activity themselves. Thank you to all of the interviewees, as well as everyone else who has helped me throughout this process. Enjoy!

For my capstone, I wanted to explore something that I was really passionate about while also still trying to have fun and be motivated throughout my project. I then realized that being in the CTE Digital Video program provided an excellent opportunity to create a mini-documentary on Hallyu culture and k-pop specifically. My senior capstone is titled “K-popping A Bubble” and it is a mini-documentary that provides the history and context behind Hallyu culture and K-pop specifically. This documentary is split into five distinct sections aside from the introduction and conclusion: What is K-pop?, The Uprising of K-pop, The Golden Era & Global Breakthrough and K-popping the Bubble. I wanted to create this documentary with the intent of educating people who may not have much knowledge in Hallyu culture and K-pop while also bringing attention to certain topics that people who do like k-pop may not be well versed in. Throughout the creation of this capstone, I learned a great wealth of information about k-pop that I myself have never heard of, giving me more fuel for the passion that is the flame of my obsession with K-pop. I was also able to fully assess my capacity as a student and was able to challenge my research, time management and communication skills. In the end, I am proud of a product that I am able to show to anyone, so I hope you check it out below!

Here is my annotated bibliography: https://tinyurl.com/PKCapstone21

As I was deciding and brainstorming ideas for my capstone, I stumbled across a documentary on Netflix called “Social Dilemma”. In this documentary, they talked about the monster that is social media, That social media was created with good intentions, but it soon turned into a money-grabbing machine for many tech companies. I realized that this was something that was always in the back of my head, but I didn’t pay much attention to. Therefore, I created this podcast to learn other people’s point of views from my fellow classmates at SLA, in addition to discussing the pros and cons of social media and the internet. Within this podcast, the topics range from college, mental health, personal finance, and many more. The goal of this capstone is to help others who might possibly stumble upon the podcast to really stop, think about what’s being discussed, and hopefully take something away. I’ve linked the podcast playlist down below, feel free to check it out!

Link to playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuPgjVNxdcweR34Obr_i4DrbkJ-YwUzb4

As I was brainstorming my capstone project over the summer of 2020 I often found myself watching NBA Basketball games while looking through the current news of the world on my phone. I suppose the world of politics and sports being on my mind for months lead to the creation of this project. I wanted to do something that could answer why the sports world was becoming so involved in politics. I settled on wanting to work on something that would allow for my thoughts to flow and create discussions after the audience listens to it. I created a podcast series called The Political Sports Podcast. In this podcast, I discuss the different events where politics and sports have crossed over and come together. I don’t try to answer any questions with definitive statements because I want the audience to think about their own opinions. I believe I have learned a lot about the specific scenarios where sports and politics intersected. I have also learned about why these events are happening more often and what this means for the future as I discussed in the podcast. I have learned that politics have been involved in the sports community for decades, but now it is becoming more commonplace for athletes to become involved in politics. I really enjoyed working on this project and I hope everyone who listens enjoys it too.

TheUndefeated. “Colin Kaepernick Protests Anthem over Treatment of Minorities.” The Undefeated, The Undefeated, 3 Sept. 2016, theundefeated.com/features/colin-kaepernick-protests-anthem-over-treatment-of-minorities/.

Jenkins, Sally. “Perspective | This Is Why Colin Kaepernick Took a Knee.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 May 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/05/30/this-is-why-colin-kaepernick-took-knee/.

Ellis, Ralph, and Steve Almasy. “NBA Players Protest Racist Talk Attributed to L.A. Clippers Owner Donald Sterling.” CNN, Cable News Network, 28 Apr. 2014, www.cnn.com/2014/04/27/us/nba-team-owner-alleged-racist-remarks/index.html.

Zucker, Joseph. “Clippers Owner Donald Sterling Banned for Life from NBA for Racist Remarks.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 26 Sept. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2042902-clippers-owner-donald-sterling-banned-for-life-from-nba-for-racist-remarks.

Hill, Jemele. “The WNBA Can’t Keep Kelly Loeffler Around.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 11 Jan. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/kelly-loeffler-doesnt-belong-in-the-wnba/617632/.

MarcJSpears. “’Black Lives Matter, People’: How the NBA’s Social Justice Efforts Dominated the Season.” The Undefeated, The Undefeated, 14 Oct. 2020, theundefeated.com/features/how-the-nba-social-justice-efforts-dominated-the-season/.

Stein, Marc. “Led by N.B.A., Boycotts Disrupt Pro Sports in Wake of Blake Shooting.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/sports/basketball/nba-boycott-bucks-magic-blake-shooting.html.

Parks, Miles. “NBA Arenas Are Becoming Voting Centers. Will They Draw The Same Crowds?” NPR, NPR, 30 Oct. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/10/30/929470574/nba-arenas-are-becoming-voting-centers-will-they-draw-the-same-crowds.

Blakemore, Erin. “How the Black Power Protest at the 1968 Olympics Killed Careers.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 22 Feb. 2018, www.history.com/news/1968-mexico-city-olympics-black-power-protest-backlash.

Sheridan, Chris. “Sports And Politics Are Mixed Forever; Get Used To It.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 29 Aug. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/chrissheridan/2020/08/29/sports-and-politics-are-mixed-forever-get-used-to-it/?sh=5b02312e6a54.