Community Service and Outreach - experiences that foster social and or community awareness by helping others within the community.
"My project will be working in wildlife rehabilitation. My mom is a licensed wildlife rehabilitation specialist with the state of Massachusetts, and recently, our wildlife service also became officially recognized as a nonprofit. In this project, I will be helping my mom with all the things in wildlife rehab that she has to do. Most of the patients we receive will be baby birds or baby raccoons, mice, or voles, which became separated from a parent and need to be healthily raised until they are able to be released, so for this, I will be feeding the animals, possibly cleaning their enclosures, if any of them are physically injured I will learn how to treat such things, and gaining a greater awareness and knowledge of the wildlife in Massachusetts. In my project, I will likely also outline general tips for average viewers on what to do if they find an injured/orphaned animal, and how they can be a better ally to wildlife and conservation in their day to day lives."
-Student Application 2023
"... retirement homes is affordable, low income housing for senior citizens in Worcester. I will be working to create and implement activities to help reduce social isolation for seniors in their home. I have volunteered there in the past, and I very much enjoy connecting with the seniors. I want to use this capstone as an opportunity to put activities and resources in place that help seniors enjoy retirement, and also help them connect to younger generations, by teaching them how to use technology and the internet. I'm going to develop lesson plans and reference materials to help the elderly and as my project. I will be offering the same final lesson to the showcase audience to spread awareness of the digital divide."
-Student Application 2024
"My project aims to resolve the lack of attendance at school events, specifically sports games. Having more students present at games would boost school spirit, culture, and morale, and this starts with awareness and advertisement. I would work to improve the publicizing of sports games so that the student body is aware and interested in attending. This would be accomplished through two social media elements. First, I’d be using the Hiller Athletics Instagram account to create graphics and edits about the various upcoming games and competitions. Second, I would interview a few athletes from each spring sports team. All of this I would post on Hiller Athletics. By being notified about the dates of upcoming events and by understanding their peers’ passion about their sports, students would be more likely to attend, therefore increasing the school spirit."
-Student Application 2024
"We will direct a small scale musical production for the 4th and 5th grade students at Hopkins Elementary. We would have rehearsals after school for two days a week where we would learn music, dances, scenes, and later bring in other theatrical aspects like costumes, props, and sets. Then, we would have a final performance for friends and family to come see. I plan on pursuing musical theater in college and I've always enjoyed working with younger kids at my job at a youth community theater. We've noticed a lack of theater exposure and opportunity for the younger students, as none of the elementary schools in Hopkinton offer anything like that. It was something that I missed having as a kid who was very interested in theater and wanted to do more. I was lucky enough to have access to a youth theater that I could participate in and we have the HCA here in town as a resource as well, but not all students may be able to afford to do theater or take classes in these places so we wanted to create an opportunity for them to have that within their very own school and hopefully introduce theater to many kids who may have never found this interest because they hadn't had access to it."
-Student Application 2025