Reflections

This month's capstone progress has been a rollercoaster. I changed the entire course of my project to a completely new idea. Typically making such a huge change would stress me out, but I have a closer connection to my new capstone project idea than I did with my last one. I have a cousin who struggled with drug addiction, but also a family friend who was 14 and passed away due to an unintentional fentanyl overdose. Her death shocked her family and ours, and we felt the pain of losing such a bright person to something so hidden and dangerous. I have a few questions so far for my project, including what will my final product be, and how I plan on solving this issue. I know I possibly want to have a presentation, but I want something physical to be able to hand out or hang up to remind people of my capstone and its importance. In class, our activities and work on thinking of large issues in our community that affect the people around us really helped influence my change in my capstone idea. Outside of class, I've spoken with Ms. Sebastian about why this project idea is important to me and asked if she would be willing to help me move my capstone forward. So far, she said she would be willing to support me in any way, shape, or form that I need. My next step is to think about the physical part of my capstone, and what my product is going to be. I am very excited to see where my project goes, and I hope that my final product will be able to help others. 

My capstone project progress this month showed me how much work you have to put into a capstone project (depending on what your project is of course). This month, I did more research and worked hard on my project proposal. A question that I am still working on answering is the "How" aspect of my project. I want to have a clear answer as to "how" am I going to present my information clearly, appropriately, and accurately. This is something I wrote about in my proposal, and I think I am close to answering it. In capstone class, the most helpful thing to me is peer editing. It is so helpful and beneficial to me to have someone else check my work over, and ask me questions they have about my process or my project. This allows me to think more about what I need to discuss or address in my presentations. Outside of class, I haven't worked on my capstone project too much—especially because I am beginning to get swamped with loads of work. Even though I am extremely busy, whenever I get the chance, I check the news and social media to see if anything related to Fentanyl has happened, so I can write it down and look into the situation more. For my capstone project, my next steps are to finalize my proposal, work on my capstone site, and gain more research. My goals are pretty broad and they are a lot of work, but if I give myself more goals, I can see which ones I need to target first. I hope that by the end of this month and the next I feel like I progressed with all my work. 

This month was all about work. I worked on my prototype, my semester one final presentation, and my time management skills. With Capstone being so independent, I really had to make sure I was working when I needed to. Overall, I had to work on keeping myself on track. I hear a lot of my friends say that they fall off track, and then later it hurts their progress. I want to make sure that this doesn't happen to me, especially since I can get distracted by everything else in my life. This month I hope to finish my Final Presentation for this semester, and get ready for the short month of December and winter break after that.  

During the short work month of December, I continued to work and finalize my presentation and start thinking about the next steps of my project. What else do I want to do? I decided to go ahead and plan to make posters for campus and think about potentially making a website. The website would be a last moment decision. I don't know entirely what I would put on the website, but I do know that I could add an element of emotion if I chose to have interviews with teachers and parents who are worried about fentanyl in their community, especially worried for their children's safety. 

In January, I focused on critiquing my project. I wanted to fix any little mistakes or errors that I had, or anything that I felt wasn't 100% completed after my prototype. By the end of the month, I finished my localized research and ensured that I had all the information I needed to give my final presentations and answer any questions my audience had. My greatest achievement this month was probably creating my calendar for myself to help keep me on track. I need to make sure that my final project is going to be completed by the final deadline in March, and I also need to make sure I have enough time to feel confident in that final product. My final product is my live presentation to the Freshman class along with their feedback forms. I am excited for what's next to come, and I hope I stay working hard, especially with how busy these next few months are going to be.   

A lot of my work this month began to fall behind, especially with Olympics, student council, and finishing up the Yearbook. I really realized that even though we have all year to work on this project, time can begin to catch up quickly. I ended up being pretty stressed out during this month, but I was able to get back on track after everything started calming down.  I went ahead and worked on finding times with Ms. Sebastian to present to her Health & Happiness class, and the entire Freshmen class during a class meeting. We went ahead and decided to present to the H&H class before spring break, and present to the freshmen when we come back since there was not a great time to get everyone together. This was a little upsetting because I wanted to be done before spring break, but realistically it was better for me to wait. Overall, I'm very antsy to present my project in March and April.

I'm done! My proudest moment in completing this project is knowing I am educating myself and others. I think it’s a great opportunity to be able to bring awareness to something dangerous and something that impacted my best friend’s family and me. If I had to do this project over again, I would work on presenting earlier in the year, rather than having my major presentation happen after spring break. Adaptations that I made in my progress were changing a few of my ideas. I was planning on making a website, posters, and infographics, but I did not realize that I was overwhelming myself. Although we have a year to work on our capstone, the idea of putting so much on my plate began to stress me out. I am slowly working on adding little pieces, like posters, but that is if I have time and feel like it would contribute to my project. Over spring break I plan to relax a little bit but also practice going over my presentation for my big one in April. I feel like I can work on my presenting skills, but that will take time and practice. To wrap up what I mentioned in the beginning, I'm also proud of how far I've come since September. I was originally going to do an interview project, but this topic felt more important and personal to me. I love that I went in this direction, and I hope that my project genuinely helps others and makes them feel prepared to share the message of awareness and education.