New Skills/Knowledge:

Capstone was unlike any other class that I’ve taken. It was easier than any class I’ve taken, but at the same time harder. It was easy since I was able to learn about a topic that I chose about, but hard because I was the one holding myself accountable to get the work done. Thus, I got better at working and focusing on a given task. It is still something that is difficult, but I’ve gotten much better at it as the year has gone on. I was forced to get better at this, since if I didn’t hold myself accountable, I would get zero work done. With this, I learned that I have a lot of trouble focusing when I’m tired, especially at the end of the school day. I learned that I focus better when I have an achievable goal in mind, and feel good when I accomplish that goal. If I could do anything differently in my project, I would have chosen a more specific topic. I loved my topic and loved my project, but tackling a huge issue is very difficult and left me feeling helpless sometimes. I would have chosen a topic like Origami, which isn’t an issue in society, but rather something that I could research and have a good time with throughout the year. I surprised myself with how good my project was, and most of that came in part from my dad who partially came up with the idea. I thought that it was the perfect level of involvement, and it was something that I loved doing.

Challenges:

As previously mentioned, the hardest part of this project was being able to focus on the task at hand. I found this especially difficult since it was at the end of the day, and Capstone came after Spanish class, which is an energy intensive class. I found myself at a loss for energy, and thus a loss of focus through the beginning of the year. As it went on, I sort of had to force myself to focus so that I could get my work done. I’d say that I doubted myself the most at the point in which I didn’t have a project idea and seemingly everybody else did. I had a few ideas, and ran with them for a little bit, but they soon became too large and unattainable for the scope of the year. I lost this doubt once I found my eventual project idea. I challenged myself by doing a topic that wasn’t necessarily the easiest topic but was something I knew that I could do. I think I did a great job with it and loved my project. 

Process:

I started the year without a topic idea, but after a few weeks came up with the topic of studying how injuries impact athletes psychologically. I wanted to research the mindset shift that athletes saw after injury, and how they worked hard to return to their sport. I ran with this for a little bit, but found much more online about the mental health side of injury rather than the mindset shift that I was previously hoping for. Thus, I shifted my topic idea to the mental health side of injuries, and talked to athletic trainers such as Brandon Hall at Syracuse, who told me that he and other ATs are really the first line of defense when it comes to dealing with injured athletes, and despite not being trained as a mental health professional, they can tell when something is wrong and direct them towards somebody who is trained. I wanted to make this my project, but soon realized that only focusing on injured athletes would be too narrow of a scope, and wouldn’t allow me to reach a large group of people at JD who may need it. Thus, I broadened my scope to all athletes and wanted to create a club/organization that would help to destigmatize mental health. I considered a few, including Morgan’s Message, which is a nationwide organizaiton that raises money and awareness for mental health struggles, and even has a few chapters in schools nearby. I also talked to CJ Hart, a former All-American lacrosse goalie at St. Anselm (where I’ll be attending next year), about the organization that he founded there called The Head Game Project. His idea was to have a member of each team be designated as ‘the person’ that people could talk to if they needed help, or just a person to be there for them. I really liked this decentralized approach, since I would personally find it easier to talk to a teammate than an adult or counselor. This entire winter, while working on my project, I was volunteering with JDYAA basketball coaching 3/4 graders. Shoutout to Mrs. Parker and Mr. Patchen who were huge helps in this project and helped me get involved with JDYAA basketball.  This experience gave me insight into how influential I could be as an older kid who plays sports on the lives of younger kids. Despite not having much of an attention span, I felt that I could captivate them and that they took what I said to heart. This experience changed the path of my project and brought me to my final topic, which was working to develop good mental health practices in youth athletics. I worked with the JD Modified lacrosse team and did a ‘Word of The Week’ for 6 weeks in an attempt to help them develop mental resiliency and build good mental health habits. I found that these kids were also captivated when I talked, and I felt that I got my message across clearly with examples that were relevant to their lives and relatable to them. I liked my project because it allowed me to talk about my experiences, and how I dealt with issues in my life. In my other topics I was afraid because I am not a mental health professional, and felt that I might be put in a weird place at times if I had to address mental health struggles themselves. The project that I chose gave me the opportunity to develop a framework for these kids, and to give them strategies to deal with mental health struggles if they are to deal with them in the future.