capstone

I was a part of a Capstone team working on domestic minor sex trafficking in Texas for the Texas Attorney General's Office. This topic, while quite heavy, is also very relevant and a true problem facing the state. Our product was a handout, and website, that showed victims of trafficking how the legal process works and relates to the prosecution of their case.

The experience of being on a Capstone team taught me many lessons. However, I was a part of a Capstone team my senior year at Texas A&M so many of the lessons learned were not new experiences but rather further refinement. The project management of this Capstone was rather simple due to a team of eight hard working, responsible, and dedicated people. We appointed one member to plan and enforce the meeting agendas. We appointed another person to check-in on people's individual progress and encourage them. We appointed another member to be the direct contact with our client and run the meetings. We then set group deadlines and divided out into teams to work on different aspects of the product depending on people's individual skillsets. This team was required to have clear communications and clearly state expectations and confusion.

My coursework contributed to our capstone through my knowledge of homeland security and international crime. My security background brought another perspective to the table and helped the group ask hard questions. The Capstone topic informed my discipline by giving me a greater and more realistic understanding of trafficking in the world. After this project I feel much better equipped in being able to describe this issue to other people and combat it in my daily life. This project has taught me what the red flags of trafficking are in my daily life and while on this project I have turned in a few nail salons and other entities for suspected trafficking to authorities.

The skills and knowledge I have gained from being a part of this Capstone team will make me a more knowledgable, effective, and communicative employee in the future. During this project we used a variety of communication methods - GroupMe, email, text, in-person, Google Docs - which required me to manage communication on a variety of platforms.

This Capstone taught me that while I find this topic very interesting I would like to remain focused on international and religious terrorism. However, it did prompt me to fight this crime in my daily life and carry an awareness of the signs. It also prompted me to educate my friends and family on the signs on human trafficking. My biggest personal takeaway from this project is that I want to continue to educate myself and the people in my life on the reality of this crime.