My capstone's topic was on drug abuse, and how it's affected Philadelphia. Everywhere people deal with drug abuse. It’s not uncommon for people to know someone who has dealt with drug abuse, and that’s not good for them, or the community. Philadelphia has been in the top 10 cities for drug usage since 2012 and that’s something I wish could change. It’s not right that we have to watch out for drugs and people abusing them in our own neighborhoods where we live. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SN2ryhdXWkVj1U3NjEYjl94wk1n9MAhyhtla2TxJwYM/edit?usp=sharing

What I did for my project was present the current issue dealing with HIV into people's lives and how we should continue to stay safe from this. Not all people look at their health all the time and I want to make sure that people have a public awareness on their intentions and how it might affect people. I did a lot of things like ask around a hospital for patients who have it and what it did to them. I learned that people take public health lightly and don't realize their surroundings like having intimate relations with some who has a STD. For example someone who has a STD will hide the fact they have this disease and pass it to the intimate partner without warning. Another thing I learned was that I must show others that keeping your own health in check benefits you and the others around you. Showing others you care for your health let’s them know that you are aware about your health and you are doing your best to keep it good. These individuals remind us that we are the only ones who are responsible to take care of ourselves and keep us safe, away from danger.

What I did for my project was present the current issue dealing with HIV into peoples lives and how we should continue to stay safe from this. Not all people look at their health all the time and I want to make sure that people have a public awareness on their intentions and how it might affect people. I did a lot of things like ask around a hospital for patients who have it and what it did to them. I learned that people take public safety lightly and don't realize their surroundings like having intimate relations with some who contains a STD. I was going to bring in condoms for everyone who doesn't have it or cant get to one. Another thing I learned was that I must show others that keeping your own health in check benefits you and the others around you. Showing others you care for your health let’s them know that you are aware about your health and you are doing your best to keep it good. People like this show others it can change someone’s life, and people around the persons live’s.

For my capstone, I decided to combine an influence in my neighborhood and get our school community involved. Last year I interned at a small thrift shop known as I Spy You Buy, and the owner held her first fashion show in April of 2018. This year the show was bigger and better, I was put in charge of finding new models and the overall management of the show (with help). Thanks to a lot of people from SLA@B we were able to have over 25 models and have a show worth seeing. During the process, I had to really hop out of my shell and speak up, management is also something I want to do in the future, and taking this chance made me realize that even though it's incredibly stressful (especially on the day of the show) I enjoyed it. The overall experience was a little overwhelming but there was a lot to learn and gain.

For my capstone, I built a go-kart that my team and I will race in a competition later this year. The main reason I chose to do this is that I'm very passionate about engineering and I generally just love building things. We spent one day out of each week of the school year building it at the other SLA campus with the help of our mentor Sal. The process took longer than I expected because I didn't know how much research had to go into building it. The first half of the capstone was just research, but I learned that it was necessary due to the fact of how complicated every component was. Once we began putting it together the process went faster and it wasn't that hard to fix any physical problems with the kart. I've completed many projects related to some field of engineering but this is by far the best thing I've created and I couldn't be more proud of myself and my team.

As you are aware my capstone is about cutting hair. You may wonder, "why am I doing this?" To begin, my passion started back in 10th when I didn't want my dad to cut my hair anymore, mostly due to the fact that my peers insulted me about it and I felt bad for myself. 10th grade was when I reach my breaking point. I didn't want to feel like that anymore, so I used those negative emotion and turn it into something positive; I started to cut my own hair. I learn how to cut hair by watching videos from many different barbers. The ones that stood out to me were "360jeezy", "Get_Beam", and "Chris Bossio." They taught me many different techniques of how to fade hair and how to prep hair. For my capstone, I reserved a place I am cutting hair and my partner focused on advertising by finding ways to bring customers in. When we have a customer the first thing I do is to clean all of my equipment in front of them, then I prep them, by combing through their hair and asking what type of haircut they want. Then I begin cutting their hair. During that process, I stop and present them with a mirror and ask them if they like this length, if not then I make it lower. When I finish with my client, I dust off any hair off of them and I disinfect their skin to prevent any infections.

Oppression. Resistance. Justice. Liberation. These are the broad dynamics of society which I’ve learned about during my 7 months with the Philadelphia Student Union. I’ve always been personally interested in understanding the mechanisms of systemic injustice, and how to combat it. PSU’s core values center around student leadership, political education, and wellness. We’re constantly confronting the experiences of students in Philly, and how many of our experiences often can adversely impact our mental health and our intrapersonal development. In challenging the institutionalization that black and brown students are expected to conform to, we often discover inquiries which guide our work in deinstitutionalizing schools. How does educational justice manifest? What should schools look like? How do we identify and fight the systems which enable injustice in our educational system? We are constantly exploring these questions, and perhaps there is no solid monolithic answer. However, these questions can be applied to specific situations we encounter. I, as an organizer with PSU, spent the last year, strategizing, collaborating, and organizing around issues that concern students. From aggressively taking on a metal detectors mandate from the School District to analyzing the vigorous workload of SLA Beeber and figuring out methods to improve the morale and mental health of students. I have participated in various ways to build student power. In resisting and organizing against authority that would be detrimental to the development of black and brown youth. We not only build power for those stakeholders, but we realize a broader vision for educational justice and expand the platform of student's voice. We must not be silent!

For my capstone, we decided to make a YouTube channel with videos on how to survive SLA. We came up with this idea because kids normally watch YouTube videos all the time and everyone has struggles so we wanted to let people know they aren't the only people going through issues in school and give them ways to make it better. In our videos, we incorporate students and their view on SLA with q&a's. We also understand the struggles of being a student in such an independent school so we told our struggles and what we did to overcome them. Throughout the process, we learned that a lot of students are having the same struggles we had and that allowed us to incorporate how to get over them and make it through. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn6F2n9vTyLs6B2vUrjKkIw/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0