Capstone Journals
Friday September 3, 2021
This week of school went pretty smooth. This week I heard all my teachers discuss capstone. I had a couple ideas but I didn’t know how to approach them. My friend Sophia had a great idea where she would mentor kids about mental health. I really liked the idea so I wanted to join in with her project, and now we are working together to achieve this project. So today during school Sophia and I discussed our idea with two teachers about our idea and they really liked it. So now we are looking for references to help us start our project.
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Tuesday September 7, 2021
Today Sophia and I contacted some of our potential references for our projects. We drafted up two emails, and we are waiting until tomorrow to send them. Our advisory teacher Mr. Mckay will look over them so he can detect any typos, or detect anything we need to add or change. Overall we are very excited to begin this project and we are discussing this further with other teachers.
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Thursday september 9, 2021
I'm getting closer to starting my capstone project. I’m still trying to work out the details with my partner, but we are getting close. Lately I've been talking to friends about how I can be a source that I wouldn't say “use” but someone who they can talk to. so I can practice speaking with the middle schoolers. Like today during class one of my peers talked to me about something personal and I felt happy that they trusted me with that information. I want to make sure when I start this project the kids are comfortable with speaking with my partner and I. We discussed the idea with one of our references and she agreed and she wants an outline to schedule times. So now I am waiting for one of my teachers to look over the outline to make sure it's good and so it doesn’t have anything missing.
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Tuesday september 14, 2021
The last couple of days have been really busy for me. With senior year, capstone and sports. But overall I feel like this year is going to be easy and memorable! My classes so far are very easy and the teachers are giving us some privilege to have some free time to speak with friends and do our work. I liked how easy it's been going so far. ANYWAYS capstone is going smoothly. I'm trying to get this started but my partner and I haven't spoken with our mentor yet. We are setting up a schedule so we can meet with our mentor to talk about our outline and what we can fix and what we can add. But our mentor is very busy so we haven't had a chance to speak with her. Hopefully soon we can speak about it. Also during class the last couple of days my group and I are doing a media share where we came up with lessons to teach for the whole class like we are teachers, which I think is a pretty cool idea. I'm going to present it on Friday. I'm excited.
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Monday September 27, 2021
Friday Sophia and I presented our capstone project for practice. It went really well and our classmates gave us really good feedback and it felt really good. So over the weekend I had plans so Sophia tweaked the presentation and now we are planning to present again but during our second block for extra practice. Anyways besides that school has been very easy lately. Classes are becoming so calming and the assignments have been super easy.
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Wednesday September 29, 2021
I forgot to mention in the last entry that I went to Parkville Market for the first time Sunday. I didn't even know it was there in Hartford. BUT LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING……..IT WAS SUPER PRETTY. There were different kinds of food and different people there too. I had a Japanese sandwich called onigiri. It's Japanese and Boba which is an Asian drink. OMG IT WAS SO GOOD. Anyways I really enjoyed it I would definitely go again.
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Wednesday October 6, 2021
A couple days went by where I haven’t been journaling. I keep forgetting that I need to journal even if it's not about capstone. Recently Sophia and I met up with our mentor and she said we should just do the wellness group first, and then towards the end of the year we are going to present to classes. I want to present in junior classes because since they are going to be seniors next year maybe some of them want to take over our capstone. Also we are planning on presenting to the middle school. Hopefully some juniors would like to take over our capstone so then the middle schoolers next year would like to join. But starting this project is taking longer than expected. I was hoping to start the first week of october. But we are in the second month of school and it's taking too long. Either way I know that projects like these take time. Anyway school has been pretty easy. A lot of things are coming my way such as adulthood. After this I'm going to be considered an adult. I'm going to college, I'm going to live alone and honestly I'm nervous but excited. I didn't realize there's a lot of responsibility as a senior. But overall senior year is going smoothly so far. I'm hoping that as seniors my classmate and I will get a lot of opportunities to do fun things. Like senior skip day, senior prank, maybe even a senior trip. I know that my classmates and I are really looking forward to prom!! I never went to prom and when we were juniors we didn't get to go to prom. Hopefully this year we get to have a prom.
Friday October 29, 2021
I wanted to wait a little while before I wrote a journal entry. I wanted to see if anything would change. Change as in new friends, or anything having to do with my grades or capstone. But nothing really drastically changed other than my grades. My grades are about a B and C average but I am bringing up my grades which is a good thing. Nothing has really changed with capstone. My mentor has been really busy with middle school so she doesn’t really have enough time to set up our group. Another thing is our capstone completely changed. Well now looking at it maybe it did change….lol. But my mentor had switched up that we are only going to do a girl self esteem wellness group, instead of going into advisories and talking to classes about self esteem. We wanted to do the groups twice a week on Mondays and Tuesdays but she had other ideas. I have to check in with my mentor before we don’t have enough time to record our data.
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Friday November 19, 2021
I have to keep remembering to write in my journal...But today Sophia and I started our capstone project. We met up with the girls in the group finally and they are super sweet. I am pretty sure they liked us. They Seem really comfortable with us, which is what we need. I made a group chat with them just to give them messages just in case we can do the groups or if they need us to come get them during the day when they are having a rough time. I'm really excited to go over specific topics that they might want to talk about. I know my journals jump around but I just have other work college applications to think about that I completely forgot about. Don’t we need like 10 pages?..... Well now I am going to put reminders on my phone so then I can journal every day if I have too. I might journal again today but i'll put the time of day so yeah.
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Monday December 20, 2021
I’ve been forgetting to keep up with my journal entries……. But a lot has happened in a couple of weeks. A while back I started my capstone. I also started another capstone project. The other project is for the Roberto Clemente life commemoration event.
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Monday January 3, 2022
It feels unreal that it's 2022.
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Wednesday January 19, 2022
I am so sorry that I have been super behind with capstone journals…. I have been super busy so I didn’t get any reminders that I had to do my journals. I know I am supposed to have 5- 6 pages done, but with this entry I'm sure it's going to be a super long one. Let’s go back to the Roberto Clemente capstone. OKAY, so Carla, Samantha, Nelly, Zaida and I started this capstone a while back. I would say November 22nd or 23rd. It has been super great. We all got invited to the Maria C. Sanchez gala event that was in Hartford. We saw many people receive awards. We were going to get recognized, but the way we thought. We all received a $500 scholarship!!!! We were shocked and so was Mr. Mercado. We thought he knew about this. We have been making so much progress with this project. We still are looking forward to so many things. Such as; radio station visits and tv program visits, also the actual event!! The actual event date is march 6, 2022. We still have a lot to do.
Moving on to my actual capstone with Sophia. So we haven't seen the girls in more than a month…. We’ve been trying to meet up with them for so long… but we haven't had school on a Friday for a while. Also Mrs. Sterlein hadn't been in school when we wanted to meet up. So we have been waiting for a while. Now moving on to what happened with the middle schooler….. It was a crazy experience. Honestly I don't think I was affected by it but I know those who were around the situation and who knew the students were truly affected by it. It is super sad how a boy that young got their hands on that drug. Now the community has changed. The energy in the school has changed as well. But we all are adapting to the change. We haven't been in school for a couple days unaware of the situation. Only the news updates us. We didn't hear much from the staff… but honestly it's okay, because I know they are processing everything. But now we are back and trying to get back to normal.
I don’t want to keep talking about that… so I am also going to update you about college applications. So applied to all the colleges I want to go to. I received one letter back. And THEY REJECTED ME:( …….. They said something about limited spacing, which is understandable. I am still waiting to hear from other schools. Such as; CCSU, UMASS, SSCU, UCONN, and SUNY ONTENA. Let's see if I can get to any of these schools.
I honestly thought this update would be longer but I will update tomorrow. Since Sophia and I might be meeting up with the girls.
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Friday January 21, 2022
Forgot to update Thursday… but Sophia and I finally got to see the girls today. They were updating us with everything. They missed us and we missed them. Currently I am still waiting for colleges to get back to me. It's kind of stressful. I don't know if I will get into any of them. but I won't doubt myself. 11:07AM; it is feeling like a very long day. I didn’t have any work for three of my classes. Currently I am in the third block, but I don't know if we'll have work to do during the 4th block. All I know is that during 5th block I'm going to work on my final which is an Op-Ed. Let's see how it goes.
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Monday January 24, 2022
Today we have a home game. We haven't had a home game in a month….. Honestly I am excited but also dreading to play. We only won 2 games. And the rest we lost by A BUNCH A POINTS. Now let's talk about my weekend….. I went to the Asian store and got some Asian snacks and meals. It's super good. I also had practice and it was a fun practice.
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Friday January 28, 2022
This week we had finals and overall I did fairly good on these tests. But honestly I am ready for the new semester to spend it with you. I'm trying to get all this stuff done. Like my proposal and my research essay. But I have been so busy with other work, that I didn't get to finish them.
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Tuesday February 1, 2022
Today was day two for semester 2 and everything went smoothly. I don't have a 5th block so I get to leave early from school. Also this Thursday I am going to radio stations to promote the Roberto Clemente event. The group is excited yet nervous. Half of us aren't really fluent in Spanish. But we are still going to try. I am just really excited to have your class. I wonder what we are going to do!!!!
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Tuesday February 8, 2022
Okay so, the past few days have gone by pretty fast. I am getting used to my new schedule, which is great. The Roberto Clemente committee went to the Bomba radio last Tuesday to promote the event and it went fairly smooth. This Thursday we are going to the TV station to promote as well. Today I also met up with my group and it went great as always. Sophia Didn't come today, so had to do it alone but it was okay.
Thursday February 17, 2022
Today is my last high school basketball game… I am a little sad.
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Monday March 14, 2022
So….. I haven't done journals in a few weeks…. Almost a month. But everything has been going pretty well. March 6th was the Roberto Clemente event, and it went so well!! Everyone was having a good time, especially with the Pleneros and the food. Samantha, Jhoanely, Carla, Zaida, and I each received another $500 scholarship from the yard goats! We did not know we were getting another scholarship let alone other gifts. Our keynote speaker gave us a plaque honoring us for keeping the Roberto Clemente legacy alive. We were getting recognized the whole event and we didn't know our names were going to be said all afternoon long. We had Senator Richard Blumenthal speak, and mayor Luke Bronin. We also had the regular people that spoke every year. Of Course we had an intermission with the Pleneros. They played about maybe 3 songs just to get people a break. We had an amazing time. When Victor Rivera said that our event was the best he had seen, we got super excited.
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April 4 2022
I feel like I have been behind with journals… but I will update you. So Last couple of weeks I have been working on field logs and my website. I am almost done with my website, and it is coming out super cute!! Field logs for Roberto Clemente I have been really behind. But I need to grab more papers….Another thing that has been happening is that I started playing softball! We are co-opted with East Windsor, and they are super cool!! Our first game is tomorrow AKA April 5th against Coventry, Our next game is Thursday against Zamorski’s team!!! I am super excited to finally play