My capstone this year sort of fell into my lap. I remember last year when Tyler Palumbo was running the uniform drive and I heard about it, I brought in all of my old uniforms to him the next day. Back then it felt really nice to help out in the way that I did. Then when Tyler brought up the idea for me to take over his capstone the next year I was very excited.
On the last day of school last year, he set up a big uniform drive for all the seniors to donate their old uniforms for the next year. This set me up really well for the beginning of the year. When the first day of school came around, I was instantly planning on how I was going to distribute all of these uniforms. Within the first few days of the school year, I had all of the uniforms washed, organized and ready to hand out.
From that day on, every morning I got to school early and would sit in the library handing out uniforms. I would give the uniforms to students who needed to borrow them for any reason and just ask that they return them the next day.
Throughout the year the biggest challenge that I faced was getting the uniforms back from the students who had borrowed them. I tried so many different ways to get them back but finally realized that building a connection with the students was the best way to do that. I feel that once I talked to them a little bit and they got to know me they felt more of an obligation to return them. However, ties proved to be the hardest thing possible to get back no matter what I did. If I could have changed one thing about my capstone this year, it would have been to take collateral for the ties to make sure that they get returned the same day.
Throughout my capstone I learned a lot. I learned that not everyone has such a happy backstory, yet some of the people with the saddest beginnings can be the nicest and most genuine people you will meet. I am so thankful to have been able to help so many students inside of our school because it made me realize that it does not take much to help those in need, in fact one person can impact so many more people than I had ever imagined. I’ll never forget this one time, a student asked me if he could keep a vest for a couple of extra days because something happened to his other one and he had to wait for his mom to buy him a new one. I told him that he could just keep the one I gave him and you should have seen his face light up. If I had to pick a favorite memory from the whole project, it would be how it felt to make someone else as happy as he was.
Overall my capstone this year was a really humbling experience and I am so thankful for it. My mentor was always there for me whenever I needed her, along with everybody else. It felt like the whole staff at SMSA was rooting for me and my project and it was awesome to have so many options to turn to whenever I needed a hand with something or just to talk to someone.
On the last day of school last year, he set up a big uniform drive for all the seniors to donate their old uniforms for the next year. This set me up really well for the beginning of the year. When the first day of school came around, I was instantly planning on how I was going to distribute all of these uniforms. Within the first few days of the school year, I had all of the uniforms washed, organized and ready to hand out.
From that day on, every morning I got to school early and would sit in the library handing out uniforms. I would give the uniforms to students who needed to borrow them for any reason and just ask that they return them the next day.
Throughout the year the biggest challenge that I faced was getting the uniforms back from the students who had borrowed them. I tried so many different ways to get them back but finally realized that building a connection with the students was the best way to do that. I feel that once I talked to them a little bit and they got to know me they felt more of an obligation to return them. However, ties proved to be the hardest thing possible to get back no matter what I did. If I could have changed one thing about my capstone this year, it would have been to take collateral for the ties to make sure that they get returned the same day.
Throughout my capstone I learned a lot. I learned that not everyone has such a happy backstory, yet some of the people with the saddest beginnings can be the nicest and most genuine people you will meet. I am so thankful to have been able to help so many students inside of our school because it made me realize that it does not take much to help those in need, in fact one person can impact so many more people than I had ever imagined. I’ll never forget this one time, a student asked me if he could keep a vest for a couple of extra days because something happened to his other one and he had to wait for his mom to buy him a new one. I told him that he could just keep the one I gave him and you should have seen his face light up. If I had to pick a favorite memory from the whole project, it would be how it felt to make someone else as happy as he was.
Overall my capstone this year was a really humbling experience and I am so thankful for it. My mentor was always there for me whenever I needed her, along with everybody else. It felt like the whole staff at SMSA was rooting for me and my project and it was awesome to have so many options to turn to whenever I needed a hand with something or just to talk to someone.