One of my
classmates once asked, “What’s the Capstone Senior Project?” Everyone in the
class knew it is a big project assigned to Seniors in which we all get to pick
our own topic or career we want it to based on, but no one really knew why the
school makes us do it. Capstone Senior Project represents a way in which
Seniors as young adults can get out there by themselves trying to find out what
they want in life and how they can get it. This project pushes us to get up and
pick our most desired future dream career also to make us realize if that’s
what we really wan to do with the rest of our lives.
I decided
to base my project on the career of Barbering. First, I had to get out of my
comfort zone and use professional methods of communication in order to convince
someone to be my mentor for the project. After I got my mentor, then I had to
plan what days we would meet in order to complete my 25 hours assigned. This
was a real challenge since my communication with my mentor was not as strong as
I wished it was. He would never respond every time I tried to talk to him on
the phone. But I figured what days he worked and what his schedule was, that
way I was able to find him at his work place and shadow his work and I was able
to finish all my hours.
I also learned
that you should always be aware that not everything can go according to the
plan; therefore, you will have to think fast to come up with a solution. I knew
my hours were due on Wednesday 15 of May, and so I had to finish my hours as
soon as possible. But there was a problem. My mentor decided to take his
vacations early, and on an emergency he had to travel to Mexico . I lost
all contact with him and he wasn't able to tell me that he had to travel to
another nation. I was shocked when I got the notice, and for a second I thought
this sealed me as failing my Capstone Senior Project. Fortunately, I had
developed great communication with everybody at his workplace, and therefore
everyone else was sorry for what happened and everyone decided they wanted to help
me. I picked the second person I knew the best. His name is Garrett Lee and he
took over as my mentor for me to be able to complete my hours in time and to
sign my Mentor Evaluation Sheet.
The way I
developed trust and communication with the rest of the team is by showing them
that even though I just picked one person as my mentor to shadow; I would
always be around every teammate trying to do something to help either
individually or as an overall group. I would always try to use my AVID skills
to develop high level questions where the answer wouldn't just be a “yes” or a
“no.” I would try to mentally challenge with creative, yet not too personal
questions everybody at BAHI. The manager also developed great trust with me,
and he mentioned to me how he saw enthusiasm in my work and also in my
personality. He also told me that he much appreciate the fact that I would
spread the word about BAHI so that way more young people would come and get
barber services there and nowhere else. However, what really made me feel
accomplished in this project was not just being done with every assignment in
the packet but the experience I learned. I gained more trust in myself since I
proved that I could get out there by myself like the young adult I am, and have
something done without nobody else telling me what to do. I got to enjoy the
experience of going to BAHI with my own creative to get things started and to
get things done. I learned that asking questions is also very important because
answers will to more questions that will open a whole new world of knowledge
that could guide you to what future will really be about. I learned I do like
the career of becoming a barber and that this is most definitely one of options
after high school.
