By Madeline Shin

STAFF WRITER

After nearly a year of researching and mastering their project topic, the senior students of Capstone have finalized their projects.

Capstone, a full year English elective course for seniors, offers an opportunity for those to research a certain topic that they have been interested in, such as the regenerative properties of a snake, and create presentations on their projects. 

“We believe fundamentally that research doesn’t belong in a vacuum,” said Rebecca D’Alise, the Capstone advisor. As much of the student’s work is done independently, she prefers to go by advisor instead of teacher.

In Capstone, D’Alise’s statement proves to be true as the end result of each project is sharing what has been learned with as big of an audience as possible. By the end of the year, students will have created websites, done TED Talks, 15-minute presentations, and more. In whole, the yearly process follows the principles of Stanford’s Three Ds: discovery, design, and deliver.

ANDOVERVIEW contacted four of these Capstone students and briefly feature their work below: Daniel Ivanovich, Emmanuella Pitts, Hayley Katz, and Kirk Hillson.

Daniel Ivanovich

With no initial topic in mind, Daniel Ivanovich was interested in joining Capstone to find a subject of interest and be able to investigate it at greater depths. During the year, he found his topic to be about predictive policing software. This deals with the fields of criminal justice and computer science, specifically on machine learning.

Ivanovich looked at the COMPAS recidivism algorithm, which is a machine learning algorithm that uses a 137-question survey to gauge whether a defendant will recommit a serious crime if released. There has been controversy with the COMPAS algorithm as some have noted a trend in people of certain races who were judged to be likely to recommit a crime, and never did. Still, Ivanovich states, “COMPAS is a black box– being a machine learning algorithm, no team of developers explicitly programmed its behaviors,” so it was never made to target a certain group of people.

Emmanuella Pitts

Emmanuella Pitts, or Emme, had an interest in genealogy since her youth, and she chose to make the focus of her project the relationship between identity and genealogy. Her research gives answers to various questions including why many are interested in one’s family tree and how this knowledge benefits them.

“Do something that you’re really passionate about,” Pitts said when asked for advice for those who are interested in trying Capstone. She detailed how her passion for genealogy allowed her to jump ahead, as she already had an idea of what to research and what she wanted her project to be about. She saved days of time compared to those who weren’t so sure about what they wanted to do or where to start. In addition, by taking on her passions, she discovered why she was so interested in genealogy from childhood: knowing one’s family tree had a profound effect in shaping one’s identity.

Hayley Katz

With eating disorders growing more prevalent in our society, Hayley Katz’s project examines the relationship between clothing advertisements on social media and negative self-image, which can often contribute to eating disorders. She has been examining how images on social media and advertising by companies create an unrealistic view of the human body for developing teenagers and how this can negatively affect those with eating disorders or in recovery.

While she was initially nervous about presenting on this delicate topic, the great support she received and the hard work she put in allowed her to grow confident that she could openly talk about this issue involving eating disorders and their causes in society without failing to represent those who struggled with eating disorders.

“There’s so much that I’ve learned that I want to share with people,” Katz said. In fact, she has gotten so much information that she found that putting all her facts and results into a 15-minute presentation is actually quite difficult!

Kirk Hillson

Kirk Hillson’s project is on heteronormativity in the modern world with a focus on teenagers. This is the belief that everyone is born heterosexual and cisgender, which means that they identify with their biological sex. For his project, he did numerous surveys and interviewed many people. To reach a greater number of people, he contacted influencers on TikTok, who are people who create content on the app. He received much support from them, as they posted his surveys on their TikTok and Instagram accounts.

“Not only am I helping others be educated about this topic, but I’m also educating myself,” Hillson said. As he went through his project, he found he had a surprising number of heteronormative behaviors in his own day to day life, so he is learning about himself throughout the process. Overall, he is very proud of his project and its success in reaching others.