ISSN Reflection-Adversity faced by Foster Children

As a senior at ISLC we are expected to complete a capstone project. The purpose of our
capstone is to do a take action project, where I select a social issue I’m interested in and plan a
project to change or improve this issue. When I received this project, I was quite excited to work
on an issue I was passionate about and help foster children succeed throughout their college life.
My goal for this project was to be an additional voice for foster children so they know what type
of resources they have for college and the help they can obtain to boost their academic success.
I first decided to work in a group because I wanted to work with people who had the
same interests and see what ideas they had. When we formed a group, we needed to brainstorm
steps as to how we were going to accomplish our goal. Our group then created a rough draft on
google docs that consisted of vague descriptions of our steps. As we revised the rough draft, we
added steps and added information that put our steps in depth. We created a second draft that
elaborated a lot more and was chronologically organized to follow. We then split into groups of
four in our class, gave copies to the three members so they can revise and review our steps and
see what changes can be made before we submitted our final plan. We followed the tuning
protocol that allowed every member to get sufficient feedback about their steps. As our group
worked on our final draft, we discussed what everyone had to revise and what was really
necessary to fix. We added a few more steps as well as being specific on many of our steps so it
won't just provide a general depiction. We reviewed our plan one last time to see if there were
any errors or mistakes before we submitted the final draft. After working on our plan, we decided
to gather research on the resources available for foster students as well as scholarships that are
directed towards them . Our group then created a powerpoint consisting Financial aid, the college
process, Jobs/internships, and highschool requirements to graduate. As soon as we finished with
the presentation we transferred the information onto a brochure where key information was
placed that were really beneficial to foster students. With that in place, our group created a table
filled with scholarships consisting deadlines, qualifications, and contacts to receive more
information about the scholarship. As soon as we gathered everything, we began to send emails
to schools in South Gate and visit those in Downey in order to distribute our brochures. We
needed permission from the college counselors and receive confirmation that they were able to
listen about our capstone project and willing to pass out our brochures to their foster students.
We also created a form stating we have discussed our purpose with them as proof that we were
able to achieve our goal.
Creating this capstone made me learn when working on a big project that takes time, it's
important to layout your plans and see what it takes to accomplish your goal. Big projects require
a lot of planning beforehand and it shouldn’t be kept until the last minute. I learned that it's
important to have someone leading a direction because everyone in the group shouldn’t be lost
but working together figuring out how to move forward. I believe we excelled at gathering
reliable information that the foster students can depend on and trust that their resources are there
to help them. Next time, I would like to discuss our plans in person rather through text when
completing the final because it can get difficult to understand what ideas want to be put out into
our capstone. I was proud how our plan came out and how our action was able to get completed.
We communicated ideas by organizing ideas and reasons logically. Specifically, our
group organized our steps in a chart and used the tuning protocol that helps us develop a well
descriptive plan. If anyone were to view our capstone plan, it can easily be interpreted.Our
capstone plan focuses on the tasks in order to reach out to foster youth and educate them about
college/job applications as well as workshops and/or resources out there that can support them
when they’re living on their own. Our group also took action by We also selected appropriate
resources such as technology and media to give an extra push on collaboration and
communication to a variety of individuals. Our group also took action by collaboratively
executing our plan that is likely to improve on a local situation. Which is providing foster
students in the South Gate and Downey community with brochures that contain reliable
information that can help them with their high school and college life.