1.

The goal of this reflection is to ask you to examine your work over
the course of this year. Start by going back to your original two
proposals for a Capstone project. Consider the decisions you made
along the way, beginning with the choice of one project over the
other, and what influenced those decisions.
Its quite funny how all of this came together. When I started the year, I
had no idea that I wanted to explore introversion or anything even close to
psychology. Quite frankly, without looking at the actual google doc that
contains my two projects, I have no clue what my original projects actually
started as. I believe in the end, I chose my project on introversion because
it provided me with a connection to myself that I believed could allow me
to stay on task and entertained (in a sense) for the entire year. And while
writing the drafts and the procedure, I realized that this project could
actually come into fruition and be well, something. The project about
perceived beauty I came to realize would be too subjective of a task that I
could possibly investigate. Overall, Im quite happy that I decided to go
along with my second project and all the work that I have accomplished.
2. In virtually all of your cases, your projects expanded and/or contracted
throughout the year. What you saw as possible in October became less
likely come winter. Other factors affected the viability of your project: the
snow days, of course, as well as logistics, copyright, privacy rights, etc.
Identify what hurdles/impediments/obstacles/etc. shaped your work and
how you overcame, adjusted and/or avoided them through modifications to
your project and its scope.
My project scope certainly shrunk from what I had originally planned it to
be. I believe my work could have been much more extensive and concrete
if I had been given more time. Looking back at my original schedule, if I
actually followed it and started observations months before, I would be
more confident in my results. I completely did not account for the huge
number of snow days or other mandated tests that the classes I observed
had to take. My winter schedule was crazy. Making up snow days, trying to
coordinate interviews, speaking to students, etc. all took up more time
than I expected. If I learned anything, it was that I need to budget my time
better in the future.
3. In the course of the research process, you went through various
stages. What parts of the research process do you feel most
confident about, now that you have completed the course? What
aspects of research do you feel you need to improve? Some of you
suggested that you needed more statistics skills. Is that true for
many of you? What additional skills do you feel you needed to make
your projects better?
I do believe that I need more statistical skills and understanding of how to
analyze data. In my case, I had accrued a lot of data--data that I knew was
important--but I was lost as how to analyze it in a way that would bring out
the most important points out in a prominent way. I did my best to bring
out what I thought was important but I realize now that many of the

numbers were confusing. I have more confidence in keeping an objective

view and following a procedure that will implement what I am looking for
as well as initiating conversation about my project. Learning how to
effectively interview people would be nice as well because I had trouble
getting the answers out of people that I wanted.
4. All of your efforts led to a final project, in a series of products that
you turned in. Are you proud of the final project? Was there more
(or less) that you wanted to do?
I wish I were more confident in my final project. I wish I had more concrete
evidence to back up my statements. I would have loved to have more
student voices or interview excerpts but because of the snow days and the
hectic schedule, I didnt have the time and could only interview 12-15
students for around twenty minutes each. Besides that, I am proud of my
project and the culmination of what I learned/written. A next step that I
would have loved to take is making this paper into a more interactive,
reader-friendly article, something around that of a Times magazine article.
Better graphs, prettier aesthetics or infographics would have been the next
step I would have taken if I had the time.
5. If you remember, we asked at the start of the project: So what?
Aka: Why is this project worth doing? What makes it
important/meaningful beyond your own personal curiosity about the
topic? So.now that your project is complete, please reconsider the
question. What is the projects relevance beyond your own passion
for it? What makes it important? What have you contributed to the
bigger/wider world of knowledge? Tell us about that.
I believe that my project is important for many of the same reasons that I
stated in the beginning. I dont think many people are aware of the
extrovert-introvert distinction in the world today or how focused on talking
and being social the USA really is. I think that my project speaks for many
of the students in our countrys population that go unnoticed or are
harmed by the extroverted ideal. This goes beyond even just high school:
college interviews, job interviews, etc. all count in this ongoing problem. I
believe that by doing my part--investigating how being introverted affects
students in high schools--other people will catch on and hopefully look into
other situations in which introverts are being affected.
6. Concurrently you were asked to do a series of presentations (that
grew incrementally longer) over the course of the year. You should
have all the videos of all of these on your weebly website. Stand
and Deliver helped to shape the nature of those presentations, as did
our examination of various TED talks. What challenges did these
presentations pose? What feedback and support helped you to
overcome these challenges and help you grow as a presenter? How
do you feel about your own presentation skills now? Are you more
or less confident of doing these in the future?

I have never liked public speaking, most probably because I was never
great at it. I felt uncomfortable talking in front of people for a long time,
presenting only my views. I ramble when I dont have a prepared speech
in front of me or when I know that the stakes are high (in this class, my
grade for example). I also havent had much experience or many
opportunities to present in front of a large audience. I think that practicing
so many times really was all I needed to feel more comfortable and not
stutter or ramble. From the final TED talk, I feel much more confident in
my presentation skills and now knowing that I have spoken in front of
around 600 people, the size of the people listening to my presentations
dont really bother me anymore.
7. Finally, we would like to know how you feel the experience of doing a
Senior Capstone project prepared you for college and future
professional life. Tell us what you think the ultimate value of taking
Senior Capstone was for you on a personal and educational level.
The Capstone project helped me most in public speaking and managing
my own time in an organized manner. Given the freedom of the class, it
was up to me to get everything set up and organized in order to finish my
project by the deadline. I also learned how to take initiative, contacting the
teachers and the students in order to schedule interviews, coordinate
observation times, etc. I think that the ultimate value of taking this course
was delineating what I was truly passionate about and doing an
independent project that was only motivated by me. It helped me learn
how to present my passion in a clear, engaging matter and reach out to
people for when I needed it.