Journals

Since my start in SMSA at 6th grade, I have imagined my senior year as this magical time where I’ll be able to hang out with my friends and create lasting memories before my high school experience ends. I never thought that my senior year would include social distancing and wearing masks. Walking into my first classroom of the day, I felt like I was in a dystopian world, just waiting for the next inconvenience to occur. Although my senior year wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be, I hope to make the most out of it by playing volleyball with my friends on the team and adapting to the smaller class sizes and wonky schedule. Starting the school year off, I had a lot of ambition and motivation to do my college application and research scholarships. I’m excited about the fact that I get to start a new part of my life soon and meet new people.

These past few months, I tried to take the time out and better myself through daily exercise and occasional meditation. I also started working as a cashier at Ocean State Job Lot during the summer and I had the opportunity to meet new people and develop relationships with the elderly customers. I have also spent the majority of my time reading books, in a typical week, I would finish about 3 books. My family made fun of me a few weeks ago when I came home hauling a huge bag with about 20 books in it. They have always supported my “addiction” to reading and are proud of me because of it.

I think I want to base my Capstone on something regarding children and books, both topics hold a special place in my heart. One of my first jobs was planning kids birthday parties and I got to see first hand the neglect that parents give their children. It always made me sad thinking about the kids that want only a minute of their parents attention to show them a cool trick but the parent is too busy bragging about how great their kid is and how much they spent on their kids birthday party. It became my mission to show each of those children the attention they deserve. Books are also really special to me as mentioned earlier, I spent the majority of my childhood reading and going to the library weekly with my father. I also based my college essay off of this, talking about how those weekly trips and sacrifices my parents made impacted me and made me the person I am today.

I’m not really sure about what my Capstone project will be about or how I will do it, but I will try my best to help others in my community.

September Journal

October Journal

So I’m in quarantine. The volleyball season had just started and we managed to only play two games before someone on the volleyball team contracted COVID-19. So now I am in a mandatory two week quarantine and cannot go to school and take the SAT on October 14. I also had to get tested, which I found a bit uncomfortable but necessary, it came back negative thankfully. On the brightside, I finally have enough time to start reading some new books that I purchased. Although I was happy to start reading again, I was happy to get back on the court and spend time with my friends and teammates.

Around the middle of October, I had to drive my mom to JFK Airport in New York because she decided to visit her parents in Bosnia. We had bought her tickets a few weeks before the flight to make sure that it wouldn’t be too dangerous to fly and she had to get a COVID test before her flight. She was gone for about two weeks and during those two weeks, I had to go into quarantine again. We had our senior night game near the middle of October and later that night I got a text saying that another person from the volleyball team had contracted COVID-19 and this time, it was someone that I had direct contact with. It was very nerve wracking because my mom isn’t even in the country and if I tell her what’s going on, I’m just going to stress her out. I had to get a COVID test, which again came back negative and I spent those two weeks at home again, awaiting my moms arrival. I couldn’t take the makeup SAT again on October 27, so I had to schedule a term to take it at another school.

I’m still unsure of what my Capstone should be about, now every time I start to think about ideas, I start to get anxious. An idea that I had was to collect art supplies for kids in elementary schools since they had to bring their own supplies due to COVID restrictions and I know that not everyone is fortunate enough to afford it. A problem I encountered with this is I couldn’t get in contact with anyone and I didn’t know where to set up the donations since the majority of our schools is doing online or hybrid learning. Another idea I came up with was to work immigrants and edit their essay, I know an organization that runs this however, they weren’t working because of COVID. I don’t know what to do and I’m slowly starting to lose the motivation that I started the school year off with.

November Journal

My volleyball season has come to an end and I am definitely going to miss all of the friends I made throughout the years. It is finally setting in that I am a senior and that I will be graduating by the end of the school year. I’ve also started to submit my college applications. I have already sent them to the University of Connecticut, University of Hartford, CCSU, University of Saint Joseph and Wesleyan University. I just have one more application to send out and it’s going to go to Trinity College, this is one of my top schools and would love to go here if it wasn’t so expensive. I also started looking into scholarships, I already have a few in mind that I want to apply to, such as Dollars for Scholars and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving Scholarship Program.

Another accomplishment I had this month is finally deciding on a Capstone idea. The main goal for my project is to spread awareness to resources that provide free reading materials. The pandemic closed down libraries and I know that not everyone is fortunate enough to afford books. For my Capstone project, I have decided to compile a list of apps and websites where people can access free ebooks, I also hope to create a list of book recommendations. I am really looking forward to doing this project because I feel like I can definitely help many people. I know that I’ll probably change it a bit as I start to work on it but for now, I’m glad that I have an idea of what I want to do.

It was really refreshing to have Thanksgiving break, even though we have school online most days, it is still pretty hard and tiring to keep up with everything. It was definitely a welcomed break and I am looking forward to the winter break that is coming up next month.

December Journal

I think that December has been the best month so far. I have slowly started to get responses back from the colleges that I have applied to, I have been accepted at CCSU, University of Hartford and University of Saint Joseph. Getting those letters in the mail made me realize that all of the work that I’ve put in these last few years has been worth it. I am thinking about going to University of Saint Joseph because they’ve given me enough financial aid to cover more than ¾ of my tuition, also, I like how small and personal the school is. I haven’t made much progress scholarship wise, but I have been thinking about it constantly so I know that I will get it done eventually.

I have slowly been working on my Capstone project. I am still searching for a mentor, I have emailed the Wethersfield Public Library and I am currently awaiting a response from them. If they don’t, I have a few other options, such as emailing the Hartford Public Library or a teacher at SMSA. I have also started to gather some information about what websites and apps can be used to read free ebooks on. I don’t have much motivation to start my Capstone project, however, I think or hope that that will all change over time. Maybe it's senioritis kicking in early.

I am looking forward to these next few months, as the days go on, the realization that I will be graduating soon is slowly starting to come. I’m not sure whether to feel excited or nervous about this. I know that as time goes on, I’m going to have more things to work on and more responsibilities before graduation. However, as I mentioned multiple times, I’m excited to graduate high school and meet new people.

January Journal

The semester has been winding down to an end and will soon be over. We just came back from winter break and I’m finding it a bit hard to get used to waking up early and getting ready for class but I’m sure that I’ll get used to it again soon. This year definitely started off a bit strong with the Capitol Hill Riot that happened earlier this month. Watching that happen in front of my eyes, I felt surprised yet disappointed, I could not believe that people would go that far by hurting others and destroying property in order to get their way. It was disappointing and I felt like I was watching high school drama going on.

On the bright side, I was finally able to get into contact with someone from the Hartford Public Library for mentorship. My mentor's name is Katherine and she is extremely helpful. I had a virtual meeting with her the other day and she really opened my eyes and helped me expand my idea. I have also officially started my Instagram account, and so far I have 22 followers. I was nervous to start it at first because I thought no one would be interested in following it but I was surprised to see how supportive my friends were. A few of them reposted it without me asking them and it did make me feel a lot better. I am excited to keep working on my Capstone project and hope that I will be able to help some people out.

I have also (finally) submitted all of my college applications so I feel like I can breathe a little easier now. My new focus is scholarships. I have already submitted around 5 scholarships this month and most of them are the ones that Ms. Gunn provides us. I think my biggest fear is getting accepted into all of the colleges and universities I applied for and not being able to attend because I don’t have the financial capability to pay for it. That has been a catalyst itself to motivate me to fill out and seek scholarships. I am nervous for the months to come but excited that I will start a new chapter in my life soon.

February Journal

I think that I can say that this has been a very successful month, in more ways than one. My Capstone project has been going along pretty well, so far I have 28 followers on my Instagram and it’s slowly growing. I find it pretty exhausting to make the posts, which is something that I’m finding really surprising. Going into this project I thought that it would take about 15-30 mins to make a post, but it takes an hour and sometimes more with the research that I do and formatting that I follow. One problem that I’ve encountered is making the posts themselves since they are so time consuming, there was a two week period where I didn’t post because I was too busy to make the posts. I’m trying to combat this by making two or three posts over the weekend and plan what days I’m going to post them. I’ve also had some of the authors that I mention in my posts, like the posts, so every time I see that I get a bit excited.

I have also been very busy with filling out and submitting scholarship applications. I never thought it would be this time consuming but it’s not that surprising since every scholarship I am working on requires that I write an essay about myself or some accomplishment in my life. A big event that I was a part of recently was the University of Hartford Scholarship Competition, which was a competition for a full scholarship. In this competition, I had to attend the opening event on zoom, complete an interview with a professor from my major (history) and I had 2 hours to write an essay about the way COVID-19 affected my character and life. I think I did pretty well, the interview was extremely nerve-wracking and I feel like I could have done better on it but I’m going to dwell too much. I get the results sometime in March so I’m excited about that.

Some other good news I received was that I got accepted into UConn!! They awarded me an academic scholarship and that is covering about half of my tuition at UConn Hartford. It’s not exactly my first option for college but it seems to be the most affordable so far. Things (Capstone, scholarships and college acceptances) have been going pretty well and I hope they continue on like this.

March Journal

I can definitely say that this month has been pretty eventful for me in regards to my Capstone project. I currently have about 33 followers, which I hope to continue to grow as my project goes on and have tried to make more posts. One post that I really connected with is one that I made regarding Anti-Asian Racism and some books to read to inform yourself about it. I feel like I write/talk about this pretty often, especially in scholarship essays, but I believe that change occurs through informing and educating yourself about the issue. I found that after the shooting that took the lives of 9 women in Atlanta, Georgia, many people said that reposting an image about the shooting with no context adds no awareness to the issue. I completely agreed with this, and decided to take my own initiative and make a post about book recs regarding the topic. A few of my friends were really happy and supportive of this post, so they reposted it for their followers to see. I hope that this post was as impactful to others, like it was to me because hate is very prevalent in our society, and the only way to battle it is getting information to fight it. I also had one of my friends reach out to me about how my Instagram page has helped them start reading more often, and I found that to be really helpful and motivating to me.

Some extremely good news that I received earlier this month is that I won the scholarship contest at University of Hartford that I mentioned in a previous entry. This means that they'll cover my full tuition, which is about $41,700 yearly. I’ll never forget the day it happened, my father walked in with a huge box, about half the size of my body and when he turned it over there was a big H on it. As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was and I left the exam I had been working on for AP Calc. When I tore open the box, the first thing I saw was a certificate saying congratulations, and I immediately started crying. My father stood there in confusion until I said “Dad I got the scholarship” in Bosnian, and the pure joy that spread across his face is something I will never forget. However, some not so good news is that I got a D on the exam I was taking for AP Calc, but I’m not dwelling too much on it. I’m pretty excited that I’m going to be a Hartford Hawk in the upcoming Fall semester.

April Journal

I think that April has been the most impactful month for me regarding my Capstone. Starting the month off, I completed a presentation regarding the benefits of reading and presented it to Mrs. Bout’s 2nd block Capstone class. While I was standing there, I felt somewhat nervous because I’m not that much of a fan of presenting and it’s something that I would like to work on more. I was surprised that throughout the presentation, I received a ton of useful feedback from my peers and it gave me a lot more confidence in myself and my presentation skills.

I’ve also been trying to work on my Instagram account a bit, and have gotten 40 followers by now. It’s been a bit hard to keep up with posting because of Spring Break and other responsibilities that I had to take care of, but I’m slowly starting to get over that and working on it more.

Although this is all very meaningful to me, the event that had the most impact was presenting to Ms. Munafo’s 7th grade classes. Going in, I didn’t feel that intimidated by the students and they were actually very energetic and interactive. One of my favorite moments was when Ms. Munafo’s 1st block class didn’t believe that Lebron James included reading in his game preparation routine, then I changed the slide and there were pictures of four other athletes (Serena Williams, Chris Bosh, Russell Westbrook, and Emeka Okafor) reading, and they were amazed. Seeing the disbelief on their faces was extremely rewarding and I felt excited to stand there and teach them something. Also, after each presentation, I offered free books and magazines to the students and many of them were excited to go and get one. I tried my best to make the magazines look cool, especially since most of them were targeted at a 5th grade level. I am excited to keep presenting in the middle school, and hopefully have an impact on the students.

Field Log