Capstone Project Proposal Draft

Name of student: Jooheon Song

Date: October, 30, 2022
Teacher: Lara Lacroix
Capstone strand I have chosen is To raise an awareness of social issues that needs to be
addressed.
Proposed title for my project: Jooheon’s opinion column

What is your inquiry question that interests you for further research? It should be a question that
connects with a purpose, passion or personalized area of interest for you. This is a question that
you cannot just google an answer for. Please see examples from your Capstone booklet.
My inquiry question is:

1. Are there any social issues that often have been unnoticed by student communities?
2. How can I raise an awareness of the social problems that needs urgent actions?
3. What powerful impact of my collection of opinion column would bring to my school
community?

Rationale/context: Detail your reasons for choosing this inquiry question. Explain WHY you are
choosing to investigate this topic as a major area of focus. How does this area of inquiry connect
to your passion(s), purpose? Why is it of personal interest to you?

To call attention to the social issues that often have been ignored, the project has the
motivation to raise an awareness of the issues at hand that need urgent actions. As
many students are highly inclined to overlook the current events outside campus, the
project is considered to become a great contribution to student community by calling
attention to multivariant dynamics that have dominated the paradigm of modern society.

Background: What background knowledge/connections/prior learning do you have in this

area of inquiry?

The project requires background knowledge of different social issues in various settings,
which ranges from gender disparities, children’s access to learning in computer-using
educational setting, the high college tuition, extinction issues to abortion and human
rights. My interest in many social issues have led me to do research on the listed topics.

Career connections: What is your intended career area at this point in time? What
connections does this inquiry question have to your life, academic and/ or career goals?

As a computer programmer, whose job is to create softwares that enhance the standard
of living, it is important to investigate the needs of society. In order to explicitly

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 comprehend current issues and explore what is in high demand, deepening
understanding of ongoing social issues is important.

Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections: What subject areas and core
competencies will be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections.

The project requires interdisciplinary understanding of Social studies and Social

sciences and these will be connected with essential core competencies. Through the
process of research and analysis, the following core competencies will be cultivated.

- Identifying and appreciating different perspectives on issues and using and evaluating
strategies to resolve problems: It requires me to assess information reliability of
retrieved information.
- Valuing diversity, defend human rights, advocating for others, and acting ethically in
all my interaction: Exploring the relevant issues will contribute to raising awareness of
core values as a member of global community.
- Analyzing and critically assessing my work and my learning: It will cultivate critical
thinking capability by studying colliding arguments regarding the discussion topics of
my opinion column.
- Understanding the purpose for my work and considering my audience: By analyzing
the needs of my audience, I will specify the purpose of the project.
- Creating new and unique ideas that may provide new perspectives that influence how
people think about topics: To satisfy the demand for new learning experience, I will fulfill
what my readers expect from exploring my articles.
- Using the environment around me, including others, and my unconscious mind to
generate new ideas: My active engagement in analyzing the issue at hand and merging
them in a creative way will help generate new inspiring ideas.

Capstone Presentation medium: select one or more project mediums you wish to use to
present your project. Outline and give details about how you will present your project once
completed. You may use a combination of mediums.
o Electronic portfolio: Prezi or PPT
o Physical portfolio
o Website
o imovie presentation
o YouTube channel

I am planning to present my work with physical portfolio. The collection of opinion

columns will be printed for the presentation. As for the presentation, PPT will be created
to enhance the understanding of my audience.

Description of my Capstone project. Specific Project Details of the Capstone Project: what
will you research, create, study, produce, solve, investigate? What product will be produced
at the end of this project for evaluation. Write a one-page description outlining your
proposal.

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Description of my Capstone Project :
Bringing inspirational thoughts to my community, I want to shed a light on the
controversial societal level of issues. This will awaken the minds of those who are afraid
to confront uncomfortable social issues. I will study many different social issues that
range from gender disparities, children’s access to learning in computer-using
educational setting, the high college tuition, extinction issues to abortion and human
rights. The resources are to be collected from reliable collection of databases, such as
JSTOR and EBSCO. Based on my research about the given topics, I will create 20
pages of opinion column that explores and examines insight into the various societal
issues that are often ignored. Columns will be created based on the articles that provide
me with the information about the current social issues.

Each page will investigate one single issue, which is composed of the head title and
the byline, followed by the reference of the article. Reflecting the structure of an opinion
column, the column is divided into an opening remark with an introduction, body
paragraphs and conclusion with the concluding remark. At the very first page of the
opinion column, there will be a cover page of my project along with the author’s name,
Jooheon Song, and professionally designed layouts will contribute to legibility of overall
works.

The following is the list of topics under discussion:

Article # 1. Teen Mental Health in Crisis
Article # 2. Free College Tuition
Article # 3. Child Poverty in the U.S.
Article # 4. Free Speech on Social Media
Article # 5. Extreme Tipping Culture
Article # 6. Inflation Reduction Act
Article # 7. Family Structure in Modern Society
Article # 8. Climate Issues and Mental Health
Article # 9. Marriage Culture in India
Article # 10. The Amish: an Intimate Society
Article # 11. Bullying in the United States
Article # 12. The value of a college degree
Article # 13. Pros and Cons for Vaccine Passports
Article # 14. Italy’s citizenship debate
Article # 15. Pros and Cons: Private Prisons
Article # 16. Is Cancel Culture (or “Callout Culture”) Good for Society?
Article # 17. Legalizing drugs_Pros and Cons

If needed, an aid from my mentor will be given to improve my understanding of the

project. The collection of opinion columns will effectively calls attention to the social
issues that need to be addressed. The community will raise awareness of severity of
the issues at hand. 2
Resources/ Technology/Skills: Make an assessment of the resources, technology and
skills you will need to be able to complete this project. What is your plan to be able to
access/learn all of the resources necessary to achieve completion of this project? Detail
your plans.

The resources I used are highly reliable as I utilized peer-reviewed journals and articles
from JSTOR and newspaper articles from The New York Times and The Conversation.
They are of high reliability and validity: JSTOR collects scholarly and academic journals
that are peer-reviewed; The New York Times deals with social issues that are highly
researched and verified by professional journalists; The Conversation is not-for-profit
media outlets that publish news stories and research reports online written by the writers
of professional fields. As for JSTOR, I will access the resources using the school
account, as for The New York Times, utilizing my monthly subscription plan, and as for
The Conversation, using free access. My private PC will be used as my main
technology.

Mentors/Community Connections: What types of mentor(s)/community connections will

you need to help you complete your capstone project? How will your mentor(s) help you?
What is your plan to access the mentorship/community connections necessary for this
project?

I will get some aid from my private English tutor to enhance lexical resources and
grammatical structures of the written response.

Project limitations: What are some project limitations and potential obstacles that you foresee
that might affect progress with your Capstone Project?

As I’m not expertise in various fields of knowledge, I expect my lack of understanding

in certain areas, which will bring obstacles to making progress with my Capstone
Project; however, to overcome the difficulties, I will try to get help from my mentors, my
private English tutor.

Other considerations: List and detail any other related information/ considerations about
your project that you feel should be included in your project proposal.

Highly developed analytical and information organizing skills should be considered

essential in making a significant progress of my Capstone Project.

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References:

Attach a REFERENCE LIST. Your list should be written using correct APA formatting.
An example is provided on page 21 of your Capstone booklet.

References

Holtermann, C. (2022, May 5). Is Teen Mental Health in a State of Crisis?. The New
York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/opinion/nuclear-
family.html

Holtermann, C. (2022, May 19). Should College Be Free?. The New York Times.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/learning/free-college.html

Holtermann, C. (2022, May 23). Should the U.S. Be Doing More to Prevent Child
Poverty?. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/ 2022/05/
23/learning/should-the-us-be-doing-more-to- prevent-child-poverty.html

Holtermann, C. (2022, April 27). How Much Should Speech Be Moderated on Social
Media?. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/ 2022/04/27/
learning/speech-moderated-social-media.html

Morales, C. (2022, April 19). To Tip or not to Tip?. The New York Times.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/dining/tipping-gratuity-
restaurants.html

Stiglitz, J.E. (2022, August 10). Why the Inflation Reduction Act matters. Korea Herald.
Retrieved from https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220809000288&np=1&
mp=1

Grose, J. (2022, March 30). The Nuclear Family Is No Longer the Norm. Good. The
New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/opinion/
nuclear-family.html

Wainwright, L., & Neumann, E. (2022, July 12). Heatwaves worsen mental health
conditions. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/heatwaves
-worsen-mental-health-conditions-186759