Marcus Humber

Final Journal Reflection

The Capstone is a unique and demanding challenge. In completing it, what did you learn about your
subject? Your skill set? Yourself?

Completing the capstone project has allowed me to gain much knowledge in the subject of mental
health, my skill set and myself. I learnt about the significance of having a good and healthy mind as well
as how much it impacts the day-to-day life of others whether they are aware of it or not. Having poor
mental health is like a chain reaction that affects many aspects of the body and life which can make a
significant negative impact. In my skill set I learnt that I could do thorough research and efficiently apply
that information in a way that is most beneficial. I also learnt that I could adapt to obstacles and try my
best to work around it. What I learnt about myself is that prioritizing mental health and taking the time
to better myself and my mind is something that I need to be doing every day, and if I really want to live
my best life that I need to have a good mindset.

How is your project relevant to you, the school or the community-at-large?

My project is relevant to myself, the school and the community all because mental health is a serious
issue that many people are struggling with and do not speak out or do anything to make it better. Poor
mental health has become much more common and if it isn’t dealt with, how will the next generations
live a happy life? It is not fun or fulfilling to live day to day with a poor mind. The possibilities of
everyone are so much more than being confined to their negative thoughts. Therefore, mental health is
such an important topic.

How did you demonstrate the six core competencies throughout this project?

Personal Awareness and Responsibility:

I have demonstrated this core competency in throughout my project by not only providing helpful
solutions to issues, but also adding an understanding as to why this is important and that no one else
can do this but yourself. I wanted to make the consumer understand that it is possible and to be aware
of your situation so that you can make the change that will improve yourself.

Social Responsibility:

I have demonstrated this core competency throughout my project by bringing forth solutions that are
peaceful and encourage consumers on solutions that include others, bringing clarity to relationships and
bettering your interactions with others. By bettering your mental health you are able to take on and
look at a bigger role in social responsibility as well as allowing others to understand what you may be
going through.

Creative AND Critical Thinking:

I have demonstrated creative thinking throughout my project with how I would like to lay my app out as
well as what I want to include that will be the most beneficial to the user. I have also demonstrated
creative thinking when dealing with the limitations of the options that I can have in my app and working
around it to still make it look good and user friendly.

I have demonstrated critical thinking through my problem-solving as well as my research that I have
conducted on mental health and incorporating it into my app. I have also demonstrated critical thinking
when trying to problem solve the publishing process of my app. I worked a long time to try and get it to
work, however with time being short, I was able to come up with a solution that works perfectly for my
situation.

Communication:

I have demonstrated communication throughout my project by regularly adding evidence to my website

as well as staying fully up to date with my blog journals. I have also demonstrated communication while
trying to figure out my publishing problem as I wanted to inform the teacher about the situation and
what my solution is so that everything works out.

Personal and Cultural Identity:

I have demonstrated this core competency throughout my project by not only doing some thinking on
myself, but on how others may think/feel as well. I have also demonstrated this to bring positive
thoughts and encouragement to others by adding a quotes section where users are able to have a quote
of the day which tells them something positive and motivation to better themselves because it is worth
it.

What impact if any did your capstone project have?

My capstone project impacted me in both a positive way because it brought a sense of awareness to
myself and my own mental health, but also about others. Although the project has brought on lots of
stress, at the same time it showed me that there are healthy ways to deal with stress and that I can
adopt these strategies to deal with future situations. I believe that my capstone would have impacted
others more if I was able to fully publish it and at the very least spread awareness about mental health if
people choose not to follow the methods.

Thinking about the whole process and your finished product, what are you most proud of?

What I am most proud of is the fact that I managed to persevere and work my way through challenges
and still bring out a product with my intentions. With the situation I put myself in with time, I still
managed to grind and do the best that I could with what I had instead of giving up or procrastinating
more and changing what I was going to do.

What was a difficulty you encountered and how did you solve the problem?

The biggest difficulty I had was trying to publish my app to the app store, which is easier said than done.
I spend multiple days trying to get it to work and with time running out, I needed to think of a solution. I
knew that my app was still accessible through the test link, which is what I used to test it, and so I tested
the link with a different device which had none of my login or anything and managed to get it to work
where you can still access the app through the test link. The only issue with this is that only people with
the link are able to access the app and that it is not actually published for anyone to download.

What is one thing about your finished project you wish you could change? Why?
One thing that I would change about my project is exploring more about app creation and the process of
publishing it as well as learning more code to create a higher tech app that can do more of what I want it
to. This is because it would have given me more knowledge about app creation as well as give me more
creative liberty to make my app more efficient and nicer.

What advice would you give to a student who will be completing their capstone project next year?

2 things:

1. Do NOT wait until the last month/weeks to finish and do your capstone project because you will
be under lots of stress and regret it in the moment. I did not listen to this advice and I wish I did
so please just listen to it.
2. Actually take the time and think about your project as well as yourself because you would be
surprised how much you will learn by taking a minute to do some deep thinking.

What source from your research helped you the most (or least)?

The source that helped me the most would be How to promote mental health and prevent mental health
conditions (http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep27898.12) because this source not only gave many
solutions that are easy to apply and effective, but also gave some context and some understanding to
mental health and the importance of having a good mental health and why poor mental health is bad.

What is one thing about your approach to your project that you wish you could change? Why?

I wish that I would have explored more with creating apps in terms of how and different methods if I
have given myself the time because I feel that I have restricted myself with the research that I did and
there is a high chance that I could have produced a more high quality and effective app than the one
that I did, which could have made the app more accessible and user friendly as well as more high tech
for users and add more solutions and ways to express your thoughts and report your discoveries with
the solutions.