From sharing personal stories and useful information about student activism on the KDNK airwaves and in the pages of The Sopris Sun, to literally flying, this year’s Roaring Fork High School seniors are taking their capstone projects to new heights.
Capstones are a free form, hands-on project, often spanning the better part of two years of high school, plus hours upon hours of research and writing, and culminating with a teacher panel review and a community presentation of the student’s work.
It’s also a requirement for graduation.
This year, seniors at the Carbondale public high school gave their presentations during parent-teacher conferences on March 7.
“We’ve always had a dedicated time for students to give their demonstrations of learning and have invited the public in to see what the students have been doing,” RFHS Vice Principal Mary Kate Adams said. “Our staff and parents were thrilled and loved having the opportunity to check them out.”
Seniors also had the opportunity to showcase their capstone work during 11th grade tutorials, as a way to provide some guidance for the juniors as they develop their capstone projects to present next year.
Seniors Brisa Farfan Fernandez and Esmeralda Alverde Duarte utilized local media outlets to share their capstone projects with a much broader audience.
Farfan Fernandez emigrated from Peru and shared her story in a personal column she wrote for el Sol del Valle, The Sopris Sun’s Spanish insert, in October 2023. It was also shared in a Voices Radio Hour segment on KDNK Community Access Radio.
“For this project I was inspired by freedom of expression,” Farfan Fernandez said. “When I moved to the United States, I became quiet and awkward, not because I wanted to, but because it felt impossible to communicate when I did not know the language properly.”
Writing about her experiences as a young immigrant helped her empathize with others who are still struggling as recent arrivals. “For me, there is nothing more beautiful than what connects us as humans, in this case, freedom of expression,” Farfan Fernandez said. “This project allowed me to not only connect with people but also myself. I don’t consider myself the greatest writer, yet I am certain that the words I type come from passion, honesty and dedication.”
She said her takeaway is that, in sharing her story in her own words, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
“When I wrote the article I really had to put myself out there for criticism, which is something that I usually avoid at all costs, but it taught me that it is good to sit in discomfort every once in a while to accomplish your own goals.”
For her project, Alverde Duarte created a series of podcasts to air on KDNK focusing on discussions about environmental issues and directed at youth taking action to protect their environment. She interviewed representatives from several area environmental organizations about how small actions locally can make a difference globally.
“It’s such a big issue and young people want to help, but it can seem insurmountable and it’s hard to stay motivated,” Alverde Duarte said. “So I focused my series on trying to empower them through their own connections to the environment.
“Instead of getting sad and, ‘oh, the world is dying,’ I try to get them to think about how blessed we are with our surroundings and that we want to do whatever we can to protect it.”
The project itself involved a lot of scheduling and rescheduling meetings with the people she was interviewing and fine-tuning her conversational skills.
“It will be a two-year project from when I first started to when the last (segment) will air,” said Alverde Duarte, who plans to study on a pre-law track at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Two senior students have been learning how to fly planes, which Haven Keery documented for his capstone.
Emerging pilot JT Haberern took it a step further, using his training to help teach middle school students about the world of aviation and introducing them to the flight simulator at the Aspen Flight Academy.
A sampling of other capstone projects at the March 7 event found Brandon Thomas presenting about his beekeeping project; David Finley talking about the “E-Sports” team he created for digital gamers; Micah Bays showcasing his digital artwork; Evi Keating’s job shadowing project; Noah Brockman’s work as the RFHS baseball team photographer; and Eli Cohen’s effort to obtain his Level 1 ski instructor certification and organize a ski day for emerging bilingual students at his school.