The relatively new senior Capstone class is guiding students to positively impact the community and teaching them how to research effectively and accurately. The class is only offered to senior students and is taken in place of an English class. At the beginning of the year, each student chose a topic to research and plan out a solution to the problem at hand.

“I am doing my project on saving food for the homeless or for people in need,” said Jonah Brekelbaum, senior. “I chose this idea because in our economic system, monetary gain is valued more than the collective well-being.”

Brekelbaum’s project is focused on conserving fresh and packaged food for homeless people that would have been thrown out from restaurants and grocery stores otherwise. He plans on narrowing in on the Rockford community, and possibly expanding from there.

Students like Brekelbaum have been working hard on their projects and are getting ready for the final outcome. At the end of the year, after researching and planning out everything, the students will present their ideas to prominent members in the community, some of the school board, and their fellow classmates.

“The final project for capstone is to present a solution to a problem that the student has identified within the school or community,” said Ms. Ashley Gasparini, Capstone teacher.

Ms. Gasparini and Mr. Clark Fabert-Church teach the Capstone class this year and are guiding students in the right direction to create a successful outcome to their projects. Even though Capstone is taken in place of an English class, it is a lot different from the normal English class.

“I enjoy the authentic learning process,” said Ms. Gasparini. “Because each student has an individual project, I become the facilitator of an original idea. I am excited to see all the ideas come to fruition.”

Due to the fact of Capstone being a new class at Guilford, the class itself is still working out the details and trying to make the class the best experience for everyone.

“My project is about stereotypes and how it leads to a misguided perception and why it breaks people’s beliefs on their cultures and races,” said Jamaia Brown, senior. “The main thing I like about this class is that we connect well with our projects.”