Senior Capstones

Celebrating Hands-On Learning

This year’s Senior Class was the 17th class at Island School to complete Senior Capstones which is a graduation requirement for every Island School senior. This process is completely student-centered from beginning to end: students choose their own topics -- which range greatly -- conduct their own research, and present their findings to a group of their peers, staff and faculty members.

Students this year presented on a variety of topics ranging from sports medicine and how to build a golf course, to fashion illustration and the feminization of veterinary medicine. Students are given the choice between writing a traditional thesis paper and presenting their findings, doing an internship on Kauaʻi, or completing a project. This year, several students chose to do internships on Kauaʻi or complete projects within Island School to fulfill their Senior Capstone requirement.

We sat down with six students to talk about their projects, which included designing a theoretical Student Center to be built on Island School’s campus, presenting to a class on eating disorders and the effects of social media on body image, building a robot, building a loʻi (taro field) on Island School’s campus, designing a model for sustainable housing, and studying limu (seaweed) across each ‘Ahupuaʻa on Kauaʻi.

The project approach to Senior Capstones is a much more hands-on experience, allows students to create something outside of themselves, and cultivates involvement with the larger Island School and Kauaʻi community. Here are just some of the projects from this year:

AJ Galiza

Avinash Srikanth

AJ Galiza designed a Student Center at Island School for his senior project. He began by taking surveys of his peers and interviewed Nathaniel Evslin about what they would like to see in a future Student Center. He then based his design on the feedback he received. He worked with Nick Clark, a construction manager at Layton Construction Company, to create a project budget and proposed timeline for the Student Center. After his collaborative

During her senior year at Island School, Ella Offley spent her Independent Study researching mental health, social media, body image, and eating disorders. During her first semester, she created a presentation on eating disorders that she gave to the 10th grade class. She says that she was extremely happy to hear how grateful and appreciative students were to take in the knowledge she shared. During her second semester, Offley dedicated her senior project to the same topic, narrowing her research to the effect that social media has on eating

Avinash Srikanth chose to build and program a robot for his senior project. As part of this project, he nearly single-handedly re-initiated the Island School Robotics team. Srikanth built a robot that could solve a First Tech Challenge (FTC) game. FTC is a robotics competition for students from seventh to twelfth grade, in which students compete by building, designing, and programming a robot to challenge those built by other students. “This project was student led,” says Srikanth. He and the Island School robotics team worked under the guidance of Teddy work, Galiza digitally designed the building using AutoCAD, a design software application. He presented his design to teachers and peers upon completion. Galiza found the project method of Capstone completion the perfect way to execute his ideas. He wants to study architecture in college, and found that this process - getting to collaborate with professionals in the construction business and design the building himself - gave him real world experience in this field.

Ella Offley

disorders. She worked with Nathaniel Evslin and Renate McMullen to begin planning a schoolwide curriculum built on these topics, and interviewed a professional psychologist on Kauaʻi, Dr. Tanya Gamby. “Throughout this process, I realized that in school we are not educated enough about our mental health, and I think that is a big fault in our education system,” Offley says. Through this process, Offley was able to present her research to a wide audience, and an audience that was especially receptive to what she had to say. She hopes to see a future where the dangers of social media are taught to students in school.

Rose, technology teacher at Island School. Mr. Rose was present to help if students found themselves up against a wall, but were challenged to work hard and work together to get themselves out of tricky situations on their own. This project allowed Srikanth to work and build this robot with a tangible goal in mind, which he found challenging and rewarding. “Overall, it was really fun to take this opportunity to explore robotics with the help of Island School. I am glad I did it because it allowed me to see what engineering is like before I pursue it in college next year.”

Hiʻilani Ventura importance of wetland loʻi by creating one herself. Getting in the mud and working Hiʻilani Ventura completed her senior with her hands to create this loʻi taught her capstone by building a wetland loʻi (taro things that can only be learned through patch) by the Frear Center on campus. action, which was, Ventura says, the most Wetland loʻi provide a rich wetland impactful part of her senior capstone ecosystem that supports native plants and project. animals. Ventura has been a student at Ventura built this loʻi on campus Island School for six years, and wanted to with the help of Lei Wann, the Director use her senior capstone opportunity to of Limahuli Garden and Preserve at the give back to Island School, the place she National Tropical Botanical Garden on says has given her so much throughout her Kauaʻi. Ventura learned about wetland life. Ventura also says that she wanted to loʻi through research she conducted as create something that would last and be part of her capstone project, but was impactful for students to come, and found able to learn so much of the real-world this the perfect avenue.

Melina Ventura

Melina Ventura built physical and digital models of future sustainable housing options. Ventura conducted research on sustainable housing and, with the help of her architect father, built these physical and digital models. Ventura had an interest in structural engineering before beginning her senior project, and says that the biggest takeaway from this project was realizing structural engineering is something she does wants to pursue in college. Being in charge of this project from start to finish - from choosing her own subject of study, conducting her own research, and building these models from scratch - showed Ventura what her future could hold in the field of engineering. Melina Ventura is committed to the University of Notre Dame to study structural engineering in the fall. She hopes to be able to give back to Kauaʻi by returning home to become a structural engineer on island after college.

Hanalei WannKeliʻihoʻomalu

Hanalei Wann Keliʻihoʻomalu surveyed limu (seaweed) in each ahupuaʻa (subdivision) on Kauaʻi. Wann found seaweed in freshwater rivers by the ocean, and surveyed and gathered data with the help of Mālama Māhāʻulepū, an organization devoted to land preservation on Kauaʻi. Surveying limu is important, Wann says, because the quality of the seaweed tells surveyors about what is going on in the land above, and what is being washed into the rivers. Wann chose this topic because he grew up around this type of work - his mother is the director of Limahuli Gardens at the National Tropical Botanical Garden - and because he wants to study marine biology in college. He felt that this topic would allow him to experience this field of study first hand before getting to college. Wann chose to use his senior capstone assignment to connect with place and people, as it allowed him to learn from experts about what we can do to take care of the land on which we reside. The biggest takeaway from this project, for Wann, was being able to take tangible action in preserving our environment and putting action behind what he has learned from the experts he interviewed.