For this reason, each student participates in a 3-credit Capstone program. Although we are always talking and thinking about the future, students begin preparing for their Capstone experience as they approach their final year of high school. The program has 4 distinct phases.
Students will begin exploring how their characteristics, skills, and interests might fit with different careers, and begin brainstorming ideas for their Capstone experience.
The overall purpose of the Capstone Site phase is to secure an internship location and internship mentor or another experience. Activities may include generating letters of interest, exchanging email correspondence, resume writing, making phone calls, mock interviews, organizing informal visits with professionals in the career field, and traveling on-site to visit targeted facilities.
The Capstone Experience phase is designed to immerse the student in the real world of adult work to provide a context for learning outside of school. Students will observe and actively participate in the operations of the internship site, receiving direct guidance from an on-site supervisor or their internship mentor and ongoing support from school.
In the Defense phase, students assemble a panel of peers and adults, lead a presentation that explains and analyzes the Capstone Experience, and participate in a discussion session in which the student responds to panel comments and inquiries. This is the point of Capstone that acts as the culminating experience of the previous year and the springboard for the first concrete transitional step to adulthood.
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