Schedule of Events

This English Capstone Project is the initial stage of a young-adult fantasy novel, which depicts the miraculous experience of young people stepping into their own fictional world that they have created. My goals for this project were to embrace the creative writing passion that I have buried deep inside my mind for far too long and to push myself to become a better writer.
The development of this novel was influenced by the work of creative thinkers that utilize world-building techniques. Primarily, I drew inspiration from author C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia Series). Through the guided wisdom of Lewis’ writing strategies, I sought to create a world that embodies a reflection of my faith and the moral standards I strive to live by. As a Christian, I have always cherished the impact the Narnia series had on my faith in God as well as on the vivid imagination I developed from reading them. 
My novel idea that I have advanced for the purposes of this project is a young-adult fantasy novel titled To the Playground We Go. Within this presentation, I will share a brief section from my opening chapter of this novel. In this story the fearless twelve year old, Devin Dulaine, accidentally leads his rag-tag group of friends into a mysterious realm that seems to resemble their own world…but not entirely. There are monsters here that each individual child must face and conquer, and if they fail to do so, they will be trapped in this alternate universe forever.

People today have lost touch with their morals/values and have instead wreaked metaphorical havoc within our society. People have slowly begun to lose any form of individualism. Dystopian novels such as Fahrenheit 451and 1984 describe societies that have collapsed and while rebuilding, stripped its members of their ability to have an opinion. Dystopian novels address issues happening within society during a specific time and, I believe, inadvertently are describing issues we are seeing today. In this piece, I will be using the two books I have mentioned to argue that by reading not only dystopian novels, but all forms of literature, we may be able to mend society and not repeat history. 
 
 

Low-income and underserved students, who commonly tend to be students of color, are heavily negatively impacted in their academic experiences and are more likely to be characterized in the “Achievement gap.” This gap represents the discrepancy in academic performance, educational attainment and opportunities for students who live in these lower income areas. Compounded with lack of educational and familial resources, lack of positive expectations, and parental involvement, this discrepancy results in a resoundingly low percentage of students of color committing to 2-to-4-year universities. The problem is not that every single one of these students has to go to college; the problem occurs when students aren’t afforded the equal opportunity to choose that route if they see fit. Recognizing my background and experience as a low-income student myself, I am compelled to report three societal factors that contribute to this achievement gap and explain how these factors collectively contribute to a generational cycle of poverty.  As a prospective educator, I plan to highlight the ways an individual teacher in these communities can support and motivate their students and help close this achievement gap in a single classroom.
 

This project explores the underpinnings of the historical oppression of Black people in America through notable Black literary works. The experience of Black Americans feeling invisible, being displaced, and lacking equal opportunities is stubbornly persistent. This pattern of turning a blind eye to systemic injustice is visible throughout history and still exists today. The resulting struggles of Black Americans have been poignantly chronicled in literature in an effort to raise awareness and serve as a form of catharsis and validation for Black authors and readers alike. The current political climate in America and the resurfacing of the Black Lives Matter movement have fostered greater interest in better understanding race relations and the experiences of Black citizens. It is now more imperative than ever to recognize inequality and overcome the facets of systemic oppression that plague society. Using renowned autobiographical, fictitious, and poetic works by Black authors detailing experiences of societal invisibility and oppression of Black Americans, I hope to establish greater empathy and deeper understanding of identity/experience pertaining to the Black communities of America. As an aspiring civil rights attorney, this topic is particularly personal. My deep commitment to social justice/racial equity resulted from growing up in a city with one of the highest concentrated-poverty-rates in America. My community is very racially and culturally diverse, and I have benefitted greatly from my experiences there. This project presents an opportunity to integrate my life experiences with my undergraduate studies to better prepare for the challenges I will face as an attorney.

William Goldman's The Princess Bride is a story written for a more modern audience. It is a novel that both celebrates and parodies classic tales of gallant knights and dastardly villains through the metanarrative aspect of its framing. The Princess Bride styles itself as a revision of a relatively ancient historical account, and incorporates the removal of certain sections of the story in order to craft what the narrator (a fictional version of Goldman himself) perceives to be a "better" tale. This project explores both the story Goldman purports to have abridged, as well as the narrative surrounding the "S. Morgenstern" classic. The goal of this project is to uncover a deeper meaning behind a novel which, though written by a prolific author, appears to have been overlooked from an analytical perspective.

Questions about race, gender, and social class are becoming more prevalent within these conversations surrounding environmentalism. It is imperative for conservationists to make connections between threats of degradation and inequality in our environments. The Environmental Humanities addresses these concerns as it presents the interrelationship between the culture and nature of an area, while emphasizing the benefits of examining specific case studies and sites. The rocket testing facility used by Rocketdyne in the 1940’s, experienced a partial nuclear meltdown, complicating both the Santa Susana Field Lab and the land surrounding it. This land has yet to be cleaned up and has caused the area to be unused for quite some time. However, SSFL’s status as a cleanup conversy has protected some of the many sacred sites and cultural resources of the Indigenous Chumash people from development. Additionally, the inactivity of the land has allowed for the potential of an ecologically critical habitat linkage for the region’s imperiled mountain lion population. The application of Environmental Humanities techniques to SSFL’s rich and complicated history displays a juncture between the deep environmental topics existing on the site and the growing consciousness of social inequality. This paper will explore the functionality of the Environmental Humanities and exhibit how this multidisciplinary approach may be used in SSFL to help develop a better understanding of humankind’s relationship to the environment and promote the benefits of having a long-lasting partnership with its surrounding communities.

At some point in our lives, most of us have all felt the desire to be someone else—to be anyone other than ourselves, even just for a day. Whether that desire stems from a regret, jealousy, grief, anxiety, or just sheer curiosity—we have all felt it. Who You Were Yesterday is a feature film script that explores this desire by following a protagonist whom after the death of her mother begins to spend each day changing her appearance, name, and persona in an attempt to discover who she is in a world that exists without her mother in it. 
Who You Were Yesterday seeks to redefine the coming-of-age genre and broaden the perspective of what stories can be viewed as a part of the genre. It does so by making the argument that one does not need to be reaching a different developmental stage (childhood, adolescence, adulthood, etc.) to have a coming-of-age moment, but rather an event in one’s life can serve as the motivator for one: the smallest of events can spark a revolution in who we are. The script achieves this by featuring a protagonist past the age of a traditional coming-of-age story experiencing many of the conventional tropes of one due to undergoing a period of grief and loss. Through my sometimes eccentric yet fundamentally human characters, tackling of the family dynamic after one has died, and comedic dialogue, I have created a coming-of-age story that can resonate with one at any stage of life.