The senior Capstone Projects have grown to become an important part of the Fort Worth Country Day community. The idea for the Capstone Projects began in the summer of 2017, created by Jennifer Giror, US History; Catherine Collins-Vecino, US English Department Chair; Colin Douglas, US History Department Chair; Daniel Lancaster, US English Sara Teegarden, US History;  Bill Arnold, retired US History Teacher and Stephen Blan, Middle School Division Head. Originally, the Capstone Project was intended to be a four-year-long program, but since has been condensed to a semester-long project for students in their senior year. Even though the Capstone Project has veered from its original plan, the impact that the project has had on past and present students are still amazing. The Capstone Projects are a way for students to explore passions and potential careers before they set out into the real world.

“All of the projects are so great,” Sara Blan, US Librarian, and coordinator of the Capstone program said. “I always love to see the projects and see the students explain their process of creation, showing the community all of their hard work.” 

Caroline Homan ‘23 has been looking forward to being a part of the Capstone Project since her freshman year of high school in 2019. She is a part of the fall semester class and has started to create her project. Homan wants to potentially pursue a career in either law or journalism after she graduates from FWCD, so it made perfect sense for her to combine those two interests to create her 2022 Capstone Project. Her project will be over the phrase “Are words violent?” and she will be analyzing legal documents. Her mentor will be a lawyer, and her supervisor will be Lisa Wallace, US student media Adviser. 

“I am really looking forward to designing and formulating my own curriculum to explore a passion of mine that could be defining my future,” Homan said. “Everyone in my Capstone class has been working really hard on their projects, and I am so excited to see all of the projects once they are completed.” 

Lily Peacock ‘23 has also begun her Capstone project for this year. Peacock has always had a passion for music, so she decided to center her project around it. She is going to be recording an EP and playing it for her Capstone presentation at the end of the fall semester. She intends on recording 2-6 songs for her EP.  Peacock’s  FWCD advisor is Catherine Collins-Vecino.         

“I’ve always wanted to record my music and make my own EP,” Peacock said. “I am looking forward to sharing my musical passion with the community.” 

Vivian Todora ‘23 is another senior looking forward to her project. She plans on studying elementary education and how different environments can affect the learning process of young children. Todora decided to pursue her project after working at the Fort Wonder summer camps at FWCD in 2019. 

“Working at Fort Wonder really made me fall in love with working with kids,” Todora said. 

Jessica Tomasic ‘23 has a project in its planning stages. She is going to create a device that can correlate the emotions of children when they hear stories read out loud. The goal for her project is to try to establish a relationship between when children hear books read out loud and how they emotionally react to them. She already has a computer code that has the children’s book “Cats’ Pajamas” pre-coded. The book has been scientifically proven to increase learning comprehension. Tomasic is about to begin her data collection. Her mentor is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in computer and physiatry interaction. Her FWCD advisor is Shaheen Matuni, US computer science teacher.

“Over the summer, I did research on this topic and I am very interested in the field of computer-human interaction,” Tomasic said.

The Class of 2023 Capstone Projects is something to look forward to seeing. The Fall Capstone Project showing will be December 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the Moncrief Library.