Students Rehearse For The Annual CAP Showcase

On June 3, 2019, the senior class will be presenting their long-awaited Community Action Projects (CAP). The annual CAP Showcase will feature students’ hard work and dedication to service projects. Leading up to the showcase, the seniors spent many hours helping their community and meticulously making their posters to display and present.

Several seniors found the CAP process a rewarding and overall beneficial experience. “I learned how important it is to take the gifts that you are given from Westridge and from other places and put them back into your community where you make a positive impact so other people can do it as well,” said Alex P., ’19.

A key component to CAP is recognizing a need in the community and addressing it, like the way Caroline R., ’19, and Paloma S., ’19, did in their project about coding at Washington Elementary School. “Paloma and I both knew that this would be a great experience for us both just because of the previous experiences we have had; we both wanted to work with children. There was somebody reaching out from Washington that showed a need that they had, and we were really eager to help with that,” said Caroline.

Preparation for the presentations varied; however, students wanted to find the best possible way to represent their CAP in an interesting way. “I prepared for the presentation by condensing everything on my poster into a quick speech and figuring out the most important parts. I particularly wanted to focus on my reflection, as that’s where I felt the biggest impact from my service,” said Caroline N., ’19.

The final project also includes creating a poster display. “I enjoyed actually doing CAP, but I am just not good at art, so the poster was not as fun,” said Sophie M, ’19. The poster serves as a visual aid during the presentation to faculty and students. “Presenting it is kind of fun because I enjoy talking about what I did because I loved it so much,” said Caroline N.

Students explained what they were looking forward to the most in the showcase, which included learning about other CAP projects and sharing their impact. “I am looking forward to getting to share my impact with members of the Westridge Community and hopefully inspire someone to create positive change through service. I also am excited to see more of my classmates' presentations!” said Alex.