This project sought to support the work of the librarians at Lakeside School Upper School, a private high school in Seattle, WA. The librarians needed to find a solution to a decrease in time available to devote to direct instruction pertaining the use of the many databases that the library purchases for access by its students. The Capstone team, in order to help solve this problem, created 31 video-based user guides on how to use 11 different databases, as well as videos devoted to general database use instruction (i.e. search strategies, keywords, etc.).

The youth across King County are rampantly being exposed to age-restricted products like Marijuana, Tobacco, Vapes etc. To address the issue, we partnered with King County and built a computer vision model that analyzes the storefront images of age-restricted retailers and categorizes them into different groups based on advertisement aggressiveness or intensity. The advertisement intensity groups are classified as ‘High’, ‘Medium’, and ‘Low’. The results will help recommend suitable actions to create a safer advertising space. This will also enable various regulatory bodies to create awareness among the youth and bring necessary policy reforms to prevent unhealthy advertising.

Last year, SGS, a private, nonprofit middle school, moved into its permanent home, along with a collection of 2,000 books and no library staff. The library presented many challenges, namely an uncataloged fiction collection, a nonexistent circulation system, and an overwhelming lack of student engagement. Together with my sponsor and four students, I developed the Student Librarianship Program, cataloged 775 fiction books, established a check out process, and celebrated our progress with the entire school. SGS’s community of 170 students and staff now have a library they can use and a renewed sense of excitement about its continued evolution.

We partnered with the Washington Center for the Book and the Washington State Library to promote zine culture, literacy, and community, and the annual Washington State Zine Competition. To address these needs, our team created, marketed, and hosted a zine workshop; assembled zine making kits; and used feedback from attendees, sponsors, and testers to improve our materials. We shared information and submission guidelines for the competition, and encouraged participation by our fellow MLIS students and community members. The zine kit materials we’ve prepared will be circulated to libraries around the state to host their own zine-making workshops.

Our project consisted of running a social media campaign for the Green Hill Academic School Library, located inside Washington State’s only fully-fenced, medium/maximum security juvenile detention facility. Our goal was to educate the public about the overall benefits of reading, the importance of meaningful library services for incarcerated youth, and direct potential donors to the library's Amazon Wishlist, which plays a critical role in the library’s ability to provide relevant collections to its young patrons. Since the start of our campaign, Green Hill Academic School library has gained 158 followers on social media, and 314 books have been purchased.

Alli Connect (formerly called Thrivelution) seeks to address the urgent mental health needs of Gen Z by offering an innovative platform that pairs patients with their ideal therapists, resulting in better outcomes for both parties. Our team, Psychormation, is integrating the current web service from Alli Connect into a mobile application that provides a much-needed and accessible solution for Gen Z's mental health challenges. Using our mobile application, clients can complete an onboarding survey to receive personalized therapist recommendations, view detailed therapist profiles, and easily connect with the therapists they are interested in.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused decreasing public elementary school student engagement yet increasing comfort with low-quality online teaching. This is contributing to falling student reading capability and teachers' lack of incentive to challenge their students further through the incorporation of a science curriculum, leaving students underprepared to handle the increase in greener initiatives. To address these informational gaps, Sprout aims to deliver to elementary school students from grades 1-3 an interactive web-based storybook that introduces environmental education while increasing reading proficiencies by incorporating elements of both the English Language Arts Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.

In response to the inability to access traditional children’s programming during Covid shut-downs as well as in acknowledgement of an ongoing need for safe programming alternatives, this Capstone project set out to design an outdoor, passive programming experience for 4–7-year-olds and their caregivers. Informed by research, inspired by existing projects and interviews with programming professionals, and shaped by Covid-related constraints, the result is an intentionally designed interactive walk that offers a framework for a fun and accessible outdoor activity, which can be adapted for a wide-range of community needs.

Isolated seniors and disconnected teens - our application aims to bridge the inter-generational gap between youth and elders in the community. As service hours are required for Seattle Public Schools students, our platform allows them to acquire these hours through connecting them to seniors in the community who may need help. Seniors request help for small household tasks by posting on the platform, where students can then pick up the ones which match their schedules. The more time young and old people spend together, the more both parties benefit.