Last year, there was a large national Sikh campaign going around the United States. The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness of Sikhs. Most often, they're misunderstood by the mass and under-taught, if at all, by public schools. Moreover, the Sikh turban (which is why most people are targeted) is not just a headgear, but our greatest pride. And, I would like my community to know the difference.  I am not throwing my Muslim friends under the bus, but just bringing out a reality that is much needed.
 

As a Sikh myself, being inspired by the campaign I wanted to develop a better understanding of the Sikh community in my community, to project the positive image and profile of the Sikh community. Moreover, the United States is the "melting pot" of diversity, so it’s important to understand and know of other religions, cultures, backgrounds for misunderstandings to not occur.  To raise some awareness on Sikhs, I decided to undertake this project.
 

As for my audience, I wished to present to the students and staff at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber, Science Leadership Academy Center City, and a department at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. However, as I came close to presentation dates, I couldn't present to Science Leadership Academy Center City. Nonetheless, I presented to every class at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber and a department at St. Christopher's. The presentation was completed long back, but I kept adding details after details till the month of February. 
 

The presentation itself is twenty-two pages long, taking about twenty to twenty-five minutes to present. I used many four websites  (SALDEF, Sikh Collation, Basics of Sikhi, and We Are Sikhs), my parents, and Philadelphia Sikh Society located in Melbourne, Philadelphia. To prevent extensive stage freight, I presented to every class on separate advisory days. This allowed me to interact and analyze the engagement of every class who saw the presentation. According to my experienced, the class of 2019 and class of 2020 were the most engaged group to watch my presentation. They were respectful of my time and my voice. Even at the end, these two classes asked the most questions regarding Sikhism. This made me happy because it showed that they were interested and curious. 
 

This capstone not only brought awareness to the community, but through the core values of SLA, I learned and grew as a person. I questioned why there was such a lack of curricula set around Sikhism and who the first Sikhs were in America and the significant contributions by Sikhs. To find answers to such questions, I researched. Not only for my questions, just to gain personal knowledge more about the religion I follow. This included aspects of science and women empowerment. Other included, data and studies showing how less of a knowledge the average American has about Sikhs. In terms of collaboration, I had to talk to the "lead" advisors and someone at the hospital for the presentations to occur. Presentation wise, I think it's obvious because that was the whole point of my capstone. However, there were two another components. This included an art piece and online website which could relay my message without an actual live presentation. And, our last core value is reflection. Personally, I think there was a mental reflection after every major task. Moreover, our journalling really helped me sort what I learned, wanted to keep learning, and my tasks to do regarding this capstone. It also made me think of my personal fear of speaking in front of a large audience. Even though, it was quite daunting to see the first rows filled with faces I'm unfamiliar with, the actual process was eye-opening. As long as I was ready to present and prepared for questions, all I needed to be less nervous was start the presentation. I realized the longer it took for me to start, the more I thought about it. All in all, I'm so happy that I stepped out of my comfort zone because I feel so much more confident!
 

Seeing that this capstone has been completed, I'm proud of myself. However, I'm also so glad I took the time to add another component which touched upon creativity. Even though, the art piece is a recreation of an art piece by @Inquisitive, I too added my personal details. I'm not the best at painting, but I love to paint. So, being able to do something I had control over and would leave my capstone for incoming students to see is a happy thought. Science Leadership Academy at Beeber is all about learning and exploring new things. As a student, I got the opportunity to aware my community about the differences between a Muslim and Sikh, to aware.

 

 In this moment, reflecting through my process in this capstone, even though I'm proud of the way it came out, I would still go back to do it all over again. I would want to start the actual presentations way earlier in the year because I waited way too long to present them. If my presentation to give was already prepared, there should have been no reason to give them so late. Second, I would've reached out to Center City campus early on to schedule dates to visit. Since, my dates at Beeber were so late, I couldn't even try to request dates at the main campus. Other than that, maybe a follow-up survey that would evaluate how much the students learn or knew of after the presentation. I think that would have been an interesting comparison of information known before and after, to culminate at school.

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After months on this capstone, I'm so proud to finish. It didn't end like my initial hope, but I still completed all of my goals. I grew as a public speaker by speaking in front of a large audience and spread awareness on Sikhs. And, I'm proud to do this at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber. I've become a better person socially and academically, so if I'm glad I was able to contribute something here.