Capstone
In Capstone, you’ll learn skills and get the coaching and support you need to successfully launch a passion project.
In the capstone Series you will
Launch a project from a strong foundation—having learned about needs qualitatively and quantitatively, built a prototype for feedback, and workshopped your solution.
Learn valuable skills applicable to college, internships, & beyond—from asking powerful questions to analyzing survey data.
Learn to tell your important stories in ways that resonate—in writing, on recorded video, and live in-person.
Get personalized feedback on your work—from our team and from peers.
Our perspective
Life rewards those who take initiative. College admissions officers and future employers alike are looking for it.
We believe initiative can be broken down into skills and practiced. Our sessions are deigned just for this—to teach valuable skills that help propel people forward and to give guidance and feedback as you learn how to. use them.
The Sessions
Session 1: Define the scope of your project and ask powerful questions
The first step in a project is carving out a scope that is both ambitious and achievable on the timeline you have with the resources you have. We’ll introduce a framework for narrowing a project scope. We’ll introduce project planning, including backward planning. And we’ll teach the skill of asking powerful questions and how they can be used to conduct empathy interviews that help inform the direction of your project.
Deliverable for feedback: Narrowed project scope, draft workplan, and interview guide for an empathy interview.
Session 2: Write surveys
Basic survey writing skills are invaluable: whoever brings the data gets a seat at the table, whether they’re 16 or 60. Surveys can help us with customer discovery, shed light on voter sentiments, or help diagnose and improve the work of an existing organization. Students will learn critique example surveys to build their judgement, generating best practices along the way. They’ll also learn how to get people to take their survey. The savvy, hustle, and resilience often needed to get people to take your survey is a set of muscles you can develop and draw on throughout your life and career.
Deliverable for feedback: Draft survey.
Session 3: Analyze survey data
We’ll use an example survey data set to teach basic spreadsheet analysis skills. But we’ll also teach the importance of focusing on answers and insights—just because you can do an analysis doesn’t mean you should. We’ll start you down the path of getting value from the analysis you do.
Deliverable for feedback: Insights generated from your survey.
Session 4: Create a prototype
This week we’ll teach about prototyping and share examples of very different types of prototypes. A prototype can be a physical prototype you plan to take to market, an IG account you plan to launch with sample posts in it, a strategic plan for an organization you are going to turnaround or launch. The trick is that you don’t spend too much time creating it and quickly start using it to get feedback from others. We’ll also call back to week one where we talked about asking powerful questions and use this skill to sketch out the questions to get answered about your prototype.
Deliverable for feedback: Your prototype.
Session 5: Iterate and refine
Prototypes aren’t designed to be perfect. They’re designed to quickly get information back. Now that you’ve got this information, it’s time to iterate and create a second version of your prototype. In this workshop session, students will present on what they learned and how they’re planning to take action on those changes. The group will then help generate additional ideas and give feedback to help focus the next draft.
Deliverable for feedback: A second draft of whatever you are making.
Session 6: Powerful presentations
A powerful presentation of an idea can often matter more than the idea itself. We’ll teach you the principles of effective slide design and persuasive presentation so that your idea can find an audience. We’ll practice using these principles live in the session with feedback from the group. We’ll also highlight differences in live and recorded presentations—an increasingly valuable real-life skill as both college admissions and the workplace are moving toward a blend of asynch and synch.
Deliverable for feedback: A Loom video of your final presentation.
Session 7: Project presentations
Students will present their final projects to the group, including the next steps they plan to take on it. They’ll get feedback from the group on what is strong and what could be improved or considered going forward. The strongest project(s) will received ⭐ starred ⭐ project designation and the opportunity to be featured on our website.
past student projects include
DMV Students for Mental Health Reform - Ben Ballman (Churchill graduate, now at Vanderbilt) and Michelle Rojas (Washington-Liberty graduate, now at University of Rochester) surveyed hundreds of students in the DC-area about mental health & the services their high schools provide. As a result they launched the organization, DMV Students for Mental Health Reform, to advocate for changes.
The Effectiveness of the DC Metro’s 15 - 10 Initiative - Colin Harrison (Washington-Liberty graduate, now at NYU) surveyed dozens of people about the initiative, combined it with analysis of the cost of the program, and came to the conclusion that the program was not worth its cost.
The 2019 Minimum Wage Debate Sofie Stitt (The Potomac School, now at Notre Dame) interviewed dozens of minimum wage workers about the minimum wage and combined this with economic analysis of the effects of raising it to make recommendations about it.
Immigration Reform - Emma Guarnero (Walter Johnson High School graduate, now at Washington University) researched and laid out a data-based case for increasing immigration to the U.S.
The Walt Whitman Psychology Journal - Thomas Mande (Walt Whitman graduate, now at Duke) created a plan to turnaround the student-run psychology journal at his high school—and then implemented it.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Interactive: In each session, we’ll share best practices, examples, and templates so you can see what works & immediately start applying what you’re learning
Dynamic: We’ll provide plenty of opportunities for you to ask questions
Applied: In between sessions, you’ll apply what you learned
Personalized: Before the next session, you’ll submit a final draft of your product for personalized feedback from our team
About the team
Sarah Dillard is the founder of Kaleidoscope and a graduate of Harvard Business School, the Harvard Kennedy School, and Duke University. She developed the skills sequence for student capstones based on many of the skills she learned as a young analyst at Bain & Company and has been using ever since.
Sarah is excited to share this ‘hidden curriculum’ so that more young people can uncover their interests and talents, build useful skills and meaningful relationships, and fulfill their potential while building a better world.
Edie Abraham-Macht is a Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude graduate of Yale University (‘22) and teacher & curriculum developer with Kaleidoscope Education.
At Yale, Edie majored in American Studies and Education Studies. She has been lauded in high school and at Yale for her writing abilities (creative writing and narrative/expository essays).
Edie is excited about helping young people bring their individual interests and stories to the fore as they bring their projects to life.
Logistics
Each day we have a two-hour Zoom session where we discuss rich, carefully chosen course materials, reflect on its implications on our lives, and learn from each other in a collaborative, challenging environment
Small discussion seminars: Minimum of 4 & maximum of 12 for engaging discussion
Tuition: $1,000 with need-based scholarships available, part of the application