Every spring, thousands of interested seniors around the county are excused from class to participate in a career exploration activity or community service project to gain exposure to their desired career through the Loudoun County Capstone project. 

Loudoun County Capstone allows high school seniors to connect with a mentor to work in either a workplace or work on a project. By partaking in their project, seniors are able to engage in a meaningful experience and acquire various foundational and workplace readiness skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration as well as be exposed to various careers.

English teacher Tyler Anderson is the founder and one of the co-directors of the Capstone project at Rock Ridge. “I heard about Capstone at the previous school I worked at, so because I had a little bit of familiarity with it, I volunteered to start the program at Rock Ridge [in 2017],” Anderson said. “I think that bridging the gap between school and the workplace is really important, and I wanted to be part of it.”

The capstone project has attracted many seniors pursuing various career choices. “Generally, 50% of our seniors go out in the field,” Anderson said. “In the past five years we’ve had close to 600 kids out there.” The 2021-22 school year has 154 participants out of 346 seniors. 

The Blaze staff chatted with five seniors who are pursuing various capstone projects and discussed what this opportunity means to them. 

Sarina Amiri

Sarina Amiri is volunteering at a dentistry clinic in Brambleton, Virginia, where she will be shadowing and assisting a dentist. 

Amiri isn’t sure about her exact future career, but she knows it will be in the medical field. She hopes that her capstone experience will give a better idea and foundation of her future career. “So far, I haven’t picked a specialty I want to go into, but I know I want to work in medicine,” Amiri said. “Volunteering at the dentistry will help me get a better understanding on what I want to do as my career.” 

Nick Duellman

Nick Duellman is shadowing a physical therapist at the National Sports Medicine Institute in Lansdowne, Virginia. 

Duellman said that he is overjoyed with the opportunity to participate in the capstone project. “I found the [capstone project] to be a valuable experience and I could develop connections with the people there if I need a letter of recommendation in the future,” Duellman said. 

This is a good opportunity in Duellman’s eyes, as he hopes to study physical therapy after high school. “I plan to study Kinesiology at Longwood University after high school and eventually get into physical therapy as a career,” Duellman said. 

Danielle Knick

Danielle Knick is working with Stone Hill Middle School history teacher Alison O’Leary for her capstone experience. Knick has known she wanted to be a teacher since the fifth grade and she credits her fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Leach, for her budding interest in the profession. “Mrs. Leach engaged and encouraged each of her students and made our class seem like a family,” Knick said. 

Knick has also been involved in the Teacher Cadet program for the last two years. “I thought it would be great to do capstone with a teacher to build and practice the skills I am learning in Teacher Cadet,” Knick said. Teacher Cadet is a CTE course offered at Rock Ridge that aims to provide students with a challenging introduction to teaching, including hands-on experiences.

Knick hopes to work locally as a teacher after college. “I hope to become a history teacher in Loudoun County.”

 Ellie Schubert

Ellie Schubert is working with audio engineer and videographer Luke Denton for her capstone experience. Schubert will be recording, producing, and mastering an original song, which will be written by another artist. 

Schubert is planning to study music at the Berklee College of Music and is working with Denton to prepare her for the music industry. “Even though you’re supposed to be learning and taking classes in college, when you go to school for music, you automatically start in the industry, working with professionals and collaborating,” Schubert said. 

Due to her capstone experience, Schubert feels more prepared for her future at Berklee and beyond. “I’m really glad that my project 100% relates to my career field, which is being a producer or audio engineer and that is literally what I’m doing for my project,” Schubert said. 

Lauren Yi

Lauren Yi is working with a coffee shop in downtown Leesburg, Goosecup, for her capstone experience. “I am shadowing the manager and learning project management skills that I can hopefully use in the future,” Yi said. 

Yi’s inspiration for her decision to participate in the capstone project was the ability to learn relevant workplace readiness skills. “I feel like I can really get ahead and get a taste of what it’s like to work a real job through capstone, and it just sounded like a fun opportunity, especially since I get to go out and work with adults,” Yi said. 

More specifically, Yi wants to gain more experience with business analytics and project management which are related to the majors she wants to pursue in college. 

Yi performs a variety of tasks at the shop, so she doesn’t necessarily have one set role. “Some days I work on finances, human resources, or picture taking,” Yi said. “It just depends.” 

Yi entered her capstone experience with the goal of learning new skills relevant to her major and has made many new friends. “I feel like I am surrounding myself with people with great energy and aspirations,” Yi said. 

Although all capstone projects may be significantly different, these undertakings all serve the same purpose: prepare for the real world. Anderson said that there are numerous examples of students who had deeply impactful and hands-on experiences through their capstone project. “We’ve had students who went into operating rooms to observe surgeries, we’ve had students develop their own websites, and we’ve had students pitch during corporate events,” Anderson said. “It’s always amazing to me, the hands-on experiences the sponsors allow the students to do.”