Silver Creek students are showcasing community collaboration

Showcasing work in collaboration, citizenship and problem-solving, students from Silver Creek High School’s Leadership Academy, or SCLA, will present their senior year Capstone Projects tonight.

During their time in SCLA, students learn those skills in both classroom and real world environments, including internships and community service experience. The curriculum encourages students to collaborate, problem-solve, apply critical thinking and recognize their own strengths and passions, SCLA Director Carrie Adams explained.

The Capstone projects are a culmination of the three-year experience in SCLA, Adams said, where students demonstrate communication skills, creativity and empathy while identifying and addressing needs in the community. Students complete mini-Capstone projects their junior year and submit their senior projects for approval, she explained, then work on them for a year.

Students work within the school or community, collaborating with business, nonprofits or government agencies, Adams explained. Through the Capstone projects, students develop connections and relationships that go on to enhance their college experience or lead to career options after high school, she said.

“We’ve really tried to help them recognize their strengths and things they’re really interested in and design their projects based on those strengths,” Adams said. 

After COVID-19 sent 2020’s Capstone Expo virtual, Adams and her colleagues found the format worked so well they planned for it this year, she said. Each student has a five minute video presentation, including a commercial they film and design themselves about their project and an interview portion. 

Students were interviewed by Gloria Neal, communications director for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, and Michelle Sulek, community development officer for Elevations Credit Union. The interviews help the seniors build confidence and practice public speaking skills, Adams said, while also getting comfortable advocating for their ideas.

The whole production was filmed by SCLA Alum and local media producer Trenton Hoshiko, who is helping out for a second time in a production capacity. Hoshiko was more than happy to help out with the senior projects, he said, to see the students making a difference locally and globally.

“It’s an incredibly powerful thing and I’m proud to support that,” Hoshiko said. 

Hoshiko, who was part of the first cohort of SCLA students, recalled creating video media for SCLA as part of his Capstone project and led him to develop his production company, Modern Icon Media. Coming back to SCLA was a great opportunity to reconnect with Adams and other teachers he knew in high school, while also helping highlight the student ideas and passions, Hoshiko said.

The program will be around three hours long, according to Hoshiko, starting at 6 p.m. through Silver Creek’s Raptor TV YouTube channel. Local businesses are getting in on the student expo as well, Adams said, with Everest Restaurant and La Momo Mae’s donating a portion of the proceeds to SCLA tonight.

“It’s a feel-good event, it sort of restores your faith in humanity to see that the next generation is awesome and they’re doing cool things,” Adams said.