Alumni Capstones
Move For America's mission is to find a generation of leaders who are passionate about bridging divides and engaging in civic dialogue. Each year, our yearlong cohort of Fellows present the bridge building and capacity work they have contributed to during their Fellowship. Browse through and see what these leaders have done!
Annika
Interfaith Action
For her capstone, Annika talks about her understandings of culture through art. She shares, “A lot of the cultural practices I learned were completely new content to me, which I just thought was so cool, and just such a big takeaway from this summer. I got to see how art is incorporated and how [the kids] expressed their heritage through their art. The kids learned a different element or style of art each week [in the program]. For my capstone project, I kind of tried to take an element of that and make my own little art project."
View Annika's full capstone presentation here.
Chaleiah
Foundation For Essential Needs
For her capstone, Chaleiah put together a booklet presentation for each phase of her work. She shares, “From my presentation, you can expect to understand how I embraced taking risks by joining the Fellowship program and working in the hunger relief sector. I take you through each quarter of my year from working with Move For America then later joining The Foundation For Essential needs to work closely on the Minnesota Food Shelf Survey.“
View Chaleiah's full capstone presentation here.
Erick
Great Mn Schools
For his capstone, Erick presents a website he constructed. He shares, “My capstone consists of a website I constructed, guiding through every significant moment from my story with Move for America. This includes how I came to be involved with Move for America, how the work with my host site, Great MN Schools, has been throughout this past year, as well as photos I took along the way. Please join me to hear more about my story, and ask any questions you have about my experience!”
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View Erick's full capstone presentation here.
Emily
Camdentown Minneapolis Phase 2
For her capstone, Emily put together a Zine presentation. She shares, "This Zine came together through collecting and curating my ruminations on my year at CamdenTown Mpls through multiple forms: art, photography, written ramblings, quotes, and interviews. I explore Camdentowns organizational values, mission, future structure and its interaction with my presence in the organization. I hope to bring humor, honesty, and understanding to community builders who are placed in projects with the aim to collaborate and co-create with people across lines of difference. We all hold different identities and those don't leave once we step into our roles as community engagement workers. We are not voids that connect and facilitate others. Who we are sets the tone whether we like it or not and it's important that we interrogate it."
View Emily's full capstone presentation here.
Len
Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches
For her capstone, Len combined a series of photos she photographed. She shares, “Since I have done a lot of media & communications work at my host site, my presentation is a collection of images I have taken during my year of service. I hope to use these photos to share my unique perspective as someone who moved to a new state halfway across the country to start a new job through a very new Fellowship program. I also want to showcase all the wonderful community members I got to connect with and programs I got to be a part of during this time.”
Matthew
MyPlace Mankato
For his capstone, Matthew spoke to the audience about his experience at MYPlace. He shares, “With my presentation I am hoping to have an honest conversation about what it means to truly help others and the ways our actions can alter the perspective of the "help" received for those we wish to support. The time I spent at Mankato Youth Place will always be a valuable part of my journey to become better at mindful community engagement, and I look forward to continuing that journey with you through today's event.”
Onar
Urban Strategies
For her capstone, Onar shares about her work at Urban Strategies. She shares, “Through Urban Strategies, I worked as a summer program coordinator. This summer program essentially was a drop-in drop-out program for kids to come and play with activities and things we brought. They could come and play basketball or play a board, game or draw. As a summer program coordinator, I was in charge of the teams who were meant to be running everything- and through this, I got to know a lot of kids. I also ran the food shelf, through Urban Strategies on Saturdays got to meet a lot of the adults of the neighborhood through that.
View Onar's full capstone presentation here.
Owen
Johnson A. Johnson Elementary School
For his capstone, Owen focuses his presentation on representing the community he served. He shares, “Alongside Opportunity Neighborhood, the people that are already in this community work to get resources for themselves and for their neighbors. That's what the Opportunity Neighborhood apparatus is: trying to make sure that we can put more resources into this community so they can support themselves. That's community led, for the most part, that's the people that live in the neighborhood working with people that they live next to, and that's great work that's being done. I think that that is a success.
View Owen's full capstone presentation here.
Sam
Camdentown Minneapolis
For his capstone, Sam reflects on his learnings at Camdentown. He shares, “Going into the summer, I really didn't even know if I understood what community organizing was, and from this summer, I think I do have a much deeper understanding of what it means to be part of community organizing. I define community organizing as utilizing individual skills, talents and strengths to create collective empowerment.”
View Sam's full capstone presentation here.