Senior Stephanie Baker presented her capstone project on August 27th  along with about seventeen other seniors at South Windsor High School. For her project, she shadowed a juvenile parole officer in Middletown, CT over two and a half days in July. The main reason behind her getting the project done early was because she thought that “Doing capstone, college applications, and regular school work would have been too much for me.” 

With this being said, Baker was able to get her project done in July and present at the end of August right before school started. What she did at the juvenile parole office was go to meetings with the clients and meetings that the parole officer had during the day. In these meetings they would go over plans of action for the kids on parole, and Baker even was able to see how irregular urine tests worked to make sure the kids did not have any drugs in their systems. With all this being said, Baker states that, “It was interesting, even though we didn’t find anyone that had taken any illegal substances, they were all very dehydrated, it was gross.” She goes on to explain that she had the opportunity to look at the docket, which was a sheet that the officers used to organize times of the court appearances of their clients, and she learned how they wrote out notes for each meeting. Lastly, she went into the courtroom where all of the bad cases and adoptions of kids on parole were talked over.

When asked what her favorite part of the whole experience was, Baker mentioned that she really enjoyed, “getting to meet the clients because I like working with kids and people my age with their issues. It was cool to hear their stories and see them try to make themselves better.” Although she is very interested in these kids and their stories, she is not sure if she wants to pursue this as a career in the future. Baker talked about how it was an office setting and they did a lot of things that were done in an office, she declared that she does not do well in offices, as she gets bored very easily. 

To go off of this, she explains how she wants to travel the world and pursue a career in archeology. She jokes around saying that “I’m gonna steal some bones and become a tomb raider.” After this, Baker reveals that she plans to go to college and study anthropology and geology to help her gain the knowledge to do so. Following this, mentions that she wants to travel “so badly” and that she wants to travel to “literally anywhere in Africa, so I can explore my roots.”

Another interesting thing that she spoke about was her genes and ancestry. Apparently, Baker took a Twenty-Three and Me genetic test and found out where her ancestors were from. She states, “I’m from every country in Africa except for this one chunk in the middle. Also, most of Europe, because I’m 25% white.” This was a big part in why Baker is so interested in travelling to Africa instead of other countries in Europe or any other country in the world. 

Although she is very excited for what the future holds, she still has many other hobbies. One thing that Baker loves doing is watching movies and Netflix television shows. Her favorite shows are Supernatural, Criminal Minds, and Breaking Bad, and she just started watching American Horror Story.  loves watching Netflix, drawing, watching movies, riding her bike, and hiking. Also, a movie that she just watched was American Psycho, which she said was “inappropriate for my eyes.” Other than watching movies and TV shows, she loves to draw with charcoal, ride her bike, and hike. 

She may only ride her bike, hike, and go to the gym now, but she used to play soccer for the high school and the town. Baker reflects back to last year saying that, “I don’t play soccer anymore, I got a bunch of injuries and such, and then I got a concussion last year right before finals, so I got out of those. But then I realized that I don’t want to play again until I get back to the level that I once was at.” 

Overall, as the year started and has gotten a lot busier for seniors, you can say that Baker is very happy that she decided to get her project done before school started. Now, she can focus on her college applications, school work, and other things that seniors do. Hopefully, students will keep this in mind for next year and remember to get their project done as soon as possible, just like Baker did.