As of current, the Capstone Project is something we have rapidly been introduced to – but have yet to fully start working on. Before starting any big projects, there always seems to be an intricate planning process involved. For us, this has involved lots of contemplation, discussion, and decision-making processes.

We started out with discussion of what the Capstone Project would look like this year, notably in the ways the program has been upgraded. This gave insight into shortcomings the old curriculum may have faced, and unnecessary complications in grading projects for past client projects. Revamping the program seemed like an efficient and productive thing to do after hearing about these issues, but it leaves our class as semi-guinea pigs for the curriculum changes. I personally don’t mind this, as I’ve been the guinea pig for many programs before, and I enjoy being the first to experience something new!

So far we have brainstormed multimedia magazine story topics, formed groups for the most popular ones, and have been reflecting on where to even start these stories. Not only that – we’ve also been discussing exactly how we want this multimedia magazine to look, and what kinds of media we’d like to include. We’ve also discussed domain and hosting sites, being left to our own devices (literally) to decide our final website portfolio platforms.

The topic my group has chosen for the multimedia magazine story is on the local Food Bank. We are hoping to delve into a close-up view of the services it offers, the challenges it has in operating, and food security issues for low income people in the Yukon. As a former employee of two jobs that got me to work at the Food Bank on-the-side, I’m looking forwards to having important discussions with former coworkers and bosses who have a lot of knowledge to offer. Specifically, I have the idea to reach out to Kristina Craig at the Yukon Anti Poverty Coalition to learn more about Sally and Sisters (a meal program for women and children), food insecurity in people with lived (poverty/homelessness) experience, and the surveys/studies done by YAPC on these topics. I’ve also thought about interviewing a keen volunteer worker at the Food Bank, who I used to help! As you can see, I’m already getting fired up about this story! While I don’t necessarily know what role I’ll play in writing this story, I’m hoping to be involved in networking and writing more than anything.

The Capstone Project class is a huge milestone in this course, and approaching it feels like climbing the Mount Everest of our program at times, considering how intricately it requires us to implement our knowledge and experience from the Multimedia Communications program as a whole.

On top of this group project, we’ve also been discussing our individual projects. I have yet to fully figure out what mine’s going to be on, but I have a feeling I’m going to incorporate some of my digital artwork into it, with some writing possibly, too. I still need some time to collect my ideas for this one, but for now I think I’m going to keep working on my personal Illustrator projects!