Why this Topic?
Last year, I attended a semester boarding school in Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin called Conserve School. This place was a huge turning point in my life, although I have always considered myself "green," attending this school made the wellbeing of our planet and the creatures who reside here a very important part of my life. My classes were environmentally focused, interactive, and nearly always outside; I learned how to live sustainably and be a steward of the planet, how to be self-sufficient, how to be a leader, and how to initiate change for a better environment. The best part was, I wasn’t just learning these things from my teachers, I was also learning them from 59 kids my age who I came to know as family.
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An example of this is my good friend Aleya. She has been a vegetarian for six years and a vegan for two, and is a perfect illustration of someone who lives her life advocating for for the environment. It wasn't long before I was watching documentaries with her, blowing my nose in my blanket, and crying at the absolute terror of the food industry. It didn't force me to "convert" right away but did make me frustrated and confused as to why this stuff was even legal; most importantly, it got me thinking. After attending Conserve, I was much more aware of environmental issues and how my choices impact those issues. When it came to choose topics for our Capstone project, I knew it was going to have to do with the environment in some way. I had been wanting to go vegetarian for a while, so it just made sense to incorporate it into my project.
What's a Capstone Anyway?
This Capstone project was a year round opportunity for individualized research. Every student chose their own topic, and had complete freedom with the research, or mesearch as our teacher calls it, they wanted to conduct. The final product included an essay, presentation, and this fancy shmancy website. Overall, besides the information I learned on my topic, I learned a lot about research, time management, public speaking, and how to build an online portfolio.
THE BIG QUESTION:
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Why do people stop eating animals?
After reading my first book for this project I was left with many questions from all sorts of perspectives. At first I was going to focus my Capstone on the environment, but I decided that in order to fully understand this subject I would need to go bigger than that. Because of this, I tackled this subject through multiple lenses which I divided into five moves, or perspectives. The consumption of animals is a complex issue and often left me overwhelmed with questions, but I thought the one that summed everything up best was: "Why do people stop eating animals?"