Capstone Project Draft Proposal

Name of student: __Julia Cotton____________ Date: October 6 2021

Teacher: Mr. Main Block: C

The Capstone strand I have chosen is Occupational - journalism , Interest- Sports psychology
Proposed title for my Project Proposal: (write the proposed title for your Capstone Project in one clear
sentence):

Beyond the Eyes of a High Performance Athlete. Love the title, sounds like a title for a Master’s Thesis!

What is your inquiry question that interests you for further research? It should be a question that
connects with a purpose, passion or personalized area of interest for you. This is a question that you cannot
just google an answer for. Please see examples from your Capstone booklet.

My inquiry question is:

How does a high-performance athlete use sports psychology strategies to succeed?

How does the pressure of being a high-performance athlete effect psychology?

These are some pretty wide-reaching questions, and can go in a number of different research
directions. Are you intentionally keeping them far reaching, then finding your focus as you do your
research?

Rationale/context: Detail your reasons for choosing this inquiry question. Explain WHY you are choosing to
investigate this topic as a major area of focus. How does this area of inquiry connect to your passion(s),
purpose? Why is it of personal interest to you?

Last year, I took a sports psychology class online. I found the material remarkably interesting as well as personal
connections as I come from an athletic family and am an athlete myself. I am passionate about health and wellness
and want to understand how much it relates to a high-performance athlete.

Background: What background knowledge/connections/prior learning do you have in this area of inquiry?

Most of my background knowledge comes from the Sports Psychology class I took. However, I have
learnt a lot from my brother who is an elite athlete. He is my biggest connection to this topic.
Career connections: What is your intended career area at this point in time? What connections does this
inquiry question have to your life, academic and/ or career goals?

I have always loved writing and analyzing. My intended career area at this point in time is journalism.
Particularly, sports journalism. This inquiry question will allow me to dip my feet in the water as to what it
might be like to write as a journalist. It will also push my writing and analyzing skills as it is going to be an
extensive process. This should be a great experience for you. If you really want to pursue journalism, I would
strongly suggest you stretch your interview legs and try to reach out to professionals in the field for anecdotal
examples and to start to make connections if this is a passion of yours.

Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections: What subject areas and core competencies will
be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections.

For this section, I would like you to identify 2 curricular outcomes from each subsection. That would give
you a total of 12 competencies in total.

Communication -
This will connect to the communication core competency as a lot of my resources will be
people. For example, I plan on finding a mentor in the sports journalism world to help me gain
understanding as to what goes in to writing an article.

Critical thinking -
This connects to critical thinking as I am going to be examining the information I get from others
as well as determining the reasoning behind my process and writing.

Capstone Presentation medium: select one or more project mediums you wish to use to present your
project. Outline and give details about how you will present your project once completed. You may use a
combination of mediums.

o Electronic portfolio: Prezi or PPT

o Physical portfolio
o Website
o imovie presentation
o YouTube channel
I will use an electronic profile to present my project. It will have my research, video interview, notes
etc. I will make a digital and physical copy of the newspaper article.

Description of my Capstone project. Specific Project Details of the Capstone Project: what will you
research, create, study, produce, solve, investigate? What product will be produced at the end of this
project for evaluation. Write a one-page description outlining your proposal.
 To create this project. I will research how to write as a journalist. I'm sure there are many different
techniques and strategies that journalists use while researching, writing, interviewing etc. I am going
to study sports psychology in depth, while focusing on the pressure aspect. To study sports
psychology, I will look further into the assignments I did when I took the class, read about it, and
develop questions regarding sport psychology, then interview a high-performance athlete to get
their point of view. I really want to investigate how being in the “spotlight” impacts an athlete, and
how one might deal with the pressure. I plan to touch on confidence, the power of routines, and
focus strategies. The final product of this project will be a professional article (like a newspaper
article). This article will take my research of journalism (skills) , and study of sport psychology, and
display it.

Resources/ Technology/Skills: Make an assessment of the resources, technology and skills you will
need to be able to complete this project. What is your plan to be able to access/learn all of the resources
necessary to achieve completion of this project? Detail your plans.

For researching journalism techniques, I am going to try to talk to real sports journalists. Finding a mentor in
that field will help me learn first-hand what skills go into the writing and interviewing process. Another
resource will be a professional athlete. For example, my brother who plays in the WHL and drafted to the NHL,
or another athlete he might be able to connect me to.

Project limitations: What are some project limitations and potential obstacles that you foresee that might
affect progress with your Capstone Project?

An obstacle that would affect progress might be the search for a mentor if nobody is up to it.
This is unfortunately true, but don’t be deterred from trying.

Other considerations: List and detail any other related information/ considerations about your project
that you feel should be included in your project proposal.

References: Provide references: research, videos, etc. that offer some preliminary research you have
done for your project that shows you are able to access the key information that you will need to be able
to complete this project/work. Your list should be written using correct APA formatting.
This is where you will list and format the references you use along the w