Capstone Project Proposal

Name of student: ___________Madison Cheah_____________ Date: ______May 14, 2023______

Teacher: ______Ms.Browne_____ Block: _______B______

The Capstone strand I have chosen is _____________________Project____________________

Proposed title for my Project Proposal: (write the proposed title for your Capstone Project in one clear

sentence):

_________Women in the force, past present and future. ____________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

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 advice from women currently working as a first responder impact the next generation of
young women wanting to become a first responder.

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?

The reason I chose women in the force as my inquiry topic is because I would like to one day
become a police officer. I have always had a passion for helping others and, finding ways to aid
those around me to make their lives somewhat easier and less stressful, as well as I have always
looked up to my dad, who is a police officer. Through my dad I got to see how much of an impact
police officers can have on the community around them, and how much of an impact my dad’s
squad has had on him and he on them. I got to hear all the stories my dad brought home, fueling
my little heart’s desire to live up to someone like him.

As for my passion for helping others, a first responder’s job is to help others. They get paid to help
others where other people won’t all while keeping their communities safe so families can rest easy.
Those aspects of the job are something I aspire to become. Because I love helping others and

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 making others lives easier, I wanted my capstone to help others as well.

Mixing my passion for helping others and my admiration to my dad and his work, it became another
passion of mine to become a police officer myself so I can help my community the way my dad
does now. Although, I soon realized I knew nothing of what it takes to become a police officer. I had
no idea what courses I needed to have under my belt or where I should apply for criminology
programs post-secondary. So why did I choose my inquiry question to revolve around first
responders? Simply because I want to become one in the near future, and I want to create a
resource for other young women like me who want to become a first responder but have no idea
where to start.

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

inquiry?

Prior to my capstone project, I had some basic knowledge about police officers because my dad is
a police officer. Of course, all my knowledge is from a man and my project is all about women
specifically, however my dad’s input on schooling and mindsets are still valid knowledge that works
for all police officers.

Regarding firefighters and paramedics, I knew basically nothing about them besides the basics that
every kid learns. They get the right of way when they flash their lights and sound their sirens.
Firefighters put out fires. Paramedics take people to the hospital.

Technology wise, I already knew how to build a website using the weebly program and how to
move photos from my phone onto my computer to use on my website.

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?

At this point in time, I am accepted into Summit Pacific Bible College where I will do a year long
program there. After that I plan to apply to other universities to major in criminology. My inquiry
question is basically setting up my path into the first responder life. With the advice and information,
I will have on my website, I will feel better prepared for my dive into criminology.

Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections: What subject areas and core
competencies will be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections. (Must
include reference to ALL 6 Core competencies).

Personal Awareness and Responsibility:

I love lists and organization. If I do not organize through lists, my brain would implode with so man

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thoughts. Through creating lists, I can see what days I have less time and where I can spare some
time. I am able to stay focused and make attainable goals for myself with the help of my lists. Being
able to stay on course is very important for my capstone project, especially with the hard deadline
coming up.

Social Responsibility:
I am comfortable with anyone. If they are a talker, I can create small talk, if they are quieter, I can
sit in silence with them. Thanks to my bubble personality I can make friends easier than others. I
find that being able to talk to anybody is a very useful skill, especially when meeting someone for
the first time. For my capstone project I had to conduct interviews with multiple people that I had
never met before. Even though it was my first time meeting them, I was able to converse smoothly
with them and gain information for my capstone.

Critical Thinking:
When it comes to creating something new it is very important that it be unique, a reflection of its
creator, at least that’s my opinion. I can develop new and creative ways to highlight my work and
what I want my readers to get out of my capstone project by analyzing my research for useful
information and analyzing who my target audience is. Through analyzation, I can create a new
product that reflects myself for others to use.

Creative Thinking:
I don’t know about others, but I personally do not enjoy looking at boring articles containing
paragraph after paragraph. For my capstone I will add some of myself to my website to make it less
boring and more inviting. I will also gladly accept any feedback from others regarding what they find
boring about my website to grow and produce something that will not bore others with facts.
Afterall, my project is meant for others to use.

Communication:
Clear communication is very important for my capstone. Whether it was writing my articles, getting
in contact with first responders, interviewing first responders or asking advice from others, it all
needs communication to happen. If I was not clear enough with my intentions in my emails, I would
not have gotten any responses. In one of my emails my communication was not clear, luckily the
recipient of the email was able to clear up the miscommunication and get back to me. Also, if any of
the questions I asked were not communicated clearly, I would have gotten different answers than
what I was looking for and that would have prolonged the interviews and would not have reflected
well on me.

Personal and Cultural Identity:

I am a very secure person. I know who I am, what I believe and what my limits are. I will not let
anyone else try to pressure me into someone I am not. Because I full heartedly believe in what I am
doing, I will write with passion that will become clear to any future readers. My passion is what
drives me to do my best work in helping future young women who want to become a first
responder.

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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 o Website
PPT o imovie presentation
o Physical portfolio o YouTube channel

My final project will be a website that I will present with the aid of a PowerPoint.

For my capstone presentation I will be showing a PowerPoint that addresses what my capstone is,
what I wanted to achieve, What I did achieve, any hardships I went through and what I would do
differently next time as well as other details. In my PowerPoint I will be including parts of my
website, both my capstone website and my project website, but only screenshots of them. I will be
explaining briefly what I did for each page on my website, mostly showing off the layout and design
of each website. At the end of my PowerPoint will be links to my websites so I can show them and
go into more depth about how I built it and what I had to accomplish in order to build it, hardships I
went through and how I overcame them as well as all the small little details about my website and
of course, what I am most proud of for each website.

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.

My capstone is going to be a website equipped with information and advice for curious and aspiring
young women alike who want to become a first responder. My website will have five different pages
including home, police, firefighter, paramedics, and advice.

Home: My home page is going to have a simple blurb of what people can expect to find in the other
pages of my website along with a few pictures to make it less dull.

Police, Firefighter and Paramedic: Each of these pages will be very similar in the fact that they will
each have the same sub pages of: Interview, Education, Mental Health, and Environment. All the
sub pages will be in the same order for each page for convenience. Each sub page will have a title
on it so when the viewers click on them, they know exactly where they are.

Interview: Each interview page will have the interviewees name at the top of the page right under
the ‘Interview’ title. This page will include a write up of the questions I asked, and the response
given by the interviewee in addition to a voice recording I will try to add (do not take my word for
there to be a voice recording because I do not know if it is possible to add a voice recording but I
really want it to be possible because I think it would be very cool to have that option for people who
would rather listen to a recording than read a bunch of back and forth conversation). At the bottom
of the page will be pictures of the interviewees (if I have their permission) as well as pictures of the
job itself.

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 Education: This sub page will have different schools’ information along with different programs they
provide that would be helpful for first responders. I will also include information on the academy’s
that firefighters and police officers will have to attend and what to expect for different programs. In
this page I will also include what high school courses respective schools are looking for in their
applicants.

Mental Health: Being a first responder is hard and straining. Having good mental health is super
important, especially when having to make those quick decisions every first responder must make.
This page will focus on what kind of mental conditions to expect and some ways to relieve stress
and strain to not burn out.

Environment: Each first responder will be faced with similar, but different conditions and
environments. In this page I will include research on what kind of environments each first responder
respectfully will be faced with along with community relationships.

Advice: For this page I will be including all the advice I gathered from my interviews into one big
page of advice. I will include who said what piece of advice, but because advice is so general, my
amazing careers teacher gave me the suggestion to give advice its own page, so any viewers won’t
have to scroll through each interview to find advice. Taking her advice, I made a separate page for
advice given to the next generation.

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.

Gathering information:
- JSTOR and Google Scholar to find information
- Interviews (2/3 done)
I will gather information through JSTOR and through my interviews. With this information I will
present it on my website in their respective pages. I have already reached out and been in contact
with two women, a firefighter and a RCMP officer, waiting on the paramedics, but I have a backup
in case I do not hear from them. I have already conducted my firefighter interview and soon I will
have my RCMP interview. With these interviews I have all the necessary information for my
interview subpages and my advice page.

Technology:
- Laptop for research, building my website and emailing
- Phone to record my interviews as well as emailing
- Website: my final product
Given my resources, I have more than enough at my disposal to gather relevant information and
build my website.

Skills:

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 - Personal Awareness and responsibility
- Communication
- Creative thinking
- Writing skills
For my project I will need to be personally aware and responsible for how much I need to do before
the deadline. I need to hold myself accountable for how much I have put on my plate. May 25th is a
hard deadline, and I for one would love an extra spare block. Communication skills are important
because I will need to get in contact with female first responders, which I already have. To convey
my thoughts clearly while being direct and polite, I will need to have clear communication when
exchanging emails with my mentors. Writing also plays a key role in communication because most
of my communication is being done through emails except for interviews. My writing needs to be
clear and direct so as not to cause any misunderstandings between me and the person I am
contacting. My writing plays a huge role in my project because my website will essentially be made
up of articles that I will have to write, meaning I need to have accurate information and clear
wording for my readers. Also, I do not want my readers getting bored halfway through an article, so
I will try to make the articles as concise as possible while still conveying all necessary information.
To make my website less boring for my readers, I will have to have some creative thinking to make
my boring, article on every page website more appealing.

Mentors/Community Connections: What types of mentor(s)/community connections will you

need to help you complete your capstone project? How will your mentor(s) help you? What is your
plan to access the mentorship/community connections necessary for this project?

My mentors include:
- Stephanie Thurston, a firefighter I interviewed on May 12th
- Lisa Cormier, a RCMP officer I get to interview on May 15th
- St. Paul’s hospital, I only exchanged one email with them, however they gave me alternate
recourses to reach out to for my project
- My dad, for inspiring my passion for criminology, ultimately leading up to this capstone
project

Connections I need:
- I need a paramedic representative, but I have emailed some places, they just have not
gotten back to me. I have an alternate source I can interview if I do not hear back from
Ambulance Paramedics of British Columbia.

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

As I have so far been unsuccessful in contacting a paramedic source, that could be an obstacle I
need to overcome. Also, the lives of first responders are very busy and unpredictable, meaning it
would be hard to set up an interview and there is always the possibility of the interview being
canceled due to unforeseen, sudden callouts.

I have come up with counter methods for worst case scenarios. If I cannot contact a paramedic, I
have a friend I can interview who just finished her practicum. In the case an interview cannot
happen for whatever reason, I can email my questions to the respective contact and have them
email their answers back to me.

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

Audio for my voice recording of my interviews might not be available due to the fact that I have to
pay for an upgraded weebly account in order to gain access to the audio function.

References: Provide reference list of a minimum of 8 PEER REVIEWED ACADEMIC references:

research, videos, etc. Your list should be written using correct APA formatting.

 
Babin, B. J., & Boles, J. S. (1998). Employee Behavior in a Service Environment: A Model and Test of
Potential Differences between Men and Women. Journal of Marketing, 62(2), 77–91.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1252162  

Berninger, A., Webber, M. P., Cohen, H. W., Gustave, J., Lee, R., Niles, J. K., Chiu, S., Zeig-Owens,
R., Soo, J., Kelly, K., & Prezant, D. J. (2010). Trends of Elevated PTSD Risk in Firefighters Exposed to
the World Trade Center Disaster: 2001-2005. Public Health Reports (1974-), 125(4), 556–566.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41435281

Babuta, A., Oswald, M., & Rinik, C. (2018). Executive Summary. In Machine Learning Algorithms and
Police Decision-Making: Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Challenges (pp. vii–viii). Royal United Services
Institute (RUSI). http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep37375.4
 
Cicognani, E., Pietrantoni, L., Palestini, L., & Prati, G. (2009). Emergency Workers’ Quality of Life: The
Protective Role of Sense of Community, Efficacy Beliefs and Coping Strategies. Social Indicators
Research, 94(3), 449–463. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40542266 
 
 DHARMAPURI, S. (2013). Why Is Gender Equality in Peacekeeping Important? In Not Just a Numbers
Game: Increasing Women’s Participation in UN Peacekeeping (pp. 6–8). International Peace Institute.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep09557.6  

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Dutton, L. M., Smolensky, M. H., Leach, C. S., Lorimor, R., & Hsi, B. P. (1978). Stress Levels of
Ambulance Paramedics and Fire Fighters. Journal of Occupational Medicine, 20(2), 111–115.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/45011146

Eaton, G., Mahtani, K., & Catterall, M. (2018). The evolving role of paramedics – a NICE problem to
have? Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 23(3), 193–195.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27009775

Scarborough, R. C. (2017). Risk a Lot to Save a Lot: How Firefighters Decide Whose Life Matters.
Sociological Forum, 32(S1), 1073–1092. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26626006

SLITER, M., KALE, A., & YUAN, Z. (2014). Is humor the best medicine? The buffering effect of coping
humor on traumatic stressors in firefighters. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(2), 257–272.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26610896
  
 Terkildsen, N., & Schnell, F. (1997). How Media Frames Move Public Opinion: An Analysis of the
Women’s Movement. Political Research Quarterly, 50(4), 879–900. https://doi.org/10.2307/448991 

Weaver, M. D., Patterson, P. D., Fabio, A., Moore, C. G., Freiberg, M. S., & Songer, T. J. (2015). An
observational study of shift length, crew familiarity, and occupational injury and illness in emergency
medical services workers. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 72(11), 798–804.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43870149