Presenting My Senior Capstone Project

Presenting my senior capstone project (photo/Shane Tilton). 

I can explain my neglect in writing this blog. One of my pet peeves is when people say, "I'm too busy." But in my case, I really have been busy the past two months. I have been revising, submitting and then revising again my senior capstone project. When the project was finally completed, I presented my project in a formal presentation in front of my fellow peers and professors on Wednesday.

I'm so relieved to be officially done with this project. Towards the end of the project, I was getting restless because I was so ready to just move on and begin the next phase--the future.

Abe Silverstein (photo/nasa.gov)

As I have mentioned in my blog before, my project was a creative nonfiction essay focusing on Abe Silverstein, the mechanical engineer who introduced the use of cryogenic liquid hydrogen fuel into the Apollo 11 space rocket to propel it to the moon for a successful landing on July 20, 1969. Without Abe, the moon landing wouldn't have happened.

My essay delves into the important facts of Abe's life and work, but it also critiques Terre Haute--Abe's hometown. No one really knows about Abe in Terre Haute, which is also my hometown. I'm passionate to encourage Terre Haute to honor its native son--the scientist who put man on the moon. If the city can honor Larry Bird, Max Ehrmann, Eugene V. Debs and more, then it can honor Abe Silverstein.

That's my next step: Having Terre Haute honor Abe. I have many plans and after I graduate from college in May, I hope to begin the process for becoming the "Abe Silverstein Gal" in Terre Haute. I am truly blessed to share a hometown with an individual I have grown to admire. Now it's time to share my admiration for the scientist with an audience.

Senior capstone, while I hated you at times and you made me cry, I also love you because of the amazing project I have produced. This project is going to be the start of my professional career, and I'll always be thankful for that. I have produced a professional literary biography, and I hope that one day "One Giant Leap: A Personal Biography of Abe Silverstein" will be in bookstores--inspiring a new generation of individuals to hope and never to give up on their dreams.

-KJL-