The Voluntary Transfer Program (VTP) within the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) is a program in which hundreds of students from low socioeconomic neighborhoods are enrolled in and bused to PAUSD schools. The racial achievement gap in schools is influenced by systematic bias, busing, and social identity threat. Busing is voluntary transportation from one school district to another. The racial achievement gap is the disparity in educational performance among students of different races. Social identity threat is when a school environment may negatively affect learning or performance of students from marginalized racial groups. The achievement gap within PAUSD persists despite programs designed to integrate VTP students. When students feel outcast, they can have lower expectations for themselves and perpetuate negative stereotypes. This study looks into what these programs are lacking by asking the VTP students themselves.

This project will explore the connection between art and autism. We will research the ways art can be used as a tool to benefit children with autism by looking into the effects of exposure to art in the lives of children with autism. We will also be researching whether or not there is a connection between having autism and being exceptionally gifted at art, and if there is, what the reason behind it is.

Through interviews, we are going to examine the relationship between children with autism and art. We are going to interview students and their parents to determine the effects of art on the behavior and communication of children with autism.

The purpose of this project is to remodel and refresh the Paly garden with a fresh new concept. I will also study how successful this new concept is in bringing more attention and interest to the existence of the AAR-Paly community garden.

I am using AAR to work on my novel, titled Sunshine. Sunshine chronicles a post-apocalyptic world, where regular catastrophes plague humanity and can only be driven off by a magical substance called "sunshine." The sunshine-seller, nephew of the deceased legendary figure Light-Bringer, distributes this "sunshine" and befriends two children named Alice and Tim. Throughout the story the sunshine-seller is confronted with questions about the evil nature of humanity, and whether the "sunshine" Light-Bringer so loved can truly save people.

I compose self portraits as a way to express myself and to expand my AP art portfolio. My project will examine the way different techniques used by famous artists were employed to frame personal and cultural meaning (for example, how self portraiture was used to deal with issues like mortality, emotional stress and cultural events). By studying techniques and works from art history, I will use different famous artists' techniques to create a series of self portraits to explore the relationships between artist and subject.

This project will look into the availability of orthopedic physical therapy services for the indigent population in America. This will involve looking into how many free clinics provide such services as well as how much Medicaid and Medicare will pay for these services. This project will also attempt to determine if physical therapy can be an effective alternative to prescription painkillers.

This project looks at the various aspects of music education in California. After Proposition 13 was passed, music education took a massive hit and now very few public elementary schools in California offer it. I will be researching the benefits of music education to gather data that demonstrates why it is an essential part of education.

The goal of my project is to shift public perception away from the popular stereotype of graffiti as a degenerative form of art. As part of my project, I will be displaying my original graffiti pieces in the forthcoming AAR-Paly Garden to demonstrate that graffiti can be used to enhance the beauty of any space. This project will be my first step toward becoming a public graffiti artist.

Documentary photography is a powerful medium to study the public actions of citizens. This project will use documentary photography to study and represent the characteristics of local anti-Trump protest events in Santa Clara County during the first year of the Donal Trump presidency.