About Us

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Website Design Crew

Enjoy inspirational stories from the crew that created the website for Yeti Mental Health.

Ray Duch (Team Manager): “My First Capstone project began with me trying to combat unequal housing. This project not only captures that goal, but expands it to other issues surrounding inequality such as mental health and the difficulties surrounding it. Working with the web team and building this website has been an experience that taught me not only how to manage such a large project, but also how to collaborate effectively with separate teams with separate goals.”

Zayna Jefferson (Interview coordinator, Research Manager): ”My first project was on mental health. It was about how mental health affects children and adults.Near the end it changed, it’s the same topic but a different type of project just more creative .I feel like this project was more different for me but a good difference. I got into the website group with Ray, Meghan, Elijah, and Kinen. With this group, I feel like we created a good group project. The website turned out great and we even did brochures. I feel like this project will go well and everything will fall into place.”

Megan Flowers (Graphic Designer): “My original project was making a plan to combat food deserts. Our plan was to partner up with an organization in order to ship fresh fruits and vegetables to those who are experiencing food deserts. After a switch in groups I became a part of Nick and Safa’s group. Due to me knowing about website making I became a part of the website crew alongside Ray and Zayna. I was in charge of creating the theme, layout, and editing for the website. All In all I learned that in order to get a big task like this done it’s important for everyone to know their strengths and weaknesses. If everyone does what they are best at, the workflow becomes easier.”

Elijah Fischer (Research assistant): “For my Capstone Project I started with the topic of Homelessness. The reason I focused on homelessness is because I felt like I really wanted to help people. Then I was moved into the Mental Health group where I began to brainstorm ideas to come up with for the Mental Health project such as website goals, taking pictures, and building etc. I learned that there is a great neighborhood near the school and learned that it is always fun to work together in groups.”

Kinen Brooks (Survey Designer): “I wanted to study technology because I like breaking things down to see how it works. Then I was placed in the mental health group where I helped take pictures for the group and I helped build some of the box. I feel like I learned how to use tools to build things.”

Art Installation Crew

Enjoy inspirational stories from the crew that created the art installation for Yeti Mental Health

Safa Majeed ( Manager of Research Team): “During the first semester I chose to explore the healthcare system and looked specifically at the access to healthcare systems for lower income communities and how that compares to the mental healthcare access of high income communities. We eventually combined into bigger groups and my smaller groups project was chosen as one of the main projects. We continued with the topic of access to mental healthcare and how that correlates with income, we conducted a lot of research to gain more background information and data about the topic. We then chose our final presentable and started construction on that. My role was project manager, I was in charge of leading my group throughout the project, I also worked on the design and interior construction of the box, and conducting research.”

Nick Shaw (Manager of construction team): “During first semester I researched the healthcare system and access to prescription drugs and insurance. After combining into a larger group we continued the topic of lower income communities’ access to mental healthcare and I moved into the design of our art instillation. After finalizing the design, we started the creation of the instillation itself and the inner elements. My role in the group was project co manager. I worked closely with Safa to help run our group and making sure everything was on track, I also did research, worked on the interior design of the box, and helped with creating our presentation.”

Aza Palazola (Research Assistant): “In the first quarter I focused on the system of healthcare, specifically mental health. My original topic was alternative options to talk therapy but when I combined into a group with people with similar focus areas as my own, our topic became equitable access to mental healthcare. We began to research and ideate ideas for final projects. Then we were put into even larger groups to flesh out these ideas. We decided to make an art installation that physically embodies what it feels like to struggle with mental health and an informational website. In this group I took a step back from my leader role to focus on the design and research for the installation.”

Devin Hilson (Research Assistant): “In my 1st project I was comparing technology access in lower income schools and higher income schools. The project was a mix of different ideas that we wanted to have in our main project. We created a small scale classroom of the lower income schools and higher income schools and we made data charts that also explained the statistics behind the possibility of adding more advanced technology in these lower income schools that wouldn’t normally be available to them. Going into the final capstone project with my new group there were a lot of similarities between my current project and the one I did beforehand. The things that were similar is the process of comparing and contrasting lower and higher income within different systems. Things I enjoyed about the current project is the teamwork and small trips we went on to make the project that much better such as walking through and studying lower and higher end neighborhoods and the visual part of the project and the visual representation it will portray. We also have the website part of the project that is also awesome and my fellow group members put a lot of work into. Overall this project taught me not only how to collaborate with teams, but also about the effects of mental health and the benefits of its education.”

Jarrett Jones (ResearchAssistant): ”Before I joined Safa and Nick’s group my research for capstone was previously on the lack of transportation in lower income communities. And how we can improve it for people who need it, like senior citizens and the homeless. I learned during that time how there isn’t much transportation in Memphis compared to other cities. So far I’ve helped research information, paint/build the box. I learned during that time how to show and represent mental health by using art and different media.”

Lilly Graham (Research Assistant): “This year I started with my own personal project on the advancements of medical equipment and how to make the future of those materials affordable. I spent a lot of time advocating for that project and it was a good transition into mental health treatment for adolescents because they both could relate to health in Memphis. I have learned a lot about mental health throughout this year and how to work in a team working to fix and help that kind of issue within our city.”

Lenny Sears (Construction Assistant): “In Capstone I started off researching mental health ,so I chose this capstone group so I can know more about mental health and how it affects low income families.”

Jessica Swift (Construction Assistant): “When certain capstone projects were picked I chose this one because mental health is something that people tend to undermine. I think mental health has a big effect on people and needs more awareness. I enjoyed working with my team, coming up with ideas, and painting/building the art installation. I’m really proud of all the progress we’ve made and excited for everybody to see what we’ve been working on.”

Poppy Belue (Construction Assistant): “I started my capstone project as a solo project and was focusing on biking and how using biking as physical exercise could improve your mental health. Some of my peers were also focusing their projects on mental health in different aspects, so we decided to join projects. We came up with many different ideas, but finally decided to settle on this box idea that helps demonstrate part of people’s struggle wi5h their personal mental health. I am very glad we joined groups because i think i learned a lot.”