Tag Archives: Capstone

Answering my Main Inquiry Question Essay

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A little while ago, my class was assigned to make an essay answering our main inquiry questions. It was easier than expected because all we had to do was put all of our research into essay form. I thought the hardest part was to revise and edit because it was hard to choose if I should change it or not. I think that one of the easiest parts of the essay was the body paragraphs because all we had to do was go into detail about our research. I am proud of how I answered the question. Here is my essay:

When you think of the Secret Service, you think of presidential protection, but there is so much more to the secret service. What you don’t think of is cyber security and the tough process you have to go through to become an agent. This lead me to researching the secret service and soon turned into “How has presidential protection changed over the years?” I will be talking about the secret service is, what happened after the William Mckinnley assasination, Selection process, the application process, specialized training, the agent’s personal life,and the impact of the advancement of technology on the president and their team.

 

The secret service has 2 goals. The first one established in 1865 was to suppress US currency counterfeiting. The second goal, established in 1901, was to protect the president. To this day, both of these goals remain. Some of the changes were, Protection of first family, vice president and spouse of vice president, protection of electees, and protection of foreign leaders.They also try to block cyberattacks, identity fraud, and other types of fraud. 

 

After the William Mickinnley assasination, the secret service started to protect the president. They had 2 agents, who were with the president daily. At the time, this was good protection but would later need more because of the frequent assasinatiopn attempts. Soon later, congress and the government started funding for the secret service. They would use these funds to provide more agents and protection. This is very important because if the president was assassinated, this could lead to a collapse of the economy. In 1953, something historic happened. The first secret service school was created. This would be a big step in ensuring safety. In 1963, a tragedy occurred. JFK was assassinated. This would be a big turning point in protection because they needed to ensure the safety of the president. Laws were created, federal crimes put in place, more agents hired. People were furious and they wanted to make a change. Soon, they started to protect Elected officials, first family’s, Vice Presidents, and foreign leaders when visiting the US along with their own detail .

 

The application process begins with a job opportunity. Then phase one rolls into play. Phase one includes a SAEE written examination, physical ability’s test, interview with 2 agents, panel review and conditional job offers. This process is important because it shows if they are able to occupy the job. Also, it is important for the staff to learn about the possible agent because they don’t want spy’s. Then, they start phase two. Phase two includes a security interview/credit checks, a polygraph examination, a medical and a physiological examination and a background check. Did you know background checks can take up to 6-9 months depending on that person’s background? Similar to phase one, phase two plays a big role in the decision of the agent. Phase two shows if they are able to exceed the job and also be able to handle the pressure. As this may seem simple, there are some limits. For example, you need to be a US citizen, valid driver’s license, hearing cant exceed 25 decibels, at least be 21 and no older than 37, need to carry and have experience using a firearm, and many more. This shows that applying for the secret service can be very hard. 

 

The selection process is complicated. First, they review your answers to both phase one and two. They take all of the agents that are in the top percentile with the best answers and then interview them again. Everyone else is no longer able to become an agent. Some people show up to the interview and are confident, while others don’t show up and are nervous. To be a secret service agent you don’t have to just be a big person that’s strong, you have to be mentally strong equally as much as physically. Some of the people that decide the agents are officers, former agents, current agents, and the president views their applications and makes the final decision. Usually if the president can’t do it, a leading officer will take charge. Similar to a law being made, if the president says no, the agent has another chance to make it still.

Training plays a big role in becoming a secret service agent. Even if you complete phase one and two, and  are selected for training, you can still be kicked out of the training because you couldn’t complete the tasks assigned. For training,You must spend eleven weeks at FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) . At FLETC, you will learn some of the basics and build up stamina, endurance, and strength. Some people fail this step because of the challenging things they face even though they seem simple. Everyday, you would run for miles, do tons of exercises, and wake up very early in the morning. FLETC is followed by a seventeen week specialized training program. Here, you learn how to do extreme outdoor activities. For example, skiing, scuba diving, horseback riding, etc. This is very important because if the president wants to do anything “extreme” they have to be prepared. Also, agents receive this training because they can’t have experts do this with the president because they might try to do something. They also run simulations. These simulations can include, a assasination attempt, a medical emergency, and many more. These can be more stressful than an actual attack because you will be judged by your response unlike when a real thing happens you would have to just protect the president. You also learn three very important things. Soundoff, cover, evacuate. Soundoff means you realize what’s going on. Cover is to protect the president. Don’t worry about what is happening to the attacker, other people will take care of that. Then Evacuate, do everything you can to get the president to safety. Whether it’s hiding in a bathroom or sitting in the basement of a police department. You always have to do everything you can to ensure the safety of the president. As my interviewee (Tom Greenaway) said, “ some days you would eat the bear and the bear would eat you.” 

 

The new generation of technology has impacted the president and their team in many ways. For example, With modern equipment like drones and jamming devices, they will be able to prevent attacks and scan areas. With modern planes, they will be able to have a stealthy air force. These new inventions are very important because they take care of the little things, which can result in a big impact. New technologies don’t only help the president though, they can help their team, the military, and even congress and the supreme court. This is hard though, the secret service has to disable things on the device that can be “hacked.” This challenges both the secret service and the president because the secret service wants to fulfill the president’s wishes, but they don’t want to put the president in danger. In some recent years, they have made advancements to make this decision easier. For example, more landlines have been put in, they have removed the cameras and locators from ipads, inserted secured cables, and taken out software. Even though enhancements have been made, you still aren’t allowed to bring it into any secure room. For example, the briefing room, you can’t bring it into the briefing room to hear any secure information. 

 

In conclusion, the secret service has many parts to its evolution. From having 2 agents to 3200, from having no technology to having advanced devices. All in all, the job of an agent has drastically evolved over the years and will continue to change in the future.

 

Capstone Interview

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The interview is a big part of the capstone project. It is almost like the core of the project.  It provides a lot of information and it also teaches the interviewer about the topic. The interview also can dispose of extra information and ideas for the presentation. Doing the interview was exciting and also very helpful. I was able to ask questions but also learn more.

The process of figuring out who I was going to interview was difficult because it was hard to find someone who knew my topic and who could actually dispose of the information. My topic was the secret service. At first, I had to search for some things and talk to my parents. I found a museum, but they were very busy. A few days later, my dad remembered that he did know someone who lead the secret service at one point. John Snow. I contacted him and he quickly responded with his detail leader ( Tom Greenaway) and all of the information to contact him. We had scheduled the interview for the 18th. We had 5 days to come up with questions. I started with some background questions and then I put in parts that related to my subquestions. I finished writing my questions and then I reviewed them with my teachers. I made some revisions and then I contacted the agent to discuss the details and also we sent the questions so he could prepare. Since he was very busy, we had him answer some questions over email and I would ask the rest and some additional questions (both mine and my dad’s) on the phone. It was easy to write the questions because there was so much practice involved. One thing that was hard was finding people to contact for the interview.

Conducting the interview was hard but it became easier with my dad. My dad helped me since it is harder for me to understand what Tom was saying so he broke it down for me in an easier way for me to understand.  At the start of the interview, I started by talking a little bit about how he was doing and etc. Then, my dad talked to Tom and then I went into my questions. Since I didn’t have that many questions, I and my dad thought of a few interesting ones that could add to my project. My interview exceeded expectations because not only did I get extra information, I was able to now know how I could do my script and the order of my presentation. Some of the new things I learned were: The Secret Service Runs simulations to learn how they can improve but it actually feels harder to do because you will be judged on your response unlike in real-time when you have to just save the protectee. Another thing I learned is that when walking near the military, they make sure they have no ammo or bayonets so nothing happens to the president. One more thing is that when countries come to the United States of America, they have to know how much ammo, serial numbers, and the guns and if the countries say something else it could result in something chaotic such as them being forced out of the country or something else.

All in all, both preparing for the interview and conducting the interview took a lot of effort and steps to complete. Special thanks to my dad, John Snow, and of course my interviewee Tom Greenaway.

 

Capstone Main Inquiry and Sub-Questions

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Capstone is a project where you decide on a topic, make a question out of it,  research it, and present your answer in front of an audience. The whole 5th grade throughout the district was assigned to make the presentation. Capstone became a 5th grade project in 2014 and has now became a school tradition. Capstone is very exciting because there are so many ways to go with the project

the process of coming up with a topic was very important to the rest of the project. Some of the documents that the class filled out such as the Curriculum wheel organizer helped because it gave us some research questions that we could use later on but also a topic for our project. There were many topics to choose from and I wanted to find something that i have an interest in and wanted to learn more about. I wanted my topic to be something that i am interested in but also something that I did not know much about. I chose Secret Service because I know i will be able to present it in a good way but also i will learn a lot about it. Also, coming up with the topic can be complicated because you would need to think about where you could go with the topic. This means that you would need a perspective on what part of the topic you would be doing. For example, If my topic were to be sports, would you do techniques or ways to play, etc

Coming up with the main inquiry question was challenging, For example, we had to make a level 4 question. A level 4 question is a question that has a purpose and is open ended. For example, How have Aquariums evolved their exhibits and how have they impacted the dolphins? This is a level 4 question because it is not open ended, has a purpose and includes key words such as evolved and impacted. These key words are important because they make the answer longer and make the answer include more information. My question is: How has the protection of the president evolved over the years. At first, it was hard to come up with a question because it couldn’t be too broad but it couldn’t be too small so it would only take a week to research it. Some of the challenges in making the main inquiry question were being too broad but being too weak of a question and also making it a level 4 question.

The process of creating sub-questions was easy because you could use the main inquiry question to help create the sub-questions. For example, my main inquiry question was how has the protection of the president evolved over the years? Then i was able to say as one : During the first few years of presidential protection, what protocols were in place. I used this question because it shows what it was like during the first few years of protection and it is a good starter sub-question because the questions are in a chronological order. Another question I used was: how does the protection of the president differ from in office to out of office. I used this question because it shows the differences from protection but also the changes they made to protect the former president out of office.

All in all, so far during capstone, there have been many ups and downs but I think researching will be a good process