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The Why: What if I told you that in the USA 1 in 5 girls miss school because of their menstrual cycle. FBLA’s capstone project challenged me to solve a problem that I was truly passionate about. I was inspired by my personal struggle with my menstrual cycle. My menstrual cycle caused me to miss school, cancel plans, and even being embarrassed many times by others. With this project I hoped to learn more about my own menstrual cycle and to help girls learn/cope with their menstrual cycle so they can avoid having serious pains that affect their daily lives such as activities and attending school.

I identified that girls ages 9-18 were being affected in their youth due to lack of knowledge about menstrual cycles. This lack of knowledge made way for girls to not know how to maintain and cope with their menstrual cycles. Which resulted in girls having to miss school and activities.

During my customer research I interviewed various girls. 66% of girls interviewed felt that they were not as knowledgeable about menstrual cycles as they should been in ages 9-15 years old. 66% of girls also stated that talking with relatives and utilizing technology such as websites and apps would help in obtaining knowledge about menstrual cycles. Interviewees stated that menstrual explanations especially from relatives, websites on menstrual cycles, educational lessons, classes on menstrual cycles, and conversations would help young girls with menstrual cycles. Interviewees also stated that school resources, videos, conversations, groups, menstrual days off, and teaching would help young girls ages 9-18 cope with menstrual cycles.

Interview notes:

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Solution: To solve the problem of girls ages 9-18 being affected negatively by their periods I decided to create an informational website. That uses videos, readings, and quizzes to instruct girls about the menstrual cycle. This project is unique and has improved on solutions of others by targeting girls at an early age to learn about their cycle now so they are prepared and can grow with that knowledge as they get older. BlessBloom and Flow will also accept monetary and physical menstrual product donations through the BlessBloom and Flow website. Which will be used towards helping schools in need of menstrual products.

Timeline with Milestones:

Milestone #1: Service development completion.

Description: Develop/set costs for the BlessBloom and Flow website. Using research and customer feedback. Complete/design the videos, readings, and multiple- choice questions sections in BlessBloom and Flow. While also ensuring readiness for BlessBloom and Flow launch date.

Date Completed: April 3rd, 2024

Milestone #2: Receiving approval for website design and content.

Description: Present mock website design and content plan to stakeholders to review and provide feedback. Acknowledge feedback and revise website design and content plan. Then conduct a meeting with all stakeholders to approve of final website design. Receive approval and move on with website development.

Date Completed: April 9th, 2024

Budget: I paid a yearly fee of $9.99 to secure a domain name for my website. Because I wanted my website to be publicly viewable. In comparison to using a free site like Weebly. I also purchased a 1-month plan on square space for $16-23 which will be reoccurring monthly. I did not raise funds to build my website. I decided to go all out of pocket. However, I also focused on fundraising through a third-party donation site to raise funds. The BlessBloom and Flow website is also accepting physical period products. Both will be used to purchase and donate products to schools in need. I managed my finances through my teammate Blessing Orji who assisted me in making transactions for the domain name, Square Space plan, and the donations payout site. The total cost to maintain the BlessBloom and Flow website is $202 yearly.

Team Managment: This project challenged me to manage not only my time but also my team. I managed my team by using email, remind, and verbal communication. I had to set deadlines and various meetings with my teammates to make sure that my project would work as planned. I emailed/verbally communicated with my mentor and adviser about any questions pertaining to the capstone project. I utilized the app remind to message my teammates about their parts in the capstone project. I also scheduled meetings with my mentor, advisers, and teammates occasionally throughout the creation and development of my project.

Lessons Learned: During this project me and my team had many challenges that we had to overcome such as getting girls to complete the post survey, getting flyers hung up in libraries, stores, and the school. I was denied so many times to spread the word about my website, but I kept on going. I also struggle to get the BlessBloom and Flow website’s domain unblocked from my county’s school computers.

I developed personally because I realized my project was something I was passionate about which allowed me to teach other girls and learn about my cycle in the process of my research. I developed professionally because I learned how to time manage myself and teammates properly through continuous planning and communication. Skills like time management and communication are key skills I improved during this project's creation. These skills will benefit me when entering the work force.

If I had to restart this project, I would have made a separate plan for parts of the project that I felt could go wrong and solutions to those possible roadblocks. This would have helped me to avoid using time and resources when trying to implement my project.

During this project, the biggest mistake I made was not making sure that the BlessBloom and Flow website was visible on school devices in my community. I fixed this mistake by speaking with my mentor about this problem. As a result, my mentor was able to send a ticket to cobb county schools about the BlessBloom and Flow website being blocked. Which resulted in the BlessBloom and Flow website being unblocked on cobb county school devices. From this mistake I learned that it is good to try and fix your problems and not to let roadblocks get in the way of your success.

Project Impact/Data: Through this project I was able to meet my objectives of getting girls to gain knowledge about the menstrual cycle. Donations were made in the first 1-2 months of the website launch. However, I am still expecting even more donations in 6 months of the website launch to meet my goal. I measured the impact of my project through post and pre-surveys. Majority of pre/post interviewees stated that I met their expectations when it came to learning about the menstrual cycle. 100% of people who took the post survey stated that they loved how interactive the website was through its videos, quizzes, and readings. 100% percent of the post surveyors stated that the BlessBloom and Flow website would have been a great source to use in their ages 9-18. Since the website's launch there have been 275 people who have viewed the BlessBloom and Flow website. BlessBloom and Flow raised $30 in the span of 1 month of the website being launched in which I was able to purchase 144 pads to donate to a school in need.

Image: 144 pads were donated to a middle school. Included BlessBloom and Flow flyers for the middle school girls to access.

Final Project: