{"id":45,"date":"2018-10-05T03:55:58","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T03:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freestyleacademy.rocks\/~SimoneC\/?page_id=45"},"modified":"2019-06-05T23:42:07","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T23:42:07","slug":"zenith","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~SimoneC\/zenith\/","title":{"rendered":"Zenith"},"content":{"rendered":"
ze\u00b7nith<\/strong>\r\n\/\u02c8z\u0113n\u0259TH\/<\/strong>\r\n<\/span>\r\nnoun\r\n<\/span><\/i>1. the time at which something is most powerful or successful.<\/pre>\n
Introduction<\/h2>\n
The Zenith Project is the product of the combined passions and skills from both myself and my sister, and what we have learned throughout our time in Freestyle, mixed together to create our final, most successful project.<\/p>\n
At first, my sister and I planned to make an album together that would include original music and artwork. We are both very passionate about music, and we thought that an album would be the perfect Zenith project in the beginning. This changed when we both wrote our 5-7 page research papers in our English class and realized when studying the topic of albums in depth that we did not have enough time to make a product that we would truly feel proud of because we would rush the process.<\/p>\n
Realizing that our original idea that we had stuck with since junior year was now no longer doable, we searched frantically for a new project idea. We then realized we had three main inspirations that all lead to the same product. These inspirations were the documentary books we created last year because of how rewarding the process of creating the book and holding it was, our three cousins we babysit (ages 2, 6 and 11) inspired us to create something to educate them in a way they could understand, and finally we were inspired by our German Shepherd Rogue and more specifically my passion for dogs (which was also the topic of her book last year). Each of these inspirations lead to one idea: make a book with less text as the documentary, inspired by kids, and about dogs. We finally decided on our Zenith project: we were going to make a children’s book educating kids about dogs.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Characters<\/h2>\n
The goal for our Zenith Project was a children\u2019s picture book with illustrations and character design created using Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. To make our book stand out from other children’s books, we felt it would be interesting if made a story that would include characters that existed outside of the book, so in the case of our book, this meant real dogs. We began searching for a variety of dogs to add to our book, a mix of working dogs and pets. <\/span><\/p>\n
Jericho<\/h3>\n
Besides the main character, which is our pet Rogue, the second dog we knew we wanted to add to our book was Jericho. He is a Labrador Retriever, and<\/span> a puppy in training to become a Guide Dog when he grows up. His current handler, Ms. Johnson, is the secretary for the counseling office and has become known at Mountain View High School as the lady with the guide dog puppies. For the past 10 years, she has volunteered with Guide Dogs for the Blind and has raised puppies that have eventually moved on to help a blind person in need. Simone is a TA in the office at MVHS and interacts with Jericho every day, and because of this, we felt he would be the perfect addition to our book!<\/span><\/p>\n
To learn more about Guide Dogs for the Blind, click the image below!<\/p>\n
\"Yellow<\/a>
Photo Credit: Abby Jensen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Percie<\/h3>\n
An account on Instagram that Simone has been following for a very long time is a service dog named Percie. She is a Golden Retriever, and she and her owner Claire have a significant platform in the service dog community. One of the main reasons why we felt Percie would be a perfect character for our book is because Claire works to educate people on service dogs and invisible disability through her posts and YouTube videos, and takes time to answer questions and do her best to help educate the public.<\/span><\/p>\n
 If you would like to see more of Claire and Percie outside of our book, go check them out on Instagram: <\/span>@service.angel.percie,\u00a0<\/strong>or click the image below!<\/p>\n
\"Claire<\/a>
Photo Credit: Claire Nakazawa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Doggy Day Out<\/h3>\n
In our project, we felt that we wanted to include a portion which would act as our civic responsibility, and benefit our community in some way. To do this, we participated in a program that allowed us to help a shelter dog in need, while also giving us a character to include in our book, and an experience we will never forget.<\/span><\/p>\n
This program is called Doggy Day Out, and it is within the Humane Society of Silicon Valley and is described as:<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cVolunteers give our ac<\/span><\/em>tive, large breed dogs a mini vacation from the shelter by taking them on day or overnight outings in the area. Hikes, beach days, some chill time in a home or dinner at a dog-friendly restaurant are all common outings our dogs enjoy.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 – Humane Society Silicon Valley<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
To visit the Humane Society website, click the image below!\"Humane<\/a>By participating in this program and including the shelter dog in our book, we would use our book to not only educate the r<\/span>eader on the different types of dogs and working dogs, but we would also bring awareness to the many dogs in shelters in need of homes and possibly help a dog find a home in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n
Weeks before our actual day out, we decided to contact an experienced volunteer for recommendations and tips because of the likelihood of receiving a dog that was reactive to people or other dogs. She gave us tips and recommended a few parks that she often brings the dogs to. Because we reached out and messaged her, we made the entire experience much easier for everyone and planned to go to a park near the shelter that she recommended because of the low volume of people and dogs.<\/span><\/p>\n
Vinnie<\/h3>\n
Walking into the Humane Society on our Doggy Day Out to pick up the dog we would be taking out for the day, we had expected to receive one of the usuals for this program: the social husky, one of the many pit bulls, or even the three-legged Doberman. What we did not expect was for a big black German Shepherd that resembled a bear to come barreling out of the door, eager to leave the shelter, at least just for a while. <\/span><\/p>\n
His name was Vinnie, and he truly was a gentle giant with the biggest heart. In our short time we spent with him, we were able to see how different he was outside the shelter as he opened up to us, and we eventually saw just how sweet and loving this pup really was. After spending the day with him, we were even more motivated to add him to the book, as we felt he exemplified the fact that not all shelter dogs are the same.<\/span><\/p>\n
\"This<\/p>\n
Because of how much our experience impacted us, we created a video using clips from our day we spent with him:<\/p>\n\t\t\t
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