Senior Project Proposal

Emily Stevahn

September 16, 2016

A. Abstract

My Senior Project will focus on insurance companies that have been getting away with

finding loopholes with the binding contract of cancer patients. They have been taking advantage

of those that are facing major weaknesses, and its an issue that needs to be fixed. The

overarching topic of my paper will be based off of Cancer Patients Legal Rights. The specific

topic that my paper will focus on will be Insurance Companies finding loopholes in the contracts

they have signed, legally binding them to the patients. The reasoning of picking this topic was

due to growing up with family members who have had to go through the struggles that cancer

brings, as well as not being able to legally support themselves and fighting for problems that

were caused by the insurance companies, whether it was them or close family friends that had to

fight two different battles at one time. The name of my paper will be Cancer, Fighting Two

Battles Over One and my consultant for my project will be Mr. Hodges. Driving questions are

what are going to help me along the way of writing my paper and some of those will include:

What are the exact loopholes that these insurance companies are finding and how

are they getting away with it?

 How does all children having mandatory health insurance in the state of Virginia

affected by this?
How does having to worry about medical costs and all the other hardships cancer

brings affect a cancer patients mental health?

Should the Insurance Companies also be expected to help pay for the mental

health portion of the patient after and/or during the treatment(s)?

With the physical project portion my project will be called, A Treat for a Treatment and

the proceeds from the project/fundraiser will go to the American Cancer Society foundation. I

plan the project to take place at Kingston Elementary School or Kings Grant Elementary and to

take place in either the gymnasium, or cafeteria and have a kids night in, parents night out

event from 5pm-10pm. One of the activities there will be a table set up where they choose their

favorite color paper (the color will represent a certain type of cancer) and write notes to children

at one or more of our local CHKDs. There will be other interactive games and activities for the

children all throughout the night. When they finish their letter, they can turn it into me and will

receive that same color ribbon which will explain to them what type of cancer that color

represents. I plan for these events to take place during the second semester and on a Friday

evening. Materials I will need for these two portions are paper (lots of color paper), arts and

crafts materials, adult and student volunteers, board games, etc . My projects success is based off

of the amount fundraised, the childrens enjoyment, and learning from the experience.

B. Learning Skills

New Skills:

Having a teacher/facilitator mindset

How to set up a successful event
 Working with a large group of children

Enhanced Skills:

Creativity
Patience
Managing time
Watching and controlling the children
Organizing fun/learning activities for the kids

C. Marketing Plan/Facilities/Audience:

I am targeting the younger generations of our society. They either have heard of what

cancer is, or they have been personally touched by it. When I was starting the first grade I had

been watching my uncle go through cancer, and then my kindergarten teacher passed away from

cancer. I want these younger generations to enjoy the life they have and to understand how lucky

they are to not be one of the many children that have had to battle this terrible disease, and some

of them havent even made it to first grade. They need to understand that cancer is a difficult

battle to go through, and they can be the people to fix how these insurance companies are

negatively affecting the lives of those that are diagnosed that cant afford their treatments on

their own. To get these kids to come, I am going to advertise to elementary schools in the area by

coming to the schools and putting up flyers, and getting the teachers to hand out the flyers to kids

to give to their parents. I am also going to ask if I can come in and talk to some of the kids in

their class during my off block while they are still in school. To get them to want to come I will

emphasise to them how much fun it will be, and explain that their classmates will be going so

they should as well.

 D. Project Steps:

Preliminary Steps Contact Kingston Elementary 6-7 hours

School, find out what my
restrictions are,create activity
list for night of event, talk to
consultant about major details
and activity list, figure out
cost of food and restrictions
of food at venue, and find
volunteers to help out.

Midway Steps Follow up with Kingston 8-10 hours

Elementary School on
available dates, find out what
will be needed for activities
for the event, speak with
consultant on dates and what
is going on, make sure that
volunteers can volunteer on
given dates, and start
advertising.

Later Steps Contact Kingston, make sure 10-15 hours

everything is ready for my
event, make sure all supplies
are ready to go, set up for the
event, make sure volunteers
are ready, and if food is being
ordered, make sure that it is
taken care of.

Follow Up Steps Send thank you notes to the 5-6 hours

volunteers, thank the admin.
from Kingston for using their
school, go to CHKDs and
donate the letters from the
children, and follow up with
counselor.

Total 29-38 hours

E. Project Documentation:
 Through my project I plan to take pictures all throughout. At my event I will take

pictures, as well as make a journal throughout for planning purposes to document any major

adjustments made to my project. Any emails, contracts, receipts, flyers, and planning sheets that

relate to my project will have copies made of them for documentation purposes. At my physical

event I will have a volunteer there take videos of everything that is going on. Due to the project

being about 4 or 5 hours long, the video will only consist of the more important aspects of what

happened during my project.

F. Project Justification:

Since freshman year I have wanted to take a spin on a subtopic of cancer patients. I am

very passionate about this topic because Ive seen many people that are close to me struggle from

cancer. I strive to get children, whether or not they have been affected by cancer, to understand

that this is a problem, and they can be the generation to fix it. This will be a struggle for me

through trying to teach younger children the problems of what these patients go through to the

best of their understanding. I want to be able to show them that they can help make a change for

the people that struggle with this. Approaching this project by having it aimed toward elementary

schoolers, allows me to get them to understand what is going on in the world around them at

such a young age. They can help be the change that ends this problem, and by starting with the

younger generations, give the future a good chance at making problems, such as this one, go

away.

G. Project-Paper Connection:
 My project and paper will both have a connection through financial aid. I plan to have the

fundraisers proceeds go towards the American Cancer Society foundation, and my paper to

focus on insurance companies finding loopholes in contracts with clients, causing them to get out

of providing the financial help their client needs. The linking of the two is by making aware that

financial aid for cancer patients from insurance companies is a problem. I plan to raise the

awareness of this by raising money and donating it to a facility that can help those that are facing

these problems. By making the focused audience younger children is allowing us to show them

that this is a problem at a young age so that as they grow up they have this knowledge in their

mind and can help make a difference. To advertise to the parents of these children is to allow

them to see that by them donating money, they can help those less fortunate that are going

through the problem of both being diagnosed with cancer, and fighting for financial aid.

H. Academic Honesty

Being an academy student, we are held to a certain level of expectations. As a student in

the academy we are used as examples of rule followers and held to the expectancy of

understanding that any academic dishonesty by me on any part of the project will result in

failure of the Senior Project and forfeiture of the Legal Studies Seal on my High School

diploma. Through my senior project I promise to uphold to our policy of academic honesty and

understand the consequences if my actions show that I did otherwise.