An unfinished story...

After reading my first blog post, it probably have opened your eyes to realize drug are a major issue in the United States. Drugs are a big part of the reason why our country is in debt. After my last blog post, I have learned that drugs are taken for many reasons. Some of these reasons are curiosity, improvement of athletic performance, or to ease other problems. I also learned that drug abuse is more focused on the consequences of using the drug than how much it is frequently used.  A common myth that people usually think is if treatment didn’t work before, it won't work again. Recovery from drug addiction is a long process that often involves setbacks. Relapse doesn’t mean that treatment has failed or that you’re a lost cause. Rather, it’s a signal to get back on track, either by going back to treatment or getting use to the treatment approach. If you are worried that a friend or family member is using drugs and at risk of becoming addicted, you should try to get them help as soon as possible.


For my original research, I want to visit a rehabilitation center to observe what are the daily activities people do at these centers. I also want to ask a few questions such as how many come in for help a day, or yearly.  I think this would of helped me understand my issue better because It would of showed me how frequently people are seeking for help in the areas near us. This observation would of showed me that drugs are a major part of people's lives and it takes a lot to get rid of them. My personal opinions on drugs are why continue to make them if they cause so much harm to human beings. Also, I think the United States need to enforce stricter laws on drugs because now a days I walk the streets of my neighborhood and see young people around my age or even younger smoking blunts, or on the corners selling illegal drugs. I still wonder what is in the drugs that make people do crazy things, or how can the bad drugs such as heroin or cocaine be used in a good way?


I was unable to do my original research due to printing and faxing problems, but I will later compare my predictions to the actual observation. For my Agent of Change, I am planning to find maybe two people who have recovered from drug abuse to come in and talk to my advisory. The two people have to be willing to share their experience and they have to work with an organization for safety purposes. They will talk about their experience and maybe persuade young people not to use drugs. Also, they will answer any question that are asked from the students in my advisory. However, If any other advisories wanted to join maybe they could. Keep out on the part #2 of my second blog post.

This is also one of my close friends that is smoking. She is currently in high school. She is 15 years old and suprisingly gets high grades in high school. She frequently has been smoking on the daily basis with a group of friends. 

Here is a picture of a person close to me that is smoking. This person is currently still in high school and has been smoking since

the age of 12. This person tends to have bad grades in school and rarely attends school.

Annotated bibliography

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This is also one of my close friends that is smoking. She is currently in high school. She is 15 years old and suprisingly gets high grades in high school. She frequently has been smoking on the daily basis with a group of friends
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Your Life Can Change in an Instant

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For my Passion, Information and Change project I chose pediatric cancer. In my first blog post I talked about why I chose to pursue childhood cancer. I also talked about the scary statistics that unfortunately pierce the hearts of children, teens and their family every single day.


For my original research I decided to do an interview. When I recieved my project I knew exactly what I wanted to do for my original research. That was to interview the student at SLA Beeber who I introduced you to in my first blog post. I didn't want to Direct Message her but after a few emails and phone calls I was able to schedule an interview for the following Friday.


All week I was so eager to meet someone who had gone through so much. The Thursday before the interview I was preparing my questions and thinking of what I should say and what I shouldn't; I was scared the conversation would be very emotional so I had disclaimers.


It was finally interview day and I decided to leave school early so I could get to the interview on time. When I got to the Starbucks on the campus of Saint Joseph's University I was scared the girl I was meeting was going to be in bad spirits.


As I sat and waited for the girl to enter the Starbucks I looked at some videos of other people interviewing cancer patients then, about two minutes into my first video the young lady by the name of Aliya Rouine walked into the door.


When Aliya came over to me and hugged me she said ¨oh this is awkward¨. A huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. She was smiling and laughing with me and her friend, whom she had brought for support. She was a normal teenager.


Aliya story starts in late December 2014 when she became very ill but didn't know what it was, so she went to the doctor to go get it checked out. The doctor thought she had the flu until a few weeks later she began to have trouble breathing and went to the hospital where they told her she had pneumonia. Since pneumonia is a symptom of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (A.L.L) they tested her for it. Sadly the results came back positive.


Aliya just like anyone who was told they had cancer said she was really scared. One thing that stuck with me was that she was more happy she knew what was making her sick. For me, I wouldn't want to know that something inside me can take over my body.


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I was very interested in how she changed and the people around her. Aliya said the people around her have become nicer to her. She said people she don't even know say hello to her because ¨maybe they feel bad¨. She also told me that her family has become closer. Not only have her family become closer but her family and friends have been very supportive.


Since she was diagnosed she said she became more grateful and sympathetic towards people and what they are going through. I asked Aliya what she thought about people who take things for granted and she said ¨ they need to think harder about what they are thankful for because you're life can change in an instant¨.


Over 35,000 children are currently being treated for cancer, sadly 25% of those children will die. Thankfully, Aliya's form of cancer is treatable. Aliya will be finished with her chemotherapy in October but will have to take a pill everyday for the next few years. Researchers have been on a great road to curing A.L.L, they have raised survival rates from 4 percent 50 years ago to 94 percent today.

Cancer not only affects you, but it affects your family emotionally and financially. Families are usually financially depleted.

This interview made me learn that people who are sick are just like everyone else. I learned to not take things for granted and to cherish every single moment because no matter how old you are your life can change in an instant.


To listen to my Full Interview Click Here!

To see My Annotated Bibliography Click Here!


 

​ The City Of?...


After reading and seeing many statistics for gun control in Philadelphia in my opening Blog Post, I began opening my eyes a little more and grasping all the information I could get. I started to think more about how much gun violence is going on in Philadelphia and did a little bit more research  .  Did you know that Philadelphia is the most violent of the ten largest cities in America? Also, that a Philadelphian is four times most likely to get shot than anywhere else? With that being said, I had further questions on which areas of Philadelphia where people think they are safe as where to others some of them may be dangerous. In my quest to gather more information, I chose to do a survey (see below)..  

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I asked three questions based on the part of Philadelphia the participants lived in. After asking where the lived, I wanted to know the following: if the participants thought they were safe in their respective neighborhood, and did they know anyone that was injured by gun violence within the past two years? Some of the stories I read was horrific and terrifying. I wasn’t sure if anyone wanted their story to be read so I made it unknown because this is a very soft topic for people to talk about and I respect that. But, I decided to make a graph based on the responses I received.  

The responses told me a story about our city. Out of the 37 participants that completed the survey, 43% reported that they felt safe in their neighborhood in light of the gun violence in the city.  But on the flip side of that, 52% admitted that their safety in their neighborhood depends, and 5% confirmed that they did not feel safe in their neighborhood. The majority of those surveyed feel that their safety in their neighborhood is always in jeopardy, I feel like that poor gun control is the reason for these Philadelphians to feel unsafe. On Saturday, April 27, 2015, a protest was held in South Philadelphia.   Several dozen protesters led by the Washington-based Brady Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence singled out Firing Line Inc. for having sold, over the years, dozens of guns that later were used in crimes or in some other way ended up in the possession of law enforcement authorities. As I said in my first blog, better laws for gun control is where we should start to help people feel safe in their neighborhoods. Not feeling safe in our neighborhoods makes people not trust each other, and good relationships are not formed.  My dad often talks about how when he was growing up that all the people in his neighborhood knew each other, talked, and shared different items.  But in today’s climate, there is no trust because good relationships are not formed.  Children no longer play outside in front of their homes because there are  too many stories of children being shot in crossfire. Guns bring about fear.

In conclusion, I feel like we need to do better with knowing who has guns legally, and then find those that have them illegally.  Laws alone will not do this, but we will need help from regular people that care about this problem and the safety of the communities. With doing all the research and looking deeper into my topic, I want to make this known to everyone in Philadelphia that there needs to be a change. I want everyone to get the word out about it and maybe it will go viral so that Philadelphia will have their voice heard. I look forward on continuing my project and in making Philadelphia a place you want to be, and where you can be safe.

If you would like to read my first Blog Post click here! 

To read my bibliography click here!


Bridging the Gap

My first blog post was about the benefits of classical music. Research proved that listening to Mozart during a test gives you better results on that test. This shows that the music you listen to correlates to your school smarts. Looking to boost your grades? Try classical! Project 440 is one of the many organizations that empowers students to turn their passion for playing music into a passion for giving back to their community.

LiveConnections ... inspires learning and builds community through collaborative music-making.” “... LiveConnections has re-imagined the landscape of live music and music education through unique collaborations that join artists from different genres to highlight how music crosses cultures and creates bridges of understanding.” Their programs consist of three types: Bridge Sessions, ClassicAlive and LiveStudio. Recorded and performed at World Cafe Live, they are quite an experience. Here is a ClassicAlive concert featuring violinist, Kristin Lee, “... she is commissioning composer/performers to write music for the violin and steelpan, guitar, theremin, and carnatic South Indian singing.”
Lee partnered with Astral Artists, who want “To discover the most promising classical musicians residing in the United States, assist their early professional career development, and present their world-class artistry to the community through concerts and engagement programs.” They believe “... that the future of classical music belongs to today’s emerging musicians, and that empowering their talent and ingenuity ensures a cultural legacy for generations to come.”

LiveConnections’ bridge sessions “bridge gaps between different genres of music to bring together communities. So they’ll take someone like Joseph Conyers… associate principal of the Philly Orchestra, and pair him with a jazz musician or a DJ or a drummer. And they’ll put them together and see what they can come up with… All music can come together…” says Zach, who I interviewed for my original research.

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Here is a picture of a Bridge Session. This musician is teaching about tempo. From largo to presto, it’s important to stick to the beat! (Source)

A graduate student at Temple University, Zach is pursuing a Master’s degree in Music Performance. He was inspired by LiveConnections and created a program for an independent study. “It comes from my love of pop music and classical music.” Zach is working with Joseph Conyers, Associate Principal Bassist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Executive Director at "Project 440". Zach’s program “... touches on the basic fundamentals of music and how they are present in both today's Popular hits and Classical music such as Mozart or Bach…”.

Through his program, he “... strive[s] to make the connection between these two genres, [classical and pop,] through engaging performance and audience participation.” For my Agent of Change, I want this program to be performed to my class and I. It is new, so we would be the test run and give feedback to improve it. Then, Zach could iron out the program and it could be presented to more kids.

Here is the video of the whole interview.

I actually found a whole new organization, Astral Artists, who support the future of classical music and emerging musicians. I was pleasantly surprised especially since I notice that they were connected. For example, I found LiveConnections through Project 440 and Astral Artists through LiveConnections. Zach spoke about his connections with LiveConnections and Project 440 which lead me to researching them both.

I created a survey which you can see here, and wanted to send it out to Musicopia String Orchestra and the All-City Philadelphia High School Orchestra. Unfortunately, it could not be sent out to All-City because the emails of the students were confidential. After realizing this, I sent out my survey to Musicopia too late, and it is a small group so I received only five responses. For this survey, I wanted to see if musical tastes related to (P)SAT scores.

I did not expect my interview to go this well. I am extremely grateful to Zach for letting me interview him and hope he can come perform for us!


Annotated Bibliography

Broken Dreams From Too Many Screens

After learning the few of many dangerous effects technology has on people from my first blog post, I decided to take my research even deeper than I already have and started thinking about how technology is not only affecting elders, it’s also affecting today’s youth. I realized that the research I’ve been looking for was right there in front of me... Literally. I realized that I attend a technology based school where teenagers are using technology everywhere. In the halls during lunch, their classrooms, almost in every room in the building. So I decided to take an action and observe a few of my friends without them knowing and I found out that teenagers use more technology than they realize. During this study I took a picture of the table that I was sitting at about every 20 minutes, regardless whether if they were using technology or not I took the picture anyway.

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Post 1

As I took my photos I started to notice that there wasn’t much conversation or physical contact. Everyone was either doing homework, playing a game, or texting. If you didn’t notice that Alex (on the right) and Ijustice (In the middle) are both using a laptop, but are also on their cell phones. This can cause a severe neck and wrist injury. I started to dig deeper into the topic and finally found a website that shows statistics and points out the main points on how technology ruins your body. After looking down for about an hour or so, your posture starts to weaken your shoulders drop and you start getting neck pains. These pains are called Repetitive Stress Injuries, also known as RSI’s.  


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Post #2

RSI’s are Known for when people use too much technology such as phones, laptops etc and start to get injured from them. Some injuries known as carpal tunnel, which is swelling inside a narrow "tunnel" formed by bone and ligament in the wrist; the tunnel surrounds nerves that conduct sensory and motor impulses to and from the hand, leading to pain, tingling, and numbness. This happens to be very painful, and about 3% of women and 2% of men will be diagnosed with carpel tunnel in their life time. If you think about it that’s only one of the many injuries caused by technology. Technology doesn't only harm you physically but also mentally. I read an article of psychology that explains how technology is changing the way children these days think. ‘’There is also little doubt that all of the new technologies, led by the Internet, are shaping the way we think in ways obvious and subtle, deliberate and unintentional, and advantageous and detrimental the uncertain reality is that, with this new technological frontier in its infancy and developments emerging at a rapid pace, we have neither the benefit of historical hindsight nor the time to ponder or examine the value and cost of these advancements in terms of how it influences our children’s ability to think’’ what he means by this is that with all this new technology that’s evolving or advancing so rapidly that it’s taking over the minds of children which is affecting their abilities to think.

After doing all my research and observing my fellow students I realized that I needed to make a difference as if I were an agent of change. Although I am not sure what I will be doing for my part if change I know what message I am trying to give out.  By doing that I would also like to raise awareness so I can influence as many people as I can to use a less amount of technology after I have finished my project.

Click here for my first Blog post.

Click here for my Annotated Bibliography.


America, Get Smart!

Thank goodness America, we can name the Vice President, but America, who is the Head of The Supreme Court? America? America? Yea well that is what we all expected. In my first report about how much America knows about itself, research really hammered the country showing that we really are clueless when it comes to Civics, Politics, and History. Especially when it comes to taking a test on said information. In my own research based off the United States Immigration Test flash cards and other sources, the results were… Worse than expected!

At the most simplest terms, this chart below shows how many participants passed and how many participants failed the test.


A study by Xavier University found that 35% of Americans would fail a 10 question immigration test (You had to get 6 questions correct to pass). So I created a 10 question test of my own to see whether that was true.  The mode of all my responses, was a total of 3 correct answers! Yes it may be harder for younger people, but these questions ranged from the most basic questions ever, to those that might require more background knowledge. I got 30 responses and as they kept coming in, the results got worse and worse. An answer for the question, “Who did the USA gain independence from?” was, and I am not joking, “Abe Lincoln.” Now for those with less time on this earth than others or maybe those who aren't the best at academic studies, Abe Lincoln is not a country. Though in some categories participants excelled, such as naming the Vice President and only one of the answers was wrong. Compare that though, to the 30% of people who could not name the Vice President according to a scathing Op-Ed piece in the New York Times. The article not only smashes the American public on that, but just about general knowledge as well. Back to my report though; all in all 22 of my subjects, (73% of participants) people failed the test. Thanks to more research a reason appeared.

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The now immortalized Abe Lincoln answer.


The Pew Research Center conducted a survey of American news outlets and the results were quite captivating. It found that more and more citizens are “deserting news outlets because it no longer provides the news and information they had grown accustomed to.” To top that off, “campaign reporters were acting primarily as megaphones, rather than as investigators, of the assertions put forward by the candidates and other political partisans.” I find it surprising that this was identified earlier. The news in America is not much of an informational outlet or source, but just a method to spew bloated stories full of misrepresentations to the American public. Unfortunately and truthfully we cannot blame our lack of education on the news, but part of the problem is lack of early studies on these topics.

As it should be known, education is a very hot topic and commodity these days, as you might have heard about lack of education funding or restructuring of Standardized Testing, but my guess is that you have not heard about the lack of history teaching. My theory is and unfortunately I was not able to corroborate this with other research, that the interest and amount of history knowledge correlates to the amount of political education you have. Since this is a theory I would like to remind readers that this is not confirmed but this is purely an opinion of mine. If any of my readers find a source that supports this, please do let me know. There is one last piece of the puzzle missing, and that is how to stem the tide of this disease

Knowing is one thing, acting upon knowledge is another and so I plan to do so. Since most of my testing, research, and focus was on politics, I plan to make a lesson plan about elections candidates and who to vote for. More specifically this will go towards newly registered voters who might need coaching, especially with a midterm election coming up. The goal of this lesson will be to properly and without bias, educate voters on each candidate. Thier background, political, social and personal beliefs and platforms. As well as other relevant knowledge. It may be boring but each voting age person plays a key role, I mean without voters where would this Republic stand? Without voters our country will not function properly and the people will become dissatisfied, but by voting and doing your civic duty, you can prevent chaos and make your voice heard.


Works Cited


Ooh, New Friend Request!

In my last Blog Post I mainly discussed Online Predators. In a nutshell Online Predators are people who commit child sexual abuse that begins or takes place on the Internet. This needs to be brought up and have more awareness for many reasons. One; most children are not educated or not educated enough about this topic. If we could teach kids how to be safe Online, there would be a lot less of this crime going on. Two; some parents are not educated enough in this field. If more parents knew the signs of a predator, then more of these instances can be avoided or cut off before it goes out of control. And finally; our society is mostly based off of modern technology. This allows Predators to stalk in the depthness that is the internet and can get away scott-free. If we educate and teach more individuals about this issue, more events like these can be stopped. There has been cases where some police units are trying to bring up awareness, however it is not brought up enough on a global scale. So what are some of the signs of an Online Predator? According to the Washington Police there are several tricks Online Predators use including, but not limiting to; chatting privately, flattery, intimidation, asking for personal information, and sympathy. The main way predators lure in their victims is by ‘grooming’. “Grooming is how online predators manipulate children into meeting in real life with their sole goal of having sex with them. Predators will spend weeks, months, and/or possibly years "grooming" their victims before asking them to meet in real life.”

To find out how much our students actually know, I gave out a quick survey regarding Online predators. The first question was seeing if students can define the term Online Predators.Screenshot 2015-05-11 at 8.52.54 PM.png

These are just a few responses from the survey results.

As seen above, most responses were correct, however there were some questionable ones. “Predators Online.” was one result. So this topic is brought up, but not to the extent people should know about.

The next question was if you actually know the first signs of a predator.

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As shown on the graph, many people answered yes. However I asked them for specifics. Most people in fact did not know the first signs which are chatting privately, flattery, intimidation, asking for personal information, and sympathy. Participants stated that the first signs were asking to meet up or pictures. These are when the Predator already has you in their grip. So this means children are being taught what the most noticeable signs are, but not necessarily the first red flags.

We also have to be wary how much time children these days spend on the internet.

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Because our generation spends so much time on the internet, we are easier targets. In fact most of the students claimed they were contacted by an outside force on the internet.

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Overall I would say my findings are what I expected. Kids know about it, but not enough. Which is why my Agent of Change ideas can bring awareness to this subject and teach the full extent of this issue. I plan on giving a detailed presentation about this subject. I have to still work out the kinks on this plan. I was also thinking on hanging posters in our school and outside to bring awarness.


Bibliography

A Deeper Look Into Feminism

On my previous blog post  I talked about feminism and how it should be a common goal for everyone, and not a battle of the sexes.

Since the last time I posted a lot of things have happened in the media that relates to feminism. The hashtag #HowToSpotAFeminist has become viral. People use this hashtag to share their thoughts on feminism and express their thoughts, concerns, or even disagreement about this topic. It became more popular when people started to create memes and pictures that would appeal to a younger audience, and would catch their attention through humor.

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Even though it's great to see people become vocal on this topic, new issues have arisen as well. A couple weeks ago a high school suspended a girl over a moderately modest dress because “plus sized bodies must be fully covered” As seen in the image below, the girls dress covered her up really well besides some cleavage which is something she can't help because of her size. “ #IAmMoreThanADistraction” is what I want to hear people like her say and share on social media. I want people to become aware that's it's wrong to shame women for their attire and their bodies. She can't change herself, so why should she be punished?plus sized dress.jpg

Earlier this week I sent out a survey on feminism with questions like “do you know what feminism is?” and “do you believe that genders are currently equal”. My results were something I expected, but still shocked me as well. 5 out of the 26 people I surveyed said they did not know what feminism was, and 4 out of the 5 people were males between the ages 14-15. 12 out of 26 people who took the survey said they dont believe theres gender equality, and unsurprisingly they were mostly women. For that exact same question, 3 out of the 26 people who were surveyed (excluding the 12 who said genders are not equal) said they are not sure. 2 out of the 3 were males. These results show me that many men are unaware of feminism, and is probably why they don't fight for it. My goal is to try to spread awareness and educate everyone, of all ages and genders, about feminism.


These results made me feel more aware of my own topic. This shows me that even though this is a topic i'm passionate about, I could still learn more about it. For my agent of change project I want to spread the hashtag #IamMoreThanADistraction all over social media, and to take photographs of girls and women with labels written on them so I can make digital posters for people to post on their social media with the hashtag.


CLICK HERE FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY!!!

Amy Zeller's Class

My You and the World project is Discrimination and Stereotypes between Work and Education with a disability. I want people to know that words hurt for everyone. People often discriminate people with disabilities thinking that they can’t do anything but they are so wrong. In my Blog Post#1 I focused more so on the discrimination of people with disabilities. During that Blog Post is when I really figured out what I want to do.

For my original research I went to Edison Ferreira High School. They generously let me observe and interact in one of their special education classes. I had the wonderful opportunity to be in Amy Zeller’s classroom. They only had a about 5 high school students in her class. Amy Zeller is a phenomenal person and teacher. She cares about her students and treats them the way the should be treated.  She treats them with respect and never tells them they can’t achieve something.

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This is a picture of two students going to the garden.

I learned that all you need is patience, patience is the key to getting through to these students. Yea sometimes you might get frustrated but you have to keep trying, the students deserve it. I know that I don’t really have experience but I witnessed people with experience and I saw the patience that the teachers had. The students I were with were so nice and inspiring. They never gave up on anything and when they messed up they tried and tried until they got it right.


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This is a picture of a student outside.

The students have a routine.

  • Monday is the day to clean.

  • Tuesday is the day to cook.

  • Wednesday is vocational training.

  • Thursday is community outing day.

  • Friday  recreational / Leisure / Art.


    When I went to visit the class it was a Friday. That day was a special day because they had a different schedule, they went to Walmart and Lowes. When I was talking to Amy she said that when they go out they teach the students how to act when they are outside in public settings. They went to Walmart to buy bags for Mother’s day presents and to Lowes for flowers. They bought pink flowers for the mothers and other flowers for a memorial. That day they also cooked. They went to the garden and picked mint and also chopped up cucumber and zucchini. The students that are in the special education programs learn life skills.

    I learned that the states allow students who have a disability to stay in school till they are 21. The dropout rate for a student with a disability is twice than an average student. In Ms.Zeller’s class the students’’ age averaged between 18-20. They all plan to stay until the age 21. Why is this school different from any other school? That I do not know but I do know that the students I saw were happy. When I talked to them they said they enjoyed school. Some girl even refused to leave at home. School is their second home and that is how school should be.

Check out my bibliography here!

   



Petition to support all people? Say I.

From my previous blog, I talked about my father’s Sponsor, William Sloane, and Tan Le, who talked in a Ted Talk about her immigration story, which is part of my topic. And now I will talk about more info that I’ve gathered the past few weeks. We’ve talk about how Sponsor has two different meaning towards the U.S or America and towards Immigrants. I hope this summary refreshed your mind!


First, I’ll start off with an organization that I have recently been in touch with. They’re called SoarLegal. They help immigrants today come to America. Their office is in Oregon which is out of my reach so sadly I was not able to have a personal interview with them but thankfully I have just gotten in touch with them, recently. At May 11, 7:58pm, I called and talk to the woman on the line for SoarLegal. She said that she was new to the job, so she doesn’t know much. What I’m surprised about, is how there’s people still getting hired to be helping immigrants. Other things they do is; Domestic Violence Victims, Farm workers, Human Trafficking Survivors, Individuals who are not in legal immigration status, Individuals with criminal histories, Individuals with physical/mental disabilities, Juveniles, Lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender, Torture survivors. What I wanted to do is an Interview and Survey. Sadly, I wasn’t able to interview anyone, and I had only received 11 responses for my Survey.

On this graph, it shows me that everyone who’d participated in my survey, has had experienced it or heard stories. That shows and tell me that immigration is big; but not big at the same time.

For this, I asked question about immigration, and explaining about experience, or stories, because other people can have different perspective about immigration and maybe I can get more info that I can would usually receive. Majority of the people who took my survey, had known people close or friends that was immigrants. Some say that it was hard to explain, or even heard stories from many people.

When I asked about immigration, and sponsors for immigrants. Many say they support it, although Richard Yoeung who said;

“Nothing wrong with it. In my opinion. Politics say otherwise.” That spoke out to me because it shows the fact that Politics refuses to bring immigrants.


For this, I asked about being curious of Sponsoring for Immigrants, or even how the process is.

A few say that they know about the process, Some say that they’re confused, some say that what different ways can a sponsor help an Immigrant. Most people asked for the process from back then and now. We need more information about it, and he process about it. Maybe some more videos that will, at least show how the process is. Even blogs that tells us what we don’t know, or probably give us more information about immigrants and sponsors.In conclusion, This has expanded my knowledge about Sponsoring for Immigrants. From help to those who had completed my survey. Hopefully, I can actually expand my knowledge even more with the information about immigration and their sponsors


Here is my Annotated Bibliography

The glass era

​In my first blog post I talk about how to much screen time before bed can lead to difficulty in getting to sleep depending on how long you are using or watching the device.  A Study showed that teens who spend an hour on their screens before bed usually take an hour to get to bed.  I also talked about how teens who play violent video games after a while even if they don't start out this way tend to get more violent and aggressive because of what the game is showing them.  I discussed how tv shows give kids a biased perspective on life and how things should or should not be.  For instance if you watch a news program a lot they would probably have a lot of sad and depressing news.  


For my original research I interviewed lots of classmates like Elias, Johny, Kara, Fabian, Jorin, Alexa, Elani, Sandra, Java,Mehki, Eli, Obie,


I interviewd these people to ask them sort about their daily lives and how they interact with screens.  I also interviewed a man named Jeff Adams who works for Google specifically Google Maps.


This hyperlink is snapshots of the conversation I had with Jeff)





















My personal opinion is that screens themselves are not the issue it’s how we use them that's the issue.  Say I watch TV for an hour a day and use the computer for 30 minutes a day that would be fine that is barely any time at all, unfortunately that is not the case for most teenagers.  I think the general vibe is if it’s made it’s better and “I” need to update my old device.  Teens will look for any exuse to get a new phone not even if they want it but because it’s made makes you want have the earge to get it, so you look for every small detail wrong with your current phone and say that the new phone doesn’t have those so you get it.  You get even though there absolutely no difference from your old phone to the new phone. Now I don’t actually have an Iphone so I can’t speak to this example but I am sure that plenty of you would agree.  I would say I agree that many of parents decisions to cut their child's screen time however I had a discussion with my brother in April and he was defending screens using teens and brought up many interesting points; such as if a person [teen] is being forced into a conversation where they know the people will not take their side of course they are going to want to talk to their friends because their friends will support that person.  I agree with this statement somewhat however if you know someone is not going to take your side that is a debate right there and that could be fun.  I have a cousin who before he is a teenager spends more time on video games in one day than I have probably in my life.  I am quite worried for him because he can finish a whole DS or XBOX game in half a day.  Whenever we go to visit him I usually babysit him and we usually end up playing role playing games taht are about whatever game he finished that day and it usually ends up with me being killed or injured in some way because I like to play out my part.  

Screens are good sometimes to good you should moderate yourself when using them even if it is a school project.   


I have personal experience with sleep deprovision aspect of the effect of screens on teens before bed because I always watch videos on youtube and finish my homework before bed.


I am curious about  gorilla glass I know some about it but I would be fasinated to see how it is made.     


 

This is a hyperlink to y annotated bibliography


A Little More Hope For The Hopeless // Leukemia

In my previous blog post, I discussed the different probabilities, the age range, and the multiple kinds of attractions for Leukemia. I explained my reasoning behind why I wanted to focus on this topic and gave various details about what Leukemia was as a variation of cancer. I noted that not everyone who is diagnosed with Leukemia has a high survival rate, depending on the type of Leukemia that you attract.


25% of all kids who are diagnosed with cancer will die. Remember that? Well, I didn't explain that fully until now. Leukemia has an 85% survival rate for each patient. Each patient has the same chances of surviving this disease, no matter what medications/drugs they took during the time. This is one of a plethora of information that I have gotten from my time at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia (CHOP)

As this second blog will continues to shed light on the topic of Leukemia, I have returned from a 3 hour tour of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. With the consent of Dr. Abby Green, I have acquired an abundant amount of information, learned the ins and outs of Leukemia and how it doesn't just affect the children diagnosed with it, but the families as well.


My interview and field observation was taken with Dr. Abby Green, an oncologist pediatric, who works with patients diagnosed with Leukemia frequently at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She has been admitted to this hospital once she exited medical school and has been assisting over 100 children for 8 years so far. Throughout my tour and interview, I got to see different patients and their recent statuses on how well they are taking this disease. Some were surviving and were being dismissed early. Others weren't so fortunate. It's hard to roam the halls and hear the voices of children, yelping in pain and agony. But I persevered and continued on with my tour with Dr. Green. When I first started asking Dr. Green my questions about Leukemia, it seemed like her mindset was up all night, waiting to answer these questions that would change her life forever.



A Hallway dedicated to patients that have been released from the hospital (Left). A patient of Dr. Green that has been admitted out and placed into this hallway (Right).


With Dr. Green's assistance and her 8 years of experience, diversifying and deeming with information will be useful from here on out will be hassle-free. With the information that I gathered from Dr. Green, I can use that as a foundation for what information I can use to build off of it. This will help add on to my new information with new upgraded statistics, rather than those from about 2012. Her responses are influential to my mindset of this disease. After going in to take a tour of the hospital, my mind has not been the same ever since my trip. I've often gone back to think about the screaming children which definitely disrupts my focus often now. Getting a firsthand experiences really did open my eyes a little. And it even put a little but of tears in them as well. Going from not knowing much about Leukemia to knowing enough to keep you up and night was definitely something that I'm happy I realized.






(Left) A Family Room that is located on the third floor, right outside of the Oncology offices. (Right) Displayed artwork of children with Leukemia that was made within the family room.

For my "Agent of Change: Blog Post #3", I think I will plan on volunteering at Ronald McDonalds House of Charity. I will try my best to volunteer here and go back to the Children's Hospital to help with one of the Family Rooms. For those that don't know, Family Room's are selected rooms that are scattered across CHOP. They are there to give moral support to children and families by giving them different activities. For children and families alike, coping with Leukemia is a very difficult process, and by volunteering with this organization, I can try my best to explain my personal stories and also give different families that have been affected by this disease moral support and sympathy.


Stereotypes: Where do they Begin? Post #2

My first Blog Post explained the meaning of a stereotype and how its purpose invaded the lives of youth. If it was not clear the reason I chose this topic was to address the issue of stereotypes being presented to the youth. The remaining question was how do stereotypes evolve? When it came time for me to collect original research I was not sure of what I wanted to do. Surveys, tests, and interviews were few of my ideas. The fastest and easiest thing to do was a survey. When I made the survey I made sure to ask questions about information I needed. I also thought about information that I have read online about this topic. I needed to make sure that I could compare and contrast my original research to information I have gathered from online resources.


stereotype
stereotype

Information I have gathered from my original research indicated that youth are aware of stereotypes and some are bothered by them. When asked “have you ever heard a stereotype?” 100% of people answered “yes”.


For my original research I have conducted a survey. This survey was sent to the 9th and the 11th grade class of SLA. It included a question asking for a personal definition of the word stereotype. More than twenty people took the survey and majority ruled that stereotypes were “false statements that are generalized or expected out of a certain group of people.” Sources from the internet concluded that a stereotype was an “over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people”. I and a few others and definitely agree that these two definitions are pretty similar. The results have also shown that majority of stereotypes witnessed were portrayed in Reality/Public which includes social media. Since my last post, I have also found that 91.3% of the people that took my survey make use of stereotypes.

I think doing a survey was the best choice to do. Doing a survey allowed me to collect a lot of information that helped me understand that majority of youth are aware of stereotypes. Even though 91.3% of people said they make use of stereotypes, 83.4% of people said that they were bothered by them. I believe that people are unaware of their wrong-doing until they are pointed out to them. If you do not want anyone stereotyping you, then you should not stereotype anyone else.

It's Still Happening

In blog post #1 {Blog Post #1} I talked about how police brutality has been affecting African Americans ever since the 1900’s and is still occurring in 2015 today. Not only are black people being affected by this but many other races as well. American citizens are blind to this and believe that the citizens affected by this are only black people. Cops have killed and beaten people of many races, which gets into this second blog post. I’ve found new information that proves it’s not always black on white crime but it’s all police of all different races on the many residents of America.

Here is a case that involves a homeless man by the name of Kelly Thomas who was beaten to death by cops in Fullerton, California. Thomas was not only homeless but schizophrenic and the horrid sight was caught on tape. The outcome of the beating closely resembled the case of Emmett Till, a 14 year old boy who was beaten by white people during the Jim Crow era in the South and his offenders as well as Kelly Thomas’ offenders were pleaded as not guilty. Kelly Thomas’ case was a white on white crime but it was committed by police.


Kelly Thomas, before and after dealing with Fullerton Police.


Recently there was the killing of 25 year old, Freddie Gray who died of severe injuries to the spinal cord while in custody of Baltimore Police. Unlike a lot of other cases, the 6 police officers involved were charged with murder because the death was ruled a homicide. The death of this man sparked many protests but also many riots. People of all ages in Baltimore participated in the actions of throwing rocks at cops. burning down businesses and busting windows out of police cars. People from Philadelphia protested but in a much more calmer way but some cops from Philadelphia steered it up a bit. A woman named Dianne Tzouras who is aPhiladelphia citizen expressed how she felt on the differences between Baltimore’ and Philadelphia’ protest.



I asked : How do you feel about the protest in Philadelphia and the protest in Baltimore?

She responded : The protests in Philadelphia were very calm and very peaceful, the citizens stood up for what they believed in and made that very clear and moved along with their night, but the riots in Baltimore were uncalled for. We didn’t need people to throw rocks at cops, or burn down other people’s businesses just to prove a point. Baltimore could have gotten their message across in a entirely different way than they did.

I also asked another question on whether or not she believes we can change the way police are treating American’s and here was her response.


I asked : Do you think you could make a change?

She responded : Yes by prayer and regular everyday respect for cops. If we do not respect cops, cops will not respect us. It all starts with communication.


I also interviewed Matthew Kay, an African American drama and reading teacher at Science Leadership Academy. Mr.Thompson runs the poetry club here as well and one of the topics happen to be police brutality and Black Lives Matter. I asked him the same questions I asked Mrs.Tzouras but the responses were completely different.



( Picture of Matthew Kay )


I asked :  How do you feel about the  black males that have been shot in Florida, Ferguson, Baltimore and Missouri ? ( Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown )


He responded : Sad but not surprised, black men have been being shot for a while now. America was born on the killing of black men.


I asked : How do you feel about the protest in Philadelphia and the protest in Baltimore?


He responded : The kids who are doing these protests do not have good intentions about what they’re doing, just because you march down the street with a bunch of signs in your hand doesn’t make it a protest.


I asked:  How do you feel about the slogan “ #BlackLivesMatter”?


He responded : Clearly catchy, not very sure when black lives mattered in this country and they sure as hell dont matter as much now. The poorer you get the less you matter. The slogan itself gives people imaginary hope.


I asked: Do you think you could make a change?


He responded: There are common sense things, language about body cameras, reviewing techniques, someone who has their mind set on killing someone, badge or not you can’t really change that.


The whole process of finding new information that you actually created yourself was hard. I ran into a lot of challenges when it came to finding people to interview. I came up against lots of walls where I couldn’t find anyone to interview. I tried to ask #BlackLivesMatter a couple of questions as well as a student from SLA but I got no response there either. Even though I only have two people which whom I interviewed I got a lot of people’s opinions and things they believed could change the world.



But Mommy... I already have a black crayon!

The issue of affirmative action is one that has been intensely debated shortly succeeding its implement into society. My first blog post informed potential readers on the specific facts that are an effect of affirmative action as well how it's utilized in many higher education and working facilities. I explained how the use of affirmative action was to the support and disadvantage of multiple ethnic groups, while speaking on what generally happens to those who are affected by this. For my second blog post I chose to focus more on how individual people interpret this topic and its stance in our community. I also narrowed my information more on the general public and higher leveled businesses and institutions takes on this.


Since writing my last blog post, I aimed to get a better feel for how people themselves perceive affirmative action. Originally I believed that the masses were all on a similar viewpoint on this issue, but further research showed that we are split right down the middle. Both groups those being who support and are against affirmative action have strong reasons for why they feel the way they do. According to a poll done on debate.org, 57% of the population viewed affirmative action as a fraud, 70% said it was not needed to achieve equal opportunities, and 75% agreed that the United States does not need it. Prior to uncovering this, I was not aware that so many were against it. Opponents often point out that it's a reverse form of discrimination by favoring one group over another, it keeps societies aware of the barriers that divide it which would ultimately promote alienation and resentment between ethnic groups, it may be unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment. Critics have also pointed out that affirmative action is illegal under the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination based on color, race, national origin.




( This picture is a protest fighting for the abolishment of affirmative action, and was brought to the front line due to the case of Bakke vs. California.)


While there are many who are opposed to affirmative action, there are as many who are in complete support of it. Those who believe in it feel that without affirmative action in place the amount of space for minorities in the workplace as well as universities will increasingly drop. Statistics have shown that after the departure of affirmative action in California in 1998, the percentage of minority students admitted to the UC Berkeley fell 61% and UCLA fell 36%. Similarly, after Texas abolished affirmative action in 1996, Rice University freshman class had 46% fewer African Americans students and 22% fewer Hispanic. There have also been major universities and businesses who agree with affirmative action.

These businesses include: Coca-Cola, Intel, Microsoft, Nike, Pepsi, Reebok, Kraft Foods, and Johnson and Johnson just to name a few of more than sixty leading fortune 500 companies that believe this. Universities such as: Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Princeton, Yale and Upenn voiced their support of race-conscious admission programs.


For a closer inspection of how people consider affirmative action, I interviewed four people of different race, age, and gender. With these interviews, I wanted to know how the people around me felt. I asked a series of questions ranging from ¨ what is affirmative action¨ to ¨ can it be noted as racism. From my findings I liked that teacher Mark Miles believes that we need affirmative right now because there is not a better option out there. Art and technology teacher Marcie Hull believes that because women are not given and expected as much as their male counterparts, that they should have special treatment. I did not think of this as a good option for short term not long term. It wasn't something that I thought of before and made me lean further to the side that we need it. One thing I kind of agree with is women getting special treatment. I'm all for equality, but I don't know if I would necessarily say special treatment. Another thing I found interesting was that both of the students felt that affirmative actions should only be used in some cases, and it should not just be tossed around. Doing these interviews gave me insight on things that I hadn't thought about, and kind of changed my opinions on a few things. I no longer feel that it is something that predominantly affects African Americans and Hispanics and have a sound effect on many different types of people. I know understand that there should be affirmative action in some cases and that the way it is being used known may not be the best way for it to be used. If there is anything else that I want to know it is how has this gone on for such a long time with so much negative publicity onto it. Also, how does this have an effect on people after they graduate on from college. Doing blog post two as given me a better understanding of this issue as a whole instead of statistics on a page. For my blog post three, I plan to get an editorial published somewhere that will inform those in the public who aren't aware of the issue.




Affirmative action bake sale prices were weighted to reflect Affirmative Action polices and programs. Asian and Pacific Islander males were charged the most at $1.50 per baked good, and Native Americans were charged nothing for their bake sale sweets. Other races and sexes varied.

( This is a poster made by The Conservative Coalition for American Values, a Purdue University student organization that was made to represent the University's racial division based on their affirmative action laws.)


Annotated Bibliography

The Teenage Struggle, Life is so Hard #2

So as before I go over the stuff that I want to talk about in this second blog post, I am going to do a quick recap of the important points that were brought up in the blog post #1.

In the first blog post (which by the way you can check out here) the main things that I went over were things like teenage stress levels by the percentages which shown to be higher than those in adults, a brief summary of why stress really comes in to anyone’s life, and an explanation of what the project for the class was about. These were the main points that I brought up in the blog post #1, if you want to see them more in detail you can always just check it out from the link above.

IMG_2767.JPG

This is an image of a student (me) who is playing the role of a person who supposed to be very stressed about something that is school related.


From the time that I posted my blog post one I have learned in more detail a lot of the triggers that cause teen stress and I feel as though I saw a pattern in my research. What I learned is that the number one trigger that causes stress amongst teens is more likely than not something that is school related, which does have a large range of things that can span from. It can be from things that directly connect to school work as shown in the image below. And I know because I have seen this kind of thing go on in front of my own eyes. It typically happens in a situation when someone gets a grade that themselves or parents are not thrilled about so they stress over it.

But what also could be school related socially connected things, this range can range from things like not having any friends in school, or having people bully you in school or things like that. Now this is actually a really big problem because there are a lot of teens who commit suicide every year for being bullied and things in that general area. And a lot of cause of teenage suicide are things like: failing big exams, breaking up with boyfriend/girlfriend and the last thing I want to bring up is family issues.


Having problems at home can take a big toll of someone live not even talking about just teenagers, but humans in general and I would be able to tell you since I experience it first hand in my own life. Problems at home are just as important as problems that you may face at school. If you are person who is living in a steady and reliable home but you have things under control at school, you will probably have much less to deal with mentally than someone who is having problems at home and at school. And to be honest, they affect each other.



But the last thing that I want to talk about is some original research that I have done myself and a bit of stuff that that I have been reading about in articles. So what I did was sent out a survey to my fellow ninth grade peers in my english class.  So with the survey results I got back some information like this.


This is showing the responses of what people said that was the main cause of their stress. The information in percentages is: 88% of people said it was school related, 46% said that is was something home related, and 50% said that it is caused by something socially related. So with this information it is clear where the main sources of problems start to filter in, and honestly it is not surprising. The amount of stuff that people have to deal with in high school can be a bit overwhelming. But I have more information as well, I have the responses from my survey that tell what people do mainly to help them deal with their stress and the percentages will be as shown.


Listen to music- 3%


Take Deep Breathes- 6%


Play with: Friends/Pets/Family - 16%


Play Video Games / Get on Social Media/ Listen to music  etc - 20%


Just work through everything they need to do - 3%


Step Away from everything - 6%


Work Out - 3%


Sleep - 13%


Cry - 3%


Play a sport/ - 10%


Punch Something - 6%


This is a very widespread amount of information all in one place, however it seems like the top things that people do to deal with stress are: Play Video Games / Get on Social Media/ Listen to music etc, and Play with: Friends/Pets/Family. Now with this information, people who go under some kind of stress, (which 50% of people say happen to them on the day to day) these are some things people could try out to try and not be stressed anymore.

So in conclusion what I want to do in the future for something like my agent of change project is find out ways where I can push out some of those ways to deal with stress to the public.





To see my annotated bibliography click here.

My Survey Can be take here


Sex Trafficking 2.0

In Blog Post #1, I have written about the general definition of what my topic is, Sex Trafficking. I stated my findings on the matter, specifically: statistics on the occurrence of the issue, and also ways this concern could be prevented.

I have recently discovered this organization in which deals with sex trafficking victims up close. They listen to their personal encounters and help them move past it. This is their website, and I genuinely recommend that you check it out. Thankfully, I have gotten the chance to interview a member, as well as explore their website in great depth, and received amazingly informational responses. I decided to do an interview for my original research. My previous research had to do with personal encounters from victims of sex trafficking, therefore doing an interview with someone that is an expert in the area gave me further insight on the issue. The interview went as so:


What connection or involvement do you have with child trafficking?

The organization I am apart of mainly focuses on listening. They listen to survivors of sex trafficking. Members say “We’re particularly focused on understanding patterns of vulnerability and successful reintegration of survivors.”


In your experience, can you tell me what the typical age of someone that is exploited to this is?

The typical age of someone that is exploited to this ranges from the age of 18 and under.


Who do you think the typical recruiter is? A male or female, stranger or friend?

On their website it states “Too often the stories we hear involve pastors, diplomats, youth leaders, law enforcement, and educators—perpetrating unspeakable crimes against children, using their power and connections as protection and facade. They come from various walks of life.”


People doing the recruiting, do they most likely get the victims through kidnapping, false promises, or by taking advantage of the family because they are poor?

“Most often, children are trafficked through vulnerabilities.”


Once the victims are in the process, do you think they feel as though there is no way out, in your experiences?

What do you think are the long term effects of a victim who later runs away or is rescued?

The long term effects of a victim who is rescued, based on their experiences involve: “Drug and Alcohol Dependencies, Depression and Anxiety, Revictimization, Unplanned Pregnancy, Health Complications, Addiction to Money, Trauma Bonds and Stockholm Syndrome” and many more.

The process for conducting this interview was not easy though. I have in total contacted three people who I thought could help me get through this action. The first expert organization I contacted responded to me quickly, which I was excited about, though saying that they could not fulfill my needs and actually were too busy to be interviewed. The second person I contacted, yet not an expert, knew more information on the topic then them regular person, things did not work out. After this, I was stuck for a long while trying to find someone else to contact and I ended up finding an organization in which I happened to feel very passionate about. After looking through their site, I contacted them and got great results in which I have shared previously.

Some things I am still left wondering about after I have conducted an interview along with the research I have done is how effective are these organizations towards the victims and how many organizations are actually out there and aware of this issue. I also am curious of finding out the locations of these organizations and if there are these people trying to help right in the area of the trafficking. And I expect to find this out in further research.

My plan for bringing awareness to this issue is to make stickers and/or posters containing statistics of some sort of Sex Trafficking. I intend to post these throughout the city and possibly around the school to attract a wider range of people. These stickers/posters will also be promoting the organization I have showed to you today in this blog post.


This is the front cover of the organization that I got results from for the interview > website

Image of a rejection to an interview email

Help The Hopeless

      Help The Hopeless


In my previous blog post I gave some important facts on the homeless people. Such as the different causes of homelessness. One cause of homelessness as discussed in my previous blog is economic problems such as low incomes and lack of affordable housing. Also talked about the amount of people that were homeless last year. January 2014, on any given night there was at least 578,424 people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. I also talked about the different types of people who become homeless. For example, U.S military veterans who come back to find themselves homeless in a few months after they've served for the military.


I found a lot of new information after my first blog post. I've learned that their are different kinds of homelessness. One that I had researched was Chronic Homelessness. Chronic Homelessness is when someone with disabling health and behavioral health conditions is experiencing homelessness. According to researched they are trying to end it from 2015-2017. I've seen Chronic Homelessness myself. It kills me inside to see those people suffering not only from Homelessness but from other personal health issues. Another issue I've found during researching was Homelessness being restricted in some cities. Cities like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and  Lawrence, KS has banned panhandling in some of the different parts on the city. Also the fact that the local citizens of the specific cities actually signed petitions to stop the homeless from getting any help. In addition to my previous blog post where I talked about different types of people who become homeless and I found out that the majority of the youths become homeless usually because of family divorce, neglect and abuse which is really heart breaking.


Researching about homelessness was very interesting and really heart breaking. So I took it upon myself to do a survey about people stances and opinions on Homelessness. The responses were not as surprising as I thought they would be. I expected more harsh answers after researching about Homelessness. Although, the responses on one my questions shocked me. The ninth question(¨Should there be homeless people in a country where we live around money?¨) responses shocked me after I seen that people have answered yes. Almost half of the people who answered this question said yes. This survey helped me understand more of the opinions that the people have on Homelessness. Although I was not surprised with most of the responses, I personally believe those responses was because of the community the people are in. Considering that most of the responses, well all of them were sent to people of my school, I feel like that couldve been the cause of all the answers. Somethings Im still left wondering is, what if i had sent this survey to different types of people from different money classes or depending on where these people live. Something i am looking forward to doing is, giving money to the homeless and giving them hope and to keep pushing.


Screenshot 2015-05-09 at 3.57.49 PM.png

Survey response to question #9


Homeless.jpg

Homeless spikes to restrict homeless from staying at that place.

Heres my Annotated bibliography!


The New Face of the Workforce

The issue I’ve decided to tackle for my You and the World project was women’s rights within the workforce, as seen in my first post, Women make up almost 50% of the working population worldwide, and even still aren’t being given adequate pay or benefits. There’s no excuse for this injustice in the 21st century, considering that less than 100 years ago we were fighting for voting rights. What is the reason for this? Why are women still on the lesser playing field than men?

The first reason I think is the lack of education on this topic. Some women don’t realize their difference in pay between men until entering the workforce, and that discovery continues once they get pregnant and require maternity leave. I feel that education is one the biggest ways to combat this issue because women are still blinded by the fact that there is still imbalance amongst the sexes.

The second reason this issue is still prevalent in society is the ambiguity of women entering the workforce and not tapping into their full potential, which I covered a bit in my first post.  I recently interviewed reporter and journalist Ema O’connor of the popular media website Buzzfeed , and she responded to this question with: “It is not all men's responsibility to pay women more, a huge part of it is women being timid in pursuing their career, not feeling their self-worth and therefore not trying. This is a deeply ingrained societal problem that parents (future and current), schools, and employers need to work together to change for the next generation.” Gender stereotypes grow from the absence of education and also lack of female confidence, but also the ignorance of those who therefore buy into gender stereotypes. 0bc0292.jpg

The third reason for this problem is cultural and religious views. Like I mentioned in my previous post, women are only seen as providers for the household which in some cultures is a huge part of a woman’s life. In the survey I conducted over the course of last week, I found that out of the twenty-one girls that answered, two said that women are not seen with importance in their households and cultures. Screenshot 2015-05-12 at 12.07.47 PM.png



survey results

Though the number is quite small, this is a sad reality that many face, which leads to the mindset that girls adapt which holds them back from pursuing their dreams which may involve work. We need to place the image of the modern working world of women into the minds of our young girls, thus creating a generation of fearless and powerful individuals who can undertake any career they wish to pursue. I also spoke with Buzzfeed video producer Ashly Perez who spoke a bit about how women are seen in her family and culture. “My parents are both from very male-dominated cultures (Cuban / Filipino) but my family is full of strong women, particularly on the Cuban side. Men might be in charge, but women are feared and respected.” This is the mindset we must enforce into our future generations because even though people may come from societies where women aren’t valued, girls can still believe in their potential and be brave enough to take on whatever they choose. hqdefault.jpg

The fourth and final contributor to this topic is the beliefs that have stained our society for generations. There are still large amounts of men who believe that women have no place in the workforce, which weakens the populations of female workers. I feel as if this generation is doing a good job eliminating the issues we encountered with sexism in the past, but we have a long way to go. Both men and women need to collaborate to end this issue, so that our future workforce can be fully integrated and equally diverse. Some further questions I have about this issue are how long has equal pay affected women and what kind of sexism and gender stereotypes are still experienced in the workplace amongst women today? Below are some charts that show the participation and pay in the workplace between race and gender in the last year. Screenshot 2015-05-11 at 7.24.15 PM.png

chartsScreenshot 2015-05-11 at 7.22.15 PM.png



Annotated Bibliography




Educate the Uneducated!

For a recap the project that I chose for my PIC is the issue of animal abuse. I chose this topic than any other one because I have a lot of history with understanding animals that were abused and I want to educate the public about the topic. Also, I see animals as living creatures just like humans are living creatures.  Animal abuse is simply when an animal gets harmed, neglected, and/or a does not care for an animal responsibly by a person. In other words, to hurt or to be cruel to an animal would be against the law no matter what.  This the significance of the public being aware of the issue is really serious.

The issue of animal abuse does not only have negative impact on animals but it does a negative effect on humans. When someone abuses an animal they may be an more likely to cause violence. Also, if a child witnesses animal abuse they are at greater risk of becoming abusers themselves! Moving on, if you think that think that animals were only abuse in the one physical way you obviously never heard of the brutal acts of factory farming and Circuses. 99% of the food that come from farms are from factory farms which are focused on getting money, what is easier, spending the least amount of money at the price of the animal's’ life. Also, another example of heartless groups are circuses because the beat, whip, sometimes denied food and water, all to force them to learn their routine. This leads to diseases, damage, injuries and death of the animals.

As seen in the image above animals are forced to do tricks that there body is not meant to do.

For my original research I planned to collected data on a survey so I can  educate the public really is about animal abuse because my main goal is to educate the public. Unfortunately, according to the survey I took not that much people are informed of animal abuse. For example,

  • 10/23 people got question #1 right

  • 9/23 people got question #2 right

  • 3/23 people got question #3 right

  • 21/23 people think that animal abuse is a big issue.

  • 17/23 people are aware of factory farming.

  • 5/23 people are aware of animal testing.

Survey Results


The results helped inform me on my PIC issue because this research show how uneducated the public is about the issue of animal abuse.  The average person would fail my survey! Which brings to help out the issue of animal abuse and you have to educate the public so that they know what they are dealing with. This added to my understanding of animal abuse that a lot of people do not take animal abuse seriously.

Now that I have done my research I have some strong personal opinions on how people did on my survey. First of all, I would like to say that I am more disappointed than mad. For example, somebody really had the nerve to say that dog and cock fighting should not be banned because it has been a culture for many years and that would be horrible if it was banned. Also, the average grade for my survey is a failing grade. One thing that I am still wondering about is why my community is so uneducated about animal abuse. In addition, I still need to find more information on what drives a person to abuse an animal. I am thinking of of making a website for my as my Agent of Change part for Blog #3 because I know how to make one and it can easily educate the public. Furthermore, for my website I will be interviewing some employees at the SPCA for a page for my website.


Annotated Bibliography

Internal Affairs : Investigated (Blog Post #2)


Haven't read post #1? what are ya doing? click here to read it


 In my journeys into finding out more about the ever so secret investigations of Internal Affairs, I decided to interview Kelvyn Anderson, the acting director of the Police Advisory Commission to have a frank and honest talk about the issues of the Philadelphia Police Department.

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Kelvyn Anderson Executive Director of the Police Advisory Commission 
 

Mr.Anderson : Hi I'm Kelvyn Anderson I am the Executive Director of the Police Advisory Commission  In Philadelphia


Lydia: How many complaints a year are made to your organization?

Mr.Anderson :  There are approximately 1,000 or so complaints citizens complaints that are filed against the Philadelphia Police Department  annually. That not only includes complaints filed with my organization but also with the Police Department as well.



Lydia: So you would say Police Misconduct is a problem in Philadelphia?

Mr.Anderson: It's an issue in any city in America as a question of how we define what misconduct is and what we intend to do about it


Lydia: What types of complaints are made?

Mr.Anderson : Complaints are usually divided into a couple of broad categories. A Psychical Abuse complaint would be a complaint where an officer used some type of force that caused an injury to the victim. Whether that be a shooting, some other type of psychic confrontation between an officer or a citizen. The other types of complaints include complaints that are called Abuse of Authority. Which the person says that the officer did something in some instances did not do something required by the authority that police officers are given. So yeah Psychical Abuse complaints and Abuse of Authority complaints and those make up the bulk of the complaints we receive from citizens.


Lydia : What is done to investigate these complaints?


Mr.Anderson. : If a citizen files a complaint with our agency or Internal Affairs an investigation is conducted usually consists of taking a statement from the person. If there are other relevant documents that show the situation the person is in such as police reports or surveillance video all sorts of information. Interviews with people who were at the scene. We try to see that a thorough investigation is conducted into the person's complaint.


Lydia : What are some limits to the authority of your organization?

Mr. Anderson: Commission is a civilian oversight agency which means that most agencies like ours don't have the power to actually investigate. We can only make recommendations to take certain actions.


Lydia: Has the city taken any action to help further your Organization?

Mr.Anderson:  Recently some reports from the federal government and commissions that the Police Commissioner Mr. Ramsey have made recommendations in empowering agencies like the Police Advisory Commission. So I think you're going to see other commissions in other cities in the country deal with issues. Not only misconduct and generally how we define what policing is in our country.


Lydia : How many Police Officers actually receive punishments for their actions?

Mr. Anderson: That number is usually lower than complaints actually filed. That depends in large part on the type of complaint. Often it's an officers word against a citizens word. Those type of situations get revised in some neutral way. It's a sustained complaint which means you don't have enough information to prove what the citizen says or what the police officer says. But now that we are going to start to have body cameras some of that will change .


Lydia : What is the process of an Internal Affairs Investigation?

Mr. Anderson: Internal Affairs has a wider authority my agency does in respect to citizens complaints other types of incidents involving police officers. Internal Affairs investigations run from shootings to more traditional types of complaints which we also handle Abuse complaints or verbal abuse complains. Verbal abuse complaints is another category I forgot to mention earlier.


Having gotten information from Mr.Anderson, I wanted to hear the side of the Police Department. I reached out to a friend of mine so I could interview her mother. She responded with that she would ask but I never heard any further than that. So I looked over the internet to find interviews in which any officer in Philadelphia mentioned a change in the handling of affairs.


In my search I found a Philly.com article on the subject. Charles_Ramsey_600.jpg

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey


"We need to get the complaints. We need to be able to do a thorough and complete investigation and let the cards fall where they may," Ramsey said. "I will definitely deal with these five [districts] in the meantime, we have reinforced with our personnel that if a person wants to make a complaint against a police officer, give them the form.”


However the Commissioner in a Metro News Article exposed to have been “quietly beefing up Internal Affairs” . He was quoted to have said, “It’s just for the good of the department. The bottom line is if there’s an allegation against an officer, we have an obligation both to the public and the officers accused to have it resolved as quickly and as thoroughly as we can,.”


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Puerto Rican Day Parade screenshot

Do any of you remember the Police officer from the Puerto Rican Day Parade who punched a woman? After the public quieted down, he was rehired in the PPD. So are Philly's citizens really getting their fair trial with internal affairs investigating these claims?

For my Agent of Change, I will be hitting home at SLA and giving Red Stream the facts of the Philadelphia Police Department in a detailed presentation.

Annotated Bibliography (New sources)

Being Accepted Is Crucial For A Teen...


In my Blog Post #1, I discussed the issue of peer pressure surrounding teenagers. This topic stood out to me because this issue affects a lot of young boys and girls everyday. Every teen wants to be accepted by some group of peers in their teenage lives, and many will do things they usually wouldn’t do to be accepted by them group of people. As I stated in my Blog Post #1, certain activities like smoking, drinking, doing drugs, stealing, and breaking the law are mainly what teens are pressured into, which I found out from one of my sources. Activities Involving Peer Pressure  


Since my Blog Post #1, I did in fact find some new information and compelling opinions from people around the world about teen peer pressure. I read in the comment section in a site talking about Teen Peer Pressure that it seemed more people felt teenage girls were more pressured by their peers than boys. I can say myself that I agree with this statement because in every grade there is always the cool girls or ¨cute girls¨. The ones that wear make-up and attract attention from the guys. These kind of teenage girls tend to pick on the girls or talk about girls that aren't as popular as they are. In conclusion less popular girls begin to change their appearance, personality, and their view on life to be accepted by the cool group of girls. Teenage Girl Peer Pressure


                                                        Not being Accepted Can Hurt Someone's Self-Esteem

¨It can be hard on teenage girls as showed in this picture, and with the group of teens just laughing this girl doesn't help this girl's attitude towards her teenage life.¨


Words That Surround Teen Peer-Pressure

             ¨This image shows important words to surrounding the meaning and effect of Peer Pressure.¨


For my Original Research, I created a short survey for different teens to take and receive different perspectives on what they think peer pressure is and how it has affected their teens years. My Teen Peer-Pressure Survey I sent this survey to only people I knew had a word or two on the issue of teen-peer pressure and how it affect their life. Here are some of my survey results. My Teen-Peer Pressure Survey Results One question I wanted to reflect on is the second question. ¨What is your definition of teen peer pressure?¨ And my responses were a lot similar, when another teen pressure or influence another into doing something that the other person wouldn't usually do and the only reason why they would do it is to be approved and welcomed as a friend. These responses connect with a lot of others teens that answered that question, which gives me a thought that most teens think similar on the what peer pressure is in everyday life.   


The results I received back from different teens on this issue informed me that they all seemed to go through the same thing. Breaking the rules or smoking because of their peers doing it. Being a follower instead of being a leader, and not realizing what is right from wrong. Survey results I found on the internet brought up a good point that teens boys and girls break the rules as a group decision. If all of your friends wants to go rob a corner store, and everyone is in besides you, they will single you out to not being cool and you will be pressured into making a choice. Many times that teen will tag along because of wanting to be accepted. This survey helps add the knowledge of why some teens are affected by their peers. And once again, it comes down to being ¨cool¨, ¨down¨, and accepted by your fellow peers. Since I have done more research I feel personally the reason teens face the effects of peer pressure is because being gossiped about. Teens see on a daily basis, mainly in school, others being picked on and bullied and many teens don't want to fall victim to bullying. So what do they do, they join in with the bullies which makes them cool to the ¨cool kids¨ in school. Connection between Bullying and Peer Pressure Even after additional research on this topic, I wonder if teens believe their experiences gave them more confidence in themselves to accept themselves as who they are and never try to change for others, or do they just look at them as mistakes to learn from. Lastly, for my Agent of Change for Blog #3, I am thinking of doing a presentation in my advisory, and for any other teachers/staff that would like to watch it based on the issue of pressure. My goal is to make it as interesting as possible. I hope to be working with an Organization called Child Development Institute, which works with issues involving children and teens. Here is their website CDI Website


Annotated Bibliography

Helping Instead of Torturing

In my Blog Post, I introduced my topic for the “You and The World” project. It is about animal abuse. I mentioned my experiences on the animal abuse topic and included online research and informational facts about abused animals. I talked about an animal in my Blog Post #1 named Lincoln who was brought to a high-Kill shelter. On 5/10/15, I visited the SPCA center on Erie Ave PA 19134. This building is a no-kill shelter. A no-kill shelter means the shelter does not “put down” animals to make more room, or doesn't have the rule, “If this animal does not get adopted in “a certain amount of time” it will be “put down”, or does not “put down sick or injured animals.” A high-kill shelter is the opposite of a no-kill shelter. On 5/10/15 I have learned a lot about the topic of animal abuse from the Paws building and the SPCA. My tour guide has sent me a slide about their information on animals and abused dogs. I have learned that some animal shelters do not rescue their animals themselves. Instead, they receive the animals from an animal control team. If not for shelters like Paws, who receive their animals, most animals would be “put down.” For my original research, I decided to do an interview and a field observation. I have recorded my Interview, I have come up with these questions:

Do you  work with abused animals?If so, what is your specific job?


Have any abused animals come in recently?


What is the average amount of abused animal coming in?


What is the ASPCA doing to prevent animal abuse?


How do abused animals act once they are in the aspca building?


Do you think that a little discipline is necessary?


How long does it take for an animal to get used to the facility?


Do owners bring in their abused animals or do bystanders bring them in? Or is there a team from aspca who go out and search for signs of abusement and or abused animals?


For my Field Observation I received a tour from Jennifer Johnston, a SPCA worker. Also visited a PAWS- Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society building.




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                                                                                             This is Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter now is now paws with an ear infection, The animal control group does not support injured animals, if Paws did not save him he would have been put down. Now in better hands, paws have nurtured him and put a dog cone on him so he does not scratch his infected ear.












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This is Robin, Robin has an eye infection, He was rescued from the animal control group. When he came into Paws both of his eyes were swollen shut and covered in gunk. He was kept in the back until he has healed. Two days ago today (5-9-15) he came out into the open, but he is extremely shy because he wasn't used to the attention. Also, he is afraid with all the dogs barking.



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Plum was found caught in a fence, on April 15th she needed surgery to cut of her leg. She is now in the Paws- Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society. If Paws did not help Plum, The animal Control group would not bother to heal or care for her.









At the SPCA building, I was given a tour. I took recordings of our conversation and videos of parts of the facility. My original research helped inform me on my issue from the specific animals I have met and the interview. I have learned about how SPCA gets animals and how they react in the buildings. I now understand more about what animal shelters to to prevent abuse and what they do to treat them. My personal Opinion is about the animal shelters and animal control groups and animal mills. I think the animal mills and controls group should be illegal, what is the point of having a storage for animals where they are starved and caged. But I think the animal shelters are doing there best at keeping animals safe and healthy. I think they have the right idea on helping the poor animals who don't have a right to say what happens to them. I am still left wondering about what drives people to abuse animals and when and why do they get a thought to. Do they enjoy injuring animals? For my Agent of Change, I am thinking of doing some sort of teaching lesson where I would go to schools and day camps and teach children/teenagers about my issue and show them the right way to treat animals.


All of my online research is in my Annotated Bibliography.


Refugees need help, and we can help them.

PIC: Original Research

In my first blog post, I talked about the Syrian refugee crisis. I explained how there are over 11 million Syrians being forced out of their homes, and almost 4 million being forced out of their country completely. How people are forcibly being removed from their homes without all but the most basic necessities, because of a war that they don’t take part in. There are refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt, in need of water, clean water, blankets, and hygiene items. People are being exiled from their homes for upwards of 17 years, and there are over 2 million child refugees, most of which receive no educational support at all.

UNHCR Logo.

After some additional research, I also learned about how the refugee crisis has impacted the surrounding countries, such as Iraq. The Huffington Post says that there have been hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing their country, because of the increased population in addition to the fighting occurring in the country. I also learned about what things are being done about the issue, such as the International Rescue Committee, or IRC. The IRC is supporting refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, and Jordan. They have reached hundreds of thousands of people with medical supplies and winter emergency kits, in attempt to help the millions of refugees around the region survive the risks that surround them. They provide sanitation, clean water, education, and emergency kits to refugees living in camps. They support women and girls who have survived sexual violence, and help to reunite children that have crossed the border on their own with their parents and families. They are one of the multiple organizations trying to help the refugees in need to survive and make it through the hardships that they have and are experiencing. I also did an interview with Melissa Fleming, Head, Communications and Public Information Service Spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency, or UNHCR.  The following is the transcript for the interview:

This interview aided me in multiple ways. It helped me understand how the UNHCR is trying to help the refugees, through registering them, helping identify their individual situation and needs, so they can help them with what they need the most help with. I also learned how the rate of the refugees is at the moment. The number of refugees is still increasing, with no signs of slowing down, however less countries are willing to let Syrians into their borders, so there is an increased number of Syrian refugees displaced inside of Syria. This also helped reinforced what I already thought to be true: The public knows far to little on this issue. Few people truly know what is happening within the crisis, and many people don’t care, or fail to realize how big the crisis truly is. I believe for this issue to make the most substantial progress possible, more people need to be aware of it. This is an important issue that needs far more attention than it’s getting.

I have decided that for my Agent of Change, I will do some type of fundraiser, such as a bake sale, in which all profits I make will be donated to organizations such as the IRC who are trying to help Syrian refugees, as to provide them with more things such as blankets, food, clean water, and hygiene items, or anything else that they need. I am doing this because it is the most realistic way for me to be able to raise money for Syrian refugees, and help them as much as I can, to hopefully impact the life of one family living in the crisis for the better. This has been my blog post on the Syrian Refugee Crisis, and my Annotated Bibliography is accessible here.