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Glows

While doing this project, I was able to do the things I know, can change/prevent and support. Each and every one of can make a change to support the topic I know and love and that’s #BLM. I love how we were able to organize this benchmark, it was amazing that I can do each assignment without hassling through at once, we can take our time and being able to complete it. I also like where we extended the time. One of the others things that were awesome was me working with others that had a similarity with our topics, sharing information we can put on our resources as well was outstanding.

Grows

Things that could’ve been better were the time to do this project, I know that it was time consuming but   I’ve had extra time that I didn’t use towards this and that was a waste of good opportunities. Others were starting the project too late, haven’t recently gotten to it until a week after. It was bad but I was able to counter it, if I would gotten right to it is to go around the neighborhood and get people’s feedback. Instead I’ve used a website for it and it turns out people are more sociable on social media than talking face to face, that is part of the reason I’ve created my own website and so many feedbacks i got were outstanding.

Research

I wish I’ve known that #BLM did a movement downtown Philadelphia on 15th street, Black Lives Matter I would know ahead of time and get into the action, it turns out this happened during our Bm., Hearing #BLM on the news and people talking made me inspired, I would want to know more how movements are like, what goals we show and why? Who are we representing and why there should be a change?

Original Research

I think it went great for me overall, I really have enjoyed this time of a Benchmark one of the best ones i’ve had so far. I would change the time and changing the website to touring around Philly.

Agent of Change

I had the impact i’ve hoped for because all of the feedback I’ve got from sponsors and people, who actually care, it was amazing. I’m really glad we did this Benchmark.

The overall You and the World project was a great and new experience for me. I never have done a project like this before and as a whole it was semi-fun. At times the project became very stressful it felt like a mini-capstone but instead of a whole year we had one quarter. Considering that we had so little time I think I did an okay job on this project and there are many thing I could have done better, of course. But I am proud of myself and all the hard work,sweat, and tears I put into this project.

The Research part of this project was maybe one of my favorites. I found so many disgusting facts it was appalling. But I wish I could have dug a little deeper into other fast food restaurants. I mean I found out some stuff about Chic-fil-a chicken sandwiches but I wish I could’ve dug a little deeper into that. I also wish I could have really gotten into what is in Chipotle’s food. It looks like an okay place to eat but I really would like to know if it is for real. But that might have to be some individual research I’ll have to do and I’m fine with that.

The Original Research aspect of this project I wasn’t really a fan of. My results for my survey came out horribly. I think I should’ve asked better more centered questions that no one knows about. My blog post was terrible too because I think I could’ve did so much better I forgot the little/BIG things and it really frustrated me because I know I could’ve done better than what I did. But if there was a next time I would do something completely different for my Original research. I don’t know what but something better than what I did.

My agent of Change I am kind of iffy about. With the topic I chose for my project it was kind of hard to pick what I wanted to do for my Agent of Change because what can I actually change? No matter how many disgusting facts you tell people about what they are eating they might get disgusted but they are still going to eat it. I just wish for my Agent of change that I could’ve did something that made a bigger impact on people. Something that would have made them stop and really think about what they are eating. But I think I did an okay job on my Agent of change but like I always say I am my biggest critic so I’ll never think anything is good enough.

All in all I think my project went okay. I’m happy it is finally over. This project was one of the most stressful projects I ever had in my life. But I’m happy i stuck through it. Throughout all the pain and tears I think I had a successful project and I am semi-proud of myself.

And now, Reflection Time with Paul-Ann Whyte. So we are just about finished with with this year and with this Agent of Change.  I think this is an appropriate time to go back and look at everything we have done and how it could have been different. Or maybe things that we actually did right. Let’s start all the way back from blog post numero uno.

Blog Post #1, the research. The research by far was my favorite part. My Agent of Change was trying to raise awareness for Mental Illnesses. I chose this topic because I have friends who have this mental illness yet it shames me when I have to ask them “What is that”, when they tell me what the name of the illness is. Also I have a mental illness and I am also in the learning phase of what exactly is wrong with me so this was a learning experience for the both of us. The research taught me things I had completely overlooked as well as new information. I wished that I had researched more about the common mental illnesses as well. That would have been interesting that instead of focusing on a select few mental illnesses I could have branched off.

Then we move on to Blog Post #2, the original research. Easily coming in second for the things that I enjoyed with this project. The original research I believe could have went so much better. It could have been better but it was not my least liked part of this entire project. I completely ignore Ms. Gikinis’s suggestion of surveying a larger selection of people so it was much harder for me to interpret and use the results as I would have liked to. I wish that i could go back and ask a different set of questions and then send it out to a larger group of people. Not just a select few. Other than that, this section ran pretty smoothly.

Now it is time for the dreaded Agent of Change. My least favorite part of this entire thing. I believed if things had went differently that I could have easily enjoyed this part of the project but this project as life would have it, the odds were not in my favor. My Agent of Change was a walk/run to raise Awareness for Mental Illnesses which was on Saturday, May 16, 2015. The Wednesday of that week I took sick and on Thursday I went into the hospital. As life would have it, I didn’t come out until Sunday and even then I was encouraged not to do any physical activities. So no big problem right? Just think of something new. Well then that week that I came out of the hospital, I went right back in. My schedule was thrown off track with that and in the end I was not able to do anything for my Agent of Change. I was disappointed in myself because I was looking forward to actually making a change and doing something that would influence my life and the life of others. So definitely not my favorite part at all.

Over the course of this past month or so I have done a lot of research, and a lot of hard work trying to make the best You and the World project that I could. I have gone through the process of researching my topic on the internet, just trying to scrape the surface, I went through several interviews, in attempt to get a better understanding of my topic, and finally, got involved with the community, just trying to make some sort of difference in this vast issue. Overall I think that I did a pretty good job make some headway my topic, but in the end, I don’t think anything I could have done would have made much of a difference because the issue with immigration is much larger than it may appear, and it takes more than a ninth grader doing an English project to make a significant difference. However, this could send me in a new direction that can put me into opportunities that will allow me to make the change that needs to be made.

The research process was tougher than I had anticipated it to be. I kept being led in different directions, and kept digging deeper and deeper into this somewhat endless topic, and I think that there was still so much more to uncover. First off, I could have researched more into the immigration process itself, and added more about how these illegal immigrants live while knowing they are hiding behind the law. I would like to have learned more about what happens when someone is being threatened with deportation, and how they might handle the situation.

When going through the original research process I would have liked to get more perspectives from other people, and find out more first hand information from people who immigrated to the United States. Even though the interviews that I conducted went well, I would have liked to know more, and know what other people think about the issue because this is so broad and there are so many opinions that go along with it.

Finally in my agent of change portion of the project I felt like I could have done so much more, even though I know I couldn’t. The hardest part was trying to find an organization that would let me get involved, and to also find an organization that let me do something impact worthy. I feel that impact that I made was somewhat insignificant, though it might have had an impact on someone else, I didn’t feel like I did something great. I looked for an opportunity that would allow me to learn more about my issue, and help change the circumstances in some way, and I just feel that I didn’t quite complete it.

Glows and Grows

For my research portion of the you and the world project I researched the statistics of how many injuries per year does technology affect people. Some glows that I found were I found more research than I thought I would. Except that most of it was from two or more years ago. I wanted to learn more about if people are trying to find away to decrease the amount of technology being used.

For the original research portion of my you and the world pI did a field observation on a few of my friends. Over the period of an hour I took a few pictures of them and in each picture atleast one person was using technology. I thought it worked out well. I just wished I could've expanded my research and observated a larger group of people. The good thing about doing the field observation was my prediction was correct, during the whole hour everyone was using a form of technology.

Finally for the Agent of Change piece of the you and the world project I made a contest that whoever can go two days during school without using their phone would win. I don't think I made the impact I wanted to. After that I never really changed much. The real change occurred during the contest itself because Most people went out of their way to participate in my project which went well. Some of the glows were I finally had a winner and two of the contestants wouldn't use their phones at all while others lost almost within 5 minutes. That helped me a lot when it came to writing my blog post because I was able to explain the differences in what happened during my project/ contest. I am glad to have done this project in the end, it turned out to be successful!

Looking back at this project I would like to say I am overall pleased with what I accomplished. This was an amazing project to do because I focused on what I was very passionate about. This has helped me think outside of the schools and explore issues that are happening in the world and our society.

For the Research Part, I wish I would have found more statistics, primarily in 2015 instead of 2014. I know it was just a year ago, but so much has happened within 2015 and I wish that I would have been able to capture that data. Some things I want to discover through my project on  gun violence in Philadelphia was to find out more about was how many of the families are dealing with the lost of a loved one because of this brutal action. I think that would have taken my project over the top and made the research very interesting.

The Original Research actually went well. I think I had enough people to take my survey to make a point.  Although I wish I found more information, I think I could have done an interview instead of a survey. It would have been great  to know what  a police officer or a family member who had a loved one shot or die because of gun violence felt, and how they cope with it knowing that this violent act is still taking place in our world.  But overall, I am pleased with my survey and happy that it went the way I wanted it to.

I had the impact that I was hoping for in my Agent of Change piece. A lot of people have been noticing the posters around the school, and I actually seen people taking the time out to read them and that is something I was hoping for. I think that having them around the school is something that can also impact other youth of what is going on in Philadelphia and that we need to support the movement for it to stop.

With closing, I would like to say thank you to Ms. Giknis for having everything planned accordingly and the project flowed with all of the due dates. Also for letting everyone do what they wanted to do and even giving extensions when needed so we can do what we really wanted to, and be passionate about it. I think that this will make me do more outside of this project maybe doing things in my local community to have more people aware of this situation. I may start by reaching out to the families who have suffered from the tragedy that gun violence brings, maybe by giving out care packages so they know I care.  This project was by far the best and I hope throughout my life I will have more opportunities to do things like the You and The World Project.

Glows and Grows

For my You and the World project, I dived into a topic that I wouldn’t have otherwise, which was Women’s Rights in the workforce. It was a topic that I really hadn’t put much thought into before since I didn’t think that it affected me. I knew that my family was made up of strong and independent working women so me joining the workforce was just expected but now I realize what actually takes place behind the scenes and how serious the whole situation really is.

The original research part of the project was probably the most successful, since not only did I collect actual facts and statistics, but also personal opinions and experiences. I learned about how much of a difference gender actually does make when in the workplace which hadn’t occurred to me before. Equal pay, gender stereotypes, low percentages of women, and inadequate benefits are just a few of the issues I touched on and also spread awareness of through numbers and facts, but I mainly got personal accounts from issues such as lack of confidence, lack of self-belief, and also lack of self-application. I think that was another successful part of this project, reaching out to people. I was able to conduct a survey with the help of a senior and her feminist blog, which got twenty-two results, and I also led two interviews with Buzzfeed workers which was a huge accomplishment. Aside from that, I heard numerous personal accounts from people which added greatly to my final product. One thing I would have changed are the types of questions I asked because they seemed a bit redundant and at times a bit irrelevant.

For my agent of change, I created a presentation where I summarized the information I collected and taught my classmates about the injustices that afflict the female working world and also how things are getting better in this day and age. Most of my peers partook of social media trends and school-wide protests but I decided to take a different route, one that I knew couldn’t end women’s issues as a whole but would at least educate my classmates on a topic I’m very passionate about. The result was great and I was successful in bringing this issue through to light, not only through my blog posts but through my Agent of Change. I almost wish I had started a petition or a strike or something a bit bigger that would have a larger impact, but I feel that education is the strongest form of change and taking that information, I went forth and made my presentation. One thing I would change though, is the amount of time I put into the initial rehearsal, since I was pretty much winging the whole thing, which most times I’m good at but this time a bit of practice wouldn’t hurt.