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During the podcast we focused on a lot key points in chapters 1 through 4. They do not go in any particular order. We also related these concepts back to things we learned in class and things that we see in our everyday lives. Enjoy! :)

For my senior capstone I made a short animated gif and delved into the art of web designing/coding in an attempt to set a foundation for myself in the two career paths that  I wish to pursue in the future. Here are screenshots of my final products and a Link to their homes. 

Sattera Mark                                        Blog Post 3                                            You and the World

     In my English class were doing a project called “You and The World”. For this project we had to chose a topic that we were passionate about. I chose to learn more about the foster care system. (For more about that you can go to my first and second blog post).  It’s many children that don’t have a place to call home or have real parents. I feel for these children because I know how it feels to have a parent missing. When I first explored this topic I was confused on what to do. Then, I decided that I should get involved with a camp called Teen Haven. Teen Haven is a Christian camp that is located in Brogue Pa. I have been volunteering there as a Junior counselor since January and I will continue to do so in the summer. So far I have been there four times.  It was an amazing experience to be a mentor to girls from different cities. At camp they’re girls from Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York. It’s nice to get out of the city and meet new people.

      Starting the project was difficult. It seemed like it would be impossible to do. This was just not some ordinary school project. This project forced us to get out of our comfort zones and get into the world. This sounded scary at first but my teacher Ms. Dunn assured me that I was capable of successfully doing this project.  After my pep talk with Ms. Dunn I decided that I should try to get some things started. I talked to one of My Camps leaders, Chanea Whittington. She informed me about the Leadership group called “Restore”. I became active in that group and attended a leadership retreat. There we became comfortable with other leaders and prepared ourselves for the upcoming camp dates.

       Doing this project is probably one of the most productive things I’ve done in my life. The stories of some of the girls I’ve met will forever have an impact on my life. I’ve heard stories about rape, death, foster care, placement, and more. These stories are heartbreaking and left many tears in the eyes of the people who heard them. This camp is truly a haven. It feels like home and it’s a place for the girls to get away from all their problems at home. I love the atmosphere there. It’s warm and friendly and I know that girls love it too. I gives me joy to see them return to the camp with smiles on their faces. By the way they act you could never tell that they are going through so much. Sometimes I feel as if they made a bigger impact on me that I’ve made on them. They taught me to be grateful and be content. I feel blessed to have my mom because many of the girls at camp don’t. Some don’t even have a place to call home.

        When I first started volunteering I was nervous. I’m still very young and some girls that come to camp are older than me. That was a little intimidating. I also had to become stern. I’m a laid back person so it was hard for me to lead. I had to come out my comfort zone.That was something I struggled with at first but, soon overcame it by constantly coming to camp. I’ve learned so much by being there. I learned how to be a leader and develop speaking skills. Being there I’m still learning and planing to do more. During the summer I would love to lead discussion or run activities. I’m expecting to have an even better summer there.

    

Hi folks, I'm Morgan and this is my You and The World final blog. My issue was LGBT rights, and for my agent of change I made a blog with my friend for SLA's Gay/Straight Alliance. This is a club that meets during X and Y band in Mr. Block's room to see what we can do to make SLA and other schools a safe space for LGBT students. Our blog url is gsaatsla.wordpress.com. Due to technical difficulties, its not totally done yet but it will be shortly. 

I worked with another member of the GSA to create this blog. Together, we worked to write different pieces on news and opinions we had. He is working on an advice column for LGBT youth and their families. I personally work with following the news, and things like Jason Collins' coming out. We plan to continue this blog throughout our years here and to add more people to work with us. Right now, the GSA is rather small and inactive, but of you would like to help and learn more, please come to one of our meetings or email me at mcaswell@scienceleadership.org. 

One of the things I learned while doing this project is that there is never really any limit to trying to help, sometimes raising awareness is just as helpful. This blog was not my original plan, but I'm only 14 and I wasn't old enough to work anywhere. My plan then became a blog. So, check it out and I hope you enjoy it. 

So I will. Also because I don't think that anyone'll look here. The world is LIES.

Taina R. and Jamelia B. podcast #2

Taina and Jamelia discussing chapters 4-6

We basically give overviews of what we think the chapters are trying to teach us. There wasn't any arguing since we took each others opinions into consideration. One of out questions was, if we understand that some statistics lies how can we find out about the ones that are telling the truth? 

To the doctor whom it may concern,

As recent as February of 2012 my best friends dad was checked into Lankenau Hospital off of Lancaster Avenue. He had tumors in his brain, as time progressed the tumors had turned into a serious form of cancer. By November and after many treatments of chemo he had become weak and frail. I was unaware of how serious his condition was until he then went to the hospital for a second time for which he stayed for about four and a half weeks until he was sent home. And was told he was not going to make it after the cancer spread from just his brain to then his stomach. For a project at school I have set out to make a difference, I have done my research on cancer, chemo, and tumors. Here is an excerpt from my blog post at school on the subject: “Brain tumors are created by abnormal division of cells, in the brain itself. They can also grow outside of the brain: on the skull, in blood vessels, and can also spread into other organs. Brain tumors are life threatening because there is little room for the tumor to grow, which forces it to push the brain to one side due to limited space. The skull is around the brain so unlike other tumors, you cannot act on the tumor until it is formed. That then causes unexplained symptoms. Brain tumors are about the trickiest to work on because it is risky to operate on the brain, especially after the patient is weak from prior surgery.My best friend's father has brain cancer, and cancer in his stomach. Everyday after school in November, I went to Lankenau Hospital to support my friend and her father. On November 30 of this year, he was released from the hospital. The cancer had finally spread to the entirety of his stomach and brain; there was nothing else that the doctors could for him except try to comfort him, and give him pain pills. He was far too weak for surgery; it would’ve been very risky to perform it on him at that stage in.” Mainly my interest is to make a difference in any way just to prevent cancer rather than be reactive to it and trying to cure it because more and more people are dying from all forms of cancers. Contact me at: tsamuels@scienceleadership.org

~Todd Samuels, Jr.

For my Agent of Change I wrote a letter to Lankenau Hospital. In which my friends dad stayed. I felt this would be effective because if I was able to directly tell the Hospital how I feel it might be most effective rather than trying to raise money which also is important. I just thought that it was not everyday that a 15 year old would voice his opinion through writing my hope was that I would raise enough attention to the doctors for them to write me back, or we could even find more ways for me to do research to learn to prevent cancer rather than treat it after it was too late. Through my letter I explain the condition and the fight that a loved one had to endure for nearly a year.

Since my second post I have realized that cancer is more dangerous than I originally thought it was. Cancer attacks one part of the body and it continues to spread which took the life of someone I cared about at first it was only in the brain, then it spread to the liver and stomach which ultimately took the life. “Brain tumors are created by abnormal division of cells, in the brain itself. They can also grow outside of the brain: on the skull, in blood vessels, and can also spread into other organs. Brain tumors are life threatening because there is little room for the tumor to grow, which forces it to push the brain to one side due to limited space. The skull is around the brain so unlike other tumors, you cannot act on the tumor until it is formed. That then causes unexplained symptoms. Brain tumors are about the trickiest to work on because it is risky to operate on the brain, especially after the patient is weak from prior surgery. My best friend's father has brain cancer, and cancer in his stomach. Everyday after school in November, I went to Lankenau Hospital to support my friend and her father. On November 30 of this year, he was released from the hospital. The cancer had finally spread to the entirety of his stomach and brain; there was nothing else that the doctors could for him except try to comfort him, and give him pain pills. He was far too weak for surgery; it would’ve been very risky to perform it on him at that stage in.” The previous quote from my blog post one shows how I felt about the strain of cancer before the death. Now I have further educated myself to understand how the cancer took over the body; I also put this in my letter just to give the doctors an understanding of what I knew and what I saw.

I mainly wanted the doctors to understand the loss, but at the same time we have to find ways to prevent cancer it is hard to do that when so many things supposedly cause cancer today. I just want answers directly as well which might be difficult to get. Heart disease is the leading killer in the U.S., within the next decade it will be cancer. Why not try to prevent this is my only question, if we can treat it through chemo we can find a way to stop it. 

my bibliography ----> To the doctor whom it may concern,

As recent as February of 2012 my best friends dad was checked into Lankenau Hospital off of Lancaster Avenue. He had tumors in his brain, as time progressed the tumors had turned into a serious form of cancer. By November and after many treatments of chemo he had become weak and frail. I was unaware of how serious his condition was until he then went to the hospital for a second time for which he stayed for about four and a half weeks until he was sent home. And was told he was not going to make it after the cancer spread from just his brain to then his stomach. For a project at school I have set out to make a difference, I have done my research on cancer, chemo, and tumors. Here is an excerpt from my blog post at school on the subject: “Brain tumors are created by abnormal division of cells, in the brain itself. They can also grow outside of the brain: on the skull, in blood vessels, and can also spread into other organs. Brain tumors are life threatening because there is little room for the tumor to grow, which forces it to push the brain to one side due to limited space. The skull is around the brain so unlike other tumors, you cannot act on the tumor until it is formed. That then causes unexplained symptoms. Brain tumors are about the trickiest to work on because it is risky to operate on the brain, especially after the patient is weak from prior surgery.My best friend's father has brain cancer, and cancer in his stomach. Everyday after school in November, I went to Lankenau Hospital to support my friend and her father. On November 30 of this year, he was released from the hospital. The cancer had finally spread to the entirety of his stomach and brain; there was nothing else that the doctors could for him except try to comfort him, and give him pain pills. He was far too weak for surgery; it would’ve been very risky to perform it on him at that stage in.” Mainly my interest is to make a difference in any way just to prevent cancer rather than be reactive to it and trying to cure it because more and more people are dying from all forms of cancers. Contact me at: tsamuels@scienceleadership.org

~Todd Samuels, Jr.

For my Agent of Change I wrote a letter to Lankenau Hospital. In which my friends dad stayed. I felt this would be effective because if I was able to directly tell the Hospital how I feel it might be most effective rather than trying to raise money which also is important. I just thought that it was not everyday that a 15 year old would voice his opinion through writing my hope was that I would raise enough attention to the doctors for them to write me back, or we could even find more ways for me to do research to learn to prevent cancer rather than treat it after it was too late. Through my letter I explain the condition and the fight that a loved one had to endure for nearly a year.

Since my second post I have realized that cancer is more dangerous than I originally thought it was. Cancer attacks one part of the body and it continues to spread which took the life of someone I cared about at first it was only in the brain, then it spread to the liver and stomach which ultimately took the life. “Brain tumors are created by abnormal division of cells, in the brain itself. They can also grow outside of the brain: on the skull, in blood vessels, and can also spread into other organs. Brain tumors are life threatening because there is little room for the tumor to grow, which forces it to push the brain to one side due to limited space. The skull is around the brain so unlike other tumors, you cannot act on the tumor until it is formed. That then causes unexplained symptoms. Brain tumors are about the trickiest to work on because it is risky to operate on the brain, especially after the patient is weak from prior surgery. My best friend's father has brain cancer, and cancer in his stomach. Everyday after school in November, I went to Lankenau Hospital to support my friend and her father. On November 30 of this year, he was released from the hospital. The cancer had finally spread to the entirety of his stomach and brain; there was nothing else that the doctors could for him except try to comfort him, and give him pain pills. He was far too weak for surgery; it would’ve been very risky to perform it on him at that stage in.” The previous quote from my blog post one shows how I felt about the strain of cancer before the death. Now I have further educated myself to understand how the cancer took over the body; I also put this in my letter just to give the doctors an understanding of what I knew and what I saw.

I mainly wanted the doctors to understand the loss, but at the same time we have to find ways to prevent cancer it is hard to do that when so many things supposedly cause cancer today. I just want answers directly as well which might be difficult to get. Heart disease is the leading killer in the U.S., within the next decade it will be cancer. Why not try to prevent this is my only question, if we can treat it through chemo we can find a way to stop it. 

In this podcast me and Muhammed critiqued 2 chapters, Chapt.1 and chapt.2.   

Hello guys, my name is Dejanyia Johnson. I am currently a freshman at Science Leadership Academy. What you are about to read is my blog post number 3. My blog is about hunger and poverty. Here are the links to my blog post 1 and blog post 2.

I believe that hunger and poverty is a major issue. That is why I choose that as my topic. For this english project, I had to choose a topic that I felt something the world should know about. I picked hunger because it is a major issue, but it doesn't get much light shined on it. For our last blog, we had to become an agent of change. An agent of change is when you basically become a person who makes people aware and do something about your topic. I decided to volunteer at a soup kitchen, called, "Surviving To Thriving Ministry." Here I volunteered for about three hours. While volunteering I noticed and did several things. I gave food out and assisted where I was needed. 

While I assisted, I noted and started to think in a new way about hunger. I say that because looking at these people, and seeing them made me think that I am more fortunate then I thought I was. It made me realize how blessed I am to have the things I need and want. I had to go through a lot to get to even volunteer, though. I was having a hard time finding a place, and when I did, it was a process to get there, but I am glad I did it. I learned a lot from working with Nana. Nana is one of the ladies who oversaw the soup kitchen. She seems to be a very happy lady and she is wonderful working with the people.

This issue may not seem as big as you think it it because you may not be in poverty, but take a look from a different perspective. Just think about the people you see going to work and going to where ever you're going. Stop and think how they are affected by this and see if you feel the same. The world needs to view the issue hunger more closely and think of a way to prevent and/or stop it. Here's something you can do: Volunteer!

Click here for bibliography.

English 1-Dunn Blog
#English 9 #You and the world

For my project I focused on giving back to my SLA community. SLA has given me so much and I have also lived my life by giving back. I based my Capstone off the things I learned while being a part of City Year: City Heroes Program. For my project, I painted different pieces of art work around the school to encourage positive attitudes and to beautify the school. Doing this helps students to have better attitudes and to feel more part of a community that cares. There is three final products that are located around the school. For these pieces I led groups of students in prepping and painting. Through this project I learned more time management skills and got to put my leadership skills to the test to help make the school a prettier place to be. This project also helped me to leave a permanent imprint of me and my beliefs on the school community.  

Annotated Bib:

Paint it forward. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.homedepot.com/?cm_mmc=SEM|THD|G|BT1|HighVolumeExact&skwcid=TC|13614|home depot||S|e|9436124004&gclid=CPTc2ZOXk7UCFQLd4AodMyAAVQ

I used this website to help me find prices of supplies that I am going to need during my event. I also used it to get ideas of other materials I am going to need during the event. This helps give me an idea of things to get and the amount of money I need to have prepared before I walk into the store. This helps me be a smart shopper.

Never stop improving . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.lowes.com/Paint/_/N-1z0yyfe/pl?goToProdList=true&UserSearch=paint&rpp=32

I used Lowe’s website to help me find prices of supplies that I know I am going to need during my event. I used two different sites so I was able to compare prices and buy supplies from the cheaper of the two stores, this helped so I was able to spend my money wisely and stay on my budget.

Art news. (2013, Jan 30). Retrieved from http://www.mutualart.com/

I used this site to help me get some basic art ideas that I can add into my murals that I am going to paint. This site talked about different artist and their range of styles. This helped give me different ideas to take when approaching cool art to put on the walls here at SLA.

Jonas, P. (2013, Feb 1). Interview by C.A Smtih [Personal Interview]., SLA.

For this project, I talked to Pearl Jonas about how she took part in past service projects through City Year Greater Philadelphia. She worked on the Corps team for the Young Hero Program in 2008-2009. I was able to ask her questions about her experience in planning the events and ask her for advice in planning my event.

City year: Give a year, change the world. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cityyear.org/CityYear/Home_New_2011/Home_A_2011.aspx

City Year is a program that I was a part of for four years. Every skill that I am using in this project, I have learned through City Year and the time I spent in their program. They have helped me gain and sharpen these skills in a way that now I am able to do my own type of service project on my own. City Year is my main resource of instruction when it has come to planning and preparing for this event.

Boddy-Evans, M. (n.d.). How to paint a wall mural . Retrieved from http://kiwaniskids.org/en/KKids/Serve/Planning_a_service_project.aspx

This site talked a lot about different ways to paint a mutual on a wall. It gave me ideas and suggestions of ways to approach this task. This is important because I have to make sure the sketches I put on the walls are good enough to be painted in and for people at SLA to take serious in a beautification sense.

Pegan, C. (2013, Jan 20). Interview by C.A Smtih [Personal Interview]., SLA.

Cheyenne is a good friend of mine, who has great artistic talent. She is going to help me create the sketches of the murals to be painted on the walls. We have sat down and talked about what these sketches should look like and what direction I am heading in by the theme of the sketches.

Utzig, M. (2013, Jan 20). Interview by C.A Smtih [Personal Interview]., SLA.

Marley is one of my best friends who has great doodling and lettering styles. Along with a mix of small murals, I am also going to be putting up a few quotes, these quotes are going to be written in different types of bubble letters. This is where Marley comes in, she is going to help me design the font and style of this quotes.

Planning a service project. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kiwaniskids.org/en/KKids/Serve/Planning_a_service_project.aspx

This site has given me pointers and ideas about how to go about planning my service event. This site is a guide to planning service events. This site has touched on things that had slipped my mind and has also retouched on some things that I already knew. By the site doing this, I was able to recognize what things were super important to making this event a success.

Dig Vid Crew. (2013, Feb). Interview by C.A Smtih [Personal Interview]., SLA.

On the day of my service project, I am going to have a few Dig Vid students come out and film the event. They are helping me create a few minute video that is going to document the event. This is going to capture the service taking place. I am going to use this video during my presentation to show the viewers a little bit of the actual service project happening.   

We are very excited about the new public art project that is installed under the JFK overpass on 22nd Street! Come out and visit our "I Believe Wall" and add to the conversation!

The project was inspired by Candy Chang's Before I Die project. It is a collaboration between Ms. Manuel's Spanish 4 class and Mr. Block's English 2 classes. Special thanks to the Home and School for generously funding this project.

You can see more photos of the process and the project here.

Hello lovely being! My name is Anna Sugrue, and I am a freshman at Science Leadership Academy. Welcome to my third and final blog on gay rights and marriage equality! If you’re feeling a little lost, click these links to read my first blog and my second blog. 

This blog is the last portion of a year long English You and the World project. Along with our third blog, our class had to go into the world and become an Agent of Change for our issues.  Some people volunteered at dog shelters or soup kitchens, some did presentations to raise awareness, others raised money to help their cause. I decided to hold a rainbow themed bake sale to raise money for the Attic Youth Center. The Attic is an organization in Philadelphia that provides shelter, counseling, and a safe, open space for teenagers in the LGBTQ community. I held the bake sale on April 15th. The main attraction was my lovely homemade rainbow layer cake. It was a great success.

Originally, as I said in blog 2, I was going to craft and present a video about the definition of love. I realized though, after some careful considerations, that a presentation like the one I was planning would not make much of a difference in the minds of fellow SLA students. As I found in my polling, on a small percentage of the SLA students apposed gay rights, all on the basis of religion. Most of the people I presented to would agree with what I said, and I would not be able to convert the one’s that did not. My bake sale process went pretty darn well. I had tremendous support from my friends Dillon and Michaela with baking and selling. I encountered a few problems involving icing and cookies, but I was able to sell the cookies despite their icing-less-ness.

Experiencing the You and the World Project individually and as a class has been a wonderful whirlwind of a learning escapade. Over the course of all three blogs, I learned much more about a issue I’m passionate about. I watched youtube videos that inspired me and frustrated me, I felt hopeful and I knew there was so much more that needs to change. This class and this project encouraged me to act - to do something about it. To use my passion, my anger, and my hope to make a difference in the world.  A whole new realm of idea and opportunity was opened up to me, one I had never been encouraged to explore before. I have learned that I can make a difference, and I will.

I found the Attic Youth Center, a non-profit organization in Philadelphia that could always use support. Although I only raised $60, I feel like I impacted the life of someone discriminated against unfairly and unjustly. Just $25 provides a hot meal for 5 homeless LGBTQ teens who were disowned or kicked out of their homes because of their sexual or gender identity. $50 provides an LGBTQ youth at the Attic with a life coaching session to help apply for college, develop a resume, and get on track in school. If I combined the money I raised with the money raised by fellow activist Lindsey Jones, we could provide 10 Attic youth with a weekly support group to connect with other LGBTQ youth in a safe and caring environment. 

Here is a prezi presentation I made to help YOU make a rainbow cake like I did. I have a recipe along with pictures from my process and my bake sale. Enjoy!

The last two posts concerned the impending natural apocalypse we have brought on ourselves. Well, perhaps it isn’t all that dramatic quite yet. The short-sighted endeavors concerning the human race and natural resources at our disposal have created an unsustainable situation, which, if continued as such, will lead to a world unsupportive of human life. The danger, in the eyes of the author, lies not only in our vastly depleted resources, bloated population and crippled ecosystems. It is not simply the poisoned skies, polluted rivers and barren earth. No, the danger lies in our ignorance. As aforementioned, one cannot combat a problem if they know nothing of it. Children who are raised unaware of our environmental impact and the etiquette of an environmental citizen cannot grow to be the women and men leading the fight to ensure the specie’s continued survival. You cannot help but step on the ant you cannot see. 

So I made a decision. I have had the fortune of being raised in a family where the environment was always a primary concern. My father, a LEED certified sustainable architect, has always been absolute in his devotion to the environment, a trait he passed on to my sister and me. Because of this privilege, I decided to stop griping to the internet, go out into the world and impart some of my knowledge to someone who otherwise wouldn’t be so informed. At first, I reached out to one of the plethora of under-funded public elementary schools in my hometown of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, because of scheduling issues, I had to move my operations to an established and well-funded private elementary school. The impact though, was hopefully the same. 

I ended up teaching a series of mini-courses on environmental citizenship to a group of children from second through fifth grades. These grades seemed optimal because a second grader is mature enough to see and understand problems in the world, and a fifth grader is old enough to make a difference. In the classes we watched clips from documentaries, such as Anne Leonard’s polemical ode to sustainability The Story of Stuff, played games, did hands-on activities and creative pieces. The classes were intended to show students some of the things they can change in their own lives to minimize their negative impact on the planet. They learned how easy it can be to make a difference. 

These kids showed me a passion for their planet that I could not have expected. Their insights into our unsustainable lifestyles reminded me of why I even care about the environment. They reminded me that I am not fighting for myself. My generation will be long dead before the true consequences of our actions roll around, but not theirs. These kids will see the waters rise. They will see floods and droughts, gross overpopulation, starvation and disease, entire species vanishing. These children will see blizzards on the 4th of July, and heatwaves at christmas. All I want is to warn them. To prepare them. To allow them to change.

Environmentally yours, 
Leo Alexander Levy

past posts
a short film on the project
bibliography