Blog Feed

In my previous Slate post I introduced the Issue I had chosen (Period Poverty) and explained what it is and how it affects people, and also briefly went over the Pink Tax. After I wrote that slate post I did a lot of research on how I could help with this issue. I found a lot of great organizations that are doing work to help end period poverty all over the world. Here are some of them: Alliance for Period Supplies, PERIOD, and The Spot Menstrual Hub. These are all great organizations that have different approaches to the issue. I ended up choosing to raise money and awareness for The Spot Menstrual Hub though, because it is more local than the other ones. The way I chose to raise awareness and money for this organization was through a bake sale. I think bake sales are a great way to get the word out about something and raise a lot of money. Before I did my bakesale I contacted Lynette Medley who is the founder of The Menstrual Hub to let her know what I was going to do in case she wanted me to do anything specific, she was very gracious and happy I was going to be doing this. I chose to do the bake sale on Fairmount Ave. because there is a lot of foot traffic there, especially on Saturdays so that meant hopefully more people would stop and buy stuff. I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing, vegan banana cupcakes with white icing, gluten free chocolate chewy cookies, gluten free pretzel brownies, and seven layer bars to sell at the bake sale.

It was a little slow going when I started but then sales started to pick up as it got closer to lunch time. I was having people pay using either venmo or cash, and a lot of people were very generous and paid more than I was charging as a donation. When I told people that were walking by about the cause that I was fundraising for everyone was really interested, and a lot of people had never heard about this issue before so I was happy that I was able to educate more people about this and spread awareness. I am really happy that I chose this issue to work on for my You and the World project because I still think it is not talked about nearly enough, and I will continue to try to tell people about it. There is still a long way to go to end period poverty but the more people talk about it and try to raise awareness or donate their time or money, the closer we will be to ending period poverty.

If you are interested in making a donation to this amazing organization here is a link to their gofundme.

What is a wax cylinder record?

Wax cylinder records are the earliest commercial form of audio and music recording and storage methods. They predate CDs, vinyl records, and even 78 RPM shellac records. Wax cylinders were innovative as a recording medium because they both allowed the consumer to listen to prerecorded music and allowed for the consumer to record their own audio over the original recording. Wax cylinders are also unique in the sense that they’re one of the only forms of physical recording to not be a conventional disc shape, instead they took on the shape of a cylinder, like a can of soup. Wax cylinder could only store one song at a time, unlike later vinyl records which could store whole albums. It was impossible to produce a wax cylinder that could hold a whole album, so lots of musicians were limited by the standard recording time of around 2 minutes. Later cylinders known as amberols were able to hold 4 minutes of music due to a new type of needle used to play the cylinders on a phonograph and smaller grooves in the material.

What’s the history behind wax cylinders?

The history of wax cylinders begins in 1877 when Thomas Edison used his Phonograph invention to play sheets of tin foil wrapped around a metal cylinder with grooves. At the time tin foil wasn’t a viable recording medium to store music for a mass market, so the idea wasn’t developed much more until 1887. It was in 1887 when Alexander Graham Bell’s Dictaphone Company was working with the US Congress to test and improve the design of the Graphophone. After seeing a demonstration of the Graphophone Edison resumed his work on a commercially viable Phonograph model that could play cylinders made of wax instead of tin foil. Wax was chosen as a material because grooves could easily be sketched into the material by different types of needles, which allowed for the cylinders to be used and re-recorded over many times. Edison’s Phonograph and the Graphophone both became available in the commercial market in 1888. The first cylinder to ever be recorded was made on June 29, 1888, and was a performance of George Frideric Handel’s Israel in Egypt. Professionally made recordings of songs began to be made available in 1889, which typically feature performances of orchestras and small instrumental ensembles. The unique feature of cylinders being made of wax also allowed for cylinders to be reused and recorded over by consumers at home. These home recordings are often referred to as brown/black wax home recordings. The colors brown and black refer to the type of wax the cylinder is made of. Due to consumers being able to make their own recordings Phonographs typically came with an attachment that let the user record their own audio onto a cylinder at home. Initially the type of wax used to make cylinders was quite brittle and could easily wear down if the surface was rubbed too hard, which meant cylinders had to be held a special way to not be damaged. To hold a cylinder you must put your index finger and middle finger inside the hole of the cylinder and keep your other fingers off the surface where the grooves are located. Most wax cylinders were wax all throughout, which meant things like mold are common to find on wax cylinders due to their age. The packaging that cylinders came in was usually made of cardboard with a cotton lining inside to protect the surface grooves on the cylinder when being stored. Oftentimes a slip of paper containing the cylinder ID and song title/performers was included on top of the cylinder containers to tell consumers what they were buying. Brown wax cylinders were known to be quite fragile, only able to survive around 50 plays on a machine. It wasn’t until 1902 when a new moulding process was used to make cylinders that were harder and could survive more plays. This new line of cylinders were typically black in color and were harder than the brown wax cylinders. The line was known as Gold Moulded Cylinders due to the moulding process leaving behind a gold vapor due to gold electrons. These Gold Moulded records were sold in cardboard tubes with a cotton lining similar to the brown wax cylinder boxes, except pieces of paper containing the cylinder ID and song title didn’t need to be included anymore because the details were engraved on the top of the cylinder record itself. While black and brown wax cylinders were being made in the early 1900s a man named Thomas B Lambert was developing a cylinder that could be made of celluloid, which is an early type of plastic that is extremely durable. Lambert developed a way to mass produce and sell these celluloid cylinders in 1900. The records were originally cast in a bright pink, but were changed to a deep black color in 1903. This was due to the black dye reducing surface noise on the records. Celluloid cylinders were different from wax cylinders because they were extremely durable and unable to be shaved over, meaning home recordings could not be made out of them. Celluloid cylinders can survive hundreds of plays on a machine, and are actually as durable as vinyl records. One of the few problems that plagues celluloid cylinders, unlike wax cylinders, is that the plastic can shrink over time if not stored in proper conditions. Lambert continued to make these celluloid cylinders until his company went out of business in 1906 due to the Edison company repeatedly claiming they committed patent infringement, which ate up time and money. The Edison company basically harassed Lambert’s company until it went under to obtain the rights to make celluloid cylinders. The only problem was that Lambert owned the patent under his name, not his company. So the Edison company took time to develop a new system that used the same type of celluloid to make their own durable cylinders. In 1909 Edison debuted the Amberol brand, which was a line of cylinders that focused on the increased runtime of 4 minutes for songs. These new amberol cylinders, commonly known as just amberols, were initially produced in a black color similar to that of previous black wax cylinders. The Edison company continued to work towards acquiring Lambert’s patent, and in 1912 acquired the patent to produce celluloid cylinders. The Edison company immediately began producing celluloid cylinders with a plaster core and released them under the Amberol brand. These new cylinders came to be known as blue amberols due to a blue dye being used to color the cylinders. These blue amberols became the most durable form of physical storage of music and audio until the introduction of LP vinyls. Blue amberols became the last popular form of cylinder records, as they were made until the late 1920s and were faded out by shellac disc records, such as Edison Diamond Disc records. Late blue amberols were recorded by acoustically dubbing audio from Diamond Disc records to cylinders. The Edison company continued to produce cylinders until 1929, when the last cylinder was made in October.

Why should these old records be preserved anyway?

The preservation of wax cylinders is a vital part of preserving the history of music and especially the history of technological evolution. Wax cylinder recordings are extremely important because a lot of the equipment and technology used to play them and preserve them isn’t made anymore, so the limited amounts of people who work to preserve cylinders are running out of time and options to digitize and save important records. There are certain places that work to preserve these cylinders, such as the UCSB Cylinder Archive and the Edison Museum in New Jersey. These organizations work with private collectors and antique sellers to take old cylinders and use equipment to digitally store the audio and make them available to be listened to on the internet. Without these recordings that have been preserved we would have a very limited look into the culture of music during the very early 1900s. Preserving cylinders is also important because old home recordings of brown and black wax cylinders gives us a precious look into things like the lives and speech patterns of ordinary citizens who lived during the late Victorian era. Home recordings also have preserved lots of old religious prayers and monologues of people whose ideas would have never been preserved without cylinder records. Preserving these cylinders is a vital step in preserving a foggy period in time sandwiched between massive events and shifts in global politics.

Who’s involved in preserving these cylinders anyway?

One of the largest contributors in preserving cylinder records is the University of California Santa Barbara. UCSB is a public university in Santa Barbara which has a large online database that is free to access and allows users to explore cylinders that have been digitized. The cylinder catalogue they have stems from obscure home recordings all the way to professional recordings of orchestral pieces. UCSB also features a matrix archive of almost all historically significant physical recordings in the US. The UCSB archive is the best source for listening to and finding cylinders, and almost all of the cylinders are publicly available for free. Their website (http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/) also allows for users to donate money to help keep them running and operating their preservation efforts. The Edison Museum in New Jersey also focuses on preserving cylinder records, though they do not have a publicly available database akin to the UCSB archive. Private collectors also have resources to preserve cylinder records, though many cannot share them for internet users in the same way that UCSB can. Equipment to digitize and preserve cylinder records can cost up to $30,000. A device called an Archeophone is used to preserve cylinders and digitize the audio into a .wav format.

Who is still interested in these things, and why?

Lots of collectors who have private collections of physical records and antique technology are interested in collecting cylinders, though the market for them is extremely small. Cylinders aren’t hard to find and can be bought for around $10 on sites like Ebay, but the equipment used to play them is very expensive, so many people who collect things like vinyl records are deterred from collecting cylinders due to the high price of equipment.

Examples of wax cylinder song recordings:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detail.php?query_type=mms_id&query=990025416400203776&r=4&of=4 http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query_type=keyword&query=santa+claus+in+holland&nq=1 http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detail.php?query_type=mms_id&query=990026419250203776&r=1&of=6 http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detail.php?query_type=mms_id&query=990028607000203776&r=2&of=11 http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detail.php?query_type=mms_id&query=990025467520203776&r=3&of=9

Sources:

https://asa.scitation.org/action/doSearch?SeriesKey=jas&AllField=wax+cylinders&ConceptID= https://www.cylinder.de/guide_black-wax-cylinders.html http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history.php http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-tinfoil.php http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-wax.php https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qDwz3JdD1c http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-goldmoulded.php http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-amberol.php http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-blueamberol.php https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/resources/detail/432

For my Capstone, I wanted to apply all of the knowledge in various different engineering subjects topics I have gained throughout the entire course of the CTE Engineering program. I wanted to create a project that would demonstrate how anyone could create something for themselves while still being environmentally conscious and economically feasible just by learning engineering skills. I wanted to demonstrate this process by going through all of the steps of theoretically building a tiny house. My deliverable is essentially a “how to” guide on all of the different aspects and components to building a tiny house. This project is geared towards educating people on not just how they can build a tiny house but how they can take this process apply it to almost anything in their life. The goal of this project is for someone with little to no construction experience to follow this guide and actually build anything they wanted. This process of gathering the right materials and constructing by yourself could be for something as small as a birdhouse to something as significant as your own home. In order to complete this project I had to do thorough research on the process of construction a house, how to apply that into process to work in tiny house, and also how to gather so many essential materials that fall under the criteria.

In my last post Is Insulin a Right or Privilege?, I explained the different ways insulin prices are affected by our society. Insulin is actually pretty cheap to make, so why is the price so high? My only logical explanation is money, people want to make lots of money and nt enough people are aware of this so this problem just gets pushed to the side.Many different diabetes groups are bringing this issue to light and are trying to influence people to care about this. Each group has done their own social media posts about the pricing of insulin. Specifically beyond type 1 sticks out to me most because they are always posting pictures of people with diabetes and it’s not the same person. They also ask questions in their post for people to answer in the chat. I think Posting about it and acknowledging it there is a huge step forward but I also think trying to fix it from the inside is a good idea. With all the legal things involved, it’s a lot harder to get 3 competing companies to lower all their insulin prices since they’d be losing tons of money.

Representative katie porter made a post about this issues couple months ago and I saved this twitter thread because it shows that some people higher up in the government care about this issue as well. In her post she said how quickly prices are rising and that she wants answers. She then tweets under that post saying that she teamed up with the American Economic Liberties Project

I couldn’t decide whether to contact someone or to post about it, so I did both. I think doing both was better than only trying to do one and like I said earlier I think this problem needs to be fixed from the inside. Whether that be the government or the companies themselves. I emailed my local councilman to inform him of the issue. Although I didn’t get a response I still feel like I made a change and I knew that I had a backup option in case I didn’t get a response.

The second thing I did was make a social media post about this issue. The main thing I talked about was the choices that people have to make when it comes to buying their insulin or paying their bills. I didn’t want to make a long post or bore people with all the reasons why this is so I asked for people to repost this and spread awareness.

This is someone reposting my post

I dont know how many people actually repossessed his but I know my friend ddi and she has more followers than me so I know enough people saw this for me to call it successful because even if i only educated one person I would feel like I made change since they can now go on to tell other people. Between these two changes I think I was pretty effective in spreading awareness.

I really enjoyed completing this project because It never got boring and I actually did something aI knew others would see. Over the course of completing this project I realized how invested I was in this issue because in the beginning I knew this issue needed to be fixed and I chose it because I could just as easily be in this situation. Everytime my insulin pump fell off or failed I worried about the amount of insulin being wasted. Even though I knew no matter what I could’ve done I couldn’t have helped someone with it. I feel like I could have asked more people in my family personally to repost because not everyone saw my post. I also think I should’ve tried to create a new account for that and linked it in my bio because I don’t think people took it as seriously. I can still continue to spread awareness about this issue so that these big companies realize what they’re doing is wrong.

Annotated Bibliography

In my first Slate post, I wrote about animal cruelty laws in Pennsylvania and basic facts. I also wrote about the data and number of cases. Currently, people post articles, videos, and blogs about cruelty to animals. This calls attention to animal abuse and shows how severe it is with physical evidence. A change is made even if only one person is aware of the situation, so when adults or children know about this issue and donate, volunteer, or help change it, progress is made. Change comes gradually, like with all issues, so any kind of exposure or article can help. One organization that I found to be the most impactful was the PSPCA. I also found a few sites that contained information that raised awareness about animal cruelty. From my ongoing research, I have learned that spreading awareness digitally to change this issue is effective. Every progression to an issue starts with awareness and then action can be taken. These methods are useful because the world is all online so bringing awareness digitally is the best idea.

I created a website and made a youtube video to spread awareness as my Agent of Change. I did this by using google sites for the website and using Vimeo, voice memo, and a screen recording app for the video. At the time, this was the best option since I had already created the video and it looked how I wanted it to. My experience was simple but frustrating considering both were easy to make but I needed to buy a plan on Vimeo so I used a screen recording app to create and finish it. I was able to make a change by showing people exactly what is happening and bringing attention to an organization that can make a real change. By creating something short and easy to understand, it’s more applicable to a wider demographic and people will pay more attention since it’s shorter.

My project was interesting and contained a lot of useful information. It reflected my feelings on animal abuse while also showing and explaining to viewers what the issue is and the facts and laws that are in place to try and change it. My project could have contained a lot more information, but this could become an “in-progress” thing for me to pursue. I felt motivated yet upset about doing this project. I think that this project was good at explaining the information out there about animal cruelty in Pennsylvania, but it is also upsetting that something like this needs to be mentioned in the first place. Knowing about this issue and continuing to learn more drives me to do more research and try and make a more impactful change. I learned that some people do unethical and morally unacceptable things to animals out of frustration, for personal economic success, or for something as simple as just wanting to because they find enjoyment in it. I also learned that I should do more to help abused animals than what is being done. I want to stay motivated by this topic so I can make more change once I am older.

I felt like I could have done the video-making process better. I also feel like I could have added more content to my website, which I might do over time. To make a change, I still have to bring attention to the cases of animal abuse that some people or police don’t see. Others still have to notice and understand animal cruelty and see how serious it is. Personally, I can still learn about specific cases and learn about how the issue has changed over time.

Above is my video. My website is here.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

VAR is a match official in association soccer who reviews decisions made by the head referee with the use of video footage and a headset for communication. And you may be thinking that it’s a good idea and why would this be a problem.

For my agent of change I made a short and easy survey that is asking people what they think of VAR, does VAR makes the game fairer, Should VAR stay and why?, and what change would make VAR better? And for my friends that don’t know anything about VAR I sent them Y&TW Passion & Information essay which explains the whole situation and what’s going on in the football world and they knew enough to fill out the survey. So all my friends filled out each question and they had pretty similar answers even my friends who are new to the topic, and their answers were, “it’s decent or it’s bad” and for the question should VAR stay 54.5% said yes it should stay but it should be fixed and 45.5% said no it should be gone.

I feel like I did really good because all I wanted to do was inform people of what is going on with VAR and I also am really happy because I also learned new things about VAR, like how they are keep on changing handball rules because of VAR and the same with offside rules too. And learning more about soccer which is the thing I love the most is just amazing for me and I hope in the future that VAR gets better and there are new topics like this because it is really interesting learning about these things

In my blog post I explained my project which was, helping teens and their mental health during the pandemic. My idea for my agent of change was to make a discord server to help and communicate with other teens who were affected by the pandemic. In my discord server there are multiple different eras and bots made to make different people comfortable, for example if you like k-pop there is a k-pop section with different text and voice channels. The bots in the server are for comfort purposes with virtual hugs, kisses, and pats. Now that everything is set up my goal is to get more people on the server if they’re interested.

@realdepressionproject has an instagram full of resources and advice on how to deal with what you’re going through, and for people who aren’t familiar with mental illness they have posts to help you better understand people with mental illness. They have posts like “what does depression feel like” and “15 ways to reach out without saying ‘how are you’” so you can assist and help your friends get through this time. There are a lot of ways to make a change and I think the “real depression project” is a great way for teens who feel isolated to get help.

The real depression project was part of what I wanted to do for this project. For me it was really difficult for me to choose what I wanted to do because I felt like you couldn’t do much with my topic. Choosing my ‘Agent of change’ was chaotic, I did make an instagram page for my project but I didn’t feel like anyone considered it a safe space and I didn’t know how to make it a safe space. I wanted it to be more private, and even though discord is a public app I wanted people to feel like they wouldn’t be easily judged.

In the process of my ‘Agent of change’ I had many different topics and I was struggling to find a topic that really affected me and my peers, until I realized we were in a pandemic. I think teens’ mental health has been going under the rug for a really long time and even now, I had a hard time finding resources about it. Out of all of the topics I had I’m glad I chose this one because it really represents what a lot out of teens are going through right now.

Now that this project is coming to an end I feel like this project was perfect for the class of 2024. This project gives us time to reflect and think about what’s going on in our world, I feel like this project made us look at the world and actually do something. I enjoyed doing this project and I think the 9th graders next year will too.

Since doing this project I learned the importance of mental health and communication, there were things I learnt about myself, like coding and organizing certain things like the bots and sections. It was really hard for me to set this up so I watched tutorials on youtube and that helped. I feel like there are things that I could’ve done better because I’ve never done this before. I could’ve gotten the server more organized with the channels and I got caught up with the commands for some bots so that could’ve been improved as well, luckily that’s an easy fix.

There is still more work that needs to be done, obviously me making a discord is not going to solve this problem. However I think the real work needs to be education and better understanding of what you or another person might be going through, because yes the pandemic made it worse but it’s not going to go away. I think a real solution would be to continue having these conversations with my discord and instagram accounts like @realdepressionproject

The previous slate post is an introduction to my topic that I have picked to focus on and why. Throughout the first post, I explained why LGBTQ+ inequality and health are important and should be discussed more often than it is now. I was able to find the most fitting words to express my passion and personal experience to develop the idea of change needing to be done. The inequality and health of the LGBTQ+ community should be taken just as seriously as any other society and world issue. People shouldn’t have to feel the need to hide because of the way they are viewed in society. We cannot make a change without putting in the effort to try to make a change and we must start in our own communities before we start in the world.

In my ongoing research, I am witnessing people speak about this topic more and raise more awareness. A few old classmates of mine are telling me that their schools are having groups or discussions about the injustices that members of the LGBTQ+ face and how it has been an eye-opener to many. I have also seen people donate to organizations of the LGBTQ+ community and make sure people are educated on such a sensitive topic. Throughout these couple of months, I have witnessed more people open up about their experiences of being LGBTQ+ or having a family, friend, classmate, or associate who experienced trauma and became proud of being who they are. I think this message of being yourself is sprouting more in the LGBTQ+ community and this is reflecting on people coming out more and being proud. The more that people speak upon topics, the more people pay attention and reach out to anyone about the issue and its importance. I know that this may not be a big change, but it is a change and that’s what is important. To be able to show pride and be happy with yourself is such a beautiful thing and to see people begin to unite, against the oppression and injustices, is something that sparks a movement; maybe even something greater.

This is a list of organizations you can donate to that supports the LGBTQ+.

When it comes to change there isn’t a correct way for it to happen. The different ways of spreading awareness for change that I have seen are powerful and very impactful towards people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ along with people who are outsiders. To me, I feel as though that the more methods the more urgent change is going to happen. When you have a group of people aiming towards the same goal, but using different methods, you begin to see the motivation and the urgency of an issue. It doesn’t matter where or how you start, when you are aiming towards a specific goal or obstacle, you will end up in the same place as those who started somewhere else. The most important step is changing yourself first because you cannot change anything else if you cannot recognize who you are and want to be. I wouldn’t say that it starts with self-love but it does start with confirming self-identity and that is very important especially in the LGBTQ+ community. Once you know who you are when you begin to educate people, then those people educate others and now you have people spreading the issue. After the issue is spread, you go and unite people to plan out a way to change your community and after all, is said and done you go out to change the world. Change isn’t always about physical action, sometimes it’s about how you impacted an individual and made them feel.

List of LGBTQ+ members who made a change in LGBTQ+ history.

For my agent of change, I decided to educate my advisory class about the inequality and health of members who identify as LGBTQ+. I took this step because I didn’t want to go into the world making a change if people didn’t know a lot about this issue. I decided to take a step back and talk to people about this issue that hits home to me because I am also a member of the LGBTQ+ community and not a lot of people know that. Being able to share and speak on a topic that has been in the back of my tongue is very brave of me knowing that it is against everything I believe in. Verbal and emotional change is something I was hoping to make happen and I believe that I did just that. I decided to speak about it to my advisory because those are the people I will be seeing for the next three years and I want them to know how important it is to me that this issue will be changed. My experience was very different because there are so many different thoughts and opinions yet all of those opinions are about change. This experience is something I would be open to experience again because of how great and comforting it was. To be able to sit and talk to a group of people about something that hits home to you and for them to be invested is such a blessing and an amazing experience. I enjoyed every moment of my presentation. I was effective in making a change because I took my own personal experience and combined it with something that people who are like me struggle with. Being able to speak on something that a small percentage of people who are in your community and surround you is very impactful. I was in the ice breaker because so far this year I have not witnessed anyone, in particular, speak on this issue and share their personal experience. As I mentioned before, change isn’t always about a physical act, sometimes it’s about how you motivated someone and made them change the way they thought or felt. I feel as though I touched a lot of classmates because I was the source of understanding for them. I placed myself as a target in order for them to understand how strongly I feel about change towards the LGBTQ+ community.

I felt great while doing this project, it actually helped me step out of my comfort zone and open up more to people I have never met in person. I learned how eager I was to make a change and how different I am compared to others. I say this because I am a Christian and Christianity is often the trigger behind homophobia and all of the horrible things that the LGBTQ+ community deal with. This project has influenced me to step out of Christianity and be who I know that I am and Christian is not one of them. I started to live my truth and be who I know that I am: Aylin. I think that others also impacted me because people often tell me how much of a great person I am and I never saw it until I placed all of my religious things to the side. I like myself better without religion and I feel as though that is what is holding me back, but not any longer. I live by two quotes now that state, “I rather live one day as a lion than live a hundred years as a sheep. I rather reign in hell than serve in heaven, live out my dreams in reality and not in my sleep.”-Lukas Graham. The other quote is,‘ “Someday, we will all die, Snoopy!” “True, but on all the other days, we will not.” ‘-Charlie Brown. These quotes stood out to me and are now something I live by because if I was born to die then I don’t want to live my life for anyone else. I want to be in control of my own life without worrying if I am going to heaven or hell just by a sin. I learned that others can also help show you who you are and that is what happened throughout this project. I feel as though I could have managed my time better, but if I had the opportunity to redo this project I wouldn’t because I like how it’s done and what I have experienced along the way. What is left now are the physical steps of change which are to begin to protest, create organizations, and make speeches about this issue and how can we, as a community, fix it and help those who are in need of help.

This documentary is about LGBTQ+ history and the meaning behind pride.

Authors note: In life, you cannot always try to fit in somewhere you do not belong. It’s better to fit into nothing than fit into something that you don’t belong in. It is better to be yourself than to be someone you are not because being someone else is more difficult than being who you actually are. You are living life for you so live it to your best capability. It doesn’t matter who or what you are be who you know you are. Life may come with troubles but you have to live to overcome them. I wish you a blessed life and I pray you continue to be you and be brave! -Aylin E.

In the earlier post that I made, I talked a lot about the issue that I am studying. I am focusing on homelessness in Philadelphia. My former post discussed many other factors that play into people becoming homeless such as mental illness, being laid off of a job, Covid 19, and not being paid enough. One of the biggest things I talked about was not just adults being homeless but children and families as well. For further background and information on my research, you can click here to see my prior post.

Two words Chosen 300. This establishment made my idea/experience come to life. It was very realistic and worth every minute and second of my time. I partnered up with an organization called chosen 300. I really admired their mission statement. Their mission is “To bring people of different membership groups together; helping them to realize that despite our differences in our race, ethnic group, denomination, social class, economic classes, or the diverse ways we practice our faith; we can unify ourselves for the common good. The purpose of our unification is to distribute meals and services to the homeless throughout the Philadelphia Region and around the world.”

To begin, I knew that I wanted to do more than my original idea which was to take up a fundraiser and donate the collection. I wanted to also give more of my time. Not only was I able to give my time, but I was also able to convince my family to give some of their time as well. On May 15th, My family and I arrived at Chosen 300 to volunteer our time. During our time there we labeled approximately 150 food containers, prepared the food, packaged food, and snacks, organized, cleaned, handed out the packaged food and drinks. During this time, we were able to hold conversations with the people in need about their day and how it was going. I was also able to interview the Project Manager for this particular location (Spring Garden).

There was a line of people outside waiting to be served. I have mixed emotions about some of the attitudes. Some people were genuinely grateful, and some were demanding and some would snatch the food right out of your hands. I believe that My presence was definitely effective because the organization was very short-staffed, they were overwhelmed. Giving out the food, having a conversation, and being generous really has an effect on people and shows people that you don’t look down on them for their situation.

After looking back at all of the work that I did for this project I can say that I really enjoyed doing this project and highly recommend everyone doing it. While doing this project I learned that I definitely need to go out of my comfort zone a little bit more because when I do I do excellent work like this. I also learned that there are people and organizations that actually go really hard and full in for my issue which brings warmth to my heart to know that I’m not the only one trying to make a change. I wish that I had more time because I had so many ideas that I am still going to do, and I could have used them for this project. I would say that in order to make a big change we need everyone to fundraise, donate, and give their time to volunteer and help out organizations like chosen 300 make a change.

In my first Slate post, I went into the basics of what ghost nets are, how they end up in the ocean, and the negative effects they pose to the ecosystems they end up in. They’re a really huge problem since they’re made out of plastic, which as we know takes hundreds of years to decompose. They also start a vicious cycle of trapping animals, dragging them to the bottom of the ocean, breaking free when the animal dies, and catching something again. They’re so dangerous because they continue to do this even when there aren’t humans around to man them anymore. The Olive Ridley Project is an organization whose mission is” to protect sea turtles and their habitats through rescue and rehabilitation of injured sea turtles, education and outreach, and scientific research.” They’re located in the Maldives (which is below India) and they are doing some pretty awesome stuff. On their website, you can report a ghost net, contact them about a sea turtle emergency, buy a dog leash made out of a ghost net, and volunteer with them. This is a great example of people bringing awareness to this issue and doing something to change/stop it.

Seahart, who was a turtle patient for the Olive Ridley Project

For my Agent of Change, I decided to make a presentation for my advisory. For our last couple of advisory meetings, people have been presenting about their passions/hobbies. I thought this would be a great way to not only educate some people about this topic, but it’s also tied into one of my passions. I spent a lot of time working on the presentation, making sure it wasn’t too loaded with information and easy to follow. I wanted to keep it short so it wouldn’t bore people, but also be able to get enough information across. The most important thing I wanted to tell my advisory was how they can help this issue on an individual level. I always feel so bombarded when a big topic like this is shown to me and I often feel like there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m just a consumer that isn’t helping the issue. So I wanted to shine light on the fact that there IS something you can do to help this issue and it’s so simple. All you have to do is check where you’re getting your fish from and how it’s caught. My presentation for my advisory went really well! I got asked a few questions and everyone was super supportive. I felt like people were actually paying attention and absorbing what I was saying. Hopefully some of the numbers and stats that I had on my presentation put this issue into perspective and just how big of a problem it is.

I felt pretty good about doing this project. I felt like I was doing really good work and striving towards a positive change while doing it which was even better. When I learned about myself was how lucky I am to have been able to experience so much while scuba diving. I’m so lucky to have been able to see the animals that I saw and I should never take that for granted. I’m so grateful for all of the experiences I’ve had while diving and I wonder how my mindset will be different the next time I’m able to.

[Annotated Bibliography] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g9LgrOI_julXQL51bIWRHpOTHGIC2-t3k0lgPWA8U70/edit)

In my previous post I talked about homelessness and how we should start helping them more. I talked about why I picked this issues and how we should and should not help the people that are currently homeless. I also posted this to show that there’s many different reasons why people become homeless; and not just because of alcohol or drug use. There’s lots of people and organizations like Project HOME, that take time from their day to help those in need. I think organizations like Project Home are doing a great thing; they have people donating things, volunteering; they have housing, Healthcare services, Education, adult education and employment. I decided to do this for my Agent of Change because I felt strongly about helping people, the only thing I could really do is help the people that currently don’t have a place to stay and need our help. So what I did was: I found a person that could help me. We made posters and walked around restaurants asking the managers if they could donate some amount of money for our school project. We went to at least 10 different places but that didn’t work out. So we just went to sit at Rittenhouse. I joked about how Reese should ask random people if they wanted to make a donation, but Reese took the challenge and started asking people. The first people that helped us gave us $5, the next gave us $1, and that is the amount of money people usually gave us. Someone then asked if they could venmo us the money, and we agreed because we realized lots of people now pay through apps on their phones. Then someone venmoned us $20 and we were so happy, we honestly thought this is going to be the most amount of money someone gave us. Later on a man came up to ask and started a conversation and just asked questions, we talked for about 5 minutes and then he left saying that he will venmo us some money. When I checked my phone we couldn’t believe that the man that we met like 5 minutes ago, venmoed us $250. We ran up to him asking if it was maybe a mistake and if he wanted us to venmo him the money back, but he said “Great job guys, never stop!” Reese and I were so happy and grateful. I honestly didn’t think this project would make me this happy, yes I love helping people but when I saw that this man trusted us and gave us that much money, I Knew I would never stop helping the people that need my help.

My Vlog Annotated Bibliography

For my You & The World project I decided to focus on renewable energy. In my previous post I wrote about different solutions, like innovative technology, how we have to implement those solutions, and the plans and demands for change that have been made within the past few years.

An organization that stuck out to me was a company called Pavegen. They create kinetic tiles that capture the energy of footsteps when people walk on them. I briefly talked about them in my last post, saying that their tiles have lit up soccer fields and airport hallways. Although these tiles can’t make everything renewable, they are a part of the change that we are moving towards. We have to switch to renewable energy, and innovative technology is a way we can do it.

For my Agent of Change I decided I wanted to reach out to Pavegen for a possible project. I thought their technology was really cool, and wanted to see if it was possible to put these kinetic tiles in SLA. My idea was to see if we could have a hallway with these tiles for students to power the lights.

I first looked at Pavegen’s website more, and saw that they have a section for education specifically. They have put these tiles in some schools already, and have an email specifically for education enquiries. So I decided to email Pavegen about my project.

I didn’t get a response, and later saw that an automatic one had gone to my spam telling me to fill out a project enquiry on their website. So, I went to the site and filled out the enquiry. I set up a meeting with Mr. Kamal to talk about what he thought about the project as the Engineering teacher. He told me about corporate sponsors and how they could help if we had to fund the project. He helped me fill out the project inquiry, and I submitted it.

I then got an automatic response email to the project enquiry. I haven’t gotten a response back, which is okay, so I don’t have anything else I can do. But it was still interesting to learn about and reach out to a company that’s creating innovative technology for a more sustainable future. It was exciting to email a company that is creating sustainable technology. And it was fun to brainstorm about making SLA more renewable. Even though this specific project didn’t work out, I’d like to continue thinking about renewable energy, and maybe think of other ways that SLA can be more sustainable.

I liked this project a lot. Even though I wasn’t able to do a complete project, I still enjoyed learning about renewable energy, and reaching out to a company. I think I did everything I could for this specific project, I reached out to the company multiple times, and the rest was relying on their response. I could have made a back up plan, such as informing others about renewable energy, or other sustainable ideas. But I wanted to focus my work on a possible big project. My project was just an idea, and there’s a lot left to do. It made me think about making SLA a more sustainable school, and possible projects that could happen in the future. I hope that next year there can be sustainable projects, that potentially involve renewable energy, at SLA.

Here is my annotated bibliography

In my previous post, I discussed how Tik Tok is one of the biggest social media platforms at the moment. Users and content creators are attracted to the platform for its easy outlet of creativity allowing for people to express themselves in various ways. However, not all that glitter is gold when users begin to feel silenced or limited when speaking about important issues like police brutality and much more. Furthermore, when the algorithm and for your page begins to feel like yet another thing ostracizing Black people and their advocacy for different issues.
After conducting research and looking deeper into the issue. I wanted to find a way to make my agent change something that reaches a larger audience so I thought that the best way for that to happen would be through a social media style ad campaign. So, on April 29, 2021, I launched black creators on tiktok an Instagram page targeted to share Black voices, stories, have deeper conversations and shed light on small black creators on Tik Tok. I was so excited to launch this page so I immediately got to work on the design and followed a weekly schedule. For the design of the website, I wanted something simple but aesthetically pleasing so I chose a periwinkle and white theme. This ended up turning out to be really great and I created all of my own original posts on Canva. For my posting schedule, I chose to post on Tuesday and Thursday because then I could upload the post during English class. So, I decided to get creative with the posting schedule making Tuesdays “Tune in Tuesdays” and Thursdays “Threaded Thursdays” where I would post my threads. “Tune in Tuesdays” would revolve around conversation and people sharing things they have learned from the week. My goal for the page was to make a positive change whether that be on a small or large scale to the Black creator’s experience on Tik Tok. I wanted to share my research with others and realized having this page was the best way. For me, this project was different because rather than just talking about these issues we were given the opportunity to take action to change them. I learned a lot about myself through this project like the fact that I really enjoy designing things and working on things over a long period of time rather than rushing something in a tight time frame. I am hoping to continue this project on my own time outside of class because I envision it going so far so I really want to continue my work with it. Although, I haven’t received the publicity that I wanted when I started this project I will keep working to get it to the platform it needs to be at. However, if I could pull one thing I wish I would’ve done it would have been following through with the choice to advertise the page on the advisory memo because I know many people have social media so maybe that would have helped with the issue of growing the platform.

annotated bibliography

This image displays the first post on @black_creatorsontiktok which is just a welcome message

This image displays the first Tune in Tuesday post on @black_creatorsontiktok which is about sharing something you learned

This image displays the page as a whole and how it looks.

Men’s mental health is an often undervalued topic when it comes to mental health. Millions of men suffer and die from mental illness each year. 78% of all suicide deaths are from men. 49% of men feel more depressed than they admit to people in their life. Many men often feel as though they are burdened to not talk about their feelings and hold them inside. That’s part of the reason why often when you see a man cry you ask him “why are you crying”. It’s because you’re not used to seeing a man cry. One of the things that causes a lot of mental illness for men specifically is the fact that they feel that they can’t talk to others about it. They have to hide it and not show their true emotion because society will portray it as “non-masculine”. Men’s suicide rates are 3.6% times higher than women and it’s because women have an easier time talking about their feelings than men. Society has so many standards and expectations for men to live up to. Men feel as though they can’t talk to anyone about their feelings so it becomes very hard for them to share sensitive stuff and get help. In my opinion, some steps that could be taken towards solving this issue are talking to men more about the issue and offering helpful issues for them to use. Talking to them is a big one, show I guy you know that you can talk to him and that you care about his mental health because it will mean a lot to them. Because guys don’t get lots of compliments or when someone notices something about them in general so it means a lot. Another idea could be improving one’s physical health, improving sleep and eating habits. Breaking out of bad habits can bring on depression-like smoking or drinking. Go out and talk to friends so you can be more social. Personally I feel like this is a very important issue that is not talked about enough because it’s literally killing men and the numbers and statistics are crazy. I chose to write about this topic because a few months ago I had my own personal dealings with mental health issues and wouldn’t want any other men to go through that. It’s very hard and it feels very lonely like you have no one to talk to about it because you feel like you can’t trust anyone. I feel like I wasn’t very effective in making a change in someone else but In myself alone yes because I was able to overcome my depression and sadness. How I feel about this project is neutral. Because on the one hand it’s cool to kinda pursue a topic that means something to you and learn more about it. In addition to that it’s also cool to see what my fellow classmates are working on and what topics/passions they’re interested in. Something I could have done better was doing my interviews and managing my time better when it came to doing the interview. I had intended to interview guys and ask them questions about mental health research and analyze the data. For me I think something that is still left is to maybe interview more guys. Something I am interested in seeing in one of my other classmates is Kyla and Tybria are making a mini course. I think it will be interesting to see how they pursue that and what kind of mark/legacy it will leave for them and the SLA community.

In my latest slate post I talked about the threats that come from homework and how to manage it, but most recently I’ve been trying to start up study groups to help manage people’s stress. These study groups will be in groups of seven students that are already familiar with each other so they are not afraid to ask for help which has been a problem in the past. So this will help encourage students to ask for assistance as this is one good way to eliminate stress. It will also help with time management which is also another tool to fight stress, especially if it’s long term. As you will need to meet once, maybe even two times a week for an hour to study for a test or help one of your peers with their homework. I chose to do my You & The World Project on the stress of homework because it’s something I have experienced in the past, as of many others as well. It’s also a really untalked about subject it’s often overshadowed by many other serious problems. Probably because most don’t know the dangers of it, as I myself didn’t know what it could do until I did research on it. It can cause various mental health problems like, anxiety, and depppresion. It’s one of the silent killers, so I brought more attention to it and came up with a way to combat it, the study group. Which has seemed to work so far for me, as I have studied with my friends to help test it, and was proven successful. I will likely pitch my idea to the princable, hoping to form this club. I will be have using a google slide show to help sponsor idea. I feel like this project has a lot of value that just hasn’t been uncovered yet, as it can benefit many people, not just myself and the students. But the teachers and the families of stressed young ones, as it can bring down many people. I wish for this to be in person as it would be much easier to orchestrate, as of right now I’m online and it is hard to start a club that it primarily done face to face. I hope this club will last once I have graduated from high school so it can help future students, benefiting all and I hope this will inspire other students to bring awareness to this subject and hopefully it can get talked about at other schools as well as community centers. This will be one way to help defeat not just anxiety but stress as a whole.

In my previous post I wrote about some of the research I did about my topic which is homeless addicts. I found out that many people have stereotypes about homelessness. One of the most common stereotypes about homelessness is addiction. Most people assume that they choose to live on the streets, which for some could be true but 90% of that is false. Furthermore, I mentioned in my previous post about young people that become homeless addicts. It is discouraging but in reality, many older homeless addicts advise them to have a great life and not become homeless nor an addict. Additionally, in my previous post, I mentioned a woman who spoke about her past and current adversities. Now, she offers advice to young people to have a different life than her. My goal with this project was to help homeless addicts because it’s so sad seeing them struggle. I shared a picture of a group of teenagers that gave out pizza to homeless addicts. This act of kindness reminded me of a similar action I experienced before. I researched possible ways that the community and I could help with this issue.

This is the picture that I showed from my previous post and they inspired to do the act that I chose to do for this project.

There are many different types of organizations within our community. Since we are looking at two separate issues, homelessness and addiction, which are two individual problems, I needed to search for an organization that deals with both. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any; however, I found one organization that helps people with addiction which offers counseling and resources to support them. Many organizations or rehabilitation centers are not known. Even if these facilities aren’t the right resource for every case, there are tons of rehab centers that can be chosen from.

This is the picture of the place I went to donate supplies. (Not my photo)

On another side, I researched organizations that serve homeless people. One of the most known organizations is Project homes Project homes accept donations like clothes, food, and even money. They help give back to the community in so many ways, and for this project, I decided that the best way I could help is to collect supplies from some of my friends to donate. Even though it was not a drastic change, it is significant enough to start by donating the supplies I collected to Project homes. I enjoyed my experience of giving back and helping someone in need. The only thing that wasn’t a success was getting many people to help me collect supplies. Something I learned was that not everything seems like what it is and to never judge how someone looks or their stability. In general, this could be about me or anyone else, but to never judge someone’s situation, If you don’t know what they’re going through.

These are the supplies I collected from friends and family, including: hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, breakfast bars, and water bottles.

Looking back on my project, something I could’ve done better is spreading the word more on collecting supplies and reaching a larger audience. Moving forward, we need to remember to come up with different ways to help and to not lose momentum because a lot of people help and don’t continue helping.

In my first You & The World blog post, I discussed the mental part of addiction, how it affects your brain, and what specifically in your brain causes you to fall into addiction. I also covered how addiction affects your whole life; relationships, friendships, and career. The last thing I addressed about addiction was how it directly relates to crime and the way addiction ruins your will to be a good citizen. You can find the link here if you missed it.

As I continued researching about the issue, I started digging deeper to understand the ways America is fighting addiction, and I formed my own opinions on each tactic.

The first source I came across was “10 Ways to Combat America’s Drug Abuse Problem”. In this source, the author focuses on ways to support recovering addicts, and also ways that America could prevent deaths at the hands of addiction. They start by listing ways to reduce addiction deaths by doing things such as: providing easier access to Naloxone (a nasal spray that blocks deadly respiratory suppression caused by many drugs) and identifying who is making these deadly drugs easy to access. The author then lists ways to prevent addiction in general: spreading awareness and education to people around the country. Some of the last tactics the author suggests consist of making access to rehab easier and bettering medical treatment for addiction. The author concludes with a reminder to keep hope and understand that recovery isn’t easy, but it’s possible.

I believe that this first article’s advice for combating addiction is incredibly helpful and very informative. I think addressing it in a way that would prevent addiction as well as supporting people who are already struggling with it is smart.

The second source I read is titled “Ways to Increase Awareness About Addiction and Rehab”. This article discusses ways to personally raise awareness about addiction on your own. It starts with suggesting education upon yourself and others. It also talks about getting involved with the community and helping spread the message. Following legislation surrounding addiction is suggested as well, and the article emphasizes that every voice counts when it comes to addiction and the government. The article concludes by explaining that sharing your story with addiction is incredibly helpful to yourself and others.

I think this article is also very useful when educating yourself on how to spread awareness about addiction. It mainly focuses on the idea that every person and every voice matters, which I totally agree with.

What I did for my agent of change was donating to an organization that directly helps people recovering from addiction. I gathered a good amount of necessities (suggested from the organization for donating), and I dropped it off. I chose to do this because I figured it was the most I could do that would actually mean something. I didn’t want to donate money because I wanted to ensure that the things I donated would be actually directly helping people and it would be more personal. The experience was pretty easy, but it was really fun and it felt like I was making some sort of change or difference, even if it was small.

I felt pretty good about doing this project. I think I chose a good topic and I believe that I did the most I could with the time given to fight the issue of addiction. I learned a lot about the way that addiction affects the brain and I definitely understand addiction on a deeper level than I previously did. I could’ve spread a little more awareness on social media, like maybe if I created an instagram page dedicated to spreading awareness about addiction. I can still do that though. I hope in the future I can collaborate with more people, like collecting donations from my friends and then donating to the organization, but I didn’t think of that very early, so I thought I wouldn’t have enough time/I wouldn’t have enough donations or any at all. I’m still very proud of myself and my project but there’s always room for improvement in the future.

Link to Annotated Bibliography

I decided to make a commentary on sexism because I watch commentaries daily. I find the idea of someone giving facts and opinions on a certain topic, then making it into a video is educational just as much as it is entertaining.

I chose the topic of sexism because up until almost three years ago, I wasn’t the most educated on it. Almost three years ago I was 12 and didn’t know about sexism. I knew the word, but after watching sitcoms that poked fun at the matter, I saw the topic as just another thing people were sensitive about. With this commentary, I wish to educate children to know that sexism isn’t a joke. I wish to teach children that were my age, not to see it the way I did when I was uneducated and ignorant.

Though this commentary isn’t only for kids. I think anyone and everyone could listen to it because it doesn’t hurt to be informed.

One thing I learned from the research was how people CAN see this as a joke. “Thomas Ford and Mark Ferguson once pointed out “Sexist and other discriminatory disparaging humor takes a code for granted: its funniness relies on people recognizing the stereotypes that are the basis for the joke. It asks us to not take discriminatory stereotyping seriously. That’s not going to take the sting out of it.” and I couldn’t agree more.” This was said in my commentary. If this interests you, you should watch the entire thing for more information.

(P.S My computer is acting weird so in order to listen to it you need to click on the paper, download it, then you can listen and you don’t need me to give access)

In my last post, I talked about how anti-Semitism and give a brief description of what is it and how it affects me personally. This was supported by charts of the ADL and other pictures showing it happening. First Post In my ongoing research, some things have been done are done to raise awareness of your issue. Some of them include the ADL becoming more and more public and going into places where more and more people see them and hear their voices. Another example is that antisemitic acts have been getting reported on more and more by mainstream new companies. This is the ADL’s website This site that I am talking about has some of the most accurate data on my topic and much more. My opinion on the way that is improving this scenario is all great. The only problem with these methods is that they are slow. Some ways to fix this is to stop forcing on the collective people but to focus on the singular person to show that Jews and other people are more alike than other people think. This is a new source The source that I have listed is state.gov they are a part of the government and know what they are doing. For my agent of change project, I chose to make a video explaining all I know about anti-Semitism. This is from biblical times to the 1940s to now. I chose to do this project because for one, as the internet becomes more and more examples to people this will be the main way that people look for their brand new information. I chose a youtube video because it is one of the most popular video streaming services and is built into a lot of platforms. My experience doing this was a mix of highs and lows. By far the highs were writing the script. This was fun to do because I had very few rules to hold it in place. Some of the low was waiting for my video to download. (It took over an hour.) And actually posting it on youtube. Some of the more mediocre parts were picking out the music in the background and the image in front of it. That was both hard to do because I wanted something nice to listen to but not something the would ruin the mood of the video. The image was a pain because I wanted something that was nice to look at and not hurt your eyes at the same time. One of the hardest parts of the scripting process was to not get sidetracked. I found myself writing about martin Luther in one sentence and then had to pivot to a new subject in just a few words. This was very changing, to say the least. I hope you check out my video [here] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd39n9mgxEA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yIpqwD_gHA) and [here] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yIpqwD_gHA). I hope you learn a thing or two about this issue that we must solve together.

This issue is significant because we are fearing people that are supposed to protect us. This was stated in another [article] (https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793) , “For young men of color, police use of force is among the leading causes of death.” This here picture represents an estimated lifetime risk of being killed by police by force as while as sex. This data is from 2013 to 2018. You can’t make these things up. ( check out this [link] (https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1MQj3Y27CP7t4oNlHg5QpBrF-q92kCF2rmkMvxLnxdOo/edit) for more information). In some of my ongoing research I haven’t really seen any progress to ending police brutality, but I can say I really haven’t seen anyone post something that involves police brutality. I can say that the George Floyd case is finally over and the officer was charged with murder , [link] (https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-over-killing-of-george-floyd/2021/05/04/993665655/derek-chauvin-files-for-new-trial-in-george-floyd-murder-case). I decided to create a zoom so African American young people( in the school) could have a safe space to talk about their feelings towards police brutality. It was an ok experience, this is something that I will make sure I keep track of because it’s very important as a young black American. I felt good doing this project, it felt good to learn things that I never knew. I learned that this topic was more touching to me than I thought it would be. I feel like I could have put more effort into this project. What’s still left is us getting our voices heard.

In my previous post, I discussed what problems happen often with police mishandling situations, and what programs we can implement to help stop police brutality. This is a very big problem that has a lot of media attention already, unfortunately because of the people who lost their lives at the hands of police. We see this primarily with the Black Lives Matter movement and I see a lot of people raising awareness over social media. An interesting website I found called Campaign Zero, is a national organization which focuses on stopping police brutality by pushing to pass legislation to create anti brutality laws. They also find solutions to police issues and organize protests. Another website that I found is Dream Defenders. They are based in Florida and believe in creating our own programs to uplift our communities instead of relying on the police. I think these kinds of organizations are the most effective way of making positive change, by really acting on the issue. While being educated is a great step, not using that knowledge to act on a problem is not as helpful as it could be. So this organization is a great way to act on the issue. On raising awareness, I think social media is the fastest way. This could be a problem though because sometimes false information is spread around. But usually I find that it’s a good way to bring attention to a cause. My agent of change was creating a website that educates the reader more on my topic of police brutality and provides sources to how they can help by donating or signing petitions. I decided to share my website in three ways.The first way was by sending out an email to orange stream. Second, I put it on my instagram page in my bio, and lastly I posted it on Padlet. My experience creating this was good. I enjoy making websites so this was a more enjoyable project for me. I was effective in making change in the way so if someone decides to view my website, even if they decide not to donate or sign petitions, they will at least be educated on how we can stop police brutality.

The home page of my website

I learned a lot during this project. I learned a lot about police brutality in general, and it’s terrible effects. I also learned about the big question; how do we stop police brutality? I hear frequently “defund the police” and “police reform” but not actually how to do this and what steps to take. And I’m happy to say I learned a lot of ways to do this properly so that communities and people get the support they need. I felt like researching this was my point of pride in this project. It really is a really interesting topic thats so important. What I liked seeing in other people’s projects is what interested them or what they’re passionate about. Just their choice in their topic alone is interesting. What I felt that I could do better is time management. I struggle at many points to get it in on time. All that is left for this project is hopefully more people click the link to my website so they can learn more about how to stop police brutality.

In my previous SLATE post, I talked about the recent hate crimes going around, affecting the AAPI community during the Pandemic. I gave awareness by talking about the sources that I used to help me give off this information, gave some of my opinions on recent hate crimes, and why these hate crimes are happening towards the AAPI community. But overall, giving knowledge to the readers that there is a major issue that is not being taken seriously.

Now, in my journey of making my website, I came across sources that helped me a lot to make the way my website looks and the information that lies in it. The first source that I used to make my website was NextShark. I couldn’t have made any of this without NextShark. NextShark gave me the information and knowledge, that I needed to help me translate the information back to people who didn’t know about AAPI hate crimes, during the Pandemic. The website is just filled with the latest information on AAPI hate crimes or just typical news in the AAPI community. They also talk about the latest AAPI “business, culture, entertainment, politics, tech, and lifestyle.” - NextShark. The second source that I used for my website, is this gofundme page. I talked about if people wanted to help, to stop these hate crimes, they could donate to that gofundme page. And the people who are raising 8 million dollars for the AAPI community will help “organizations that empower and uplift the AAPI community, with initiatives such as increased ​community safety and support for those affected by violence.” - gofundme description. And finally, the third source that I used was SYSTRAN Translator. I used this translator to make my digital flyer in different Asian languages. I translated my English sayings to Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Thai. I translated my words into 5 languages because I didn’t want my digital flyer to just have Asian Americans helping the AAPI movement, but elderly AAPI too. The elderly AAPI are always the “easier targets” for hate crimes. But they have been through the thick and the thin, just to live a good life in the U.S. So, giving them this type of information would help the AAPI movement impact others more quickly.

When thinking about what I could do for my Agent of Change project, I didn’t really think of doing something big. For my topic, I knew it was a big issue to tackle. That is still happening in the world. Then the idea of making a flyer about AAPI Hate, and putting those flyers up around my neighborhood seemed like a great idea to me. Then my sister suggested making a website with a digital flyer instead. I wasn’t really into that idea but as I continued thinking about my sister’s suggestion, I thought that it wasn’t that bad of an idea, and I could add more information about AAPI hate. So, I started my website by not knowing what I was doing and wondering if I should change my Agent of Change idea but pulled through. I first started working on the format of my pages, then settled on good-looking formats and went with that. Afterward, I started working on my page backgrounds, and decorate them with Stop AAPI Hate posters, created by artists: Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, JULIA KESTNER DESIGNS, colorsofhoney, Danielle Chandler, pauline.c.cuevas, Pi Delta Psi, Michelle Wang, Yuk Fun, Lauren YS, evexcristina, Eric Lee, Tika, and Brett Sayles. To make my website have an indie, friendly feel.

Stop AAPI Hate posters by: Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya

Stop AAPI Hate posters by: JULIA KESTNER DESIGNS, colorsofhoney, and Danielle Chandler

Stop AAPI Hate posters by: pauline.c.cuevas, Pi Delta Psi, and Michelle Wang

Stop AAPI Hate posters by: Yuk Fun, Lauren YS, and evexcristina

Stop AAPI Hate posters by: Eric Lee, Tika, and Brett Sayles

And, after finishing with all the requirements that I thought my website needed, I began to notice that this was a good first experience making an actual, professional website. I enjoyed researching this topic because being part of the AAPI community made me passionate about reading victim’s stories. I feel that doing this initiative, making a website to get individual’s attention about Stopping AAPI Hate was a great idea after all. I know for my project, I could’ve joined in Stop AAPI Hate protests in Philly, but since of COVID-19, I decided to make my project virtual. Overall, I hope that I affect many people in the SLA community, to know more about the struggle that the AAPI community is facing.

After looking at the final product of my website for a few days, I felt pretty proud of what I made. Even though the process of making my website was pretty stressful and difficult, I still was fulfilled with the final product. I learned that I am capable of more things than I thought. I would’ve never thought that I was able to make a website that might impact other people’s lives for the better good. And, I learned that other people who are supporting the Stop AAPI Hate movement can really benefit by impacting the world. The Stop AAPI Hate community is very diverse and has a lot of different perspectives from this movement. The movement isn’t just to help the AAPI community but could also help other voices that also need to be heard. For example, “Over 85 Asian and LGBTQ+ Groups Band Together to Oppose COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act” - NextShark. Currently, in NextShark news, the LGBTQ+ and the some Stop AAPI Hate organizations have banded together to support each other in ways society never supported them. By helping each other to spread awareness and support for one another.

Some things that I thought that I could’ve done better for my project was, to try to put more information about the Stop AAPI Hate movement. For my “About” page, I put questions that are very essential to learn about the Stop AAPI Hate movement. But specifically, I didn’t get to tell the stories of the victims that were affected by the hate crimes. I knew that there were things that needed to change for the movement to make the AAPI community feel safe. And the things that we could start with: peaceful protests. It could catch the attention of the news, and make the government think about making a new equal rights amendment or act, that will help affect the AAPI but also communities that are in need of being heard. To fulfill their safety and equality. I know doing a protest sounds like a lot because it is. But this is a big issue that we’re dealing with. So, taking big steps for a big issue may just be an acceptable idea for what we’re dealing with.

Finished Annotated Bibliography

In my previous Slate Post I talked about the effects victims have after experiencing being trafficked. Whether they are affected Mentally, physically, emotionally or all three everyone’s situation should be equally justified.

The biggest way victims of sex trafficking are being supported that I found through my research is organizations that give victims the support they need. Some bigger organizations I found are the Center for Human Trafficking Awareness (Florida), National Sexual Violence Resource Center (Pennsylvania), and Project Reach (Massachusetts).

Ways that people who haven’t experienced anything like trafficking but still want to help can always do things like, sign petitions, volunteer with local organizations, educate themselves, and create a club to spread awareness. Those are just a few simple ways you could help! I think these are great ways to educate yourself, others and support victims. The first way to become an ally is to make sure you are educated on the topic. As for the organizations, I also think these are really great sources for any victims that will find comfort in them.

While I was researching for ways to be an ally towards victims of sex trafficking I stumbled across an organization, here in Philly called Dawn’s Place. The mission of Dawn’s Place is to proactively support women affected by CSE and its abuse by providing direct services to women, raising awareness through education and generating prevention, public policy reform, and community collaboration. Dawn’s Place was a local organization, the website made it sound like all of the workers were so passionate about helping these women in need. So I emailed them asking if anyone was available for me to interview and Mary Shay, the program director and trauma therapist responded! So we talked for about half an hour, if you are interested in listening to the interview I will put it at the bottom of this post and hyperlink it here.

The reason I wanted to do an interview was that I think it was one of the best ways to learn more about my topic, and to hear about it from someone who dedicates their life to it and not just researching from google. Ms.Shay was an excellent resource and interviewee. She seemed super passionate about her job and how awesome of a place Dawn’s Place is. I am incredibly grateful I was able to interview her. I hope that through this project I was able to educate others about how much of a negative impact sex trafficking can have on a victim, I definitely learned a lot myself.

At the start of this project I was pretty nervous and had no clue what I was going to do. I am a pretty shy person and didn’t know how well my project would end up because of that. But in the end, I think the Agent of change portion of my project went very well. As for my project as a whole, I am pretty proud of it. I worked really hard and learned a lot about my topic. I think I maybe could have done better in finding resources, not necessarily better ones, just maybe more of them? Obviously, there is so much to do to prevent sex trafficking but like I said earlier and if I am remembering correctly it was also said in my interview, the best way to start is to educate yourself to the best of your abilities.

This is my annotated bibliography