Blog Feed

Throughout the school year I have been conducting research and gathering the research of others on the subject of homelessness and homeless shelters. There are more than half a million people experiencing homelessness currently in America. Unfortunately, it’s estimated that only about half of the homeless population can be sheltered at a time. In my research I found that life in shelters can be almost as bad as living outside

, without shelter. In shelters the homeless can be subjected to racism, transphobia, and other types of xenophobia to harmful effect. My research on this can be found here and here.

In my agent of change, I partnered up with Tyria Brown-Smith, a classmate of mine also researching homelessness, to create a presentation to raise awareness for the national problem of homelessness in America. Her previous research can be found here. While this issue is huge and seemingly impossible to completely fix, we found it necessary to raise awareness. Many victims of homelessness suffer from mental health problems due to their physical environment and from being ignored by hundreds of people1, day in and day out. Hence, if we would be able to change that, even slightly, it would be positive growth for the cause.

Upon the class being assigned our Y&tW project last quarter, we were asked to observe our daily world to gain inspiration for a topic. Off the top of my head I had a few ideas, but the national epidemic of homelessness was the most prevalent in my mind. As a resident of Philadelphia, the homeless are seemingly everywhere downtown, many of whom are ignored by the probably hundreds of people that pass by them every day. While I don’t personally know anyone who has experienced homelessness, they are a big part of the city that I’ve lived in all my life. While our project does encourage donation to a few different organizations attempting to remedy the problem of homelessness, we mainly wanted to relay a message of sympathy and, fittingly enough, brotherly love. While there is no quantitative way to measure opened minds, we hope and believe we made a difference.

I have worked hard in trying to help fix the problem of social media and body image. I researched and wrote an essay about my research. In my research I found some shocking things about eating disorders and what magazines do to make there models look good. Then I did some of my own research, I watched this documentary called Straight/curve Redefining body image and I interviewed the creator of the documentary. I thought that it was eye opening to see how kids are influenced today and what the media can do.

Throughout my research I found only a few organizations that were helping to fix this problem. People are not just having fundraisers, I also saw tha some organizations were having ted talks. I watched one of the ted talks and it was wonderful, the person speaking talked about her own experiences and what she went through as a kid. She talked about loving to swim when she was younger just not loving the way her body looked in the swim suit. I also found this new organization that is dedicated to help people with eating disorders and people with body image issues in general. I believe that these are good ways to start change and that maybe there are other ways. I do think that having a ted talk was a good idea. I believe that this is affecting the kids the most and that if it is a video it is going to be on the internet so kids are bound to find it. So a ted talk is a good way to get the word out to the kids.

For my agent of change I decided to pick four magazines and write four different letters to the editors of the magazines. I decided to write letters to Teen vogue, Allure, Seventeen, and GQ. In these letters I wanted to talk about what I thought was a good way to show body image and what I thought they could have done better with. I decided to do this because I thought that is would be a good way to get the word out. I decided that instead of doing something big I could target four magazines. I thought this would make an impact on the problem. My experience was a good one while writing the letters I tried to look at the magazines closely and see what really needed to be changed and what I thought was something they needed to be complimented on. I was not that effective in making a change when I sent the letters out I only got one response.

Link to letters:

Letter to teen vogue

Letter to Allure

Letter to Seventeen

Letter to GQ    

Link to Annotated bibliography

Light Pollution

In my first post, I talked about how light pollution is harmful to both humans and animals. I learned that it affects the migration of birds. In my second post, I took pictures at 30th St. station with my Mom, and I learned that Philadelphia is one of the worst cities with light pollution. For my agent of change, I did a presentation to my Boy Scout Troop on some facts about light pollution and how to reduce light pollution. It was interesting because I learned how to reduce light pollution and I learned some facts about light pollution. Some of the facts that I learned were that the sky glow of Los Angeles is visible from an airplane 200 miles away, but people there haven't seen the stars in a long time, artificial light at night disrupts the seasonal cycle of trees, light pollution contributes to climate change, light pollution kills millions of birds a year, and exposure to artificial light at night puts your health at risk. Ways to reduce light pollution are to turn off lights, especially outdoor lights, replace outdoor lights with low-glare fixtures, place motion sensors on outdoor lamps, and replacing high-energy bulbs with outdoor CFLs and LED floodlights. I think that simply by turning off lights you can make a difference in reducing light pollution.

I was effective in making a change because I got my Troop to think about how they are not able to see the stars in the city because of light pollution. I suggested that they turn off the lights and switch to motion sensors for outdoor lighting so they can reduce light pollution.

This project was pretty hard, but I had to do it. I learned that I wait until the last minute to do things. I feel that I could have prepared for this project better. Turning off the lights will help to reduce light pollution. Here is the link to my Google Slides.

Here is the link to my annotated bibliography.

Previously on my High School: Drug Abuse research project I did some background research on teenagers and common drug use, and the dangers and risks that come with it. In this post I reference diagrams,graphs, quotes, and statistics that show that using many of these drugs result in brain damage, and sometimes physical damage depending on the drug. In the 2nd blog post I had a 45 minute interview with my Uncles coworker, David Johnson who told me his story and experience with drug use/abuse since he was 12. You can read more about those two posts by clicking here for the 1st one and here for the 2nd.

For my Agent of Change I tried to think about the best way to make a change for my problem which was Teenage Drug Abuse. My logic behind the thinking revolved around me thinking about how I could tell the kids not to try drugs, or become a regular user of drugs, without getting them to do the exact opposite. In my presentation instead of saying do not try or do drugs at the beginning, I instead showed horrific and shocking statistics surrounding the dangers of drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, and consuming nicotine via smoking and vaping. When the faculty saw these statistics which were fairly recent, in the past decade to be exact that started to think about their own children in their lives as well as the students. I went on to explain how even though at the surface these drugs can be harmless they affect teengers the worse. The reasoning behind this is the developing adolescent brain which could be negatively affected by drugs causing less brain development and lack of skills or traits in certain parts of the brain like the cerebral cortex and the limbic system. While doing this project I felt challenged, but Iḿ glad I was able to complete it, and it brings me joy that the faculty thought it was good enough that they should present to students at Germantown Friends School.

To conclude my series of post, this project was amazing and really made me look at an important topic and help the problem become non-existant. While doing this project I felt like I was making a real contribution to the world and my issue. If I were to do anything differently, I would challenge myself to make even more of a change than I did initially. I think in the bigger picture of Teenage Substance Abuse, there a lot of room for improvement as well as thinks that could be addressed and fixed. This includes clearing the stigma of rehabilitation, encouraging adolescents to speak up about drug use, and any personal problem they may have, and properly educating adolescents about the dangers of drugs.

Draft Post #3

     Helloooo, me again. Now I promise that this is the last time I am going to bother this with the You and The World project thing. In case you haven’t seen it already here are my first and second posts if you needed a little bit of a refresher. This time I did my Agent of Change that I briefly mentioned in my second post.

    For my Agent of Change I decided that I would make a video explaining what you should and shouldn’t do in the case of bullying. The various situations I had my actors do were things such as, a kid being bullied and someone coming up to it and instead of helping they just recorded it instead. Another situation they did was when the victim was being bullied another kid jumped in but instead of helping him he went to help the bully beat the kid up. Then when it came to the situations that involved actually helping the victim out with the first one being where someone came up and confronted the bully instead. The final situation I had for the video is that someone instead of confronting the bully went and grabbed a teacher for help.

 I did this because I thought “hey since this seems like something that’s pretty unique and that no one else is doing and I like videos and photography, I might as well do this!” So I decided instead of doing a social experiment  I will have it showing what are different reactions and why or why you should not do certain things. I did this so others can actually watch it and even know how to respond and see if they know how to recognize it.

       If you didn’t know already bullying is the physical and/ or mental abuse of someone by someone else. I and many others have gone through this and let me tell you it sucks. So I wanted to try and raise awareness about this so here the video is.

    I already went over the basis of what bullying is so here is what the video is, please go check it out!:

Alright due to some difficulties I am not able to show it but as soon as I can I will update this.

For my final part of my You and The World project, I decided to use social media to my advantage. I created an Instagram account that is about food. In my two previous posts were showcasing a plant-based diet. My first post was mainly me glorifying not eating meat because it is bad for you. Looking back at it, it was biased but my second post level the playing fields. For my second post, I decided to gather my own research to back up my original research. I interviewed 3 people, the first person decided to be vegan for health reasons, the second person my friend who has been a vegan her entire life, and her mother. By searching for my own research I learned that having a plant-based diet isn’t as good as I thought it might be, but that just wasn’t enough for me to believe that not eating meat was beneficial to me.

I had two parts to my Agent of Change; the first part was to stop eating meat and the second was to document it. I created this change for myself where I would stop eating meat for six weeks but I broke it up in parts. Every two weeks I would increase the intensity of my diet by making it more strict. The first week 1&2 I was a pescatarian, week 3&4 vegetarian, and 5&6 vegan. The hardest part was being vegan because I felt like I couldn’t eat anything and the easiest was being a pescatarian. I after completing the 6 weeks I didn’t feel much of a difference other than the fact of knowing the I’m not eating an animal. Then I created an Instagram to show people how easy it is. I decided to create the account because during the six weeks I followed multiple food accounts on Instagram and YouTube, so I decided to make my own.

Follow me @whatinthefood

My experience of not eating meat wasn’t necessarily hard if I did it correctly. When I wasn’t eating meat I had to find other things to eat. The main thing I found myself a lot of starch. I ended up gaining 10 pounds at the end of the 6 weeks because I wasn’t watching what I was eating. When you don’t eat meat it is easier to gain weight unless you plan out what you’re eating. Several weeks later I still no longer eat meat, not for health reasons but because my body has adapted to being a pescatarian. I still struggle with my diet but I’m getting better by planning out my meals.

After completing this project I feel more aware of what goes into my body. By doing this my entire perspective on people who don’t eat meat. When I used to eat meat I thought people didn’t eat meat were crazy and not eating meat was the dumbest choice in the world. I felt as though I wouldn’t be able to survive with having a burger in my life but when I tried it for myself it blew my mind. I wanted to break the stigma of eating meat is the only way I could survive, and that is how my Finsta( food Instagram) was created.

The process of doing my Agent of Change was a little bumpy. My original plan was to document everything I ate but then I lost all my content because someone stole my phone. So then I was back to square one, but I still pushed through. I later came up with the idea of creating an Instagram and finding recipes to recreate. My project didn't turn out exactly how I planned but I managed.

Bracelets Give A Hope For a Change

It’s time to make a change! Seniors living isolation is an issue that all of us should be aware of. In my previous posts, “Elderly Living in Isolation” and “Home For The Isolated,” I talked about elders that live in isolation and things that we could do to help them. As part of my research, I went to NewCourtland, a senior home that interacts with their residents and makes their lives better every day. I left the home knowing that seniors are part of our community, and just like children, we should take care of them. Along with this, I interviewed Gail Kass, the president and CEO of this amazing home. She told me about the experience at NewCourtland and  said: “The hope I have for the life they have here is to try to give them a quality of life, try to make them feel independent as possible, safe, fed, happy, and clean.” I went to NewCourtland and Mrs. Kass’ words reflected everything I had seen that day. I was happy to know that someone cared about senior citizens and was willing to try to make their lives better.

Have you ever felt that you are on your own and that no one is there for you when you need them the most? That’s how people that live in isolation feel. Loneliness can lead to depression, and even suicide. As part of my research, I informed people about this problem, as well as showed my support for helping this issue. I know that I can not make families decide what they will do to care for elders, but I can at least create the doubt over deciding whether or not the family should send the elder to a retirement home. I also have the power to make sure senior citizens feel loved and appreciated. For all this to happen, I decided for my agent of change, how I can make change, I would create bracelets of hope that would spread a message to all of the seniors who receive it. This  will help show support and love from teenagers.

A picture of the bracelets

At first, the bracelets were a failure, they were very hard to make. The material would get tangled and it would take around 50 minutes to create one bracelet. I made 10 bracelets, and when I tested the bracelets, all of them broke. I was frustrated because I did not know what to do. It had taken me two weeks to make those bracelets. But then, I found out that waxed cotton cord can be really helpful. I went to every craft store near my house, and could not find the waxed cotton cord. I was ready to give up until I found it online and bought it. I brought ten yards of waxed cotton cord and started making new bracelets that were way easier to make. The bracelets took only 15 minutes to make.

A picture of the original bracelet

After a good amount of work, I finished my bracelets and got on the road to begin boxes. The boxes were 5 x 5 inches and made out of paper. They were super cool to make! Since I was almost done, I decided to include a small message in the box, which said, “I want you to know that someone out there cares.” I made 7 boxes and gave them out to my close friends to spread the message of support to elders who live in isolation. I heard some of my friends say, “Who am I going to give this to?” others said, “I’ll give it to my grandma.” I was delighted to hear that many thought about neighbors and friends, which was just my intention and an incredible way to spread the message.

A picture of the boxes

Since everybody I knew got a bracelet of hope and gave it to someone they loved, I decided to make one for myself and my neighbor. My neighbor is an incredible lady who I just met. I was walking and when I saw her, I knew that she deserved a present. I went home and made her a bracelet for her and me. When I gave her the bracelet, her smile was one of the most wonderful things I’ve seen in my short life. I saw her eyes and I felt the joy, I couldn’t stop smiling. Even though I could not take a picture with her, I am glad that I got a smile from her.

A small message to the receivers of the box       Friends showing love and appreciation.

A picture of my friend’s grandma wearing             My teacher and a student showing support to seniors that

the bracelet                                                                live in isolation

I learned that small things can mean a lot to other people, things as small as a “good morning” or even a “hi” can make someone’s day. Making someone happy makes you feel happy, and that's when you notice that there is hope to be better and change someone’s world. Now, I appreciate every single moment I spend with my family. I expected to have enough time to make more bracelets, but I would not have imagined that I would face numerous obstacles. Living in isolation is something that no one wants and it is our duty as members of a society to help anyone who lives in isolation to feel loved and appreciated no matter what race, gender, or age they are.

Annotated Bibliography

Previously, you may have read my two blog posts on orca captivity, (post1: Mistreatment of Orcas) (post2: Extinction of Orcas). I was curious about any news on orcas that I might have missed for my blog post 2. In an article by National Geographics, Sarah Gibbens (the writer for the article) writes about another one of the captive born orcas dying at a young age because of infections that stem from the captivity pools. Kyara, a 3 month old orca was pronounced dead at the San Antonio Seaworld after it was confirmed she died of pneumonia. 60 percent of captivity orca deaths are caused by the infectious diseases from the park, according to the investigation done from San Antonio News. SeaWorld has since then officially ended its breeding program for the killer whales. It is a good step because the movement of the people has begun to work. Recently, Seaworld has announced to shift their park from the live whale shows into more education and animal conservation. Although, these are huge steps in ending captivity, there is still so much to do.

Picture of Kyara with her mother Takara.

by the end of 2018, in the state of Florida, there will be no more orca entertainment shows. If this bill proceeds successfully, it could inspire other states to act the same.

As I ventured deeper into my project. It has hit me that I could not easily solve it in two months. The next best thing I believed that I could do was to raise awareness so that people can get their knowledge on a topic that is not thoroughly discussed. I decided that I was going to do a fundraiser for a orca conservation organization that aids orcas. I decided on the OrcaConservancy, they are a non-profit organization that help the wildlife and environments where orcas live in. They also act to help orcas get out of captivity by organizing marches and signing petitions. They also have programs where young people can be educated on orcas and help out with volunteering.

I contacted them through email to see how they are, why they should be the one organization out of many other ones to donate. They replied in a day and said that they would appreciate a donation very much.

Picture of the response of one of the Orca Conservancy spokesperson.

I thought what a better way to spread awareness than to show a documentary to young people. I had chosen the documentary Blackfish because not only is it just a heart touching, beautiful documentary. It conveys the message of what is wrong about orca captivity, it hits many points, scientific and even personal scenarios. My goal was to have at least 10 people attend and donate. But I had actually surpassed that number which was amazing. I would charge the admission fee be $4 for each person to come to see the documentary. I also gave attendees the option to purchase a rainbow loom bracelet for $1, all proceeds of the event would go to the organization.

In my first post, I wrote about how food waste was an underrated problem and how if we solve it,  multiple other problems in the world can be solved, including world hunger and climate change. In my second post, where I did my Original Research, I did an over the phone interview with Imperfect Produce, which is an organization that targeted food waste at its source, farms, by sending people the produce that the farms were unable to sell to name brand supermarkets.

Recently in the U.K., stores like Morrisons have been getting involved in helping to solve food waste by implementing a program called Wonky Veg, where stores sell less aesthetically pleasing fruits and vegetables for a cheaper price. The only reason this program was put in place is because it was recently revealed that 13 billion pounds of edible food is thrown away, with an extra 3 billion of food being wasted by grocery stores and supermarkets. If the Wonky Veg program was enforced in the U.S., then this would greatly diminish the amount of food that goes to waste each year.

For my Agent of Change, at first I was unsure of what to do in order to truly make an impact on this issue. I had a half baked idea of taking all of the leftover lunch food from the school and donating to different homeless shelters but in the end, I decided not to pursue this because I thought it would take more time in order to set everything up. I eventually chose to do an experiment of sorts where I would calculate how much money we spent and wasted on food in one month and then in the next month would see how much money and food we could save if we just paid attention to our food budget. I choose this option because I felt like if people could see how much money is needlessly spent on food, they would be less inclined to spend it all over the place. After taking in the results, I would present the results to my mom and a couple of her friends in order to try and get them to see the benefits of not wasting food. At first, I was going to make a website, but it was a couple of days before this was due and I realized I had no idea what I was doing, so I made a presentation of my data, which was targeted towards adults.

In March, when we didn’t budget at all, my mom and I spent about $760 dollars on food, while in April, we spent $535, saving $225 just from budgeting and shopping at places like Whole Foods, where they have gradually put uglier produce in order to combat the issue of food waste. We also took up the habit of looking at expiration dates more closely so we could keep an eye on when certain foods went bad so that we weren’t throwing out as much uneaten food. In fact, in April we only threw out 10 dollars in food, while in March we threw out around $50 worth of food. After I showed my mom these results we both decided to be more frugal when it comes to spending money on food and to save the extra money.  

This graph shows how much money was spent in the months of March and April

While doing this project and looking at how much money we spent and wasted, I realized how careless we were when buying food, especially fruits and vegetables since those expire the fastest. I also learned how easy it was to ignore the food you had in your fridge and pantry and instead go out to buy more food, which would lead to food being pushed to the back of your fridge until it’s expired. If I did this again, I would have people calculate how much money they spent with me in order to get more reliable data and so that other people could see how much money their family was spending, since writing down how much money you spend seems to make the numbers add up quicker. Although this did raise awareness to a couple of people, in order to solve food waste many things still need to be done in order to properly combat issue.

I’ve come a long way since when my research into sexual health in our city began in February. In that first post, I breezed over how there is a sparisity of inclusive and helpful curricula explaining how to execute safe sex.  After that initial research, I started collecting information concerning how teens can be affected by the word around them, ultimately being detrimental towards their sexual health. During my original research with SLA’s Sex-Ed teacher, I learned that mental health and drug use strongly affect whether or not you practice safe sex, and furthermore get STDs. That research opened up new possibilities on how to create an agent of change, as there are many perspectives in this city, each dealing with different issues in their own world, and each possibly having different views on what safe sex is. That realization made me decide that the only way to realistically talk about Philadelphia’s teenagers, and how they think of safe sex, is to ask them. I cannot speak for all of them. So, I decided to make a short film, consisting of multiple answers to the same question: “What is safe sex?”

I wanted to create a short film because it would allow me to explain a subject in a broader way, when compared to a poster or a petition that would be created by me. A short film, presented the way I am presenting it, is what it is. It’s not open to interpretation, it’s just a number of perspectives answering a question. My experience actually creating the short film was interesting, as I thought it would be. The structure I created for the film would be a screen with the question, and then the students’ multiple answers to it. In between each question, would be facts I have collected throughout my research which connect to the theme of safe sex. I would try to make it look as visually attractive as possible, not unlike a Buzzfeed or Insider video, so that people are more inclined to keep watching, When I actually went ahead and started finding people to record answers for, there were plenty of people interested in providing a short answer. It was, though, pretty awkward for them. Most students provided a similar answer when I asked them to talk about what they think safe sex is: Use a condom so you will not get STDs. Only one student I talked to mentioned consent , and only one student talked about birth control.

If I could do this project over again, I would definitely spend more time planning the actual short film. I was faced with a bunch of possibilities for the movie, and I should have been more prepared, and I should have made the movie a few days before the due date, if not a whole week or more. I procrastinated, which ended up screwing me over towards the end, but I am glad with how it ended up.

Helping college students

Blog Post 2 Blog post 1

For my You and the World project my goal is to help college students pay their very expensive college fees. In my last 2 post, I talked about the expense of college, why it’s expensive, and ways we can make it cheaper. I’m hoping that with these post you can understand the problem with colleges. It’s important because lots of people want to go to college and get a good education but can’t because of fees.

My check to drexel

Drexel University

Main Building

This post is about how I contributed in helping this cause. For my Agent of Change, my goal was to obtain money and the give it to a scholarship fund. This will help future college students because it means that colleges can give more scholarships to students which means cheaper tuition for more students. To get the money, I have worked in different jobs in my neighborhood for friends and family. I have mowed lawns, babysat, and more. I have raised $105.

This will all go to Drexel University because the tuition there is really expensive. It’s one of the most expensive colleges in Philadelphia. Donating to a scholarship fund isn’t hard. If you want to support the cause this is a way you can do it.

I decided to obtain money this way instead of a fundraiser because working more than likely gets you more money than a fundraiser. I did still tell friends and family about the cause. My experience was excellent because I was gaining a lot of money and I knew it was going to a good cause. I was effective in making a change because I helped pay for a scholarship that will go to a future college student that might be struggling to pay the fees. With my small donation, I can make a big difference in someone’s life.

I really enjoyed this project. I enjoyed it because it helps me, a simple person, be able to call out a problem with the world and make a difference. I learned that anyone can help others and feel as good as I feel now. I also learned that anyone can have that feeling. I feel like I could have done a better job getting this issue out to everyone. My goal wasn’t awareness, it was helping and I feel like I should have done both. If I were to do it again, and I might, then I would definitely make it more public to everyone. Whether it’s posters or social media. Just because this project is over, doesn’t mean I’m done helping and it doesn’t mean you should forget this project. Anyone can donate and anyone can help this cause.

Ethan Friedman

May 2018

Throughout the past couple months, I have been researching and revolving the minimum wage issue in Pennsylvania. I researched issues regarding minimum wage and living situations in Pennsylvania. I conducted a survey among my classmates and other kids my age that live in and around Philadelphia that focused on personal experiences with minimum wage. Finally, I wrote a well thought out letter to Gov. Tom Wolf providing supporting evidence on why the minimum wage in Pennsylvania must be raised to $10 if not double.

The 2017 minimum wage by state in the United States. Pennsylvania is tied with many other states for the lowest minimum wage.

According to the Huffington Post, you would need to make just under $60,000 to support a family in Philadelphia and $15,000 certainly isn’t enough. America ranks 11th in the world for the highest minimum wage according to OECD. Australia's minimum wage is over $15 an hour and 80% of the country makes over 5% more than the minimum wage.

Pennsylvania is 1 of 3 states who host one of the 10 largest cities in America who have the minimum possible wage. When growing up and going to inter-city schools, I notice how some kids can’t go out with their friends, because they don’t have the money to. The government is limiting the amount of money people can make, and it is causing children to be unhappy with their lives. Everybody deserves to spend time with their friends, to go get pizza or see a movie.

When working on issues regarding income, it is important to take other factors into account, such as location, opportunity, and sources of income. When I conducted a survey with students in Philadelphia, I found out that 1 in every 9 students only lives with 1 adult figure.

Source: Google Forms: Original Research Survey

When you only have one source of income which is that adult’s job, it is very difficult to support a family. The population of Pennsylvania is approximately 12.81 million people according to the United States Census Bureau.  That means that about 1.4 million families in Pennsylvania are ran by a single parent. There is clearly a problem in the system if 11% of families can’t afford to live.

To combat this issue, I decided to write a letter directly to the office of Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania. I introduced the issue and my personal experience with people who are affected by the issues, and I proposed the idea to double the minimum wage in Pennsylvania. I hope that he understands what families have to go through to support themselves.

In order to make a difference, more people need to stand up for what they believe in. If the governor receives 200 letters that speak from the heart on increasing the minimum wage, he is going to notice that there is a major issue. Throughout my work over the past couple months, I have built up evidence and reason to make a difference. He will not believe somebody who claims that we need change if they can’t provide a reason to make change.

Throughout this process, I have learned about issues in my own community and peers that I had not understood before. I believe that change is unavoidable. It is impossible to survive on $15,000 a year whether you’re alone or living with multiple kids. I am glad that there are politicians like Bernie Sanders who have spoken publicly about raising minimum wage as a country.

The letter that I mailed to Tom Wolf.

Annotated Bibliography

Mission Accomplished

In my first blog about littering, I wrote about  how I felt about issue of littering and provided statistics, facts, and consequences that it gives. Then, my second blog post talked about the age difference and what ages litters the most, and I talked about what I observed from my neighborhood. After researching and telling how I felt about the issue I was passionate about, I took matters into my own hands and went to go clean up a park called East Poplar Playground.

The park is located in North Philadelphia on 8th and Poplar street. I decided to have my family help me with the clean up. The clean up was a success, we collected a lot of trash off the ground. We had a rake to get the trash out the grass, we had a broom to sweep up the trash into the bag, and we had gloves to pick up the trash. Here are some pictures of us cleaning up:

My  original idea was on Earth Day I was going to the FDR park but the plan didn’t go right so I canceled it. Instead, I decided to go to the East Poplar Park because it wasn’t that far from me,  so from there that's where I did my agent of change. My experience while cleaning up was I felt like I was a big help to the environment because majority of people don’t care about the environment but I do, and taking my time to clean up the environment shows how much I care. It was a great experience having my family coming to help fix the issue that I am passionate about. I felt like I was effective in this agent of change because as I was cleaning up, people were walking and driving past seeing what we were doing and probably in their heads they were probably glad that my family and I were doing the right thing for the community. It seems like it was a impact on them because the people that was looking were probably thinking of having their kids do the same.

The Project Overall

The project was overall a great journey for me as a teenager. During this period of time this generation is full of open-minded kids, but there are other kids who doesn't care about anything do anything they want. I feel like it was a great opportunity for me to go out and clean up the trash because according to this website it says, “ Every year, the United States generates approximately 230 million tons of "trash"--about 4.6 pounds per person per day.”

That is a lot of trash that people is bringing up and some of that trash ends up on the ground. What I learned about my potential during this adventure is that I can be a big help to my community and other communities as well. I can be an role model to other people and maybe that will change people decision about dropping trash on the ground and instead they can put their trash in the garbage can. Throughout the course of setting up my agent of change what I could’ve done better was getting the word out. I didn’t put up flyers and that’s why people didn’t come the first time so that's why I wanted to cancel it as I said it earlier in the post. What else I could have done better was plan out the event I was doing because I didn’t think about bringing water and snacks until someone said that so I should’ve thought of that.

What Else Is Left To Change

There are some things to change and it starts with the kids. Kids today don’t know that much about littering and the effect of it. Like I explained in my second blog post, parents should teach their children about littering because as they are growing up they will see what the adults are doing and think that is the right thing to do when it’s not. Adults as well litter because they are lazy to throw their trash in the garbage can and that should change by maybe having a little challenge where if they don’t litter they can get a certain amount of money and maybe that can change their habits. Different types of events could take place where kids and adults could go out to a park and pick up trash to clean up their community; it could be a clean up day! If your community ever wanted or have a clean up day here is some advice on what materials you should have and what to think about during the process. Well, this experience has been a extravagant adventure and I am so glad that I was able to go out and do my part for the world.

Here are some pictures:

The Latino community has so many different skin colors, hair textures, and traditions. In my first post I did research on other Latinos’ experience with colorism and discrimination with other Latinos. Some of their confrontations were with their family members, friends, and even random people on the streets. I also talked about how there isn’t much representation in the media of dark skinned Latinos or Latinos with kinky curly hair. In my second blog post I did my own research because I wanted to hear different experiences of colorism or if they had even heard of colorism in my community. I sent out a survey to get my information, and I didn’t get the results I was expecting. I was expecting the darker Latinos to be more discriminated against for their color, but my responses were the opposite. The lighter skinned Latinos were being denied as being Latino. People were telling them that they were “too light” to be like us.

The next step I had to take for this project was how was I going to make difference for this issue in my community. I wasn’t sure at all what I wanted to do. I knew I couldn’t fix everything and change other people’s minds easily. The least I could do was bring awareness and educate others of this issue or at least bring up the conversation because “we, as a community, need to start having the conversation about colorism and anti-blackness within our circles. We need to better educate each other about Afro-Latino identity and how Afro-Latinos are just as great a part of our community as anyone else.” To spread this word around,  I thought a video would be a great way to reach people. There would be different Latinos in the video with different looks, expressing they are proud of who they are. I emailed some Latinos at my school and they agreed to be in the video, and I also had some people at my church say that they would love to help me out. In the video you see Latinos of different ages, shapes, sizes, skin colors, and nationalities. This is how I chose to display a glimpse of our diversity.

In the video you see Deliah, who is Afro Latina and standing next to her are her two children. She and her family are darker skinned with curly coily hair. Deliah and her family never shy away from who they are and celebrate their culture just as much as anyone else. Also in the video you see Carol who is Mexican American and is so proud to be who she is. Some people might say that she is “not the typical looking Mexican” but what does that mean? How could one culture all look the same? Just because Carol isn’t slightly darker or have pin straight black hair makes her less Mexican American as anyone else who is Mexican American. Those comments have never stopped her from embracing her culture and her beautiful features. The last person you see in the video is Luz, 93. She is Puerto Rican and says something that speaks volume. “I feel just like anyone else. What vary between culture is the costumes and behavior. We are all human beings.” Luz is right, we are all human beings. So what does it matter if someone doesn’t look like you? Or if their hair has different texture? Or if their skin is a different shade?

After the making of the video, I showed it to some of the people who were featured in the video. They said it was “quick and to the point” which is exactly what I wanted this video to be. My goal was bringing awareness so people can ask questions and bring acceptance to the diversity within my community. My mom uploaded my video to her Facebook and I got so many comments! One person said “Isabella is right, there is so much tension within our own community and people don’t even talk about it.” Another said “Isabella is so young to even know about this division in the community. When I found out about all the colorism, I was an adult in college! She did a lovely job at making this video.” I got many comments complimenting me, cheering me on, and encouraging me. Seeing all of the positivity really put a smile on my face and they inspire me to do more for my cause.

The countless hours I have done researching, gathering, and documenting information for this project has inspired me to move forward. Information given to me by the Facebook viewers have also inspired me to continue spreading acceptance and awareness against colorism within my community. I wish I had more time to be able to let you know everything I have learned but through this method is simply not possible. I think this project has taught me a lot about myself and people in my community.  This has been a cool project for me and something that I have become more passionate about. Because I am 15 and Puerto Rican and proud of me and my curly kinky hair.

ANN BIB!

Before you continue reading this post, go to my previous two posts, Where Are Their Voting Rights? and Asian American Voting Rights Activists’ POV. My first post, Where Are Their Voting Rights?, talks about the issue with Asian American voting rights and what have been done about it. For example, an issue with Asian American voting rights is language barrier and there are organizations like Asian American United (AAU) that help non-English speaking citizens with their voting registration when it’s election season. In my second post, Asian American Voting Rights Activists’ POV, I wrote about my interview with Xu Lin, one of the board members of Asian American United (AAU) and Wei Chen, the Civil Engagement Coordinator of Asian American United (AAU). I also talked about what I learned from them and how I can play a part in this issue.

There are many things that have been done to help Asian Americans with their voting rights. For example, organizations helped non-English speakers citizens with their voting registration. From my interview with Wei Chen, I learned that engaging young citizens in volunteering with Asian Americans can help with Asian American voting rights because they are informed about what’s going on in their community and they are able to help family members with voting or voting themselves when they pass the age requirement. During the presidential election in 2016, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had their own ways to increase their votes with Asian Americans. Hillary Clinton had her own Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Outreach Director and Donald Trump worked with an Asian Pacific American Advisory Committee. There are studies that shows that the population of Asian American voters has increased during the 2016 election. From the 2012 election to 2016 election, there was a difference of 2 million voters. The UCLA Study for Center for Inequality and Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) predicts that from 2015 to 2040, Asian American votes would grow by 107%. Language barrier isn’t the only issue for Asian American voters, there are others problems like intimidating voters and more. I think that because voting rights for Asian Americans is an issue that can be solve in a day, I think that the ways that are used to fix this issue are effective because looking at the increase of Asian American voters at each election slowly the problem is getting fixed.

For my Agent of Change, I presented to a class of seventh graders at my old school, Folk Arts Cultural Treasures Charter School (FACTS). My original plans for my Agent of Change was not only to present at my old school, but also to volunteer at Asian American United (AAU) to help non-English citizens with their voter registration since on Tuesday, May 15 waas election day. I wasn’t able to volunteer, but at least I was able to inform a young generation of citizens about their voting right since most of the students were Asian Americans and what they can do to help their community. I decide to present at my old school, specifically seventh graders because in the future they would be the next generation to vote and not only they can understand their voting right, but also take the chance to help others around them out. For the first two weeks, I was thinking of other ways or things to do to help out with Asian American voting rights like a meeting or conference arranged to talk about Asian American voting rights or collaborating with an organization that mainly focus on voting rights. On May 9, I went to FACTS and had a present about Asian American voting rights and overall I think the result came out pretty good because I allowed them to understand how important it is for everyone to have a vote and in this case it’s Asian Americans. I think it is effective to make a change to the issue because I was able to spread the message, which allowed more people to understand what’s happening in their society and inspire them to help out with the issue in their own ways.

Here are some of the images of me presenting to the seventh grade class.

Overall I think that the You & The World project is one of the most interesting topics I have ever done because I felt like I grew a lot in this process and learned a lot about the society I am in, especially I got the chance to research something that is meaningful to me. Although, this project takes a lot of patience and hardwork, I think it paid off in the end because I think that I learn a lot about myself and different lessons that may come in handy in the future. What I learned about myself is that I am really realistic and I can help others out more than I can help myself because in this project I noticed that I won’t really believe someone or trust someone easily unless they prove to me that they can be trust. Especially through their writing and the way how they talk. I also noticed that many of the advice I give to people around or my classmates are really realistic and helps them out a lot because of my experience I had. For me, it is like I have to find someone more experienced than I am or more creative than I am to give me advice about something because I am pretty hard on myself and whether it’s an assignment or not I do not want to accomplish something that doesn’t really challenge my limits in specific way. To clarify, I am not saying that if someone advise me to sky diving to conquer my fear of heights, I would do it, but it has to challenge me to try something new and step out of my comfort zone. I think one thing I could have done better is time management for my Agent of Change because I believe that I could have done more than having a presentation. I think there are many things left to make a change in Asian American voting rights since it’s a problem with all fifty states in America, but I believe that the little changes we make now will eventually make a change for Asian Americans.

As you all know, for the past couple of months I’ve been researching problems in the WNBA. As I stated before the WNBA has a funding and publicity problem. In my first post, I introduced my problem. In my second post, I gave some solutions on how we can better the WNBA, like expanding or advertising more. Over the course of the past months I’ve learned about people like Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins, who are underpaid in their profession. I’ve learned about  over 5,000 women college basketball athletes that are told they won’t be able to live out their dreams. All this is because the WNBA can’t afford to expand their organisation.

For my You and the World project, I wanted to bring attention to a problem that not to many know or care about. Among further research, there’s about 202,000 people that view the WNBA on ESPN. The NBA has 1.5 viewers. Are there any guesses why? Publicity plays a huge role when you have an organization so I feel like the WNBA would be better socially and financially if they had more supporters. It helps that the NBA funds the WNBA, but many people don’t know that. Due to the fact that the NBA barely talks about the WNBA.

I felt like Gatorade would be a great organization to change this. Gatorade is one of the top sports drink in the world. There brand is everywhere, in commercials, billboards and many professional games. Everytime I see an advertisement for gatorade though, itś mostly a famous man talking about or drinking the drink. I feel like this should change. The WNBA doesn’t even have a third of the NBA’s supporters. If Gatorade put more female basketball players in their commercial, it can open so many doors for the WNBA. There will be more supporters and viewers, but it can also build a better relationship. between Gatorade and the WNBA.

At first, I didn’t know what to do for my Agent Of Change. I had the idea of raising money for the WNBA, but I felt like I wouldn’t raise it enough for it to really be effective. Then, I thought of a presentation but that wouldn’t get as much supporters as I want to feel like my Agent of Change would be successful. Finally I came up with the idea of informing people about my problem and getting some to write letters to Gatorade about letting more female basketball players in their advertisements. I knew informing people wouldn’t be an issue, but getting people to write letters would be the challenge. Writing isn’t everyone’s interest. Luckily, I got my friends Randy and Sofia to help me write letters. All three of us wrote our letters one doc. We all edited each other’s letter and I emailed all three letters.

This is a picture of Randy Le typing his letter.

In conclusion, I think my You and the world project was successful. It was a lot of work for me,and stressful at times. I learned so much about the profession I hope to one day have. Even though it was challenging, I am glad I did this project.Some things that went right for me was my research and my interview with Diamond Wallace. Some challenges I had were writing a slate post and getting people to wright letters for me. Overall, this project was a

This is where you can find my Annotated Bibliography.

My topic which is bringing together Ben Franklin and Science Leadership Academy, due to the co-location that will be happening in the 2020 school year. My goal is to prevent any conflict between the two very different schools.  In my first post I talked a lot about how each school was very different, but also how we can benefit from that. In the second post I interviewed 3 important people who are working towards making this a smooth transition for everyone. I talked with principals from my school and Ben Franklin, and also spoke with the Superintendent of Innovation Network, Christina Grant. In the interview I asked questions about what could be improved on during this move, what challenges they anticipate, and what they think about the situation in general.

Me asking for some feedback on some questions and ideas.

The next step in this project wasn’t finding more resources or more people to interview, it was going out and making a change for this cause. We call it an Agent of Change, some way to spread awareness or help make a difference. I knew right from the start what I wanted to do to make a change. I wanted to start a club between the two schools. Taking in the input I received I found other ways to help, like having a day of team building or a party. A club seemed like the most efficient and long lasting solution to this problem.

That’s what I did, I started a club to bring together Ben Franklin and SLA students. The first meeting was not what I was expecting, only about 5 people came. My teacher sponsor and I talked about ways to get Ben Franklin involved in the club, because as of right now it’s only SLA students. We did some fun icebreakers and also had a discussion about what to call the club during the first meeting. I realized that I needed to think about ways to improve this new club and advertise it better, so that more people will want to join. My plan is to have another meeting next week and hopefully it will be more successful. That being said I have to start somewhere and I think this is a great starting point for me and this club.

Me presenting during my first club meeting

My objective is to keep this club going throughout my whole high school career and even further after I graduate. I believe this club will really make both school environments feel better with each other. I want my club to have 3 main goals, one is problems solving. Which means I want our club to be the place everyone goes to if there is a problem involving both schools, that we can fix. The second goal I want is team building, so that aspect of having a club where we would get to know each other and have fun while doing it. The last goal I want is event planning, I was thinking we could be the group that plans dances and both school wide events.

I did have some setbacks and in the beginning, my plan was to contact Ben Franklin staff. That didn’t really work out due to lack of communication, so I had to work around that challenge. This is why the club right now is only SLA students, we are working towards finding a way to contact Ben Franklin students. Overall this experience was something I won't forget, this project really inspired me. Trying to make an impact and change on something that means a lot to me, makes me feel like I am making a difference. This topic isn’t really an issue yet but if it ever does become one I feel like my club will really help, and lot of people will benefit from it.

For my last two posts, “Illegal Animal Trafficking” and “New Information on The Illegal Animal Trade” I wrote about illegal wildlife trafficking and everything I had learned about it. I found out about the magnitude and consequences of animal trafficking, the conditions animals are kept in when they are traded around and about how animals that are endangered are more valuable in the trade since they are rarer. I also talked about my interview with the Vice President of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Susan Lieberman, and how the laws on illegal animal trading are too lenient. I now continued my research to the next step of the You and The World Project, my Agent of Change, where we have to actually make an impact on our topic.

For this post, I wanted to learn about what was being done to combat this issue. I knew about big organizations like World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which I previously talked about on my other posts. The WWF is educating people about illegal animal trafficking and trying to make sure legislation is followed. Also, they “research illegal wildlife trade routes, the effects of wildlife trade on particular species and deficiencies in wildlife trade laws. This information is essential for CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and supports new plans for confronting illegal wildlife trade.” They do this to make sure stricter laws will be put in place to protect animals. During my research, I also discovered a new organization called Conservation International (CI) who is working to help animals that were trafficked and prevent wildlife threats. There are many organizations working on preventing illegal animal trading and hopefully with our help they will be able to stop animal trafficking.

For my Agent of Change, I was not sure what I wanted to do for it in the beginning. I finished my last post with the idea of maybe creating a poster to inform people about the illegal animal trade. After getting feedback from my peers and teacher, I decided to create a poster to place all over my school (SLA) Philadelphia so that people could learn more about the issue of illegal animal trafficking. My hope is that people will become as captivated with this topic as much as I have and will learn all they can about it as it is not a well-known topic. I also hope that the people who read my poster and even my posts will share their knowledge with others to spread the word and help animals.

Here is my illegal animal trade informational poster.

Even though I had created my poster and gave people the opportunity to learn more about the issue, I still wanted to do more. After doing more research on the websites of big organizations that work to help protect animals, I found symbolic adoptions on the WWF website. I had heard about these before and instantly became interested. As I learned more about the adoptions, the question of what animal I would adopt appeared. I filtered my search results on their website to find the most critically endangered animals. Then, I decided to do some research to see what the most endangered animal in the world was, the Sumatran Rhino. Rhinos are greatly affected by poaching and their habitats are also being torn down. There are also only about 300 Sumatran Rhinos left living in the wild. It was the perfect animal for me to adopt. From adopting the rhino, I received a picture, an informational card about the animal, and a printed and online adoption certificate. The money from the adoption is used to help fund their organization (WWF) and help them to protect wildlife. I was particularly excited about adopting an animal especially since I had wanted to do something like this for a long time. I think it is great that people can make a change in this way. I will forever cherish my rhino and remember about illegal animal trading and how even though I am only one person I can make an impact in the world.

The illegal animal trade is an issue that I didn’t know much about in the beginning but I am happy to have picked. I came into this project not knowing what I wanted my topic to be. When I got the idea to do illegal animal trafficking, I barely knew anything about it. I learned so much from doing this project and from seeing other students’ projects. This evolved so much as I continued the project because I was able to learn about the many layers of my issue. I saw the horrifying images of the results of illegal animal trading, I even had the chance to interview an expert on the subject. I think that I could have managed my time better during this project, but overall I am really happy about how it turned out. This project has been a journey for me and I hope you have enjoyed my posts and will take this knowledge to help make a change because I know I will.

Annotated Bibliography

As I have mentioned in my previous two posts, my You and the World project has been about free speech on college campus and how it is being undermined. I have researched this topic extensively and in turn, have also researched ways people are contesting the toxic anti-free speech ideology on campus. I have seen lectures at campuses trying to establish the importance of speech, I have seen protests, and I have seen informative flyers aimed at stating the importance of free speech. For my Agent Of Change, I decided to create my own informative flyer and put it up around University City. Although I think it is the least effective method of the three, I believe that it will be able to make a difference to students and other passerbys alike. I certainly am not able to lecture a college-level educated audience for an hour, and therefore could not do it for my Agent Of Change. I believe it is the most impactful way to inform people on this issue. Throughout my research on this topic, I have stumbled across fascinating lectures that changed my perspective several times. Figureheads of this movement like Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and Bret Weinstein all have had captivating speeches, lectures, and discussions that illuminate the absolute necessity of free speech on a functioning campus.

I chose a flyer for several different reasons. I wanted to create a discussion and inform people. I wanted to give them basic facts about their current campus climate so they could think to themselves honestly for a second and say: “Am I part of the problem?” I want to inhibit people’s instincts to cover their ears and more importantly: other people’s mouths. I think if I start a conversation as a result of my flyer, I consider my Agent of Change a success.

I enjoyed doing my You and the World project. It allowed me to research and write about something I am passionate about in school which is normally not the case. This project also contradicted and challenged my own previous knowledge on the subject of free speech. It let me know about organizations and students who are vehemently leading the fight against campus intolerance. Before my research for this project I was less optimistic about how much was being done to combat the prominent negative feelings about speech. There is still much to do, as the advocates are still in the minority.

annotated bibliography

In my past two blog posts I spoke about how the Gender Wage Gap is an issue that affects all women no matter their race or sexuality. In preparation for this final post, I looked and thought of some ideas for how to solve this issue rather than just talking about it.

Before I tell you what I did I am going to talk about  I am going to talk about one way another business solved this issue.  On a website called SheCanCode they said that we have to take big steps rather than small ones to solve this issue. They talked about how wage transparency is one option.  Meaning that people in an organization can know how much money there peers are a making. If you do not know how much others are making then it’s hard to know if you are being paid less than others. Also, they highlighted a British company called brainlabs. They are paying their employees of all genders solely based on the work that they do. They found out that women were being paid on average 8.6% less than men. So, they introduced what they  called the “Pay Gap Tax.” This meant that they were going to increase what they paid women so that the average would be the same for all genders. To go along with this, they said that they are going to make people’s salaries equal to the height of there workload. So, if someone’s workload is higher they then that person would be paid more. Just as we thought that things couldn’t get any better they have promised to increased people’s salaries based on their experience and status at Brainlabs. At Brainlabs, they saw that they had an issue and went about solving it.

Now for my change, my original idea had been to host a panel of local experts on the topic. Sadly, I was not able to put this together in time. I was disappointed by this because  it would have been really great. From this experience, I learned that if you want to organize something you have to put down the groundwork pretty early on. Now, I know this for next time I want to put something together that involves other people.

Since my first idea did not work I chose to create a website to tell people about this issue. In this website, I gave an overview of the issue as well as the misconception that all women make 78 cent for every dollar that a man makes.  The image below is of this page

Overall, the website was pretty easy to make. The software took some time to load but after that, it wasn’t all that bad. A website was a good way to get the information I needed to get out in an easy an accessible way.  I do regret not being able to do something more interactive. I hope that this website at least lets people know about this issue; at least starts a conversation.

There is definitely a long way to go on this issue. People have been working on this issue for longer then I have been alive.  It will take 50 more years for white women to have equal pay and women of other races longer. I think that to solve this issue company’s have to be transparent about how much they are paying people. This would make it easier to spot issues when they come up.

This project overall has been really great for me. I got to choose an issue that I was passionate about and then do research and let others know about it. I learned that I like research but am not as good at taking notes. I also learned how to manage my time better and what happens when I don’t. I feel like I could have managed my time better especially in the last section of this project.

To see what you can do to change the gender wage gap in a work setting you can read this article.

Annotated Bibliography

All of my research from post #1 and #2 has impacted the way I have finally concluded my thoughts of catcalling. Both posts required my research for the impact of growing up in a society where catcalling effects any human in the world mainly women. Men feels as though it is appropriate to catcall any women they find flattering in their eyes. My first post was brought out to be just finding out basic information and the impact put on women from these comments made about their looks. Then for my second post it was my own personal research to see how true this actually is. Each of these posts had brought my attention that everyone at different age ranges faced a time where they had been verbally violated in a way where it made them feel self conscious about themself. If you would like to view my first post the link is here. For my second post the link is here

Currently in this time there are very little organizations that are brought together to end street harassment as a whole. In society they value other things more than the safety of humans in the world. Also there is a lot of work put into making any type of organization that their goal is to end something that has been going on for centuries so, it will be very difficult to get people to come together for a project that could have an impact or no impact at all. The organization that I had found was Hollaback or also known as Feminist Public Works is a global organization that is powered by people to end harassment in society. This organization goat is to develop innovative strategies that ensure a safe public environment where harassment is not involved. I feel as though this is the right track to be on in order to actually make some type of improvement for people to feel safe. Also they way that they encourage people to sign up and be apart of this movement to start up a group in their area.

For my agent of change I had decided to do a information presentation with interaction of the audience. My plan was to inform everyone about Street Harassment but also for them to see other peoples opinions about a subject that happens everyday and they either are targeted or are viewing it around them. My presentation consisted of background information about the topic but also questions that were asked to the audience to get them thinking and their initial reaction before watching a controversial CNN news broadcast about Catcalling creating the audience to have a lot to say which was my goal. My goal was to get the audience to be in a situation where they felt like the things being said was not correct but very ignorant because this initially shows how Street Harassment is. I did accomplish my goal of getting the audience to talk and give their own opinion on the ways would change things and how they feel of street harassment in general.

While doing this project over a couple months I at first felt kind of uncomfortable due to the subject being kind of harsh and you never know how people can take a topic like street harassment. After the first post I did feel pretty comfortable due to finding more information and the right way of approaching a topic like catcalling that occurs to people from the ages of 12 and on from men that can be from any age and without thinking how old the women could be. I learned that it is easier to talk to people that have witness these things and are more open minded about ideas then just some adults that don’t care or feel as though it is wrong for a topic like this to be brought up.There is alot to still be done in order for my change to actually be done but, this is such a topic where it is going to take years in order to get any movement in society to actually get any sense of understanding why catcalling is not a good thing at all.

​My You and the World Project,  was Police Brutality finding what was the cause of this problem currently plaguing America to see my earlier post on the issue click the following links https://scienceleadership.org/blog/one_side_of_a_story and https://scienceleadership.org/blog/the_punishment_of_the_people . I found a lot of things during my research, what I found most interesting is in 2017, 457 White Americans, 223 African Americans, and 179 Hispanic Americans were victims of police brutality. I think what some people fail to realise is in the words of 44th President Barack Obama. Obama said. “And it is incumbent upon all of us as Americans, regardless of race, region, faith, that we recognize this is an American problem and not just a black problem or a brown problem or a native American problem, this is an American problem, when anybody in this country is not being treated under the law that’s a problem and it’s my job as president to help solve it.” Misconception creates biases and stereotypes that divide society instead of unifying it.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

For my You & The World Agent of change I chose to make a documentary interview like video(Which is not that good) to create a way to get the issue out there and to make our community aware of the situation. I gathered interviews from African American History teacher, Mr.Symonds and Science Leadership Academy Principal Mr. Leahman. From their heartfelt interviews, I saw the care for the people in the community and also the fear that the issue of Police Brutality could affect any of us. Something that stuck out to me while interviewing Mr.Symonds was when we all say good-bye to one another instead of saying “good-bye” or “see you later” we tend to say “stay safe” is this the America we really want to live in? This was the most eye opening part to me doing this interview because I never really paid attention to that. While reading the LA Progressive Newsletter  I found an article called 25 Ways to Stop Police Brutality and I found this ( List Below )

#1: Radically diversify America’s Police Departments

#2: Require American Police to have more training than cosmetologists

#3: Police must be routinely and randomly tested for steroids and other illegal drugs

#4: Bad Apples MUST Be Fired – they are toxic and dangerous

#5: Police must be required to earn 4 year degrees – it changes everything

#6: Policing for profit must become a banned practice. A profit motive must never undergird law enforcement.

#7: We must overhaul 911 – particularly for calls made about the mentally ill. It is the rotary phone of emergency services.

#8: Take women from 12% of police to 50% of police – they are more professional, less brutal, and just as effective

#9: Require cops to live in or near the areas they police. It’s too easy to mistreat strangers.

#10: Communities of color actually need less policing. Start by decriminalizing addiction and petty offenses.

#11: American Police must be regularly tested for racial bias

#12: American Police must be regularly tested and treated for PTSD

#13: Why we must take bad laws on policing all the way to the Supreme Court

#14: Good police officers must actually speak out on bad cops

#15: We must decriminalize mental illness

#16: We need to unleash the full power of body cameras

#17: Police departments must create and enforce reasonable new use of force standards

#19: Police must be banned from using violence based on their imagination of a threat

#20: Every city and state in America must ban racial profiling

#21: Police must be immediately filmed making a statement after each use of force incident

#22: Independent review boards must oversee investigations of police misconduct

#23: Police misconduct cases must be tried by special/independent prosecutors

#24: Police departments which fail to obey the Death in Custody Reporting Act should be cut off from all federal funding.

#25: We must focus our fight against police brutality on the local and state level

After reading this I was given hope, hope that if the justice system tries to effectively use these steps or at least one we can make a change for the betterment of society and societies future. When I first began this project I thought I could never make a change for my topic, but I later found that I was somewhat right and wrong, because it’s one thing to start a change, but if you build a movement off of your belief of change then you have made a change. I learned that I and everyone else around me have a hope or dream of change, but we can’t do it by ourselves we as a society and as a people must find that we are all important and that we all need a change and hopefully with the help of one another we can strive for a change. I feel I could’ve tried to make a better Agent of Change to really make a change, but we live and learn from the choices we make and I’ve learned from mine. Lastly I think if we all are implanted with the knowledge of Police Brutality and ways to avoid we could prevent the rise in numbers, but we must also find a way to inform our government of ways we can create a change for the betterment of us all. It has been an absolute privilege to be given the opportunity to study Police Brutality, but to also try to make a change I thank you all for reading and would like you all to walk away with the question, “Is this really the age of equality?” If you all do that then I was effective in making a change even if it may have been a small one.

Annotated Bilbiography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13wTzYcJCdMGtSsozTe1VAUYwjLW3z1r577zruis1Vrw/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/Yoap3LIGv3g

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch. https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/03/01/rideshare-mission-for-u-s-military-confirmed-as-second-falcon-heavy-launch/

“Side booster ignition! 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, and liftoff of Falcon Heavy, building on the history of Saturn V Apollo, returning pad 39A to interplanetary space!”  Since the cancellation of the constellation program, NASA has struggled to put anything onto the table when it comes to manned spaceflight.  It has stuck with the SLS program, which has fell very far behind its goals of a 2017 launch despite reusing old shuttle technology.

In the private sector however, SpaceX has quickly made progress with the Falcon series of rockets, including the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in use currently, doubling the possible payload to space of the next most powerful rocket, the Delta IV heavy, with the added benefit of being reusable, which saves money.  In my previous blog post here, I talked about SpaceX being able to save money, which they have already before even reusing the rockets, and they have also proven that they could launch the world’s most powerful rocket, however, they still need NASA to reach their goals as they do receive funding from NASA for the commercial crew program.  

For my agent of change,  I have decided to spread awareness of NASA’s funding.  I created a petition on Change.org which can be found here.  I also created 2 posters with the phrase “This is our future.  Make it happen”.

The first one has a Falcon heavy rocket during launch.  The idea behind that one is showing what SpaceX is doing and how they are going revolutionize space travel by first, making the largest rocket flying today, and second, make it reusable. They are already on their way to that goal with the Falcon 9 block 5 and the Falcon heavy rocket, but they plan to go one step  further with an even larger rocket called the BFR.  However, the BFR is an absolutely massive rocket, with obscene payload capabilities.  So what will the BFR be used for exactly?

The second poster is an image of “Occupy Mars” logo, which depicts Mars in it’s phases of being terraformed into a life supporting planet.  Again, SpaceX is at the forefront of this innovation with a plan to colonize Mars using their within the next century, with the first cargo missions launching on BFR around 2022.  

Something that I have learned via my agent of change was to never underestimate a human’s ability to procrastinate.  My petition I created only amounted up to 18 signatures as of May 18, however, change is already happening in the industry around us with such minds as Elon Musk.  Rather than working at the question of how NASA can get more money, he is achieving more through having the space industry spend less to do the same thing. Although the change that I pushed for in particular is not happening, there is definitely change happening in the industry of space exploration as a whole, and it seems like it is for the better, and I think we should leave it at that and see what the future has in store for us.