What a PSA can do

In the previous posts that I have made, I have talked about my issue. For you all who have not yet read my posts, I am talking about the issue of player safety in the NFL. In the first post, I talked about the main issue of player safety and how it affects the players, coaches, fans, and everyone involved with football. I also talked about major injuries in football and why there needs to be stricter rules that are set in stone so those players do not get hurt. If you want to read up on that blog post, click here and it will take you to the post.

The last post that I made, I did my own original research for the topic. I did multiple interviews with many different people and I also did a survey. The first interview I did was with Dave would is a youth football coach. He told me very interesting things about the Heads Up program and how youth football programs and becoming very safe. The next interview that I had was will a current football player for the Denver Broncos, and his name was Will Parks. He gave me interesting insight of what NFL players had to the issue with player safety. The last interview that I had was with Troy Vincent. I did this interview after the second blog post was due. If you want to hear the interview with him, please click this link to listen about it.


This is am image of the USA football Heads Up Football Logo
This is am image of the USA football Heads Up Football Logo

One of the major programs that is trying to help player safety in all the different levels of football is the USA Football Program. USA Football is a football program that helps with safety of football. One of the main ways that they are doing this is with Heads Up Football. This programs teaches both coaches and the players a safety way to play football. Instead of tackling with the helmet and hitting players head on, they would use their shoulders and upper body. This will limit concussions and other injuries around the head and neck area. This is also known as Rugby style tackling and Seahawk Style tackling. This is what Dave was talking to me about during my interview with him. He was saying that his Heads Up tackling is changing the ways of football and is bringing in more kids to play football. It makes the game safer and more inviting to both the parents and the kids who enjoy football. The NFL is also changing rules like making the helmet rules which makes hitting the helmet to another helmet an automatic penalty. I think that this new change is helping the issue with player safety. In the next few years, who knows how far the NFL will go and how much player safety will improve.

So for my Agent of Change, I had no idea what to do for it. I could have done a website, play some flyers, show a movie, but none of those were something I truly wanted to do. I didn’t think that they would have made an impact that I could record. I then came up with the idea to make a PSA. A PSA would be short enough so I could make it within the time we had, but it would still get my message across. Now with my PSA, I could have gone may ways. I could have made it really short and goes straight to the point, I could be in it, I could not be in it. After thinking about all the different ways I could make my PSA, I decided to use football clips and shows the brain. I think that this will really make a strong point and will stand out. It does not contain me speaking or me in the video. It would just have impactful video clips and moving music.


Doing the PSA was that bad. I had to find some clips that I liked but also that fit the “theme.” I did not want clips of football players getting hit in the knee, because I want to find videos of players getting hit in the head/neck. That is what could lead to CTE and other bad brain related issues. Once I found all of my clips, I had to find music that also fit the “theme” of my PSA. After that, I edited it all together to get my PSA. I do not think I was effective in making change. I do not think that making a PSA will change anything. I think that it will make people think and understand the topic more, but my PSA was not meant to change the world. It was to make people more aware at the issue at hand and to make sure they can do something if they wanted to. Once I posted the video, I got about 200 views and counting. I don’t have any screenshots that are relevant, since they are not all my social media accounts. My parents and my brother posted the PSA on their social medias as well and that helped the video spread to different people. I think that getting over 200 views is a lot of people to watch my PSA.

After going everything for the project, I highly enjoyed it. I enjoyed researching a topic that I have enjoyed almost my entire life. Even though I will not make a change, I got to interview an NFL player and the next man down from Roger Goodell. I feel like I have learned a lot more that I knew at the beginning. I learned that the NFL is trying to combat these player safety issues and that the youth level football coaches are also trying to protect the kids. I think that I put a lot of effort into this project, and I think that it shows. I am really proud of what I did and what I think might happen in the future. I think that I could have made a bit of a better agent of Change, but I still think my PSA is very impactful and is very well done. Other than that, I did a great job (that is what I think). I did great research and did great interviews as well. I now pass the baton to the people reading this post and NFL to make a change that the NFL needs.

The link to my annotated bibliography is here.

Planned, Spent, Wrapped and Sent

Planned, Spent, Wrapped and Sent

Image Credits


    Welcome back! In my first post, I introduced the topic and the importance of poverty in Cambodia. I showed how some factors like education play a role in the issue, and the history of it. In my previous post, I interviewed my father, who himself grew up in poverty. He shared his experiences with me, and made some really key points on what he should believe happen in order for modern day Cambodia to make a change.

    During my time between the last post and this, I’ve uncovered a couple of organizations that do work in Cambodia, primarily towards relief aid and poverty. One I have discovered in particular was Cambodia’s Children Fund, which is a charity directed towards children in poverty. They encourage impoverished children to hopefully turn into tomorrow’s leader. To do this, they take the children in, provide a home for them and enroll them in their “rich and challenging curriculum”, which will hopefully educate and inspire them. The organization has existed since 2004. One example of a major case was when they took in 45 children that was living on a garbage dump in 2009. Their programs focus on 6 core values similar to my own school’s values: Education, Leadership, Community Outreach, Healthcare, Childcare and Vocational Training.


   

Logo of the CCF


    I believe that this organization is actually very ingenious in how they operate. They plan out their steps to create a better change, which is very organized, and they actually go through with their plans, which in the end results in an improved future for the children.

    As explained in my previous post, I told about my plan to send a care package to Cambodia. I’ve decided to change a few aspects of the plan, since the plan itself is pretty tentative and supple. Originally, I wanted to send multiple care packages, each containing different items for different family members, but I concluded that it would cost way too much due to shipping and handling. In the end, I decided to send on big package, to one family of 4 that contained items that they would certainly prove useful. I included various amenities that you would not find normally in Cambodia or find at a relatively low price; some of these items included various hygiene products, clothing items, educational literature, and toys.


Examples of Items Included in the Care Package

Depicted From Left To Right: Men's Body Wash, Fragrant Shampoo, Mouthwash


My reasoning for including these items in the package was that hygiene products are hard to come by in bulk, and they are usually marked up higher than their original retail price than you would find in say the United States for example. Next, I included clothing because most Cambodians usually sew and stitch their own clothing, which while it is cost-friendly, it is not as durable as something you would buy from a big department store, so these clothes would give them a fresh change. Then, the addition of educational literature was party based that they are learning English in their schools, because most of the education system in Cambodia focuses on English more than Khmer, the national language, in order for them to travel out the country and go study in English speaking countries. With my books, which range from simple coloring books, to books like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner, this gives them a free and cheap source of education and leisure in their free time, which hopefully provides a boost to their English fluency. Lastly, the last example of toys is that most toys that are sold in Cambodia are cheap and break very easily, due to them being manufactured in China at a very low cost, so quality toys that I purchase from a store like Target will last longer, and hopefully the children would have a fun time playing with it!


Depicted From Left to Right: Toothpaste, Various Books


I did not have much trouble in purchasing these items, nor did I have much trouble packaging and sending it to the desired location. The only challenge I had during this Agent of Change was the items that I had to buy. I had to consider the people I was sending them to, so once I did, it made it for a relatively easy process. The package is still currently on it’s way to Cambodia at the time of this writing, so I cannot say for sure if it has made an impact yet on the family I sent it to, but I will provide you all with an update when the time comes. One thing I can say for sure though, is that I hope this will make an immediate impact on how they live for the next few weeks or years, and that I will feel elated knowing they can live in a environment that is a drastic improvement over their previous one.

The Agent of Change is the final part of the trilogy of You and the World and I can’t believe how much I’ve come so far. This has been a wonderful ride, and this is one of the few projects over my 11 years in the school system where it really got me thinking about my world. Multiple parts of the project widened my eyes on the issue in Cambodia, and really educated me about a deep and serious issue that many people do not pay attention to. I knew that there was poverty in Cambodia for a while now, but with the addition of the research conducted during the project, I never realized how serious and problematic the entire situation was. I saw my father in a new light after that interview and reading the transcript. He sacrificed everything he had to come to America, looking for the American Dream, and I am honestly speechless. Cambodia is in a bit of a predicament right now, and it’s up to us to see it. Sending a care package to a family, fixes a minute part of the problem, which is a huge step toward the actual solution of the problem. I wished I would have found a documentary to screen to an audience, but I felt the care packages felt more in theme with the entire problem of poverty in Cambodia. To be completely honest, it is going to take more than me, or you as the reader to put even a dent in the poverty situation in Cambodia. There is always hope, but the light will be at the end of of a long dark tunnel for Cambodia. We must spread awareness for this problem, and my Agent of Change will hopefully inspire you to do something similar. Remember, there are millions living without food or water. It is up to us to help them. Save Kampuchea! (កម្ពុជា)

Take a look at my annotated bibliography!

the cause behind islamophobia.

My topic for my you and the world project is Islamophobia and I touched on what it was and how it affects the community we live in for my previous two slate posts. For my agent of change, I had a hard time deciding on what to do because I can’t easily and magically make this issue disappear regardless of how bad I want it to. Islamophobia is a very popular topic and very serious issue that continues to spread rapidly. For me to decide on what to do, I had to think about what the main cause of Islamophobia is. Through my research, I found out that big anti-islam corporations/organizations pay and bribe other big organizations with money to provide falsified accusations of Muslims to people through mainstream media. But how would I expose these organizations and get this information out with evidence supporting it? Since my first slate post, I stumbled upon an anti-islamophobic organization called The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR is an organization on the rise, trying to put an end to Islamophobia. What better organization to partner up with? My best shot at making a change and trying to put a stop to Islamophobia is to partner up with an organization like CAIR, and since I’m already in contact with a member there, I chose this one in particular. How can I make a difference? I decided that since I love writing so much, I would write an article for their articles page, exposing these organizations and proposing ways to better our world from being Islamophobic while educating some on the topic as well. Their website brings many eyes and if I can get a message out, I would be able to successfully inform people on the real reason behind Islamophobia.



Image result for media photo Image result for media photo

 

Although I have reached out to CAIR, they are a very busy organization so for them to review it and the process of putting my article on their website could not happen on time especially considering the debate they’re probably having about a freshman writing for their website. The link to my article is also here if you want to give it a look.


Click here for my annotated bibliography

Sleep Well

A lot has happened since I first looked into this issue.

Back when I was writing my first blog post for my You and The World issue, I was listing a lot of other statistics on general teen sleep. I have mentioned how other disorders (such as depression and anxiety) could lead to insomnia. I have also written about sleep apnea and its own causes (such as obesity) and its cures. I’ve been considering my plan of original research as I was writing it.

I put that plan into action soon before I wrote my second blog post. I summarized the survey and how that plan didn’t work out (questions were more about sleep than disorders), and what four people said when I interviewed each of them (Three had insomnia, one had sleep apnea; that’s the plan that did work out). Those four interviews have let me know more of what it’s like to actually have one of the two disorders. At the very end of my second post, while considering a second plan, I said : “Whatever I think of in this moment, I’m probably going to change my mind later”. I was right about that.

When I first glanced at this part of the project, I considered raising money to push towards medicine for insomnia and sleep apnea (and contacting Penn Sleep Medicine first), But realization came across. Only doctors can prescribe medicine. It didn’t take me too long to think of a different idea. Recent data suggests that these sleep disorders are gradually starting to get recognized, and a lot of Sleep Clinics are still studying the brain. I can’t create medicine on my own, but I wanted to at least help spread the word.


I have created a website called SleepWell! It’s meant to raise awareness for medication for insomnia, sleep apnea and many more. I felt that it would be easy for people to see and view a website (once I promote it well enough through via advertisements around the school) since people are on the internet all the time. The website summarizes what needs to be known about insomnia, sleep apnea, and a few more common sleep disorders, with statistics and symptoms found from a variety of Sleep Meds and other trustable sources.

Screenshot 2018-05-18 at 4.30.54 PM
Screenshot 2018-05-18 at 4.30.54 PM

Here’s what the introduction looks like.


It starts out with an introduction page, which introduces both me as an SLA student and the Y&TW issue I’m working on. It also summarizes my first two posts on this issue. The four paragraphs are meant to give people a backstory on who I am and what I’m doing. The “backstory” includes links to my first two posts and bibliography. There’s also a list of things you’ll find in the website found towards the left. It’s to give a small preview of what there is to see.

Insomnia and Sleep apnea have their own two pages on the website. Those are two common disorders I’ve been focusing on throughout the entire project. Insomnia is more prevalent in teenagers, and sleep apnea is prevalent in both teenagers and adults. Both of those pages have a description, list of causes, its symptoms, the statistics, and treatment. The treatment for insomnia lists Melatonin (a medicine), therapy, chamomile, and passionflower (both are tea). The treatments I have written about for sleep apnea are a CPAP machine, surgery, and physical exercise. A few quotes have been taken from WebMd, a vitamin/supplement center,  to describe the treatments. I wanted to make the treatment category the biggest one, so people who look through this website can easily find out what to do/how to treat it.


Screenshot 2018-05-17 at 12.06.53 PM
Screenshot 2018-05-17 at 12.06.53 PM

Here’s what the insomnia statistics look like.


“Insomnia and Sleep apnea may be two of the most common sleep disorders, but they are surely not the only two on the list. Some of the following sleep disorders are rare, but are possible for people of various ages to get.” -SleepWell, my own website.

This is a whole nother page with descriptions on eight other sleep disorders. Those eight include:

  • Narcolepsy (sudden attacks of sleep),

  • Restless leg syndrome (an urge to move the legs at night),

  • Kleine Levin Syndrome (KLS, oversleeping for 23 hours a day),

  • Sleep paralysis (inability to move/speak),

  • REM sleep behavior disorder (acting out one’s own dreams),

  • Fatal Familial insomnia (FFL, increased trouble to fall asleep at night),

  • Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD, repetitive limb movements during sleep),

  • Sleepwalking (completing tasks as one sleeps).

I have also taken quotes from Alaska Sleep Clinic and Sleep Med of Santa Barbara, since they are both professionals that know a lot about most of those disorders. For every one of those disorders, there is a description that comes with treatment/cures (if any). If i didn’t create this one page, this website wouldn’t have been as helpful. Writing only about insomnia and sleep apnea seems more like an article with its own URL than a whole new website.

Since the website was finalized on Wednesday, May 16th, I’ve been working on ways to publicize it. Venngage lets me create flyers, print them out, and publish them to another world on the internet, so I’m sure I’ll be using that to get the word out. People also have suggested for me to advertise it on medical forums, and I am currently looking for some good ones.

It took me nearly a month to work on this website, and I’m still not done the project. If anything could have been done better, it would be time management, and that way I could have added things such as more visuals for the eight other sleep disorders (diagrams, pie charts, etc.), or I could have worked more on what the advertisement looks like and says.  I honestly don’t think that the job is complete until everyone is able to see what I’ve done, and I know I haven’t reached that point yet. There is still much left to do, and I’m willing to continue.


My annotated bibliography is right here.


Solving The Issue With College Tuition

Annotated Bibliography


In my first SLATE post, I addressed the importance of student loans and overwhelming debt and how this can be solved and how it affected students in the past, present and how it will affect their future. I also mentioned the importance of scholarships for students who come from families who struggle financially. In my second SLATE post, I went into more profundity about the information I got from MIT after my series of interviews that I conducted with Rachel. E Kay of MIT’s admission office. I mentioned in my post how MIT and many other schools were participating in this program called questbridge where they recruit students who want to pursue higher education. Then I talked about what role the U.S can play to help fix the issue of college tuition. Over the course of this third checkpoint, I recently found out about many organizations and groups that work with students in providing them a scholarship for their higher education and one of the most famous and most known organizations that I found out about is called the Gates Millinuim Scholars and it provides the amount of money needed for your education it pays for your fees and everything down to your dorm but it is highly selective and only 1000 students are chosen every year, this organization is funded by Bill and Milenda Gates with a 1.6 billion dollar donation. Another program I came across as I was doing research was an organization called the MDRC they work with young adults and help them pay for their higher education. On their website, they state: “The federal government provided over $33 billion in Pell Grants to nearly 9.5 million low- and middle-income students. Yet too many of these students do not succeed academically. More than a third of students who enroll in college do not earn a degree and are not enrolled in any postsecondary institution six years later; at community colleges, the fraction is close to half. Many factors hinder students from completing college, and financial concerns are a major component. Even if they receive federal and state financial aid, often it is not sufficient to meet their needs. Financial burdens often drive students to work too many hours while in school, forcing them to cut back on study time or drop classes; some students drop out altogether.” Overall I believe the efforts of these organizations/groups to help students with their college fees is great, however, there could be many more groups/organizations that can help young adults with the college/university process. I truly believe that these organizations should be and are examples of what we can do to help future generations succeed.

Talking about the Gates Millennium Scholars

Talking about the Gates Scholarships.



After all this research I had the idea that for my agent of change I would inform students on how to be eligible for scholarships and what programs they can apply for and take part in to increase their chances at getting a scholarship if their family is struggling fianically, I also mentioned in my Agent of change proposal that I would be interested in a letter campaign that will bet targeted at state and federal leaders and I also suggested that I was planning on writing a heart-felt letter to both Betsy DeVos and President Trump, but after some time I came along to accept the idea that this Agent of change would be kind of far-fetched so I will do this as a secondary Agent of change. I first came upon the idea of doing a presentation when I was trying to figure out how I could somehow directly affect the lives of students who might struggle financially and then I decided that there is a diverse group of students in this school so I could just inform them on this topic. During the course of this project I admit I struggled a little in the beginning because I didn’t really know what to choose as my Agent of Change until I decided to persue both of the ideas I had for my agent of change and after this I had an even harder time trying schedule a time to present and I didn’t get one until the last week and my presentation would be on the very day before the project was due, I also worked really hard on the presentation during my waiting time for a confermation as to when I could present my Agent of Change, but when I started presenting I could hear some members of the audience start talking and laughing not really paying attention, however, I feel as if I was effective in making a change because since I did inform students on the programs and ways that can/make them eligible for scholarships, I have basically reached the purpose of my project to inform students so they too, can have the same education as someone is able to pay full price for their’s. As I look back at my progress through this project I find it fascinating how not only did I learn about how organizations/groups are helping students who are struggling financially succeed, but I am also fascinated by how much I can help the world, over the course of my Agent of Change and the You and The World Project, in general, I learned that I can contribute to solving many of society’s issues even if all I do is inform a group of students. Despite struggling on the Agent of Change

Presenting to peers

Presenting to peers.



an aspect of this project I am content with knowing that I tried my best and I am more knowledgeable from the lessons I learned over the course of this course of this project. Even as this project comes to a disheartening conclusion. I want to inform anyone that may be reading this, that presenting to a group of 20 kids isn’t going to solve the problem with college tuition, but rather it will be all of working together and consistently with one goal and that is to make higher education affordable for everyone, that is when we truly have and will succeed in terminating an issue in our society.


Joining the Fight to End Child Marriages

Joining the Fight to End Child Marriages

    I have researched, written and interviewed a co-chair of Girls Not Brides USA, now it’s time to make a change. In my previous two posts I informed people about child marriages and interviewed someone that works directly with an organization trying to help end them. I did a little more investigating of what is already being done to help fight child marriages to get an idea of what I could do. Organizations like CARE, Woman’s World Wide Web and GlobalGiving that are working globally, ask for donations from people for different projects. Some examples of these projects are, a radio segment in South Kivi to make people aware of child marriages, helping girls in Sierra Leone stay in school, giving Indian child brides access to healthcare and buying bikes for girls in Nepal so that they can get to school. I think that while these projects may seem simple, simplicity is exactly what this fight needs in order to work. In the United States, legal action is the best way to tackle child marriages but in other places around the world it may not be. I encourage people who read this, if they can, to donate to some of these projects.

    Recently, a bill was proposed in Pennsylvania by House Representative Perry S Warren that would change the age at which a marriage license can be issued. The bill has been co-sponsored by a total of 26 House representatives, 9 of which represent Philadelphia. There are 16 other Philadelphia House representatives that are not yet supporting the bill. As a part of my agent of change I decided to write to the legislators thanking them for co-sponsoring the bill and asking those who aren’t, to vote to pass the bill. After learning about the bill being proposed, I knew that I wanted to get involved some way. I wanted to write and send letters because I believe that it is the best way for me to become an agent of change. My original idea was to just write to the representatives that were not supporting the bill but I wanted to also write thank you letters to express my gratitude for the bill being proposed. Some of the representatives that sent letter to are, Perry S Warren, Rosita Youngblood, Michael O'Brien and Stephen Kinsey. My hopes are that the representatives will continue to support adolescents in Pennsylvania and that I will persuade for them to pass the bill.

Pictures of me addressing and enveloping the letters.

In addition to the letter writing I also donated to Girls Not Brides by purchasing a sweatshirt from Shethority. Shethority is a charity campaign that was started by a group of actresses from the DCTV shows such as Arrow, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. The goal and campaign of Shethority is to create "a positive place for women and the feminine to inspire, empower, and share". All of the proceeds from the International Women’s Day sweatshirt went to the Girls Not Brides Organization. I wanted to support both Shethority and Girls Not Brides because while my project is largely about finding a way to end child marriages, it is also about the empowerment of young girls and young people. I believe that supporting organizations that strive to do that is just as important as writing to House representatives.


               

Shethority logo and a picture of me wearing a Shethority sweatshirt.


    After doing this project I have a better understanding of how I can get involved in global issues, like child marriages. I learned about the challenges of finding ways to become an agent of change as well. With such a large issue it was difficult to discover effective ways to make a change. Something I would do differently if I had the chance, is interview more people regarding child marriages. While my one interview with Rachel Clement was very informative, I wish that I would have conducted more than one interview. This project has been rewarding in so many different ways, and I am looking forward to continuing to be an agent of change. The fight to end child marriages is far from over, but steps are being taken in the right direction everyday.  






Bibliography

Litter Pick-Up Conquest

Litter Pick-Up Conquest


Let yourself know.


You might have been surrounded by trash throughout your childhood.


Although… you wonder why you see your streets and neighborhood struggling to be clean.


Some think littering is the problem but is it something we are willing to stop?


Even if you pick up the litter around your house, it just seems to come back.


Why? Maybe it’s because you just need to stay patient and wait until people start to notice.


So how did I make a change?


Well, before you continue on, please check on my previous posts, “Straws, Something You Find Everywhere” and “Something More Than A Litter Bug. In my first post, I discussed about how plastic straws negatively affect our environment in ways of endangering animals as well as how we can avoid using these plastic straws by simply doing less. For my second post, I did an physical observation outside my neighborhood to collect photos of litter and some photos of straws to demonstrate how trash can be hiding from us.


Photos of my observation from “Something More Than A Litter Bug


As I continued my journey in attempt to help solve this problem, I’ve been thinking about multiple ways I can be an agent of change. My first idea was posting flyers around my school and other places such as restaurants but as I was getting this idea approved, I was asked “What more could I do?” and this was when one of my ideas, that I first thought I could never do, popped up. On an article, asking if you were one of those “weirdos” who picked up litter, I was inspired to do something that involved with picking up litter. This article explained a personal experience on what happened when a lady picked up litter and caused an entire movement to spark up.


Inspired by the article, I was thinking about making a litter pick-up day where students will go out and see whom can grab the most litter in a certain amount of time. This idea sounded great on paper but the way to get this idea approved and make time for it would be risky. So instead of doing my pick-up day in school, I decided I might need to do this outside of school. This meant I wouldn’t be able to grab the most amount of people but I still continued this idea. I sent out some flyers to gather around 10 people and so the journey began on my litter pick-up conquest!



The flyer for the Litter Pick-Up Conquest


On May 8th, 2018, I rounded up the volunteers who let me know, the day of, and we began our fun adventure to find the most litter and pick it up.


Many of the participants stuck together but secretly, they were on their own. One of my participants, Jacob, was on his own most of the time and decided that he’d be a lone wolf and collect litter on his own. The tactics and locations were the key part to this conquest. Jacob went with the lone wolf tactic and end the end, he successfully won.


Photos of participants who collected litter in this event


In the end, I believe the purpose is to not litter in the first place. Even though we are cleaning up and picking up litter, we would not have to do this to if we hadn’t littered in the first place. I like to think back to my first blog post where I discussed on how you could actually do more by doing less. This meant that you were able to make a change by stopping the behavior of littering or using plastic straws.


Nonetheless, this was a project that I can be proud of. I came into the project, thinking that I had to do something that I did not want to do but as I progressed throughout the project, I realized this project can be something I would be proud to present in the future. I learned many new ways of problem-solving and one of them had to be about working around people. I realized that sometimes it is difficult to gather people for a project because there’s so many variables on what can happen at the last minute but I manage to solve this problem by constantly reminding them about the event and eventually I was able to have a decent amount of people.



Photos of all participants who collected litter and supported the cause (photographer on the right corner of the right picture)


Overall, I think there’s still a lot left for this problem to be solved because littering is one of those problems that may not be fully stopped but can definitely be reduced. I believe others and myself have done almost our full potential of solving this problem as of now with a project like this because we are still 9th grade students whom are all working to solve on our problems for this project. To end off with a bang, the winner of the conquest, Jacob Prunes, wanted to say “Winner, winner, please don’t litter!”


For my annotated bibliography, please visit the link here.


Final Steps

In my last two you and the world blog posts, I wrote about the affects the crumb rubber has on the human body and why the topic interests and connects to me. I stated its importance to me in the world and in the sports industry. The last post included  the negative perspectives on the crumb rubber in astroturf. In my most recent post, I wrote about how my perspectives about crumb rubber has changed and the benefits of it. To make this issue public, I have presented a slideshow composed of information informing my school community and others of the issue and how to make a change.


The negative effects crumb rubber has on the human body is extremely hard to change quickly which is why I chose to spread awareness and pass information to people so that the problems the human body have with the turf can be solved. Through all of my deep research, I found out that with a lot of care, crumb rubber can be cleaned well which gets rid of some of the chemicals in the old tires. I also found out about many inside astro turf facilities which allow the crumb rubber to not be absorbed by the sun’s heat.  


For my agent of change final project, I decided the best way to inform others of this information is by creating a slideshow presentation including what crumb rubber is, the problem with it, and how it can be treated. I decided to spread awareness for this topic because it is a problem in the United States that many people are not aware of and by presenting this topic to them they can learn about it and inform others of the problems and benefits of astroturf fields so they can make educated decisions about whether or not it is harmful to them. My experience presenting this issue felt good because when teaching my peers on a problem that they were not aware of teaches them something new. This made it effective for me to make a change because now that these people are informed of this issue, they can inform others and it will keep passing down.


I felt appreciated while doing this project because I did ambitious work to understand this topic and put it into a presentation to teach others about this overseen topic. I learned that there a vast amount of problems on this earth, some big and some small and if we inform each other about these problems we can become a more educated and informed society.  While doing this project I learned how easy it was to teach others about a issue and how effortless it is to pass on the problem and how to fix it. When I presented my project, I was in front of about twenty people which is a fair number of people but the word would spread faster if I presented multiple times for different people or brought more people to my presentation. Even though I have presented this issue, it is not done. To make this complete change, we need to inform others of this issue spread the word to people who work with crumb rubber. If we convince the ones who put crumb rubber into fields how we can do it so it is not harmful then our job is done.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jFkm10hpG_LrnTc7P7ys44l6ixd0LrPOnJrl-Y__u6c/edit


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What Can We Do To Spread Pit Bull Awareness?

What Can We Do To Spread Pit Bull Awareness?


In my first post, I discussed the issue of the American Pit Bull Terrier, and spreading awareness in my community. I addressed how there are several negative media portrayals of Pit Bulls, as well as how the breed is heavily influenced by its treatment. For example, if a Pit Bull is treated abusively, it will act accordingly. For my second post, I did some original research about the issue by conducting a survey. In my survey, I received various answers. Many people did not know too much about Pit Bulls, while some had very positive experiences, and others had negative ones. From this survey, I was able to gain knowledge of people’s perceptions of Pit Bulls, and how I could positively impact this issue. After completing my original research, I wanted to do something more.

For additional research, I looked at Saved Me Animal Rescue’s website. Their mission is “to provide a safe, responsible, and loving home [to their] rescues.” They are a non-profit shelter, and  pull dogs from shelters that euthanize (“put down”) due to a lack of space. This means they are a no-kill shelter. This shows how Saved Me is dedicated to helping dogs in danger of euthanization, and making sure they have a chance at life. I personally think this is great because when dogs have to be euthanized, their innocent lives are taken away. While sometimes dogs must be put down because of extreme behavioral and health issues, it is often done because of overcrowding.

Saved Me’s entrance (left), and volunteering sign in Saved Me (right).

Euthanasia is especially common among Pit Bulls because they make up a lot of the shelter dog population. According to Save A Bull Rescue's Website, about 75% of municipal shelters euthanize pit bulls immediately upon arrival to the shelters. In addition to that, “Studies estimate that up to 1 million pits are euthanized per year, or 2,800 per day.” Almost 3,000 innocent dogs will be killed today. They also say 1 in 600 pit bulls born will ever be adopted into a good home. 1 in 600. These tear-jerking statistics make me glad that I support a shelter like Saved Me, which helps lower these statistics. Even the county shelter has already euthanized 371 dogs (including owner-intended), according to April statistics on their website.

The statistics are EXTREMELY low. Only .16% of pit bulls will be adopted into a good home.

For my agent of change, I volunteered at Saved Me’s shelter. There, they rely heavily on volunteers because they are non-profit.  At the shelter, I walked and played with the dogs, because they don’t have enough workers to be able to do that as much as it is needed. The first week I went, I walked two dogs named Bam Bam, a chihuahua mix, and Jasper, a pit bull. When I returned two weeks later, both dogs had been adopted! When I returned, I walked and played with a total of four  dogs. Working with the dogs made me feel happy. I was glad I was making a difference in their lives, as well as providing the shelter staff additional help. I do plan to return to volunteer several times within the next few months. Sadly, I will not be able to volunteer there for much longer because the shelter is in danger of closing at the end of June; their building’s lease is up.

Here I am walking Jasper, a Pit Bull mix.

Doing this project has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I chose to focus on Pit Bulls because I have seen negative stereotypes of the breed, but I know they are rarely true. I wanted others to see through the negative stereotypes too. As the project went on, I added information about the effect of the negative stereotypes: both its impact on people, and their lives. While I really enjoyed doing research about pit bulls, as well as being able to help them, learning some of the statistics is heartbreaking. However, now that I know these things, I am very glad I chose to focus on Pit Bull Awareness.

Throughout this project, I learned how some of the common misconceptions of Pit Bulls are made, what people think about them, and how to help. I even learned how I can benefit the lives of Pit Bulls in my community. One thing I could have done better could have been to focus more on the actual breed for my agent of change. For example, I could have volunteered with just Pit Bulls. If I had done this, I would not have had the opportunity to meet the lovely shelter dogs I worked with. While Pit Bulls are at higher risk than some breeds, others need loving too. It is important to keep working with the issue, instead of leaving it alone after this project That is why I will continue volunteering at the shelter as long as possible. While I might not be able to eradicate the issue completely, I am doing my part.

My Pit Bull and I.


Here is my finalized annotated bibliography if you want to check it out!

Starting the Change

In my First Post I introduced the topic of racial microaggressions and defined what they were. Racial microaggressions are degrading statements that target a specific race, they are usually jokes or stereotypes. I also addressed the fact that the best way to stop racial microaggressions, in youth, is by raising awareness about them.

In my Second Post, I explained all the progress I had made since the first post. I interviewed six individuals. I summarized every interview in the post and also attached the full interview done with each person. Most of these interviews told me that racial microaggressions happen commonly in SLA, but more commonly on social media. I also started to figure out what my Agent of Change would be. An Agent of Change is the part of the project when we make our change that we have been building to.

For my agent of change, I did a presentation in my English classroom, to an audience of SLA students willing to learn more about this cause. I decided to do a presentation because I found it to be the easiest way to get my information out to a large audience. I made the presentation by using the knowledge I gained from my research, taking my previous interviewers feedback  and changing it for the better.

This presentation was a success. I raised awareness of racial microaggressions to about thirty students and many of them said that they learned how to have a conversation about race from the presentation. That is exactly what I wanted to accomplish and I think I did it to the best of my ability.

Me at the start of my presentation.

The video was split into two seperate videos, but they can be found here and here.

Part of my audience at the end of my presentation


The focus of the presentation was to tell people to not be afraid about race and explain to them how to have the conversation. I started my presentation by explaining what racial microaggressions are and how they are commonly jokes or stereotypes about it. Next, I explained that they come from a place of comfort if there are jokes, stereotypes or serious statements Lastly, I explained that the best way to have the conversation is to inform and to look to be informed, not to judge the person you are talking to. The presentation was inspired by the American Psychological Associations feature by Tori DeAngelis. One thing Tori said was, “She was acting with bias—she just didn't know it.”There was a part of my presentation that focused on ignorance to race and what Tori said was the inspiration for that. Sometimes the aggressor may not even know that they are acting with bias or being racist because it may be all they know. My hope is that students will see racial microaggressions and stop them by following my idea for how to have a conversation with others. I hope to continue raising awareness on this subject throughout my years of high school.

I enjoyed this project because of two main things. One of the first reasons being that I loved how it allowed students to be creative with their work and what they wanted to do for their agent of change. The second reason being that the project was made to help the world in someway. I never really had any problems during this project and everything went well. This has lead to students doing things that have benefited their community considerably.

This project has given me the tools and the will that I needed to make a change for something that I care about. Here is a link to my Annotated Bibliography.




































Sexual Objectification and Its Effect on Women’s Mental Health III// Agent of Change

Moriah Lahr

05/18/18

  Sexual Objectification and Its Effect on Women’s Mental Health


Sexual objectification is when women are seen by men as objects made for their own pleasure and not as intelligent, complex beings. Examples of sexual objectification include catcalling, sexual assault, rape, or simply getting checked out. Studies show that sexual objectification impacts women's mental health for the worse as I stated in BLOG POST 1. Every woman that I have talked to about being sexually objectified says they deal with mental health issues very often, including daily battles with anxiety or depression. I even did surveys on a few high school female students at Science Leadership Academy in BLOG POST 2.

Women are starting to come out more about their experience with being sexually objectified in the workplace, at school, or even just walking down the street. One example is a 20 year old named Noa Jansma who took selfies with every man that cat called her to show everyone awareness and show people how much this happens to women every single day. I think this is a very good way of showing people that this is a very damaging thing that a lot of men do.


For my agent of change, I decided I wanted to film a video touching on these issues of sexual objectification then later get in touch with an 8th grade sex ed teacher to show her students. Unfortunately, my plans and communication with the teacher fell through and I was unable to get ahold of her so I just posted the video on youtube and hope to reach the goal of 30 views. I felt as though talking about sexual objectification in depth would be a great way to spread awareness and understanding of the topic. The experience of working toward an agent of change was stressful at times but I tried my best to stay focused and get it done. I am curious to see what people’s response and reactions will be to the video.


I loved doing this topic as my project as a whole. I learned a lot of new things and feel like I can relate to a lot of things that women are experiencing in their daily lives. I learned about myself and others that being sexually objectified is what really pulls down our self confidence levels and can leave negative effects on women even if we don’t realize that’s the reason some of us feel bad about ourselves. In this project I feel as though I could’ve managed my time a lot better so that there wouldn’t be any inconveniences. There is still a lot left for people to do to help end sexual objectification but I think our best bet for now is to just raise awareness and show people this is how we feel. Women are feeling degraded and oppressed and we need to show people that this isn’t okay. We need to show people that we aren’t just pieces of meat to be lusted after and that we are actually complex and intelligent human beings with feelings and a personality.

       annotated bibliography


Link to video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TIOkbCilRQ



Educating My Class About the Bystander Effect

For my first two posts, I discussed my past experience of being a victim of the bystander effect, and wanting to explore more about it. I learnt a lot of surprising information about why a person would not help defuse the situation and what makes a person a bystander. I learned that there are three main factors for a bystander effect to happen. The first is the amount of people around the situation. The more people around the situation, the least likely they would intervene. Second, is the idea of diffusion of responsibility. This relates to the second one where people will less likely take responsibility for helping out when there are others present. They think other people are responsible take action. Finally, the dominant person in the group can also play a huge role in the bystander effect. The so called “leader” of the group can choose to respond or not which can cause a chain reaction to his/her followers to also follow the leaders decision. I also learned about past experiments that is similar to the topic about the bystander effect like the Milgram Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment.  The Milgram Experiment focus on the obedience of a authority figure and personal conscience of the non-authority figure. This is similar to one of the factors of the bystander effect which is the dominant person. The Stanford Prison Experiment wanted to see the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The results of the experiment were surprising because the situation caused the volunteers  to behave a certain way.

      It is me presenting to my English class about my bystander effect  

What I decided to do to spread awareness about the bystander effect to other people was to educate my English class about the bystander effect by making my very own presentation about bystanders. In my presentation, I started out with a question to the whole group asking if they knew what the bystander effect was. Only half of the class raise their hand to share their answer.  Then I started to tell them what the factors and causes are of the bystander effect. Then, I started to educate them about what they could do to overcome the bystander effect.

I recently started to research how everyday people can help overcome and how to avoid the bystander effect from happening. According to VeryWellMind, there are 7 ways that could help you overcome the Bystander Effect. They said that just looking at other people helping another person out can help inspire you to do the same. Being aware of what’s going on is important too because you have to know when someone is actually in need of help or if they are just playing around. Having a personal connection with someone from the crowd can help too. Just by looking them in the eye or talking to them can increase the chance of them helping you. You also need to see everyone as person who will need of help then excluding a certain type of people out. Finally, the way that is the most important one to overcome the Bystander Effect is to just jump and help. You might have everything planned out and know what is going on, but still be just standing there, just watching the events happen. The most important part is actually helping and taking action so just jump in and help.


After doing this project for two quarters, I learned a lot about the bystander effect. I went from having slight knowledge about it to having a deeper understanding. I feel like I helped contribute to something good and that I have done something for the community. What I feel like I could have done better is to not have been so nervous when presenting in front of people and also I wish I had practiced presenting. What is still left for me to do to make a change is spread the word out to even more people than just my class   


Annotated Bibliography


Savannah Manns: Capstone

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​My capstone was the black girls can conference. I designed this conference to be a place where young African American women come to see positive role models, learn about opportunities in Philadelphia for you and talk about things like microaggressions, the professional world, self-care, healthy relationships and much more. I got this idea because when I was younger I went to a conference where I saw women much older than me at the time doing amazing things and that changed my life. I decided that I wanted to empower and uplift young women because of representation matters. On April 7th I made this long time dream come true at SLA. I was able to make this possible with the support of the amazing staff at SLA and the amazing staff at SLA. I think it was really helpful to the very few young ladies that were in attendance. We had great conversation, amazing food and as a whole, we grew in ourselves as well as with the ladies around us. There were a lot of things that I wish I could have changed, one of them being the attendance. Although that was one of the things that are not 100 percent up to me however I wish I could have done more to promote or promote people to come out for a great cause. Even some things didn't work out the way I wanted. I hope that I inspired the young ladies who were there to be themselves and know that they can do absolutely anything they put their minds to. 


Bibliography 
https://www.pppl.gov/YWC

This source is about a STEM conference for young women. This is a important source for me because My capstone does not have a specific topic, this source helped me to look more at how the girls were interacting with each other and what their sessions looked like. This source also helped me see what   the graded level was and how the interaction goes. I know for the conference that I am hosting  I do not want it to be a cliquey interaction via each grade level. 


https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/09/3-ways-get-more-young-women-interested-stem

This source is about 3 different ways that you can get young women interested in STEM. One of the biggest things that stood out to me was “changing the conversation”.  This is important because when approaching the girls at the conference, we do not want to come off as if we are forcing them to do it. It also said a lot about placing emphasis on tech role models and women in technology. This helps me to find  out if I want a keynote or not and is so who I want it to be. \



https://medium.com/tedx-experience/how-to-organize-a-conference-567fb50ccdbd

This is an important source because it gives amazing tips on how to start a conference. This is a really great source because it is from Tedx which is a really great  show and they've been doing this for years. Tips from tedx will definitely help me with everything as far as planning goes. 

http://www.uniquelyyousummit.org/

This source is from a Summit that I’ve been going to since i was 11. This is important because I want to model my summit off of this one, and implement some of their values in to my own summit/ conference. There are lots of different  ways that I could go about this, and this summitt is one of those ways. I think that this source will help to create bios, list sessions and plan things overall. 


file:///home/chronos/u-02164d821c358ef94fee4ec27053bf0489aded5b/Downloads/Conference_guide.pdf

This source is a PDF book all about creating a successful  conference. It gives tips on creating a budget, establishing a committee, registration, speakers etc. This is important because before I go into the braskem pitch I will need a budget and a way that I can explain  my Idea clearly and thoroughly. I will use this  source the most out off all of them because of how informative it is. 
https://www.gigmasters.com/search/motivational-speaker-philadelphia-pa

This source is a place where i can find young speakers. This is helpful because I can request free quotes, and learn more about them from their bios. This is important because I am looking for a keynote or multiple speakers at this event, specifically empowering speakers. This source will help me find these people. 

https://www.paconferenceforwomen.org/speakers/

This source is from the PA women's conference which I attended in October. That conference in itself  is a source. This is a list of all of the speakers. Although most of the speakers I may have to pay for them, the wesboste and the process is what I would like to model my conference off of.  This source is helpful because I get to see the program descriptions etc. 


https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/concentration-poverty-american-schools/471414/ 


This source is an article about the focus on poverty in American schools. This source talks a lot about the poverty rate of students in schools and what the schools are like in impoverished neighborhoods. Over all this helps me to understand the environment that some students go to school in and live in.  This is important when I create break out sessions. 

https://www.greatschools.org/pennsylvania/philadelphia/schools/?gradeLevels=h

This source is a list of high schools in Philadelphia , this will help me when picking out students from each school and call in counselors etc. 

https://helloendless.com/how-to-create-your-event-budget/
 This source is about making a budget for an event, how to do it and the do's and don'ts of doing it. This will help prepare for pitch night with braskem.

Arielle Moore Capstone

Abstract

For my capstone, I created a podcast. Having no experience with the medium of radio and audio, you can imagine that starting my own was a definite challenge. First, I considered my target audience: adolescents and young adults. Ultimately, I decided that social awareness, pop-culture, and politics would be the best backdrop for my show. Next, I had to create a name. After polling a few of my peers and searching for inspiration, I stumbled upon the name ‘Get Schooled’. It was short, concise, and not only represented the podcast well but that it was school-based.
Now, I had to find a hosting website for each episode. I learned that SoundCloud lets artists upload their content for free, and it can be streamed from their app. Concluding that this was the most feasible option, I created my SoundCloud page and got to work designing a logo and the content I would use to market my podcast with. 
After collecting all my necessary recording materials, it was time to begin creating each episode. I first made a template for what would be covered in the span of 15-20 minutes, and requested a co-host and ‘student spotlight’ for each week. Coming up with new subject matter on a weekly basis was the most efficient way to ensure a consistent episode schedule. I used Monday & Tuesday to write, Wednesday to record, Thursday to edit, and Friday to upload. This system was time-consuming and hard work, but proved itself to be worth it in the end.

Capstone

https://soundcloud.com/getschooledpodcast 
(All episodes are here and available to be streamed)

Bibliography

 Adams, R.L. “7 Cost-Effective Ways To Market Your Business Online.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 31 Dec. 2016, 
This source was really informative regarding the outreach for my podcast. I don’t have a strong background in marketing so this showed me how to effectively and inexpensively get your message on a larger platform, ultimately having your voice heard. I wanted to make sure that SLA students at least knew about my podcast so that I would have an established audience. For the most part, I’m just using my hosting website and some flyers around the school as promotion and this website talked about getting a strong base as being effective. 

‘Code Switch’ Podcast 
This podcast is a bit more structured, but still maintains the format of a natural, fluid conversation, which I plan to use in my own podcast. I also really like that the show has a playlist of current songs that they encourage their listeners to hear. That is a creative touch that I might consider mirroring with my podcast. I do find a bit of their topics to be more geared toward a different demographic, but I appreciate getting inspiration from all areas.

 Geoghegan, Michael W., et al. Podcast academy: the business podcasting book: launching, marketing, and measuring your podcast. Focal Press, 2014.
This book is all about the technical aspect of creating a podcast. Which audio is the best, where to host your podcast, how to record, how to plan your episodes, and so much more. Before knowing how to even begin, I needed a template. This book served as a guide on how to get started and understand the basics of running a podcast. In many instances, I was able to refer to it as a foundation for my new show. A few of its aspects are a bit outdated since this book is almost 4 years old, but its content was very helpful to me nonetheless.

 Martin, Dylan, "Inside the notebook: taking inspiration from a podcast about starting a podcast business" (2015). Maine News Index – MaineBiz. 6260
I gained a lot of vital information from this source, although I’m not planning on making my podcast a business. It provided a lot of points about how to manage and market your podcast strategically and successfully which I find to be quite helpful. I will hopefully be able to expand my podcast beyond the borders of SLA and I think this source will put me on the right track to manage and monitor it by myself. It also gave me a lot of information on how to properly plan and strategize in order to have the most fruitful outcome. 

"NPR One" NPR. Accessed January 25, 2018. 
NPR is a tool to search for and create new podcasts. I find it to be incredibly innovative and interesting when searching for inspiration or needing new information about what kinds of podcasts have a large audience. I like getting other aspects of podcasts I wouldn’t usually listen to or that aren’t geared toward my demographic. It allows me to see more than one perspective and learn how to incorporate themes that are transcendent and cater to a plethora of interests. 

‘The Read’ Podcast
Looking for a podcast that candidly comments on aspects of media, pop culture, politics, and everything in between? It’s The Read. Its two clever hosts continuously keep their fingers on the pulse of what everyone’s talking about and their witty banter sets the perfect scene for a podcast. I’ve been pulling a lot of inspiration from this show due to their fast-paced and consistently interesting episodes. As an avid listener, I closely look for what aspects make this show worth listening to each week. A bit of their topics can be a bit vulgar which I tend to stay away from when making my podcast, but I appreciate their honesty.

 Taylor, Mike. “Start a Podcast Now. Here’s How.” Entrepreneur
This article provides a lot of resources on how to upstart your podcast and how to take initiative with the topics and make a clear decision for your show. This article was from more of an 
entrepreneur standpoint, so the business aspect was clearly displayed as well. Being responsible for just about every aspect of my podcast is quite intense, but with the right guidance, it is bound to be successful. Laying out the surface on which to build your vision requires being disciplined enough to educate yourself on the things you didn’t previously know, and this source showed me the importance in asking for help and searching for the materials you need. 

 “How to Actually Create Podcast Intros That Attract Listeners.” Podcast Motor 
What do the people want to hear? That is the question. This article shows the reader what it is that actually builds an audience. I have gained a lot of knowledge from using this source because even though I have social media as a platform for my outreach, I would also like to know what it is that actually keeps listeners consistently tuned. A large part of what attracts listeners is your intro. When creating mine, I needed a place of reference and I found this source to be incredibly helpful.

 "Using Social Media to Build a Podcast Audience." Podcast Motor
I’m currently finding it a bit difficult to use social media as a way to expand my voice, but this article has been really helpful in labeling the steps I should take. I appreciate that this source takes a realistic and achievable approach to getting your message across through social media. I want to ultimately enlarge my platform and this article breaks down each aspect that is necessary to do so. 

"How to Make a Podcast: Lessons from an NPR Producer." OkDork.com. August 05, 2017.
This website shows the time, effort, and logistics that go into starting and running your own podcast. I have never done this before and have no real point of reference, so being able to read about someone else’s experience and draw inspiration has been helpful and benefitted me and the current state of my podcast. I gained a lot of information about how to turn your writing into something people want to hear, and how to incorporate other creative themes into your final product.

Y&TW Post 3: Agent of Change

In my first post and in my second post we talked about what I would like to call the Social Decline. The “ Social Decline” is basically in my view all the negative effects of technology and how we are oblivious to the changes that are happening. Other the the overall idea of my You & The World project, we went into details of a list of things that affect us as teens negatively varying from, sleep deprivation, addiction, and self consciousness. So far we did some research and then we wrote a essay on it along with pictures and caption. Then a month later I furthered my research in social media, and ironically we used social media to at first record interviews of teens and there phone usage but we weren't getting to the point or coming up with the solution that we needed. That is when I created a ten question survey that I asked people to fill out in the span of 2 days we came up with enough answers to sort of weigh it out and come up with a final product.


Another terrible effect of social media to add to this list is the most important is cyber bullying. It is sad to say , but it has become so common in the average teens daily life. In many ways social media relates to cyber bullying a website  stopbullying.gov says “Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content.”.  With all that said cyber bullying can happen anywhere anytime where there is an online device in reach. The topic is very aminstrema but for reasons of trying to move forward and get rid of the cyber bullying.


Moving on with this project we were assigned to make change, which is smart because what is the point of the research if you can’t apply it to the world and do something about it rather then speak about it. So it honestly took me a while for me to get the wheels moving, but eventually I came up with a simple idea that can make change in a way. I decided to present the issue and I was going to originally present a solution but I gave the audience the choice t be able to decide what they were going to do after they learned some new information about how social media can affect you negatively. Before all of that I got another thing or affect to share. And then I started to make a short and simple slideshow with little bullet points( so they can focus on me rather then the powerpoint).


(Shown Below is my Attempt on making a change)



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In conclusion to my attempt on change, I found the experience to be very satisfying. When I say satisfying I mean it in the way that you feel good when you make a change. I feel like I could;have planned a little better but it wouldn’t be game changing. This project overall was a good experience even if the process was not as smooth the end result is a positive one. I personally learned a lot about myself  and that I am highly involved in social media and how I need to make a change in myself as well as other people.


Room Changes for Keystone Testing

If you have a class on the 5th floor this week, it will meet elsewhere!

DateBand/TimeReddy 501Martin 502Giorgio 503Baird 504Pahomov 505Latimer 506Gasser 520V. Hernandez 521
Weds, 5/16D2 815-920303209308309307207
Lit Mod 1E2 925-1030307207
A1 1035-1140208211SSL209207
B1 1145-1250308304303307204
Thurs 5/17C1 815-920303204309307
Lit Mod 2D1 925-1030303209308309307
BIo Mod 1X1 1035-1140303308311
Y1 1140-1245
E1 1250-155307207
A1 200 - 305208303SSL209207
Fri 5/18B2 815 - 855303304303307204
Bio Mod 2C2 900 - 940303204309307
D2 945 - 1025303209308309307
E2 1030 - 1110307207
XY 1115 - 1155303207SSL207313

Gavin Lane Capstone (abstract)

Abstract


For a long time now, maybe since middle school, I have always taken an interest in SEPTA and public transit in general, but especially public transit in Philadelphia. It is for this that I chose to do my project on the concept of establishing another SEPTA line, similar to the Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines that already exist here in Philadelphia.

Since about 7th or 8th grade thereabouts, I have taken an interest in the concept of public transportation, for various reasons. From the various ways in which it can make for so much more efficiency, to how it moves through cities  and what parts of the cities, to the various different types of it, there is really a lot more to it than we think about. We take for granted a lot of these systems. People don’t know, or really think about this for that matter, but there is a lot to deal with, and a lot of planning and maintenance that goes into these “major arteries and veins” of sorts.

For my project, I came up with and designed a fictional SEPTA metro rail line that would connect some of the major inner suburbs, such as Upper Darby, to South Philadelphia and Penn’s Landing and the Delaware waterfront of Center City. The line was created with the goal of connecting areas that are not well connected at all by the current public transit system. These newly connected areas, of course, include rather important locations, notably the stadiums. This line is the Suburban Hook Line.

The Line follows a “hook” shape, giving it its name. Looking at the map, the line has three services. The First one is the local, which stops at every stop between Upper Darby and the Stadiums. The Second, is the express which stops at a few stops between Upper Darby and the Stadiums. The third is the Penn’s Landing Special, which stops at a few stops between UD and the Stadiums and then goes local to Penn’s Landing. I had decided that this would be the best schematic when creating this. To determine all of this, I did a lot of research. I did research on where the tracks would be, what kind of vehicle would be best, and how the system could run the best.


For what I learned, well, I’m really not quite sure what to say. I learned about old train right-of-ways that I did not previously know existed. When I went in to this though, I already kind of knew a lot of this stuff. I suppose you could say I learned more about certain transportation connections and suburban areas that I previously did not know much about. I also learned about a few new SEPTA plans and projects, including the “Direct” BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) Line.


I am honestly, as of now, not sure what the future holds for this idea. I may drop it due to coming up with an even more efficient improvement on it. Or, I may go big with it and one day take it to SEPTA as a legitimate proposal, who knows. Where I stand now though, I am not sure what I am going to do in the future with this idea, but I will likely still hold onto it.


file:///home/chronos/u-118b8822b40d051c00c2f7d9b2b7a1df51402a4e/Downloads/Suburban-Hook-Line-Infographic-.pdf


Bibliography/Sources can be found here.

Printmaking Blog

Printmaking has a long important history. It is in important because it is impossible to make the same image exactly the same. So in order to get the image closest to it's exact form you have to print it on to a surface and use that surface on other surfaces.

The invention of printing gave a new style to clothes that was different from hand drawing the image on to the shirt. The invention stopped hard work and labor towards making the same design over again. It is almost impossible to draw the same design over and over again so that is why printmaking was so important. Printmaking was used in all cultures unlike something where it is a cultural thing. This is important and needed with in all cultures and worlds. Like, Knights need it on their armor, Germans need for their clothes making.


Great Wave of Kanagawa Hokusai Print
Great Wave of Kanagawa Hokusai Print
This image really touches me because I surf so I know what the eye of the wave really looks like and they did a great representation of it. The large wave makes threatening presents to the boat. The mountain in the back calms the images out and makes the picture equal.

Jordan Grayes Capstone

I am pleased to share with you all my progress on my senior Capstone 2018 here at Science Leadership Academy. I had a clear idea heading into senior year that this would be the year I finally find out if music is my path. I know many of my friends appreciate my skills musically. It was very important of me to learn more of the technical side of music. In my senior capstone, I decided my theme would be, researching what it means to become a part of the music industry. These past several months have consisted of making a studio, writing lyrics, and talking to music producers, all before actually recording my own 6 song EP of self produced music. I learned that in 2018 it is not hard at all to become a soundcloud rapper or rapper in general. The term soundcloud rapper is not an insult nor compliment. I believe it to just be a pronoun for me making music on soundcloud.

Ijustice Avery Capstone

Baseball has always been a big part of my life, so I wanted my capstone to have something to do with baseball. After some thinking I decided to have a youth baseball clinic to try to give the new young players things to work on to make them better players. I organized it so I could have a younger group which consisted of kids from grades 3-5 and an older group which consisted of kids from grades 6-8. After deciding what my capstone would be and who it would be open to, there was a long process that followed so my capstone would be complete.

First, I had to find a spot to hold my event. My old baseball coach has an indoor baseball facility so I felt like that would be the best place to have it. To let people know about my capstone I had to do some advertising. I thought it would be best for me to make a flyer and pass it out to various teams and parents. I did some research and found out when teams would be practicing and where. After I gathered this information I went around to these practices and gave my flyer to team coaches and parents and I explained what my event would consist of. I also had people myself included post about the event on social media. After the advertising aspect of my capstone was complete, the organizing part had to start. I had to design what I would be doing in my event. I did some research and found some good drills for youth players and I found a way to incorporate them into my event. I realized that with all the things I would be doing it would be a lot for one person to handle. So I asked some of my friends who play baseball to help me run the event. I continued to advertise for my event until the week before I held it. After all of that the only thing that I had to do was hold my event.


Screenshot 2018-05-11 at 10.04.07 AM
Screenshot 2018-05-11 at 10.04.07 AM

Capstone Annotated Bibliography


“5 Tips For Running A Great Baseball Camp.” Baseball Brains, 21 Nov. 2016, www.baseballbrains.net/5-tips-for-running-a-great-baseball-camp/.


This source could be very helpful for the organization part of my clinic. It basically tells you the steps to follow to hold  successful baseball clinic or event. Some of the things it told me to do was get plenty of people committed to help you during your event, do not over price it, reach out to baseball organizations in your area to promote the event, plan out every part of your event and know how much time you have. I find that this source is reliable because the organization that wrote this article holds baseball clinics of their own.



“10 great hitting tips for youth baseball players.” Youth1, 13 Mar. 2017, youth1.com/baseball/1144317823-10-great-hittingtips-youth-baseball-players#.


This sources provides information on hitting. Hitting is going to be one of the focus points in my baseball clinic so this source can be very useful. I could teach the player everything I know on hitting and give them some tips from this source. This source can also tell me what to look for in a hitter swing. Any small cretics can be crucial in a hitters swing. Hitting a baseball in one of the hardest things to do in sports so with any tips and drills will be very useful for a hitter.



Aacap. Children And Sports, www.aacap.org/aacap/families_and_youth/facts_for_families/Facts_for_Families_Pages/Children_And_Sports_61.aspx.


This source focuses on all the positive things that children gain from playing sports. I choose this source because it provides information that relates to my capstone and I would like to learn as much as I can about the positive and negative effect that sports has on children just to get a better understanding of my topic. This source also talks about how the parents have to be involved with their child’s sports career. A parent or parents plays a very important role in their child’s development in sports





“Defensive Linup Strategies For Youth Baseball.” PRO TIPS by DICK'S Sporting Goods, 11 May 2017, protips.dickssportinggoods.com/sports-and-activities/baseball/defensive-lineup-strategies-for-youth-baseball.


I found this source very useful because it talks about what to look for in a player to fill each position in the field and where to put them in the batting lineup. This can help me point out things in players that I see and I could give them advice on where I think they would fit best on a baseball field. This source focuses on the defensive end of baseball. My clinic is going to be mostly on fielding and hitting so this source will come in handy.



Miner, Julianna W. “Why 70 percent of kids quit sports by age 13.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 1 June 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2016/06/01/why-70-percent-of-kids-quit-sports-by-age-13/?utm_term=.a369c1641bd3.


This source talks about why kids usually quit sports by the time they are a teenager. I choose this source because the things that this article says are the things I should try to avoid. According to this source one of the main reasons kids quit sports is because it is not fun because it is not designed to be. With that being said I want to try to make my clinic serious but also have fun parts. I think this will be a very good learning experience for the kids and also for myself.



“Nutrition tips for youth baseball players, families.” Triple Crown Sports News, www.triplecrownsportsmedia.com/nutrition-tips-for-youth-baseball-players-families/.


This source will be useful because it will help me with the teaching aspect of my baseball clinic. This source focuses on the nutrition of youth athletes. This could also be a learning experience for me. Teaching the young players about nutrition, drills, fitness, and the mental aspect of the game could also help me and the way I play. I could use some of the things I teach to improve my game.



GraphX, http://coyote6.com Coyote6. “One Reason So Many Youth Baseball Players Are Injured.” Baseball Think Tank, 22 Sept. 2017, baseballthinktank.com/one-reason-so-many-youth-baseball-players-are-injured.


I selected this source because this source talks about how most youth players get injured. It also talks about how to prevent injuries for youth players. I think this source will be useful because not only do I want to run drills and help kids with their baseball skills but I also want to teach them new things and how to take care of their bodies and stay healthy. I want to teach them certain stretches for the parts of the body that baseball stresses the most. This source provides very quality information on how youth athletes get hurt and how to prevent injuries.



“Preseason Training for Youth Baseball Players : Strength & Conditioning Journal.” LWW, journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Fulltext/2013/06000/Preseason_Training_for_Youth_Baseball_Players.9.aspx.


This source provides me with a scheduled training routine that would be helpful for youth baseball players. The workouts that are provided focus on one specific body part or muscle group related to baseball each day. For example you train your rotator cuff on monday, then on tuesday you train your legs. This source also provide you with some drills you could do to get your arms stronger so you can throw harder. These all are things that I could use or mention in the baseball clinic that I will hold. I found this source very helpful because it really relates to what I would be teaching.



Thomas, Jessica L. Youth sport programs: an avenue to foster positive youth development. areas.fmh.utl.pt/~arosado/Repositorio/ficheiros/LONGTERM/Ref11.pdf.


This source provides information about the positive and negative effects of sports on the youth. With my capstone revolving around kids and sports I thought it would be a good thing for me to read about what kids turn to and what pushes them away about sports. I found it very useful how the author of this article went into detail on the positives and negatives that kids encounter while playing sports. To be specific they mentioned Emotional psychological development, social development, adult influences, program design, intellectual development, and many more factors.



TroskyBaseball247. “TroskyBaseball247.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/user/TroskyBaseball247/videos.


For my capstone this source could be very useful. It is a youtube channel named “TroskyBaseball247.” The channel is run by coach Nate Trosky who is a baseball instructor. The channel consist of a lot of baseball drills and workouts that I could use in the clinic that I will hold for my capstone. This doesn’t only help me by providing me with things that I can use in my clinic but it also helps me on how to present and explain those drills and only things to the player that will participating in my baseball clinic


Aidan Williams Capstone

For my Capstone project, I decided to write a short album. I tried to write one song each month which tied into my experience throughout senior year and my High School experience in general. It was fun to work on, and I’m proud of the final product.

I wrote a whole bunch of music, but, as time went on, I tried to slim it down to the seven songs I felt were best suited to the project. I spent a lot of time writing, bits and pieces here and there, and towards the end I started to flesh out a lot of the parts I had written, and trimming many bits I didn’t think made sense. I spent a lot of time recording it through the equipment I have at home in GarageBand. It took a while, but I feel like the recordings themselves turned out well.

The songs are on a broad range of topics, from my experiences throughout my time at SLA, both in school and out, people I’ve met, things I’ve learned, and more. For better or worse, I’ve tried to condense my time here as much as possible.

I’ve posted the music online publicly, and I’m attaching a link to this post. Check it out if you want to.


https://soundcloud.com/aidan-williams-262842405/sets/capstone

Pattinson, Pat. (2011). Songwriting Without Boundaries. Writer’s Digest Books.

This book was gifted to me, and it has lots of information on lyric writing in music. I figured it would be a great source for my capstone, as I am going to be doing a lot of work on writing lyrics. I probably won’t read all of it, but the information in it is relevant and I think it will be very useful as I continue my work for the project. Through exercises and practice, this book presents lots of information and assistance which I am excited to discover and use. I don’t know what else to say about it, it just seems like a great source.


“How to Write a Song | 10 Songwriting Tips from the Pros.” Ditto Music Promotion, 10 Nov. 2016, www.dittomusic.com/blog/how-to-write-a-song-10-tips-on-how-to-boost-your-creative-side-when-writing-songs.

I have been writing songs for a few years now, but there is always more to learn. This source has several tips from professional musicians that I think I will find useful. There is always more to be learned, and more that can be done when it comes to songwriting, and I think just having an abundance of sources like this one with lots of small tips and tricks will help me a lot moving forward with this project. While not all the tips might be useful, I think that it is still good to have this information, and, again, just the abundance of tips is great to have.


Seydel, Rory. “10 Ridiculous Songwriting Tips That Actually Work.” LANDR Blog, 26 Jan. 2018, blog.landr.com/10-songwriting-techniques/.

The word “ridiculous” is always an eye-catcher, so when I saw this website, I knew I had to take a look. I am choosing to use this source as yet another small set of tips, “ridiculous” tips, if you will, and, again, having that abundance of information is something that I think I’ll appreciate in the long run. It is written by a musician, which also helps, as it seems to be all from experience. “Ridiculous” might be an overstatement, but I’m excited to use this advice as I move forward with completing my project.


Rubright, Nicholas. “25 musicians share their best songwriting tips, techniques, ideas, and exercises.” Dozmia Blog, blog.dozmia.com/songwriting-tips-techniques-ideas-exercises/.

This is like my second source, but more in depth. I am choosing to use it because, while it is still a set of tips and tricks, it seems much more in depth, and, while I haven’t taken time to read it carefully, I think that there is a whole lot to unpack from this. I am excited to delve into it, and I think that it will work wonders as I move forward on my project. Also, yet again, the tips and tricks are from accomplished musicians. I haven’t heard of all of them, so they might not be as accomplished as the website claims, but it should be useful nonetheless.


“Guitar Chord Chart.” TrueFire, truefire.com/guitar-chord-charts/.

One thing I often have trouble with as a songwriter is picking chords. That’s why I think that having a chart with many chords on it will be very helpful moving forward with the project. It will give me a wealth of new sounds and progressions to explore, and I think that having the information should make my project much more interesting by the end. I’m surprised I haven’t tried to find or use one of these before. It seems very comprehensive as well, and, with some practice, I think that it will be ‘instrumental’ to the completion of the project.

LutzAcademy. “How to Build Chord Progressions on Guitar.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Dec. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fC3dZRu7Z0.

Like I said before, picking chords and writing chord progressions is one of my greatest weaknesses when it comes to music. So, I am picking this source to try to get better at creating chord progressions. Combined with the chord chart, I should now have more than enough information and expertise to build my very own chord progressions for the project. Also, the video is only seventeen minutes long, so the information should be condensed and easily picked up. I’m excited to use this source as I move forward with completing my project. It doesn’t have a lot of views, but it seems like it is exactly what I need.


seandaniel23. “Building Chords, Easy Music Theory.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 Aug. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=__VtlxQZhXs.

Like I always say, redundancy is the key to success. I’m assuming that this video will be similar to the last one, but the differences between them should help a lot with the process. Information that is in both of them will be corroborated, while information that differs between the two will give me the chance to either use information from both, pick and choose from the two videos, or be able to tell what is more subjective and might not be necessary for my progressions. Doubling up on types of sources I think will really help me moving forward with the project.


Matla, Sam. “The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better and More Memorable Melodies.” EDMProd, 10 Jan. 2017, www.edmprod.com/ultimate-melody-guide/.

I chose this source because, while melody writing isn’t something I usually have trouble with, I think that just having the information will be incredibly beneficial to me. As melodies are usually the guiding force behind a song, it is important to create the best possible melodies when writing music. Having some outside influence and tips for writing melodies will be useful, as, really, one can only get better at stuff like this. I’m excited to learn new things about melody writing, as it isn’t something I’ve sought help for in the past. I think that it will be incredibly useful to my project as I continue to work on it.


Zambonini, Dan. “A Beginners guide to mixing in GarageBand.” New Titles, 24 July 2014, archive.oreilly.com/pub/post/a_beginners_guide_to_mixing_in.html.

While I have used trial and error in the past to mix music with GarageBand, which is the platform I plan on using for recording, I have never actually gone in depth and tried to learn more about the platform itself. I am excited to get in deep with the platform and practice mixing and mastering my music, and making it sound as good as I can. I’ve been using GarageBand for a long time, so I’m excited to learn more about it, as recording and mixing music is something that I thoroughly enjoy. This is definitely a source that will be important to my project.


Molenda, Michael. “10 Ways To More Professional GarageBand Mixes.” EMusician, 1 Aug. 2009, www.emusician.com/gear/10-ways-to-more-professional-garageband-mixes.

I am choosing this source because, like I said before, redundancy is important. I am going to be doing a lot of mixing, and I would like to get as good as I can at mixing in GarageBand. This isn’t necessarily a very in depth source, but the information in it is useful, and should help me a lot. I would like as much information as possible when it comes to my mixing in Garageband, and I’m excited to improve my skills. Even just these few tips seem incredibly useful, and I’m excited to put them to work while I work on this project.

Taytiana Velazquez-Rivera Capstone

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The topic of my senior capstone project is Puerto Rico. I am Puerto Rican so this was a way for me to take advantage of learning more about my homeland. By doing this project I hope to learn more about my lineage. This project will helped me improve my research skills, and by the end of this project, I hope to learned a lot. I got to interview and meet a lot of people, one of which was a hairstylist who upon arrival to Puerto Rico, after the Hurricane Maria, found out her father had passed - in which she is pictured. I learned about the culture and the highly catholic population, in which people always had faith in unity. For this project I created multiple art pieces 5 of my favorite are attached, each corresponding stories for art piece for each piece created, creating a double portfolio. During this project I collaborated with clubs in Science Leadership Academy (SLA) to coordinate, drives for Puerto Rico, as well as doing some on my own in collaboration with the first Spanish Baptist Church of Philadelphia,  during the hurricane recovery after hurricane season. I also, used Latino club as an outlet to interview students. The people of Puerto Rico were beyond grateful for things such as canned food, and paper towel. In some places, people didn’t have water and food for weeks and were left to eat dogs and cats. I have gained a new appreciation for Puerto Rico as a whole, their unity inspired me beyond words.



Works Cited

Santiago, Roberto, editor. “Boricuas: Influential Writings - An Anthology” . First ed., 'A One World Book' by The Ballantine Publishing Group, September 1995. Print.


This anthology of puerto rican writing helped me put into perspective what I wanted to exemplify in part of my capstone. Taking different writings and then having an artist create a small art piece was one of the key component of something, that I did in a similar manner with taking interviews and stories and turning them into art pieces. Also, the anthology of writings gave me an idea to do an anthology of art along with my personal gallery inspired from gallery


Silva, Daniella. "Trump Defends Throwing Paper Towels to Hurricane Survivors in Puerto Rico." NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, 08 Oct. 2017. Web. 27 Jan. 2018.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-defends-throwing-paper-towels-hurricane-survivors-puerto-rico-n808861


I know that usually the news isn’t the best source of information, but for my project I also wanted to portray how current events are affecting puerto rico and how politicians think of or respect Puerto Rico. This puts into perspective a different lense than what I would normally see, and gave me another idea for an art  piece. (j.b.)


Benítez, Marimar. “Neurotic Imperatives: Contemporary Art from Puerto Rico.” Art Journal, vol. 57, no. 4, 1998, pp. 75–85. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/777929.

 Looking at contemporary art gives a new style of art for me to explore. This displays very boxy picasso like inspired art pieces with a traditional spin, as well as art work that was composed of many lines.



FELICIANO, HÉCTOR, and Francisca González Arias. “The Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, or, the Reconstitution of a History of Art.” Remix: Changing Conversations in Museums of the Americas, edited by Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez, 1st ed., University of California Press, 2016, pp. 34–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt19rmbt3.10.


Viewing a historical standpoint this is very important because its about the first museum dedicated to Puerto Rico.  The subject with-in itself opens the world up to history that was kind of left behind for a while. I think this museum is something to consider because what happens to the Puerto Rican artist, work today and it leads me to asking myself how to make sure people will have access to art made today, tomorrow?


Ward, Sarah Laleman. “Hidden in Plain Sight: The Story of the Hunter College Collection of Puerto Rican Graphic Arts.” Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, vol. 34, no. 2, 2015, pp. 204–222. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/683381.

Including around 150 art pieces between 1954 and 1985, This book gives me a really good view of art development and changes and techniques. It even helped me view the changing architecture through art, which looked very similar to that of what my Great grandmother illustrates of la Isla.


https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016703797003359

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vyQDYqz2kFsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=puerto+rico+art&ots=A0LSrhq9t4&sig=hLtCaJzq9IAK0yiTPYCaZlRP9JY#v=onepage&q=puerto%20rico%20art&f=false


http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0094582X9802500308#articleCitationDownloadContainer


http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/24/americas/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-aftermath/index.html


https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/12/29/power-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-pkg-santiago-erin.cnn


Paul-Ann Whyte: Capstone

https://docs.google.com/document/d/105w5AlcvKEe8jgZYmY8LQBlnrSWvAj2l27VG9nru2CE/edit?usp=sharing



For my capstone, I started writing a short story called Project: Retina. I have been thinking about this book since I was nine and was excited to finally put this idea on paper. I was really happy when I was able to use this idea to finally show what my imagination is capable of. However, I ran into multiple problems. More than I had anticipated. One problem was fleshing out the idea. Since this idea was made when I was nine, it had some problems. It didn't have a clear plot, didn't have fleshed out characters and no clear ending or beginning. Another problem was that because of the previous problems mentioned, I kept restarting. Multiple times, I started over, slightly changing the plot, until I was happy. Unfortunately, when I was happy, I only had a month left to write this book. So I am worried that this book is inadequate with words but I did try my best to get to a point I was happy with.


Capstone_ Chapter 1
Annotated Bibliography (1)