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Ethan Friedman

May 2018

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Google Forms: Original Research Survey

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

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

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

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

The letter that I mailed to Tom Wolf.

Annotated Bibliography

Mission Accomplished

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

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

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

The Project Overall

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

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

What Else Is Left To Change

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

Here are some pictures:

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

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

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

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

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

ANN BIB!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is a picture of Randy Le typing his letter.

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

This is where you can find my Annotated Bibliography.

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

Me asking for some feedback on some questions and ideas.

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

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

Me presenting during my first club meeting

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

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

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

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

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

Here is my illegal animal trade informational poster.

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

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

Annotated Bibliography

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

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

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

annotated bibliography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Annotated Bibliography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#1: Radically diversify America’s Police Departments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#15: We must decriminalize mental illness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

photo 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.

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.

Here’s what the introduction looks like.

Here’s what the insomnia statistics look like.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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