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During the process I encountered a few problems. Before I emailed Saint John Hospice I emailed another place. I wasn’t able to volunteer there because I had to be 18 with or without an adult. I also had to make sure I wasn’t interfering with my grand mother’s schedule because she is back and forth with doctor’s appointments and taking care of my great grandfather. 

Volunteering at the soup kitchen has really had an impact on me. I realized I had so much to be thankful for. I am blessed to have what I have because things could be worse. For some of them that is their only meal everyday but they still keep a smile on their face. I also realized that things will always get better but you have to apply yourself. Some people think that homeless people are lazy bums who don’t want to do anything but the truth is things happen, some expected and some unexpected. Many of these men lost their jobs and everything went down hill. I will always remember that some people are less fortunate than others and it’s not right to make rude assumptions about them. We, as a community of Philadelphia are there for each other and there is always help when you need it. 

Dejanyia Johnson helping me for my interviews.

    Cole Hinton, Sydne Hopkins Baker and I all collaborated in having 2 successful bakes sales. To prepare for the bake sales, we printed out many flyers and hung them all around SLA with the help of some SLA students ( Julian Chiti Makarechi , Ameer Holmes, Brandon Yam, Rosalie Ann Swana, Jiwon Choi, Michelle Friedman, Claudia Bonita, and Javier Peraza). The bake sales were held on Tuesdays, April 23 and 25 during Y band lunch on the 2nd floor in front of the office. Some of the goodies sold were slices of Ice Cream Cookie Pie, brownies, cookies, Hershey kiss pies, etc. We raised $80.56 for the PAWS Animal Shelter on 2&Arch in Philadelphia, Pa. Sydne and I rode down to PAWS to drop off our donations and to play with some of the animals. Unfortunately our partner Cole was unable to make that trip. When we arrived at PAWS, one of the employees told us that we raised enough to feed and house a dog or cat for one week. 

For my Agent of Change part, I have overcome a few obstacles and one of them being rejection. What I actually had in mind for my Agent of Change part is volunteering at either these two animal shelters: PAWS and the PSPCA. However when I applied for the volunteer application form I was rejected because I was not of age. The PSPCA required all of their volunteer to be at least 16 and PAWS required that you must be 18 or older but I’m just 15 so I had to come up with a different plan of action. I thought to myself “how could I impact animals if I couldn’t volunteer?”, but then this idea popped into my head that I could raise money for them to provided a home from them outside of the shelter. 

 By doing this project I learned some many wonderful things about my self, one is I’m not afraid to go all out for a bake sale. But besides that, I learned that my heart is truly with the animals and I will do anything even if I could just impacted one animal. My work efforts for helpings these poor animals will not discontinue, I plan to go farther to impact more animals. I just found another animal shelter through a friend named Operation Ava on Spring Garden, it’s mainly a dog shelter created by three young girls with a passion to love animals. In a couple of weeks I will start volunteering there and i’m greatly consider volunteering there for my ILP next year. So to all the people who helped me and as well as my collaborators and all of you who have followed my ever since blog #1, I greatly thank you for all you help to makes animals lives better. Remember, STAND AGAINST ANIMAL CRUELTY! 

Hey Guys!! So I’m back with my final YOu and The World Blog. This time I don’t want to depress you with sad animals or facts about how people kill animals for fun. I definitely don’t want to type this long as ever blog about the things I do in class so I’m going to keep it simple. And I’m going to add a little something extra for you the reader.

My first plans for my You and The World project didn’t start off the way I wanted them to. Originally the plan was that I would  go volunteer at a animal shelter near my middle school. My spanish teacher took us there for our Need and Deed project and it was the perfect little shelter. Things happened and I could not go that specific shelter. So I talked to my classmates who have the same topic as me and they said it would be a great idea to collaborate together and make one big project and individually talk about our experiences. On April 23rd 2013 Y band lunch Tiarra, Cole and I had a bake sale to raise money for Paws a no kill animal shelter. The bake sale was a lot of fun. We raised about $27 dollars for Paws, but that was just the beginning April 26th 2013 Y and X lunch band all three us had another bake sale which was the biggest success I’ve seen in the history of back sales. During those two bands we raised about $53-$54 which led to a total of about $81 raised for Paws. I’m glad we did a bake sale it was a lot of fun selling goodies to people. Especially when Tiarra makes her famous ice cream cookie cake that sold out so fast, I mean I blinked and the whole cake was gone. Cole also brought in some brownies and you can never go wrong with them. One thing I did learned is that once Tiarra has a goal she sets her mind to it. She wanted to sell everything so what does she do. She walks around selling the last little bit of everything, nothing could stop that child. The video of Soledad and Stephanie shows what happens after the bake sale finished. We were simply just acting silly and having fun.

(One of the many posters spreading the word about our bake sale)

(Yushhhhhh Angelo got his cake)

(Our lovely english teacher)

(More happy customers)

The next step to our Agent of change is to go to Paws and just play with the animals. On May 3rd 2013 after report card conferences Tiara and I went to Paws to deliver the money. We took a mini field trip to Old City Philadelphia where Paws is located. It was a lot of walking and a long bus ride. Sadly Cole was unable to join us but he was with us in spirit. We went in and gave the workers our money. They were really surprised that a group of teenagers gave money in for a good cause. With the money we raised we feed/housed a rescued dog for a week. It may not seem a lot but it’s saving a life. The workers also took our picture and posted it to their Facebook page. The comments were touching. The people said they are proud of our school and the work we did to save the animals.

At the end Tiarra and I got to play with some of the cats. We could not play with the dogs because we have to be older but we enjoyed the cat time. As a pet owner myself it was sad to see that these cats don’t have a good home. I read some of the papers that talked about the cats life some of them were dropped off but one cat had a sad story about animal abuse. In my second You and The World Blog I talked about the many forms of animals abuse and how animal abuse and how in some occasions child abuse are related.

I have to say that was a really depressing blog, seeing what people do to animals is just horrific, but it’s good to educate others so we can put a stop to all the hate and abuse.

Overall this was an awesome experience. It was just smooth sailing. The only problems I can think off was technical. I didn’t have enough space to take pictures so only Tiarra had them all. Another problem was transportation. Oh boy did we have to wait for ever to take a bus to Paws. BUT we did not let that stop us from completing our mission. My Agent of Change does not stop here. I want to try out a new place called Operation Ava. Another shelter like Paws but you can interacts with cats and dogs. For my ILP next year I want to work with a puppy gym that rehabilitate animals who were hurt or had surgery.  I also want to have more bake sales maye start fundraisers around my neighborhood. The mayor thing is to spread the word. Paws and your local ASPCA are always appreciative if you simply donate a blanket or some animal food. If you don’t want to adopt you can always be a foster parent. For those who don’t know foster parent is like being a temporary mom for a kid or an animal. Foster parents can end up adopting if they get really attached or when the animal does get adopted they go home with their new family and say good bye to the foster parent. But adoption is always the best way if you want to adopt an animal you can call your own you can contact me and I can give you information or you can visit Paws website even your local ASPCA center.

Now like I said at the beginning of my blog I do have something fun at the end just say thanks for taking time to read my blog. The ASPCA has a kids website that have weird/kinda funny animal clips and games you can play that involve animals. Click here to access the website

Click here for my sources alphabetized and all that fancy stuff ;)

Thank you for reading,

Naomi

To see my bibliography click here.

            When I first started looking for organizations to get involved with I did not know the myriad ways a diverse group of people and small organizations were working to improve Philadelphia. For my first project I worked on setting up a community garden in the back of a small church in North Philly neighborhood where food availability is a chronic problem.  This church’s garden worked in conjunction with a soup kitchen that the church also ran - as soon as the vegetables that the church group grew could be harvested, they would bring this produce to the soup kitchen to help supply the poorer citizens of neighborhood with healthy foods. This all took place in a derelict lot. Even though there was only a small amount of space, using raised planter beds and contamination-free soil, we were able to make use of all the land that we had at our disposal to grow wholesome food.

Food Desert: Part 2

Food Desert: Part 1

Bibliography

My process for the agent of change part of this project was mainly influenced by my aunt and uncle who helped me schedule the benefits I would be able to attend to. When a benefit was coming up I would go a day before to my aunt’s house to help everyone prepare for the benefit, things like preparing posters or decorations and wrapping Christmas presents. The following morning we would all drive to the benefit location to set up and spend the day there until the benefit attended. After, everyone helped out in cleaning up. The only problems that occurred during this process were some small issues with just changing around the benefits I could attend. Alex Lemonade Stand Foundation hold so many amazing benefits that I planned to attend, but as things came up during the year we had to narrow it down to a few, but it was easily fixed. 

This project has definitely made a huge impact on me. These two benefits helped so many children and families and I can’t wait for my next benefit in three weeks. Just hearing about this foundation makes you want to help and do what you can do, but nothing compares to the inspiration you feel after attending one of the benefits and just seeing how happy the kids are, how appreciative the families are, and how many kind people come out to help. Attending these benefits can definitely turn anyone into a better collaborator because that is all that takes place during these types of things. Everyone is collaborating to make the kids happy, help the families cope, and come up with different ideas and benefits to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer. 

For my second You and the World blog post I talked about the survey that I made and how much I learned from the results of the survey. Furthermore I learned new facts about the financial aid system. Click here to see my second You and the World blog post. For my first You and the World blog post I introduced my topic and I wrote about the numbers behind the financial aid system. Furthermore I gave my reasoning behind choosing the topic that I did. Click here to see my You and the World blog post number two.        

My process was much different than I excepted. My first idea for my agent of change portion of my blog post was to go volunteer at the Pennsylvania department of welfare but I was not able to make that happen so my next idea was to send a letter and to find out more about it and to find out how I could make a difference in the department. I believe that I did not find out as much information as I wanted but I did learn some things. The one big problem that I had was not being able to volunteer at the Pennsylvania department of welfare and the way I fixed that problem was by sending a letter to the Pennsylvania department of welfare and finding out more information.

I believe this project has taught me to never give up on something. At some points of my process I did not know what I was going to do but then I came up with the idea of sending the letter the Pennsylvania department of welfare. I believe that this project has made a difference in my community. The reason being is now that the letter has been sent to the Pennsylvania department of welfare they now know that people do appreciate what they do and are willing to help. I see myself as a leader but I also see myself as someone who can definitely learn more. I do not know everything I want to know about the Pennsylvania department of welfare and I would love to learn more about the department. I will take many things from this project. One thing that I will take from this project is my new learning of Pennsylvania department of welfare and all that I have learned from doing this project. I have also learned a bunch about myself. When I started this project I did not know what I would learn about Pennsylvania department of welfare but at the end of this process I was very pleased and I knew much more about the department at the end of this process.   

Click here to view a video of my process  

Click here for bibliography

    For those of you who don’t know, my topic for my agent of change was Gay Marriage/Gay Rights. This entire subject is very controversial and is a topic of debate everyday. I for one, haven’t told my stance on the topic. On whether I do, or do not support the movement. I wanted to be unbiased and go into this process with a free and open mind that could possibly be swayed. If you ask me, this is the best choice to do for anyone that is introducing themselves into a new way of life/element. All in all, it was a life changing experience.

  I may have been unbiased, but this didn’t stop me from helping out the cause. I began volunteer work for The Attic Youth Center. A community designed as a safe haven for lesbian, gay, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) youth to find and develop into free thinking and healthy adults (If you are interested in joining like I did, visit their website here. Or if you'd prefer a different community organization, click here). There are many young people on the streets that have been kicked out/abandoned, especially gay youth that have accepting parents. The Youth Attic helps shelter some of the youth as well. These kids are still kids in my eyes. Gay or not. So I decided it would be an amazing idea to sell baked goods. From April 8th-April 26th, I fundraised for the Attic by selling donuts to the fellow SLA student body while also outside. Nearly $100 was made, which was greatly appreciated by the Attic. When first discovering the Attic, I really wanted to be hands on “involved” with them, volunteer wise. Sadly, in order to do so, I had to be 27. Being a minor can sometimes limit you in a sense! But not in this case because I did get involved and I was able to get my peers involved as well.

When setting out to make a change, I thought I had it all figured out. Originally, I had planned to get involved with Giovanni’s room, the nation's first gay library not too far from the Attic. I told you guys about it in my previous blogs. In my vision, it was going to be a sleek and smooth interview with the owners who would give me a piece of their life as gays. But then I realized, what else would have happened from there? There wasn’t much else that I could extend from and make my own. But from research and other numerous sources, I discovered the wondrous  Attic Youth Center. I found out about the organization whilst looking for other gay youth centers in the Philadelphia area. When setting out to find a place like such, I mainly aimed to connect with people of my age. Of my generation. To see what it is like growing up for them and how they deal with who they are.

   Some of the main, but minor problems that occurred were the fact that many of people I interviewed/that were involved, were very camera shy. They were pretty open with answering my questions, but when it came to documenting it, that was another story. I had to respect their privacy. I completely understood where they were coming from with wanting to stay discreet. But their words made up for the lack of identification. The main subject of my interviews was with the one and Mr. Jay Jacinto Grant, one of the directors of the Attic who enjoyed my company and my tons of questions. You can read the interview I had with him here.

Q1: Why do you support gay marriage?

    They should be able to get married. They are people too. It’s their constitutional right, let alone, human right.

Q2: What do you think keeps people from supporting?

Ignorance. They are people in this world that don't support gay rights mainly because of religion. I think this connects, because essentially, you’re forcing your religion on someone else.

Q3: Do you think sexuality defines somebody?

    No. It doesn’t define who you are, it defines your sexuality.

Q4: Knowing you as a supporter of civil rights, do you think there is a connection between civil rights of the early 20th century and gay rights?

    Yes. Before gays were getting discriminated, blacks were getting discriminated. Even though race and sexuality are different, it can still have the same affects on someone's mindset.

Q5: Do you know anyone that is gay?

      Yes. Nearly all of SLA.

Interview with Andrew Roberts:

Q1. Do you support marriage?

No.

Q2. Why not?

I believe that marriage should be between a man and woman and that man should not change it. Marriage is a scarcer thing with divorces and what not.

Q3. Do you think religion has affected your views on the topic?

Most definitely.

Q4. What do you think will happen if gay marriage is legalized? Will there be positive or negative effects?

A lot of democrats will be happy. The problem I see with gay marriage is it expands marriages ideals. If you expand the grammar to gay marriage, people could protest polygamy as well. People will say we did it in the pass, we can do it now.

Gay rights, I think that people will be happier, but it’s not going to benefit really.

   These people were amazing help to me in all ways possible. As the world gets older and generations grow, will there be changes? Interviewing two members of my day and age that come from opposite sides, it was nice to see that everyone is different. Even as youths, we still have our own independent beliefs and not everything is determined or set by adults.

     I feel like I’ve experienced the turn of a new leaf by doing this project. I’ve become more aware of the problems that do affect someone’s everyday life. At first, being a heterosexual, I didn’t think I would ever have to deal with the problems that gays do. Being unaccepted by family. Abandoned. Kicked-out. All because of your sexuality. In most cases the reasoning for being against someone’s sexuality is because of religion. But as a religious person, I would understand that you should love everyone. Even the bad things about them.

   I used to turn my nose up at the thought of community service. It felt as though you were being forced to help people. But after stepping down from the clouds and trying it, I actually felt pretty good afterwards. It was a rewarding feeling and made me want to do it again. I wasn’t earning anything physical, but strangely I was okay with it. This project has made me less selfish and more selfless. It’s made me acknowledge the world and one of the tons of problems it has.

   Most of the people  I’ve came to about my project were rather shocked at first. They knew the subject was controversial. The first thing I was being asked was “Do you support gay marriage?”. It seems that this question has became a casual phrase in everyday conversation. Mainly because it is one of the discriminatory topics that is frequently discussed by the Church and our government on a daily basis. It never bothered me when someone asked this, but I always took a mental note of who. The question itself is almost a trick question. If you answer yes, you can either get a congratulations, or a side-eye of disappointment. If the answer is no, you can expect complete avoidance from most and get labeled as a homophobic. There are positives and negatives.

    I see myself as a person who is still learning, but can be leader as well. Even without a full understanding of most topics in the world, I can still make a huge difference. It’s been one of my goals, in life, not only for this project, to make leave my fingerprint somewhere. Being commonly called a leader has it’s good and bad connotations, but I do prefer to have group collaboration sometimes. Sharing ideas and helping one another can only bring positive things. For most people who are used to doing this on their own, it can be scary. Having to share the attention with others can be anxiety filling. But it’s the things we don’t try that usually benefit us in the long run.

    Walking away from this project, I definitely will take away a better understanding of the world itself. Meeting new types of people and being exposed to a completely alien environment has definitely changed a part of my mindset. I’ve seen that stepping out of my own element was very beneficial. I’ve created a bond with people I never would have thought I would. Just by doing this project, It’s been made clear to my psyche that everyone is just a human being. The fight for gay rights is another mark that going to be embedded in history. It’s happening right before our eyes. But what we need to understand is that, we aren’t going to be perfect. The only thing I can do, and we as a whole can do, is grow and learn. Thank you readers for following me on this journey. I hope that from watching me explore the World and some of the things in it, you'll aspire to do the same. And possibly, make a change.

It’s been a hot year

Hi guys!, Today I am writing my 3rd  blog post, this is for  Mrs. Dunn’s English 9 class. I know it has been a very hot year for all of us and it’s really ad, but I will continue my agent of change to help this change in temperature and make more people aware of what is happening to the world each day.

For a project in my English class, final task was to act as an agent of change and make some sort of splash in the world. I decided to host a drive for school supplies to give refugees. I set up a large box to collect donations at my school, Science Leadership Academy. The box has been accepting contribution since the middle of April.

This all started back in November when I made my very first blog post about immigration reform. At that time, I really had no clue what I was getting myself into! I never would have believed that one blog post would make me care so much about such an intriguing yet complicated national issue.

After that first post, I took a small step back. I decided to look around me and ask some people that were close to me what they thought about possible immigration reform for our country. I gathered some interesting original research and compiled it into my second blog post.

Now, I am here, on my third and final blog post. Yet I can hardly recall how all of this came to be. What is it that I have been doing for the past month that makes me a true agent of change? For several weeks I called, emailed, and submitted volunteer forms to countless companies, organizations, and charities around Philadelphia that work with or for immigrants. To be completely honest, this was a painstakingly long and tedious process. For a while I thought I could work directly with immigrants and refugees; I could use my fluency in Hebrew and Russian to talk and translate for new Americans. Yet, as it so happens, I am a bit too young and inexperienced for a job like that. This was very disappointing news for me. This was all the volunteer work some organizations asked for.  Yet, finally, I found just the right organization that I needed and wanted.

HAIS Pennsylvania (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) is an organization that primarily focuses on welcoming new Jewish people into the United States. Among the many things HIAS does to ensure total care and welcoming for the new immigrants, it provides the following programs: representation and legal counseling before immigration agencies and courts; citizenship, refugee resettlement and other social services to assist newly arriving immigrants, refugees and those recently granted asylum; advocacy and education related to immigrant issues and rights (mission). It is through this organization that I was able to set up a collection for school supplies. All of these supplies will be donated directly to refugees.

(Above, you can see just some snippets of my flyers, posters, and box. I posted flyers all around the halls, stairways, and doors; and even a huge poster right above the box.

Right now I think that I am at a point where I have done just about everything that I can do for immigrants/refugees. This experience, though it was short, helped me discover that I work better with a team. I clearly struggled when I was also, but once Marina Merlin began working with me, I gained confidence and resources. Eventually I became more stable by myself, yet I know that I will always prefer a team. As time goes by, I hope to stay tightly connected with this wonderful organization and to also keep a close eye on any immigration reform that will happen in the near future. I am still young and inexperienced, so I truly look forward to learning more and gradually changing my community and my world.

Jamie Turner

5-14-13        Orange Stream

Final Blog Post

Since blog post two a lot of progress has been made with my YATW project.  The biggest thing being that I did my Agent of Change part of the project.  Also this blog post will be wrapping up my YATW project.  On Saturday April 27 and Saturday May 4 my mom and I went to a soup kitchen to help out those who are living in poverty.  We also went there to set an example for anyone who wants to make a change in their community.  Now I will get into more detail about my agent of change.

My mom and I went to St. Michael’s LutheranChurch two Saturdays in a row.  We help set up, Serve food, and clean up. On the 27th there were a lot of people coming for food.  After talking to a few people the said that the reason there was so many people was because it was the end of the month and most people’s checks some in at the beginning of the month.  When we went on April 27th there was over 100 people served.  On May 4th there was about 80 people we served.  That is because most people got their checks.  Now I am going to talk about this project’s impact on me and the people around me.

This project has impacted me in many different ways.  One of them is that I now look at people that are living in poverty or homeless a lot differently.  I think that I also made the people around me feel the same sympathy which was my goal.  I would say that this task would have been a lot more challenging if I had to arrange something myself.  I am more of the someone who likes to collaborate with other people to accomplish a task like the Agent Of Change.  In a way I would consider myself a leader because in my community no one really tries to make a change and I feel as though I have set an example for people who are unsure about making a change in our world.  In the future I plan on going back to St. Michael’s to do more work so I feel as though this project sparked something new in my life.  It definitely changed as it went along.

When I first found out about this project I thought to myself “So all I have to do is some community service then I write about it?”  Now I know that this project was meant to be more than that.  The project has inspired me to go out, and do good things because I have the power to change and inspire our generation.  All it takes is one person then others will follow.  That is how my opinion of the YATW project has changed and what I will take from my experiences during the process of this project.

After Blog #2 I have gone out in the world and executed an agent of change. For my agent of change I created a box where students could express their feelings on the topic of teen depression or tell me what they might be going through. The box was originally in Ms. Dunn’s room but on April 28 and 29 I walked around at Y band lunch to get more notes. Many people were willing to put their thoughts about the subject in the box but the people who told me their personal stuff were few and I think that if I had more time and if I sat down with people and told them the situation they would be more willing to tell me something personal. The box had many instructions and it was easier to understand when told people. Sometimes the thing people need is the thing that only you can give.

My original idea was to do a support group but I knew that Amanda Thieu in Orange Stream was doing that and I didn’t want to do another support group. I helped her on the days that she had the meetings. That plan went better than me having a support group of my own because I would put my box out so that people could put notes in and people did. The idea of a box came from my experience of not wanting to talk about my own feelings around people because I was and still am an introvert when it comes to my feelings. I knew that there were others out there that didn’t like to talk so much about their feelings. They felt better when they wrote something or did something to just get it off their chest without feeling like they were burdening others with their own feelings. When I started I was scared to ask people to write the notes because of the subject matter, I had to get over that and ask people by the end to give me the notes I needed to do my project well. Also the location put a hindrance on my project, people would often forget about the box and even when I reminded them they forgot easily. When I started to take it a round at lunch as Ms. Dunn suggested I get the results I wanted.

This project impacted me considerably. I honestly was not expecting the experience to touch me in so many ways. The first thing that I remember is finding out how many teens are actually depressed in the United States alone; it was devastating. The next thing made me want to cry because at the interview I wasn’t anticipating the outcome of what happened between the two girls I have known for so long could be so unhappy and not I have known help one another. I could not imagine going through half the stuff that they went through. I hope that everyone that has seen me go through this process has been impacted at the numbers, the stories and now the notes. The community I touched was small but I believe that is where you have the most impact on people.

In the community I can see myself doing this for incoming freshmen, who are nervous or for the outgoing seniors, who are getting out of their comfort zones. I believe that I can make an impact if I try hard enough and I am thinking that this mixed with something else can become something of a capstone for my senior year and I am very exited now! I believe that you are always learning and that you won’t stop until you pass. I have learned a considerable amount through the “You and the World” experience. I would love to collaborate with m classmates on this subject and start something on the topic because I have learned so much and I want this to stop in America. We are supposed to be dreamers in America and our young people especially but instead we are having nightmares.

I will take away one thing in particular, young people are the future and if pressures from the media, school, or our parents don’t kill us we will kill ourselves.

Thank you for reading!

Bibliography

 All answers to the notes are on a private Google Doc located here you have to request access and be approved to see the answers to the notes.