The Man He is Today

Reflection: This project was unique for me. I went at least two days with my laptop being in complete Arabic and not understanding what across my screen until I got it fixed. I know that this has limited me to having my interview completed and polished on time, but I have found a way to still get what was needed to be done. My objective for this project was to tell this story of my dad and how he was raised which made him into the man he is today.

The Man He is Today

“My childhood was different than a lot of my friends when I was growing up,” my father says. Martin J. Harris was born into a huge family from West Oak Lane, Philadelphia. He lived with his parents, six siblings with him being the youngest (which makes 7 of them in total), and his cousin along with his aunt. At the age of 14, he lost his parents due to a tragic accident. “I think that with me losing my parents at a young age made me realize that I had to grow up faster than my friends and my peers around me”. My father then had to grow up under the rules of his older sister and followed her guidance as if she was his mother. “I give my sister a lot of respect and credit for the times she raised me and my other siblings, later on, ” he says. His sister became his hero and that is someone my father definitely looks up to and has the utmost respect for. Growing up is one of the toughest times for a child and when you have to grow up faster, it makes you see the world differently. You become wiser and mature faster than your peers which set you apart from them.

At the age of 22, my father graduated from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. He was the first out of his siblings to graduate from college and earned his bachelors and masters degree. “What kept me motivated to achieve the goals I have was to stay positive and saying I can do this instead of saying I can’t”. After c, later on, married his college sweetheart Kim Ford. Later on, they had two new additions to their family: Madison and Martin J. Harris II. “I never wanted a big family,” my father says. “I think that coming from a huge family like I did and being the youngest, I would never have a big family because there was limited attention I received while growing up and when my parents got to me they were tired”. My father definitely gives my brother and I his full attention when we are around him. He is very involved in our lives and I will say that my father and I definitely has a close connection. “ I always wanted to have a strong relationship with my children,” he says. “ I know that having this bond with my children will benefit them as they grow up knowing that I could not have this type of bond with my parents”. My father is always tentative in his presence with being in my brother and I’s life. He always supports me whether that is coming to my basketball game or being the ear I need to talk to. Learning from experiences growing up makes you realize the target that is on your back to become successful and achieve your goals when sometimes you have a different start than others. It also gives you a chance to become the hero to those who look up to you and be there for them knowing that it will benefit them.

“I wish that I had a brother closer to my age while growing up,” my father says. Before he answered I asked him if there is anything he could change about his childhood what would it be. “Throughout all of the experiences of my growing up, I would never change the people I have experienced them with”. This stuck with me throughout the interview because us humans are always going to have situations and lessons we have to go through because that is a part of growing up, but the people that have seen us with the issues as we are growing up and has been there for us, we can never change that. “Those are relationships that have grew strong with me and will never change”.”It will always be a fine memory in my mind and that is something that’s there forever.” he says. My father is continuing to be the strong, faithful, and loving brother, father, and husband he has always been for my family and I. His childhood has definitely molded him into the man he is today for the better because he took his situations and setbacks as targets and goals he wanted to accomplish which made his successful. “Anything is accomplishable during the roughest times in life, it’s either you take on the challenges and achieve them or you drown in the hardships”. -Martin J.Harris

E1 U4 (Karen,Simon,Sara,Grahm)

¡Hola! Somos del primer año de SLA en Filadelfia. La escuela está cerca de la calle principal de la ciudad que se llama Market St. Está cerca de una tienda muy popular, el Trader Joe. Tenemos quinientos estudiantes y veinte professores. No somos muchos! La escuela no es muy grande, tenemos solo cuatros pisos… Tenemos equipos de sport, con el fútbol, el voleibol, el baloncesto… Algunos de nosotros estamos en la Black Student Union, ¡es muy interesante!


En SLA mis clases are ingeniería, bioquímica, inglés, matemática, historia, and español. Mi clase favorita es inglés. En esta clase a veces leemos y trabajamos duro. Nosotros aprendemos y cantamos canciones en español. Nosotros trabajamos duro en SLA. Nosotros leemos Shakespeare y hacemos proyectos divertidos. Para proyectos usamos computadoras y papel. Para tener éxito en esta SLA, participamos activamente y trabajamos duro y sacamos buenas notas.


Nuestra profesora favorita es la Srta. Giknis. Ella enseña la clase de inglés y es muy chévere y simpática. Su clase es facil y interesante. En la clase de inglés, nosotros leemos novelas, actuamos Shakespeare, y escribimos ensayos. Nuestros estudiantes en SLA son cómicos, inteligentes, y simpáticos, pero algunos de mis compañeros de clases son molestos. Los proyectos de grupos son a veces difíciles y muy estresantes.

Me encanta SLA porque es una escuela interesante e inclusiva. ¡Ven a visitarnos! A nuestros estudiantes les encanta nuestra escuela porque los profesores y estudiantes son muy buenos. Lo que más nos gusta de SLA es el ambiente y los estudiantes son fantásticos. SLA es enérgica, divertida, y magnífica. SLA es además una escuela muy diversa. Para más información, ve a www.scienceleadership.org.



https://www.wevideo.com/view/859349597

Radio Piece Interview

​For this project I wanted to have a polished interview piece that sounded good and was very informative and engaging. I encountered a lot of struggles throughout the course of this project. First was finding an overall message about the interview based on what was said in the interview. Second was a lot of technical difficulties including a lot of the dialogue in the piece was not usable due to soundtrap messing it up and I had to make weird cuts in the interview. I learned how to think more in depth about something as well as how to write an interview script with narrations. What went well for me was the interview itself it was easy to do and interesting. 

file:///Users/eliblock/Downloads/Mic2%20(1).ogg

E1 U4 Elijah, Chandrea, Odilia, Sierra

  !Esta escuela es impresionante!                                        


Paragraph 1-

Bienvenidos a SLA. Hola somos Chan, Sierra, Odilia y Elijah. Somos estudiantes de Science Leadership Academy. SLA está 22nd y Arch. Es muy divertido y aventurero. A veces la escuela está metido pero está bien. Los estudiantes son muy simpáticos y cómicos. Hay cinco niveles pero el cuarto nivel es muy misterioso.   


Paragraph 2:

Las clases son español, historia, bioquímica, inglés, algebra, ingeniería, y estudios independientes. En estas clases, usamos lápices cuadernos, hacemos experimentos, y resolvemos problemas. Nuestros clases favoritos son ingeniería y drama. En drama actuamos. Para tener éxito en esta clase trabajamos duro, trabajamos, y hacemos los deberes.

Paragraph 3:

            Nos encanta ingeniería. El sénor Kamal es interesante y chévere. Los estudiantes sociables y cómicos. Nuestra clases son tranquilas y interesantes. Tomamos apuntes, trabajamos duro, y somos responsables.


Paragraph 4-

En SLA los estudiantes son simpáticos. La cosa favorita de Sierra es la almuerzo y gente. La cosa favorita de Odilia acerca de SLA es la comunidad. La cosa favorita de Elijah acerca de SLA es el largo almuerzo. La cosa favorita de Chandrea acerca SLA es los deportes.

Radio Piece - Interview Script

Introduction:
For this project I wanted to interview someone who I could really learn from. So, I chose my mother. I obviously knew she immigrated here and the backstory behind it all, but I wanted to learn more and how she felt through it all. I am forever grateful for the sacrifices she's made, that I didn't know until I conducted this interview. I didn't really have many issues recording the interview, it was editing that stomped me. Soundtrap wasn't working at all and deleted my whole radio piece. I think the flow of my interview overall seemed really genuine, and I learned a lot by interviewing her.  

You never stop learning, this is true for me at least. I thought I knew all there was to know about my mother, but little did I know. She’s lived and endured through so much before I was brought into this world. Leaving her family behind in Sudan and immigrating to the U.S. Learning a new language, culture and a way of life that was so foreign to her she was confused when other people referred to her as so. When I asked her how this great change affected her she replied with, “At first I was very scared, I knew nothing of American culture, all the things I’ve heard made me scared. But I had to come, I hated leaving my father, me and him were so close. I still miss that the most.” I didn’t realize how much living here made her long for Sudan and her family. I never really stopped to think about how she felt, being thrust into a world you’re an alien in. It must have been really hard for, and I often take that for granted. I asked her if she ever regrets moving to America she said “I don’t think I regret it. But I would have done some things differently, like visit family more often and be more connected with them. It’s good to be with your family always, but I made a new family here, so I could never regret that.” I could only imagine how she felt, I see my mother and father and siblings everyday, and could never fathom life without them by my side. But coming to America also came with its benefits, “If I stayed in Sudan, I wouldn’t be working or able to drive. I probably would get my Bachelors, get married and never go back to school or look for work. Many of my cousins and sister are in this state, I am grateful to be give an opportunity to test my limits and go to school.” Even though it was hard, coming to the States allowed my mom to explore and have control of her own future.  

This is just one of the many challenges she’s faced, but one of the hardest she said was learning to adjust to American lifestyle, “Everything was so different. In Sudan it’s normal for you doors to be wide open throughout the day. It’s normal for your front doors to be open and your neighbor can walk in for tea or lunch at any time. It was not like that at all here. There the whole village was family, even if you weren’t related. Here, everyone is strangers.” I can definitely see the difference in the way people interact with each other in America versus Sudan. “It was also hard at work too, some clients would call my boss and as for a different special instructor to work with their children. It was because of my accent, and hijab. I looked different than them and they were scared. When it happened at first, I was shocked. I got my Bachelors in Psychology and Masters in Education, just as qualified as any of my co-workers, nothing sets me apart from them. But people’s fear controls them more than their sense of morality.” I didn’t fully conceptualize the life of an immigrant until now. My mother had to endure so much pain and hardships to give me a better life and more opportunities, and for that I am forever grateful. This just goes to show that immigrants are more than the job-stealing bunch America defines them as, they are hard-working people who want to simply live better.  

Addison's Podcast

​Intro: 
I interviewed Jun-Jie, my goal was to let him talked about his company that he is launching and why he decided to make this company. What went well while doing this project was the interview and some struggle that I came across was editing and making the interview 8 minutes long. Overall what went well everything. I made it 8 minutes long and I did the interview. 

Link: 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3ndDWRnP2gpdHN2dGpEaGdmbGc

Radio Piece - Learning is an attitude (with Alex Gilliam)

My goal for this radio piece is to explore the stories of Alex Gilliam and Renee Schacht, who created the Public Workshop and the Tiny WPA. 
One of my struggle is that when I interviewed Alex in the workshop, there's not really any quiet place that we can record. But those noises had made the piece more interesting and lively. 
Another struggle was when I was editting the piece, I did my best to reduce the length of the piece, but since the Alex's story is so interesting, the piece is 10 minutes instead of 6-8 minutes. 
I learn that learn is an attitude rather the knowledges.

Saamir's Radio Jawn

My biggest struggles with this project has been everything to do with technology. My conclusion was deleted, and as of right now I cant correctly upload any audio to submit my project. As far as everything else goes, I had a great time interviewing my stepdad and being able to look into more of his life and his personal struggles with change. I also appreciated how the way we did prework to help keep us organized that was key in making my final project.



Sound trap version until tech error fixed: https://www.soundtrap.com/studio/ru3s0k3AQBKhl7zE1vsO6Q/

Nate's Podcast

INTRO 
My goal for my project is to talk with my mom through the podcast. I know some things about my mom but I wanted to ask some questions I don't know about her and that made a big impact throughout the podcast. What I have experienced working on this project is the way my mom's transformation happened through 52 years of her life and so on. It was amazing hearing the people that influenced her and the who was a role model in her life. Her development is something I rarely knew either and that was very cool to learn that. So this project has made a big impact on me. What went well is the sound quality and the flow of the whole interview and merging it into a podcast made it seem perfect. The struggle is when sound trap said I was "out of memory" so it deleted 25 min through the interview and it was really annoying because it was useful time I can use in the podcast.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzCxcBzj9tikb2lvWGN4eHZPazQ/view
 


   

Change and identity podcast

https://www.soundtrap.com/play/CcEPyIm1SD6c6MnAC-u0PA/change-and-identity-podcast/
My goals for this assignment were to uncover something about my mother's life that I could carry with me throughout my own and utilize it to my best ability. I also wanted to emphasize or better clarify how much something minor can have greater long-term impacts on the mind. What went well was the interview itself, mainly because it wasn't initially difficult to talk to my mom but also because of her willingness to open up so easily being the circumstance it was in. I was able to tell that she seemed pretty happy that I wanted to know about her life, and that resulted in a lot of useful content. My struggles were editing and shortening the podcast. I used WeVideo and forgetting I could only publish my work if it was under the time limit, I ended up having to record what I had using another app. The trimming was quite tedious. Overall, I learned new podcasting skills, some interesting aspects of my mother's past and what to look for in a good story. 

Radio Piece: Her America

This project for me was very stressful. The night before it was due all my stuff deleted and I was forced to restart my entire project. But in the end I finished it and I´m proud of what I got. I feel like my recordings from before might have been better but I´m happy that I pulled through and got it done still. 
https://youtu.be/dwBiJgE7eT8


Work For Your Work Podcast

My goals for this assignment to explore what drives people and inspires people to work besides the money. Where they influenced by their environment or their family? Do they love their job or do they hate? How long did it take them to realize that career was their career? My biggest struggle was writing open ended questions that could have varied responses. Although this was a struggle, it made my interview better. The material of the interview was better and had a more personal touch to it. Overall, I learned that you do not always have to decide right away what your career is going to be. But, once you figure that out, if you set goals for yourself and make it happen ultimately, you’ll end up happy.




https://www.wevideo.com/view/858038808

Experiences and Environmental Changes

Intro: My goals for this assignment were to have a larger idea that I could incorporate throughout my whole story. Things that went well were having enough information to use throughout the entire project, finding music that fits the mood and having the story flow without the clips sounding irrelevant to each other. Some struggles that I had were making sure that I got all of my information into a short amount of time(the story is longer than 8 minutes, but not by that much), trying to find a way to upload my interview because nothing was working and making sure everything was saved and didn't delete. Overall, I learned how to use the resources around me to figure out the solution to my problem and how to incorporate my larger idea throughout my story.


Views from a Muslim Woman

For this assignment, my goals was to address the issues about Donald Trump and his executive orders and to see the views and emotions from a Muslim woman who is enduring the discrimination that is being brewed up by his dictation. Overall, it was a really cool experience to create a podcast. I have created podcasts in the past and they weren't as thorough as this one. It was intriguing to understand the views from someone completely different from me. It was a struggle to cut short the interview because there were so many parts that were very insightful. Using sound trap was easy and it's a program that I will be using more in the future. I learned a lot more about podcasting and scripts. 
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6Q9JrVioPbKdXBIaW9pcjgtQTA

Succeeding as a Black Man in 50's-60's: The Story of my Pop-Pop

​My goals for this podcast were to learn as much about my grandfather as possible, try and add 50's to 60's music that my grandfather liked, and pull and interesting story out of the long interview. I was able to accomplish all of these goals but the music one due to slow internet. What went well was downloading the podcast onto my laptop. My struggles were the with my recording. At one point a had to redo the whole thing because it got deleted. What I learned from this project is how to work sound trap properly, and I learned new things about my grandfather. 

https://drive.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/file/d/0B3ZeF1lWWFKyUUV1WUxqZGhobDA/view?usp=sharing  

Na'eem Post

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B4ZOPdiMlTOkRURQS2pEVjhTcDA

For this project, I decided to interview my cousin. My goals were to show wisdom and work through the eyes of a child. I experience many challenges and ended in a tragedy.  My podcast kept deleting and I ended up doing the same thing over and over again. I'm sorry that soundtrap deleted the last part of my interview so you wont get hear the main idea of my cousin dreams and whats she wants to be when she gets older. 

Work and Wisdom Podcast, Randle

                                                                                                           Jaszmine Randle 
                                                                                                         February 17, 2017
                                                           Work and Wisdom

Introduction:

The goal of my interview was to end up with a clean , clear interview. I tried my best to have clear sounds and recording , I made a lot of cuts and edit before I had made my final copy of my interview. I also interviewed 3 people to see who woud provided me with the best answers and I used one interview as my final interview piece. Some struggles I had faced would be working on sound trap , considering I had never used soundtrap before I made a lot of mistakes I later on had to fix. If I was to do this project again something I would do differently is not ask so many questions so I have time to add narration and add extra sound effects in my interview.


Link To Audio: ​https://drive.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/file/d/0BxG4bB1B41SVMlZfNngyeVc5c0U/view?usp=sharing

Adoption and Foster Care Interview

I decided to interview a close friend about his life. Growing up he went home to home in the foster system and was adopted twice.  It always intrigued me going into the field social work.  I think this interview taught me more and made me even more interested.  I didn't share all of his stories from the different families he was with but shared a summary and one story in depth.  There is a part of the interview that is echoey because I didn't realize it was on orchestra but it's only a section. Over all I had a good time interviewing him even though the editing section of the project was complex.

https://drive.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/file/d/0Bx9qB2tFF-BmNUNWS25EYnlzU1E/view?usp=sharing

Kuzonza Barnes: Wisdom and Work

My goal for this podcast was to get an idea and view on my mother's opinion of work and what it means to have had work or to work in general. Although she does not work a paid job, I was interested in her definition and how it shaped her and what it meant not only as someone who worked in the past but even as a mother. I also wanted to get her opinions about work, wisdom, and satisfaction and how you need both to balance out each other out. During this project, there were a lot of things that went wrong and a lot of things that went well. The things that went well, was getting my mom to not only cooperate  but also her engaging answers, that allowed me to learn even more than I thought I knew about her. It was a really enjoyable thing to interview her and I enjoyed it. However, some things that went wrong was editing and that entire process. I stressed a lot but in the end I am proud with my finished product.  


Link:https://drive.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/file/d/0B0SwhdvCVm3xd1hQN1FOT2xfVFE/view?usp=sharing


Sandra Watson Podcast

My goals for this project was to create a meaningful podcast about the misconception of house work and people who work in the home. I deleted those misconceptions by talking to mom who has been a house wife or her words a domestic engineer all her life. The thing I stuggled with in making this podcast was trimming and uploading. i learned that making a podcast isn't easy and getting your person to warm up and make it sound like a regular conversation is quite hard but in this process I learned  how to make compelling questions and how to  take major ideas and themes from simple conversations that  could lead to much bigger things 

https://drive.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/file/d/0Bw1EZI8u57b6bzJaWDVmVmVSNG8/view?usp=sharing