Giving Hope

Giving Hope

Giving back to the ones in need. In my two previous blog posts I gave a lot of information on Homelessness. I gave research that I found on the different kinds of people who became homeless and also explained why I chose to pursue this topic. In addition to my blog post #1, In my blog post #2 I also created my own research to gather information on people's opinions on Homelessness and reflected on it. IMG_1118.JPG

I woke him from his sleep to give him what i wanted to give him

There's many organizations out there trying to prevent homelessness from spreading in the U.S. One organization I found that is working currently in Philadelphia and it is called ¨Project Home¨. This organization helps break the chain of homelessness and gather volunteers to do so. I support this idea of helping to take down homelessness. By Having people volunteer on their own will to help out the homeless people makes my heart filled with joy. They even accept donations, so they can give to the homeless people. For my Agent Of Change I decided to go out and give some poor homeless people some food/snacks. Not only did I give them snacks but I also went and gave them some word of advice. I told them to keep on moving with life and to keep their head up. I told them that i had faith in them. One of the homeless people, responded with ¨I've been homeless for 22 years¨. I was very surprised and that made me question myself. How can you experience homelessness with your family and friends around you? I felt really nervous doing this project because I am not the type of person to go out there and confront a random stranger. When I went up to the homeless person, I felt really conscious of the people around me and what they would think but I overcame that and did what I needed to do. I learned that homeless people are often donated to not like I expected. I expected the homeless to be surprised that I gave them food but they weren't they casually took my food and thanked me.

           He's been homeless for 22 years.IMG_1124.JPG

Things i could've done better for my agent of change was maybe talk to more homeless and gather more stories. I only gave them some hope and food, I wish I had a longer conversation and gather more information on the homeless and listen to their story on how they got homeless. There's one thing that needs to be done in order for Homelessness to not exist and that is to get the word to the government. In my blog post #2 I talked about how different cities want to drive homeless people out the cities by doing different things like implementing homeless spikes and more. Instead of the government trying to get rid of the homeless people why not help the homelessness by implementing new laws that makes it less likely to be homeless. To rise up together, we need to lift each other up.

IMG_1156.JPG

Here is my annotated bibliography!

Immigration: More Work To Be Done

After continuing my research with Immigration and getting to know more in my original research, I have begun to get involved in the community around me. I wanted to find a way that I, as a fifteen year old could make an impact on my issue, and I decided that getting involved in with an organization that handles immigrants, and helps them in the process of becoming a full U.S. citizens. There are numerous organizations that are set up around Philadelphia that help immigrants with learning English, U.S. history, and any other information they might need to pass the exam for citizenship. It takes a lot of work to learn this information, and I know most of it by heart, so it may be the perfect fit for me. I found an organization that had a great program for immigrant education, and worked hard trying to contact them, I called two times, and sent an email, but sadly I never received any response from them. I searched for organizations that would be able to take somebody my age to help out and learn something about the immigration process. I searched and searched until I found an organization called PICC or Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, at 2100 Arch street, right around the corner from my school, Science Leadership Academy.

I contacted the organization over phone and talked with Maria Sotomayor, who told me about all of their volunteering opportunities, and helped me get involved. I volunteered to help sign new citizens up to become voters. On Friday, May 22, I went out to the USCIS building in West Philadelphia, and witnessed a citizenship ceremony where men and women from 38 different countries came to finally become citizens. They went through the process of signing documents, singing the National Anthem, and saying the pledge of allegiance. Finally at the end we went around and helped people register to become voters.

These are two images from my experience at the ceremony


I found this to be a very gratifying experience that made me feel good to know that these people were working so hard to achieve this, and I got to experience it with them. I was able to be a part of their first American experience, and I now know after doing all of my research, what these immigrants have to go through. I would have liked to get involved with illegal immigrants, and help them on the road to citizenship, but that would have been harder for someone my age to do.

There is still a lot more work that needs to be done to help with immigration in the world, and there still is an increasing number of illegal immigrants in the United States. There still is a large problem with immigration law in the United States, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done. I hope that someday there will be someone who speaks up for immigrants in this country, no matter who it may be, it is needed to start filling this bottomless pit of confusion.


Here is my annotated bibliography


Helping Reduce Poverty: Canned Food Drives

On my first blog post , I described how poverty is an issue in Philadelphia, such as people dying everyday. I tried to bring awareness on what we can do to reduce it. On my second blog post, I went into more detail of what we can do to help and basing my information off my research. Many people responded to it as an issue, but many people did not know it was affecting many others. I tried to explain how the struggle was real for people suffering from poverty.


To bring more awareness about this issue, I am currently doing a canned food drive where people who attend SLA can bring in cans to support a charity. This can bring more awareness to them since when they donate cans, they are understanding the issue better and trying to help reduce it. I am currently still doing a canned food drive and will continue until the end of the school year. After I collect enough, I will bring the cans to the “Chosen 300” which is a charity. This can reduce the amount of children starving since they will be able to eat something.


I feel like people should do more about this issue since it is critically affecting many people today. I don’t think enough people are doing this and I want to make a change so that people can bring in cans to help. I believe this is a good way to help because starving children are caused by poverty and we can help reduce it by just donating some cans.


So far for my agent of change, I told my classmates to bring in some cans and to put it in the advisory memo. I am also currently putting around advertisements with the help of my friends. The advertisement is an ad that tells people to bring in cans for a charity in which you can saves lives. I have about 20 cans as of now, and my goal is to receive at least a hundred.

IMG_7091 (1).JPGphoto (12).JPG

This is a image of the cans I received so far. This is the advertisement I put up.



For my canned drived, I have about 20 cans. I feel like people who had donated cans and I are really helping people who are starving and we are helping the community. I learned that people would really help out the world if they know about the issue. I also learned that I can make a change if I put my mind to it. As for this canned food drive, I never thought I will be able to even receive 1 can.


          Something that I can definitely do better was volunteer and do more to help out since it feel like cans won’t be enough to put even a small change in poverty. I think it would have been better, if I had done a presentation along with the canned food drive because that way I could bring awareness to those students who have no clue about poverty. I can teach them about it and tell them to donate some cans for the change. I still need to convince some people to bring in cans and others to contribute and donate the cans so I would reach my goal.


My bibliography.

A Change Is Coming

My previous blogs have both consisted of information pertaining to police brutality in the past and present. Blog post #1 talked about how long Police Brutality among blacks have been going on which has been since the 1900’s ( civil rights era and segregation) and Blog Post #2 focused on the newer cases of Police Brutality like Freddie Gray that sparked rioting and protesting in cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore. Some other information I found in my second blog post was that several of these new cases involved victims of white race which was something people were ignorant to.

Picture-303.png

Enough of the negative talk. Let’s converse about a organization called the American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union works hard to defend the rights and liberties given to the citizens of America and to make sure those rights do not get supported any less than they should. For my Agent of Change project I was the host of a bake sale where I sold cookies, cakes and brownies in order to make a donation to this organization because not only do they protect rights but they are also against police brutality which my whole project is based about. Donating to them helped me to know that I’d be safe from being brutalized by police and other higher authorities and so will other fellow citizens in Pennsylvania. Along with that, it also helped me know that my rights as a citizen in America will be protected by people who actually care.

I want to give you a little background information on how I came up with this idea in the first place. I went through millions of ideas before I got to this final conclusion of just donating. The first thought that came to mind when we were given this project was a video, but then I realized that wouldn’t fit because I am just informing, not necessarily making a change. So, then I thought to do a survey, but I realized that probably wouldn’t get my point across. After thinking and thinking I came up with the idea of selling t-shirts but then I realized how much money a single shirt would cost and I also remembered that I was broke. I was feeling defeat until I googled “ Organizations that are against police brutality”. A couple of different organizations popped up that claimed to protect your rights but I was looking for something known by everyone so I could be sure it was the real deal. I finally came across ALCU and researched a little more about it and then after my studies I clarified it was the one for me.

After completing my project, I began to reflect and I started to feel as if I could have brought more awareness to this by sharing all of this information with people in my school or in my neighborhood and I also thought I could have raised a lot more money but as I thought about the moral I got from this project, I learned that you don’t have to go all out and be outrageous in the things you do to get your point across or help shed some light on a serious situation. You can handle it in a simple form like I did, by donating or volunteering to do work or anything of that sort.

In conclusion, me and the rest of this wonderful organization are not yet done with protecting the right of Americans. We will continue to fight daily against the cons of the American government and also protect our rights given by law !

( To find all links you can visit my annotated bibliography )

Unknown.jpeg


( Receipt of my donation to the organization )
Screenshot 2015-05-28 at 8.39.14 AM
Screenshot 2015-05-28 at 8.39.14 AM

Sex Slavery 3.0

In Blog Post #1 I talk about my general findings on the topic of Sex Slavery. After that, in Blog Post #2, I furthered my understandings on the issue by constructing an interview to ask an expert. And in this Blog I actually did something about it. Something to help better the issue in the way of bringing awareness.

For my agent of change part, to bring awareness, I have decided to make stickers promoting a website I have discovered in which are experts on the issue. Meaning they specialize in helping victims of Sex Trafficking. They have lots of factual information on their site and they are very honest with their findings. Therefore, I chose to promote them by creating stickers and placing them around the city to bring an incredibly wide range of an audience. My stickers will contain some specific facts from their site directly. I think the stickers will definitely gravitate the viewers’ awarenesses in a way that will make them want to read them and also visit the website. I am hoping for more people to discover the site and to notice that slavery is actually still an issue in the world that people are actually working towards helping.

{Stickers made}

{Stickers I created containing Love146’s quotes}

{Stickers promoting Love146}

I am glad that I was able to further my understanding of the issue that happens today in the world. I am greatly thankful that I was able to share this information to lots of people. I have a lot specifically about the victims of Sex Trafficking and the troubles that have brought them to that particular system. I have learned that this is a huge issue and that a lot of different organizations are looking out to help endangered sufferers. Something I could of done better was probably to make posters along with the stickers to put up in the school. I feel as though a lot of people should realize how much an issue this is and statistics about it. What I have left for other people to do is simply to visit the website present in my stickers in which I was promoting and to share it with others.


Annotated Bibliography


#NailItPhilly

In my blog posts one and two I spoke about how unknown Domestic Violence is. It is a sort of hidden, underground issue, yet effects one in four women and one in seven men in America within their lifetimes. It is mostly viewed as a “woman’s issue” because 85% of the abusers are men, and women are more likely to become dominated by an abusive partner. This is not to say that men do not fall victim, domestic violence targets men, women, and children of all races and economic status. One of the primary issues surrounding domestic abuse is that it is extremely hard to inform people that you have fallen victim, sometimes because the bruises are worth the so called “love” they have found. Education is key in stopping this problem facing millions.

Campaigns have been started trying to capture the attention of the people living in a social media dominated world, like Safe Horizon. The campaign is called “#PutTheNailInIt” and teamed up with Miss America 2015, Kira Kazantsev, to help prevent domestic violence by painting your left ring finger purple to pledge against domestic violence. I decided to use this same concept, adapting it to fit my own guidelines. I created my own hashtag, “#NailItPhilly” to track how many people I myself could motiviate to join the movement. I said that we should keep the nail polish movement the same, yet I know many people who are not comfortable painting their nails so I also made it so we could draw a purple X on the same finger. The original campaign also includes donating, and I thought education was most important and most managable for those around me. Domestic violence needs all the attention it can get to help create a brighter future for all of America.





There are many different ways to try and end this issue,

like by using the hashtag by safe horizon and Miss America


I learned a lot through doing this project. I learned that people really look to others for guidance, especially involving this hashtag. At first, no one contributed and posted, but after I got one or two posts, it began to increase the amount of posts. It was hard motivating, and I see how difficult it is for one person to try and spread a hashtag. I would have maybe made it more entertaining for people to want to help if the topic itself was not motivation enough. The ALS ice bucket challenge was very successful and spread through social media very quickly. I could have designed my own challenge which might have turned out with more results. Through this entire project, I learned more about domestic violence and got the amazing opportunity to speak with a representative from a large organization, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and reflect on how much attention this issue truly needs. I feel like I made an impact, and that is a step in the right direction towards ridding this country of domestic violence.

These are some examples of the people who contributed to my hashtag!


Check out my Annotated Bibliography!

The Truth About The Spectrum

My topic is Autism and as I stated in my first blog post. Nobody really knows a lot about it. This is one of the reasons why I chose this topic the second reason is that it is a topic that hits home with me. Scientists are researching what the possible cause of Autism is and if it can be prevented. All this researching has led the general public to see it as a disease. This is wrong I personally consider autism a mutation that can have different effects depending on the level of the spectrum it is on. This article supports my belief, yet the general public has no idea what Autism is. Therefore I decided to raise money for the Autism society. This society uses its donations to spread the awareness of autism and to provide for people with Autism.


To raise money I held a bake sale and passed out flyers. The point of the flyers was to spread knowledge on what Autism itself is whilst the point of the bake sale was to raise money while educating the school. I raised a total of $245.

Screenshot 2015-05-26 at 7.15.03 PM.png


20150522_105643.jpg

Here is one of the flyers that we passed out. After buying something from the bake sale the buyer would receive a flyer.



20150522_105010.jpg

Here is the cake that we sold slices of. The cake says Autism Awarness on it


To change the general public's view on Autism is a very difficult task. But I believe that by having a bake sale to attract attention and speaking to the buyers about Autism when they arrived was a very good way to at least educate some students in SLA. As I was doing this project I have learned more about children with Autism. I learned that they have a ¨disability¨ that allows them to succeed farther than others in specific categories. I also learned that we need to expand our knowledge on topics such as autism. If you simply only listen to the news about autism then it will sound like autism is a disease that is causing major problems. This is very wrong because after conducting some research I learned that if a person has Autism that is on the law part of the spectrum it is possible for you to not notice that they are autistic. This project has allowed me to feel very accomplished because I feel as though I have successfully spread the knowledge of what Autism really is.


Annotated bibliography


Baking a Difference

PIC: Agent of Change

Back in my first two blog posts, I discussed the research I had uncovered on the Syrian refugee crisis. In my first blogpost, I talked about how over 11 million Syrians are displaced outside of their homes, with almost 4 million being outside of the country altogether. I talked about how there are people in Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq. I discussed how people are forced out of there country for upwards of 17 years. In my second blogpost I did  my original research, where I interviewed Melissa Fleming of the UNHCR, and found even more information on the crisis. I found that the numbers of refugees is still increasing, showing no signs of slowing down. I found that refugees are having an even harder time getting out of their country, as many of the surrounding countries don’t want to allow too many people over their borders. Many groups, such as the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and the IRC (International Rescue Committee) are raising money towards helping refugees, and groups such as the IRC have been using social media to raise awareness of the issue. This being said, I still found that too many people know too little on the subject.

With the idea in mind of raising money, I saw that many of the organizations allowed people to donate money to them so they can get blankets, food, clean water, etc. to the refugees. I decided for my agent of change that I should help with this cause and donate money, as well as attempt to raise awareness of the issue. I decided to do a bake sale in my school, Science Leadership Academy, (SLA) to raise money and awareness. Although I only raised a small sum of fifty dollars for the refugees, I also was able to inform more people about the issue, and hopefully make more people realize that this issue is still going on, and that it is a serious problem, with people dying, and losing their families everyday. Although my Agent of Change was small, I hope that it had some impact on the issue.

The donation screen on the UNHCR website.

After working on this project, I’ve learned more about this issue, however, I’ve learned more than that. I’ve also learned that I truly care about this issue, and that I care about other issues that are going on in the world. I’ve learned that other people sometimes care enough to learn about problems, however, sometimes they don’t. This is an issue that can’t truly be addressed, because no one can easily change what someone does and doesn’t care about, however, it’s still an issue. Crisis with people dying across the globe will never be solved if no one cares enough to learn about them. People need to open their minds more to issues outside of their own lives for these issues to be solved. If I have any wishes for what I would have done for this project, it would be that I could have done more. I wish I had raised money in more ways, and more times, so that I could donate more than such a small some of $50. There are still so many people in Syria and it’s bordering countries that are in need of help. On top of that, there are still many people that know nothing about this huge issue. We still need to spread the word, and we still need to do so much to help these refugees whose homes, lives, children, are put in danger. This may be a start, but there is still so much left to do. Here is my annotated bibliography.

Q4 BM, Recordings 3&4 (Briana, Sadie, Ray)

Podcast #3
podcast #4
For these two recordings we planned out what we were going to talk about on the conference room white board. Through this planning we made sure everyone could speak and that we answered all the questions that Miles posted on our other podcast postings. 

Our group was pretty much in agreement with all that we talked about. The only voice from our group that is missing from these two podcast is Alexis Dean

How To Lie With Statistics Pt. 3

​Group Members Present: Symone, Lloyd, & Klarissa
Pages Read: 91 - 142
Pages For Next Week: None

Podcast Points:
  1. What is a semi-attached figure?
    1. Figure that is related to the topic but there is information missing from the equation.
  2. What does post hoc mean?
    1. Making a unwarranted conclusion that has no real connection with the situation at hand.
  3. List several kinds of correlation that might lead to post hoc reasoning.
    1. Jobs after college vs. no college
    2. Getting lice vs. being healthy
  4. Correlation vs. Causation
  5. Lurking Variables
  6. Shading Map
  7. Susie Brown
  8. "It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us in trouble. It's the things we know that ain't so." - Artemus Ward
How To Lie With Statistics pt. 3

Q4 Art Projects: Bailey Collins

During this quarter I decided to teach myself something new. I taught myself how to make my photos paste onto tiles. I still have plans to arrange them together, but I didn't have the materials needed to do that in time. I also taught myself how to do embroidery and I drew up the Morton Salt Girl because I think the design is really beautiful and interesting. I love how it came out too. I haven't entirely finished it, I am going to completely fill in the design at some point, and I am definitely going to continue with learning embroidery and cross stitch patterns. I was able to show it to my grandma and great aunt, they were so excited because embroidery is a family tradition on my father's side. All of my aunts and uncles, and my grandma have the embroidery designs framed and hung in their homes because my great grandma was a master embroiderer. My third project was about learning how to make terrariums. I made the scenes really cute and I love how they turned out. I am excited to make more and put in some cool plants. My fourth project was really fun because I learned that if I am really focused, I draw really well. I love how these tiles turned out. I think that they are really pretty and I love how I designed them, they are very zen like designs, with a twist of course.
Thank you for a wonderful four years in art class! I have consistently had you every year and I am very grateful to have known you so well. 

Podcast 3

Group members present during the discussion: Pierce Luck, Leah Petty, Tytianna Broadwater
What your club discussed: We discussed chapter 8,9 and 10
How you discussed it: We talked about what we found interesting and what came up in those chapters 
Any points of conflict/disagreement in discussion: N/A
Questions that came up as a result of the discussion: N/A
P3

Stats Book Talk 3

​Members: 
Maggie Hohenstein, Lisa Kang

What we discussed:
We discussed chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

How did we discuss it:
We just discusses chapter by chapter

Conflicts:
We didn't really have any conflicts:

Questions:
Who would take the time to ask those question in chapter 10?

Stats Book Talk 3