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Capstone Process Paper

For my senior Capstone, I renovated a house with my mentor. The process took us about 7 months to complete. This process involved finding a house which was very easy because realtors called my mentor because they know that he buys houses. I believed that the property was a good choice because it was around my house and there were not too many problems. The reason I chose this project for my capstone was because it was important to me to get more involved in my mentor’s business. This is something I want to do in the future and having a mentor was a great way for me to learn the process of real estate investment

This process allowed me to implement the SLA core values in the real world. After we actually bought the house, there were a lot of steps involved in completing this capstone. I used the core values of inquiry while I was researching the budget. I had to research prices and places to get every utility needed for the house. I had to research contractractors and their prices. Also it was important to my mentor that he did not always tell me how different things work like how to install windows or how to run water lines so he wanted me to research these topics and learn how to do it myself. A lot of collaboration was involved also we had contractors, electricians, plumbers and carpenters. We all had to work together a lot of the time all in the same room at the same time so it was very interesting. For the final presentation we wanted the house to be brand new so we installed new bathrooms, new kitchen, new drywall and floors throughout all the rooms. Also, we presented the house when we put it on Airbnb. Reflecting on the project, I realized the amount of work that was put into the project and the amount of time involved. Also I believe it was a great experience to have because not a lot of kids my age or even adults can do this. One of the major obstacles that we encountered was when me and my uncle broke all the stairs. This cost us more time and money that could have been put into something more important. Another obstacle was important objects being thrown away like light fixtures and speaker cover which was another expense that could have been avoided.

One thing that makes me the most proud in this capstone was seeing the finished product of all my work and time. Also, I was proud of my ability to manage a property flip beginning to end. One thing I learned is that taking on a property flip was too much for a capstone project SLA is going to be better because I was able to show my peers that this a project that can be done by a teenager.

My Website http://propertmagementcapstone.simplesite.com/

Previously, I researched and went in depth on why my topic of body positivity was important. I cited multiple sources and found how misunderstood the body positivity movement is. I said I hoped to clear misconceptions and impact the body positivity community positively.

Since that post, I’ve dug deeper into how I can impact the community with my knowledge. My English teacher sparked an idea to my twin sister, Gina, saying creating a club can be helpful to the school community. She brought up the idea to me and we decided to collaborate on the club idea. Her topic was suicide and mine is body positivity so we decided to make our club focus on self care. Our club is called You & Me Club. First, I decided to do some research on support groups and how being in a support group can be beneficial. In the article, ‘How to Choose the Right Support Group’ by Mayo Clinic, it gives both perspectives on why support groups are good and bad. It allows people to be able to lean on people who experience similar problems. Support groups can also be used as a sense of motivation to go through a journey with others; it makes people feel less alone.“A support group among people with shared experiences may function as a bridge between medical and emotional needs.” It can be hard to trust a doctor so finding people in the patient’s age range going through similar problems can help the patient open up more. There are also cons to every pro. It may be possible that people may compare themselves to each other. For example, degrade their problems and tell themselves that others have it worse. I believe the pros outweigh the cons. Being with a group of people who already have something in common with you can be a good ice breaker. I believe support groups build a family and the bond is strong. Even though there are cons, it can always be fixed. To my example, people in the support group can make it known that it’s not a competition if we are all on the same team.

Group of people counseling together

Based on the information I gathered from my research, I think creating a club in the SLA community can be beneficial to students - and teachers if they like to attend. In order to start a club in SLA, I have to make a proposal to the principal, Mr.Lehmann and the program manager, Mr.Spry. Me and Gina spent a few days working on a google slide as our proposal. After completing the proposal slides, we started drafting the email. Here is the email:

“Good Morning Mr. Lehmann and Mr. Spry,

We are Gina and Tina Zou, freshmen here at SLA. Recently we have been working hard with Ms. Giknis and our advisors to plan a self care club! As new additions to the SLA community, we hope to make a positive influence in our time here by starting a club that allows students to learn more about themselves and their mental health. We would like to propose this club idea to you, so please click on this link to view our proposal.

We hope to receive approval to launch this club next year (2021-2022). If there are any questions, feel free to ask! We will try to answer them as detailed as possible.

Thank you for your time and consideration, Gina Zou & Tina Zou”

In addition, we decided to create an interest form to put in the advisory memo to help give a sense on what best fits for the community. After two minutes of just sending the proposal email, we got a reply! Our club accepted to open next year. It may be a slow process but I believe it will pay off in the long run. Creating a self care club for the community can boost people’s awareness on mental and emotional health. Our objective for our club is “You & Me Club seeks to create a safe environment to talk about emotions and mental hardships. It is important to care for mental health. So You & Me Club hopes to increase awareness of mental and emotional exhaustion and prevent people from blocking out their feelings any longer. This club will hopefully positively affect the SLA community and bring us closer together.” Even though this change will be slow but steady, hopefully it helps people.

I really enjoyed doing this project. Even though the club is starting in the school year of 2021-2022, I already know it’s going to make me step out of my comfort zone. I technically already did since I committed to this club. I hope the club succeeds. I didn’t realize how toxic people can be when they are uneducated or misinterpret something. Looking into plus-size activists really made me frustrated when people are so fast to judge. I felt as though I could’ve spent more time researching for the Agent of Change part. I think my research was enough to pass but I knew I could’ve done more. I do know I will continue to learn how to conduct a club to its fullest potential. I still need to wait for the club to launch next year. I hope people will join to help themselves and others. If you are interested, please do fill out this form so we can include what you like in the club. We hope to see you next year in our meetings:)

Annotated Bibliography

In my last SLATE post, I’ve introduced the topic of the 737 MAX and it’s groundings worldwide (Below is a brief summary for those who haven’t seen the last post). Since then, there are actually quite a few things that have changed since then, especially with the news of possible reintroduction of a new type of plane, which I will also discuss below. This new type of plane can really help Boeing bounce back into the aviation market as a leader, and I chose to explore a bit on that for this SLATE post. This resulted in a full essay that I plan to send to multiple experts along with a few aviation enthusiast/large-scale aviation discord server, and hopefully it may spread. I’ve gotten a few responses from quite a few people, including experts and travelers. Below is an example of a response from one of the engineers currently at Boeing.

I also had a conversation with an engineer at Boeing itself, and we had a discussion around the topic. He was actually quite interested and offered me to take the information up to the managers at Boeing, and so I am currently waiting for their response (which takes around 2-3 weeks).

I recently switched my topic from elephant poaching to teenage sleep. There were a couple things that motivated me to make the change. First off, I wasn’t very inspired to work and complete the elephant poaching project. This is due to how exotic the topic is. Yes it’s a big problem but it’s out of my range to actually make a change in. When choosing a new topic I wanted to pick something that was impacting my everyday life and was within reach to change. That’s when I had noticed how my sleep schedule had affected my attention and learning throughout my classes and day to day activities. This is when the topic of sleep came to mind. It would be very easy to make a change due to the fact that I am always surrounded by teenagers with sleep problems and it’s something that I struggle with. So even if i couldn’t make a change with other people i could with myself. During my research for this project I came across many interesting things. For example seventy percent of teenagers are getting too little sleep. So chances are you are affected by it or someone you know is. Although the numbers vary between people most doctors recommend getting eight to ten hours of sleep a night as a teenager is critical for “physical, intellectual and emotional growth.” Although sleep can seem like such a small thing, it contributes a major role in your mood and much more the next day. Sleep deprivation has many effects on teenagers’ day to day life. For example, sleep deprivation can in some cases lead to struggle with memory. Getting to little sleep also affects your motivation and productivity inside and outside of school. It can also increase the risk of depression, which is a serious medical condition. So how do you know you need more sleep? In my research I’ve found that there are multiple signs you need more sleep. If you notice that you have to regularly take naps in the middle of the day that are over thirty minutes in length then you probably need more sleep. Other signs of sleep deprivation include not being able to think straight, struggling getting out of bed in the morning, and getting worked up over little tasks. There are other more common side signs like the well known general sleepiness. How do you maintain a healthy sleep schedule? There are many things you can do once you have a healthy sleep pattern to maintain that pattern. One of the main things is to avoid looking at screens before you go to bed. Other things you can do to get better sleep are things like exercising daily, avoiding long naps, and going to sleep around the same time every day.

In my previous post titled “Why beauty standards are stupid” I talked about my research about toxic beauty standards and how they affect people everyday. More recently I conducted interviews with fellow classmates asking them more personal questions about how beauty standards affect them. In this post I will be talking about my experiences with my research, interviews, and overall how this project affected me and how I plan to bring change to the world. One of the biggest challenges about my topic is beauty standards are something that are ingrained so deeply in our society. Specifically something I feel our society almost revolves around, social media. For many people, especially people my age and a little older social media is a big part of our lives. Sometimes it is the first thing you check when you wake up, and the last thing you check before you go to bed. But social media is toxic. And when something you spend so much time on is toxic, bad things happen. In my last post I talked about how toxic beauty standards are often pushed onto people on social media platforms like instagram and tik tok. A term I have used in my previous post is “The perfect lifestyle.” And what I mean by that is on social media platforms so called instagram models will post about their perfect body, and perfect lifestyle. Which often negatively affects the people viewing it. Teenagers are especially affected by this because they will look at one of these posts and wonder why their body or life doesn’t look like the so-called perfection on their screen. When conducting my interviews I asked two of my classmates whether or not they feel beauty standards would exist without social media, both had very different answers to this. Aylin Echandy stated that she thinks beauty standards wouldn’t be as “Big or impactful” without social media. While Caleb Park said “Yes, beauty standards have existed since the beginning of written history.” Both of these answers made a lot of sense to me and believe that they both have a lot of truth to them. After conducting my own research I learned that beauty standards have been around forever, but have they always been toxic? Or was social media the thing that made them that way? For my actual agent of change I did two things. The first one I have already talked about a little bit. I conducted interviews with a couple of classmates and out of those interviews made a podcast. The second thing, shown down below is a piece of artwork I created. View my podcast here

The artwork I created for my project.

I used quotes from my interviews and then at the bottom asked the question I have been asking myself throughout this process, is social media the problem? I then drew a picture which I think captures the way beauty standards can make people feel. The podcast was my first idea. I thought that interviews were a really solid way to conduct research on people who have had a first hand experience with beauty standards and social media. I also thought that making a podcast could be a really cool way to show others how people, just like them, feel about this issue. Actually conducting these interviews and making the podcast were much harder than I originally thought. I had to identify people to interview, set up time that worked for both of us, conduct the actual interview and then edit it into a podcast. I had originally planned to interview 4 or 5 people. But only ended up being able to do two interviews. After all of this I still question whether or not I actually made or am making a change. Will people listen to my podcast and feel moved? Will people relate to my visual? Is that what change is? In the end I like to think I made a change. I hope the people I interviewed, and the people who listen to my podcast, reflect on my questions and feel better about themselves because of it. I really hope that I made a change, even if it’s a small one. Annotated bibliography

In my previous slate post, I talked about my research on abusive relationships. I mentioned things like statistics, warning signs, effects, and ways to get help. There are many other organizations and websites that are trying to help with my issue. There is a National Domestic Violence Hotline as well as websites that talk about resources to use when trying to get out of the relationship. I think a lot of the information that these websites and organizations provide is very helpful especially since most victims of abusive relationships do not have someone close to them to talk to. These resources are widely available which makes it easier for someone to find the help they need.

For my Agent of Change, I decided to create an Instagram account that talked about all the information I learned about. I wanted to create something that many people had access to and that would always be available to them. Most people have access to the internet and social media accounts so making an account sounded like a great way to spread awareness on my topic. The name of my account is @l.t.h_abusive relationships and there I talked about all the information I thought would be helpful to people that are either in an abusive relationship or know someone that is in an abusive relationship.

Agent of Change Instagram Account

The account is still very new as of the time I am writing this post so I’m not surprised to see that there hasn’t been much interaction with it yet but I do hope in the future that more people will find my account. I hope this account is actually able to make a change in someone’s life.

This project sounded very difficult at first. I didn’t have any topic I wanted to talk about and didn’t think I’d be able to contribute much to any cause. But after finding an issue that I was passionate about, this project became a lot more fun and interesting to do. It took quite a lot of work and time to be able to research and find all the information I needed to be able to talk about this topic but it was still very interesting. I learned a lot more than what I originally knew about this issue and I think that is a great thing. This is a very common issue, I know people personally that have been affected by being in an abusive relationship and I feel like I can finally understand them more. I feel like I could have put more work into the research and the account itself. I really like what I created but I just think it could have been better. The creation of the account and the posts ended up being done in a bit of a rush so I believe that if I had more time to work on this project, it would have come out better. I still very much like the account that I created though, even if it’s not perfect. I just hope that it can help others that are being affected by my issue.

Annotated Bibliography

In my previous slate post, I described my issues and concerns for public health. I spoke about my interest in travelling, wanting to see people, and I urged people to continue wearing their masks. Since that post, I have conducted more research, finding fundraisers that will help with the production of masks/distributing masks to the homeless. On Thursday (5/20/21) during my advisory period, I gave a presentation on the issue I wanted to address. In the presentation, I included a link to a GoFundMe, which will help to provide more masks to homeless individuals. I decided to do this because ever since quarantine began, we haven’t been able to go many places. There are a few things that inspired me, making me passionate about public health, and those are: helping others and travelling. During my research, I learned how many people are having a difficult time during this pandemic. I’ve learned how many different things have been affected by it, such as overcrowding in prisons and mask distribution for homeless people. Although I could not act on the bigger issues like overcrowding in prisons, I could at least speak out about something we’ve all been affected by: masks.

To take action, to be an agent of change, I decided to present to my advisory class. My presentation was 6 slides, including links to GoFundMe’s & other informational articles.

This is a screenshot of my screen-share during my advisory presentation.

Overall, I enjoyed creating and taking action for this project. I haven’t experienced making an actual change before in projects like these. It was very interesting to make a whole presentation and promote my ideas. Hopefully my presentation will have taken an effect and persuaded people to continue wearing their masks and staying safe. Thankfully, a vaccine has been created and maybe people both teenagers and adults, can get the vaccine. This will also help keep public health in check! Something I could have done better for this project is improving my slideshow presentation. I think I could have added a lot more information on the matter. I had lots of links to articles, and I think I should have added more information from them.

My initial ideas for this project were to create posters to hang up around a park I have gone to since I was younger or to create and donate to fundraisers to help mask production. I have a few designs that I created for the posters, because at first I was committing to that idea. If I were to do this project again, I would test that idea and see if posters would have had more of an effect than a presentation!

Initial design ideas for posters.

Something I’ve learned about myself is that I really do want to help others, and I feel much stronger about this idea than I thought I did. Something I’ve learned about other people is how many people are willing to create organizations and donate If anyone would like to help make this change, you can create your own fundraiser at https://www.gofundme.com/c/blog/mask-for-coronavirus, or donate to Carpenter’s Place, an organization working to create and distribute more masks.

Here is my annotated bibliography.

In my first slate post I talked about Generalized Anxiety Disorder and its causes, affects, and my experiences with it. I explained how it affects students with their education and day to day life. I did my best to explain why mental health is so important and its impacts. I also provided statistics about GAD and mental health in general. I tried to pick a topic that I knew I could relate to so I could understand it and its effects better.) I talked about Generalized Anxiety Disorder and its causes, affects, and my experiences with it. I explained how it affects students with their education and day to day life. I did my best to explain why mental health is so important and its impacts. I also provided statistics about GAD and mental health in general. I tried to pick a topic that I knew I could relate to so I could understand it and its effects better.

As I continue my research I find more and more hotlines and online resources for mental health that I didn’t even know existed. There are so many online screening websites for people to get diagnosed and seek treatment. There were even substance abuse treatment websites that found you help based on your zip code. I was surprised at how easily accessible they were as all it took was a quick google search to find them. Most of the hotlines and resources I found were located in philly too! It was encouraging to see all of these websites together as I felt like I was seeing real change. I think this change is so important because it’s a huge step in making mental health more accessible to everyone. I just wish more people were aware of these websites and resources and knew that there is help out there.

My GAD awareness Instagram Account

For my agent of change I made an instagram account (@gadawareness) and made my own infographics with my research from my annotated bibliography! I had my friends share and follow the account. I also made a link tree for my bio with mental health resources and hotlines that I found in my research. I decided to do this because I felt like most students my age had social media so the best way to connect with them was through an instagram account. My experience was great and I enjoyed making and designing my infographics. I liked being able to get creative and chose the color palette for my account. I think I was effective in at least providing some information to my followers which is a small step but in the right direction.

One of the posts I made for my account

My overall project was refreshing to work on, I felt like there was hope out there and that even my small steps toward change can help. It also felt overwhelming but seeing everyone else make their accounts and fundraisers and websites encouraged me. I learned the impact of hearing other peoples stories and seeing people get the help that they needed when I was researching. I felt very supported by my classmates who followed and liked my posts, it was a reminder that we are a community. If I could change anything I would have made my posts earlier or made more. While I like the way my account turned out I could have planned the timing out way better. I feel like all of my small steps matter but to achieve real change we need people to talk about mental health more and make it more common, maybe then we can finally erase the stigma.

In my previous Slate Post, I talked about how eating plant based is better for animals, our human health, and reduces climate change. Consuming less meat or avoiding meat altogether could change our lives, other’s lives, and the world we live in. I promoted vegetarianism and I understood how hard the change could be, to go from eating everything to eating fully plant based. Before coming up with my idea for my Agent of Change, I came across a list of organizations and resources that you can donate or share with other people to raise awareness for eating plant based. I think supporting vegan/vegetarian organizations is another great way to educate yourself and others. It’s for a good cause and unlike my vegetarian challenge, it’s not limited to only SLA students, anyone can sign or donate.

For my Agent of Change, I decided to create a Vegetarian Challenge where I encourage students at SLA to eat all plant based or attempt to eat all plant based for a week, in hopes of introducing the vegetarian lifestyle and bringing awareness to the harmful things eating meat can do. This idea first came to be when I questioned, how can I get people to physically change their diet and what they eat, without forcing them to go full vegetarian. That’s when the idea of a challenge popped into my head. A low pressure, vegetarian challenge that could help people arrive at the first and hardest base of vegetarianism; actually eating all plant based. The rules were to try to eat all plant based for five days while keeping a food log of all the things you ate during the week. At the end of the week, participants will receive a google form they have to fill out and turn in their work logs.

I know how hard it is to have enough commitment to eat all plant based and resist meat, so I thought, maybe participating in a challenge will help motivate others to stick to that diet for a week and see how they feel physically and emotionally. It was really nerve wrecking organizing a challenge but in the end, everything fell into place. It was my first time being the creator of any type of event, and I would say it has been very interesting being on the other end of something. From the responses I got back, I think my Agent of Change has been really effective. Most of the participants felt physically and mentally better. I decided to do more research on how eating plant-based food can affect your mental health and according to this article, certain foods can either increase or decrease anxiety and depression. The foods you eat play an important role in your mental health and well being. Eating plant based releases serotonin, making you feel more positive because plant foods are high in antioxidants. Meat and animal products are high in arachidonic acid, which will create a chemical reaction in our bodies that can increase anxiety, stress, and depression. I also felt like it was a success because most of them said they would consider being a vegetarian after the challenge. Even if they didn’t want to go vegetarian after, I think it’s great that they are now aware of the situation.

I’m really happy with how my project turned out. My project wouldn’t be this successful if the students of SLA didn’t step up and volunteer to participate so I really appreciate everyone who participated in this challenge! I was so lucky to have people who were vegetarian see my challenge in the advisory memo and request to spread the word of my challenge to their friends.

Something I learned about myself while working on this project was that I could handle the pressure of organizing a challenge or a program. I learned to not doubt myself and to believe that I am capable of making a change, no matter how small or big my actions are. I think something I could’ve done better was reach out to the participants more. I kind of felt disconnected after I introduced the challenge. If I could do this project again, I would have a mid week check up on the participants or maybe send encouraging words, just something to show that I want them to do good. There is still a lot of change we need to promote in order to convince everyone to eat plant based, but overall, I think my project was a successful way to reach out to the SLA community.

Annotated Bibliography

In my last post, I talked about one of the biggest problems in Philadelphia right now which is gun violence. I talked about how much it affects our communities and the people that live in it. I gave numbers and graphs that showed the yearly increase in homicides, a map that showed what areas are being affected most by gun violence, and charts that showed victims of gun violence with and without paralysis.

As research continues for my project, Mayor Jim Kenney and congressmen plan to use next year’s stimulus money as funding for anti-violence efforts. Even though this isn’t major, it’s a step in the right direction for combating gun violence. Also, social media is spreading news about gun violence through platforms On twitter, Gun violence was trending just last week. This helped to continue to raise awareness to the issue and gain attention to the people in power. I am very happy that these tactics were set in stone. I think it’s a perfect mix of combining media and views from the mayor and congressman as a way to combat gun violence.

On the topic of social media, I decided to make a twitter page that specifically covers gun violence in Philadelphia. I wanted this page to consist of news, charts, videos, posters and more. Here’s one of the tweets I did, I dedicated this tweet to how gun violence has increased due to the pandemic. I talked about things like unemployment, health care, and housing that have been hard to find during the pandemic, ultimately factoring into an increase of homicides.

News outlets I followed on my twitter page

My twitter page where I talked about gun violence in Philadelphia

My main drive for doing this cause for my Agent of Change project was seeing thousands of people lose their lives to guns, especially in the surrounding areas and communities I live in. It’s truly saddening to know that some of my friends’ communities have to deal with gunshots every day and hearing another person die down the street from your house. Going into this cause I had no experience with gunshots and gun violence in the streets of my neighborhood. Even though I had little experience, I knew my impact on this issue could be just as good as some with more experience with gun violence. Creating a social media page was my way of making a change. I’m glad I chose this route because I know a lot of kids my age are exposed to social media and can gain traction from social media consumers about causes like this.

Going into the project I wasn’t that confident. I thought the change that I would take decades to do wouldn’t have enough impact and would be something that is forgotten quickly. After delivering a social media page gaining traction and attention this would be a project that I will always remember one thing, I made a better situation then me and my city were in. What I learned about myself was being a news reporter would be a job I would be interested in as a future job. I think I’m good at gathering information and publicizing it. One thing I wish I did better was gaining followers. I put out a good amount of tweets but I wasn’t gaining a following which I think would’ve created more publicity. If there’s one thing I remember its change is continuous, it never stops until their is no change to be made.

Annotated Bibliography

In my previous writing, I talked about why I chose sexual assault. I also talked about ways to fight back against rapists and my own experiences. Sexual assault is a serious topic that should be talked about more. Which is one of the reasons why I picked it as my topic [(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T0u44GPI2UcW2braunOC5nnbnWIyhx6xiPo0bmS8onQ/edit?usp=sharing)]. To raise awareness, I’ve made a instagram account called no_means_no.21 (no underscore means underscore no.21) where I will be posting ways to protect yourself from rape or/and sexual assault, what to do if you have been raped, how to comfort someone if they have been sexually assaulted or raped, and promoting skits and videos by other people. I will of course give credit to the people of the videos in the captions. My goal is to educate the people who already follow me, but to also educate their followers. That is why I have told my sisters and friends to re-post my account. That way, a lot more people would see it and hopefully read my posts.

For me to be posting information on my new page, I will have to do a lot more research before posting so I know that I’m not posting anything that isn’t true or actually helpful. A source that I find really helpful and reliable is Rainn.org [(https://www.rainn.org/after-sexual-assault)]. This site has a lot of useful information. One thing that was useful for me is the “After Sexual Assault” section. There are a lot of ways we could change the amount of sexual assault. Boys are usually taught at a young age that it’s ok for them to hit a girl’s butt if you like them and girls are often told that “boys will be boys” after they tell someone that they were touched inappropriately. We could start a change by raising sons right and telling them that it’s not ok to touch people without their permission. Also that touching someone inappropriately is not funny or a joke. There also needs to be long sentences for rapists who are caught. Both women and male rapists get let off too easy too often. It’s always “What were you wearing?” and victim blaming. Then male rape survivors are told “You should’ve enjoyed it” simply because they are men. That is something else that really needs to change.

But for men and women, rape takes away their sense of power, confidence, love for themselves. For men, it can take away their manliness. (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/16/male-rape-victims-sexual-abuse-support) The purpose of Agent of Change is to bring attention to rape and sexual assault. How normalized boys touching girls without consent is and how normalized it is that male rape survivors need to just “suck it up”. I want to educate the people I know on this issue, that way they could know how to protect themselves and to understand how horrible this issue is. I chose this topic because it felt like something that could come to me easily. I myself have had experiences of sexual assault, which is one of the main reasons why I picked this topic, to show myself ways I could protect myself and to always be careful.

I want my followers and people I know to be able to protect themselves just in case anything happens. Rape and sexual assault could happen anywhere, which is why it is important to know these things. I learned a lot of things which is what I wanted. This was a very important and educational experience for me, yet sad to know that this is the world we live in. Even if my instagram account doesn’t get a big following, I know that I am contributing to changing the world. This was a very deep project for me, since I had to look into my experiences that I had in order to write this. Although I already knew that some things I went through stuck with me, while doing this project I realized how many times I’ve been sexually assaulted. At such a young age too. I don’t want other people to go through these types of things. I want people to know as much as possible so they can protect themselves and others. I’m actually proud of the outcome of this project. I don’t know what I would want to change. Even if this project is over, I want to at least have 10 posts on my account before stopping, so I will continue to post on it. I have a bit of followers right now, but hopefully, it grows, and hopefully my account does help people.

On my l[ast slate post] (https://scienceleadership.org/blog/misrepresentation_of_muslim_women_in_the_media) the misrepresentation of muslim women in the media, I have learned many new things on my issue. Muslim women have been the main target of “representation” when it comes to adding a muslim charter to a show and they shove all these negative stereotypes and display them on television, as if its normal. Muslim women have been given such an unfair outlook on their appearance [(hijab)] ( https://www.google.com/search?q=hijab&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS943US944&oq=hijab&aqs=chrome..69i57j0j0i433l3j0j0i433j0j0i457j0i433.4239j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) the religion they follow (being oppressed/terrorist) To raise awareness of my topic, I have reached out to social media and news blogs to bet their thoughts and options on this. As media platforms that many people follow, how are they trying to fix this? One media platform that i contacted was [MuslimGirl] (https://muslimgirl.com/) , an organization that is full of muslim women to empower them and others around them. I have emailed them but sadly have not received an email back. I have taken matters sito my own hands and decided to post about my topic on my own instagram page and hear what the public had to say. I made a google form and also interview some of my muslim women mutuals on instagram. Two of them decided to stay anonymous and the other decided to share theory name and school. This was a big highlight to the project because i wanted the project to have the voices of muslim women speaking up. I could easily sit here and write on why this ain’t right at all but other voices added to mine makes everything more powerful. In order to change these ways, is to do research., simple. To satop with the negative stereotype and to actually dive in and do research on muslim women. Wight Islam being the fastest growing religion at the moment, it should be hard for movie directors or bloggers to do some research and let their research on muslims be from muslims themselves, especially if its on muslim women. I wanted to pursue bringing this topic more into the light and to have people take it more seriously. Over the years muslim women have been seen as oppressed, we are not pressed by Islam we are oppressed by the negative stereotypes that the media has created for us. I wanted my Agent of Change to be something that would give this topic more exposure. Many women empowerment groups have spoken about this but they only get spoken about for a week then forgotten. My experience when doing this project was really interesting. My original idea was to email MuslimGirl and set up an interview with them but I sadly didn’t get an email back. I later made a presentation that I linked to an article I wrote. I was able to have it published in our school advisory memo! I also posted about it on my Instagram and many people saw it I was effective in making change by doing the first step: giving the problem or topic exposure. Making sure people knew that this was a problem shouldn’t be normalized. I knew stopping film industries from doing this harm would take A LOT of work so I took the first step, which is also a huge step. I felt very happy doing this project because I am very passionate when it comes to the rights of muslim women or women in general ( especially WOC). I feel like iot s aspace where i know what i am talking about and know how to get it done I learned from others that they feel as if speaking on big topics like this won’t change nothing burn from seeing all the nreposting i have done on my social media platforms, they have decided to finally share their thoughts and opinions which is helping this project, so they are also making a change! I learned about myself that I have a lot to say on this topic and could easily use my own opinions but I decided to listen to others and get their thoughts.I feel like I could have presented this much better. Originally this was supposed to be an advisory presentation but I was irresponsible and kept forgetting to ask and it was too late, but I found a way to make it work. What’s left now is to eliminate the negative stereotypes of muslim women in the media and listen to their voices instead of trusting anything you see or hear. We have voices that need to be heard.

(Mira Young a junior at SLA replied with this under my story)

In my last post, “What Do We Owe To Education”, I researched some questions I had about education and funding in general, and learned a lot about the Federal Budget, funding gaps, and the affect the lack of funding had on schools.

Since then, I have focused on the issue of the lack of funding for schools. I did some more research based on this more focused view, using these sites:

Once I had finished my research, I decided to make a Public Service Announcement (PSA) with the information I had gathered. It was difficult to decide which information to use because I had to decide what was most important. That was why at the end of the PSA, I put a link to my bibliography so if someone was really interested, they could look more into it.

In order to get this PSA out to people, I decided to share it on social media and reach out to some members of staff who could help me. I reached out to Jeremy, who said that he would put my PSA into our advisory memo, and to Ms. Jonas, who said that I could present about my topic to my advisory. I thought this would be most effective because technology can really get around to many people. If things were back to normal, I probably would have adapted my PSA to be printed and placed around the school. Since so many people are online, I decided to make a more in depth PSA with all the information needed.

Below are some screenshots of putting my PSA in action:

Overall, I am not sure I was really making a change. A Public Service Announcement can help to get information out and make people aware of an issue, but I would really like to talk to more people to actually go from informing to making a change. If I did this project over again, I think I would interview more students, teachers, and staff about their experiences with the system and get more involved in my community. I became less interested in my topic as I continued, but was happy with the result. All that is left is to send the PSA to Jeremy for the advisory memo and present in my advisory on Monday. I think at the very least, I made a change in myself because I know a lot more about this topic and issue and can understand a little more of the education world as I go through it.

My favorite thing that I wrote was:

Because while there are people in power, there is also the power of the people, giving each and every one of us the opportunity to make a difference.

The importance of knowing oneself is most commonly known as a really good thing and is associated with giving a person clarity and a feeling like taking a deep breath of fresh air. Something people don’t really realize while striving for this achievement, is that the journey comes with contemplation of your mental health. Mental health has been pretty overly stigmatized in the media (media suasion) to the point where it is commonly known for being a dangerous or scary thing. On my previous SLATE post, I covered a few examples of how and what the media has stigmatized. Because of this research I thought it would be good to start off with a smaller action to raise awareness as a sort of way to get comfortable with this form of activism. My main idea for this poster was to try and push and move the normalization of people with any kind of mental health issues. More specifically, the conversations of mental health. Since a lot of the time people with these different issues get clumped into a category with other people with different symptoms and clumping people together isn’t known for being great at all, I believe normalizing the conversation of people being different and with many kinds of mental illnesses or not helps make the misconceptions of mental illnesses lessened. “We’re Basically All Struggling With Mental Health Right Now—Let’s Normalize It” by Jessica A Gold explains the importance of these conversations and also gives a few tips on some simple things that you can do to help out as well.

It’s hard to tell when you are making a difference, at least in the beginning, but there are other ways I also try to help this cause in day to day life that I believe does something. I try to have meaningful conversations with people about the states of mental health when it comes up, unless they are really uncomfortable. If they do feel uncomfortable I usually drop the conversation but also bring it up later if I feel like its important. This could feel really bad or really rewarding depending on what kind of person I’m talking to, and a lot of other components also contribute to this as well. It feels good to know that you made a difference in the world, or at least put it out there that you tried and succeeding is kind of a bonus. A big bonus, but a bonus nonetheless. I realized that the idea is primarily to make a change, but trying to do that, and also the intentions and ambition behind it make a difference as well.

The project is never really done for me. I don’t think it’s something that can really be “fixed” but it can definitely be better. Looking back on this project I think I could have and maybe should have chosen a project that was a little more ambitious and less “easy” in a way. I feel like even though this was probably a good first step, this project could’ve had more components to it that made it stand out more or something that made it different. It feels a little like I took the easy way out, but really I think I would have done more if it were a little less time crunched. Overall I think this was a good experience that I can rely on for sources and information to back up the main idea mostly.

(side note) - The watermark was very much unintentional and I couldn’t get rid of it so sorry if it’s a little bit more difficult to read because of that.

So my project was a little different. It wasn’t a problem I could really change but I still feel it was important. I did mental health changes during quarantine. For my previous post, I did research on mental health changes in quarantine.I discussed multiple sources that I researched to see percentages and rates. It was surprising but at the same time expected to see the percentage of good mental health go down. I decided to do an instagram page where people could talk about their experiences.I got a lot of people to send me messages about how they changed or didn’t change with consent to post. I posted them on instagram and I thought they all looked good. I related to almost all of them and it was very interesting to see a lot of the answers. I followed some mental health pages but I sadly didn’t do much to promote my page. I really only posted whatever piece of writing I was given. I made 6 posts total and they all were meaningful.

[This website] (https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/) has some more info on mental health percentages during the pandemic.

The reason I have decided to do this is because my mental state had actually gotten better in quarantine. It was the most free I had ever felt and I was surrounded by things I loved. I know others didn’t feel that way so I was curious to see how. That was basically my whole motivation for this. I learned mostly new information through this which I am very proud of. I made actual progress with this project and learned a lot. I am very thankful for people helping me as well.

I have been reflecting on my project and these are my thoughts: I feel very good about this project for the most part. People cooperating with me felt very nice and I also learned a lot about the people around me. It was also a great experience to see what other people had done in quarantine and how they changed. Without saying names, I learned that one friend had worked on themselves in quarantine and that it was a great time to do so. This person should be proud of themselves for their work.

I learned that I wasn’t alone about some of my thoughts. Some other people also didn’t change too much and thought it was a good reflection time to work on themselves. I also learned that there were other people who struggled with quarantine and didn’t have that good of a time during it. So I found some information about other people and compared it to myself to see the differences or similarities. I definitely learned new things about myself and others.

The only things that I regret are not having good time management and not promoting my page. I didn’t ask anyone to repost or shout out my page. I also only followed a couple of people. I definitely would have managed time better as well. I would probably have more post if I didn’t wait as long to start as I did.

[Annotated bibliography] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wGSNZbk9LJ9G478gjohRBqlmtA-TvlFW1ECYdrPpGdQ/edit?usp=sharing

These are a couple examples of the writing pieces I posted. If you want to see the rest then please check out Quarantinehealth24 on instagram. If you want you can also follow the account.

In my previous post, I explained what my reason for trying to solve the parking problem was. That reason is mainly because of how much it affects me and my family and everyone around me everyday. When my teacher told me to think about something that related to me and that I wanted to see better, I immediately thought of this. So, the last post is just looking at the problem, and seeing what I could possibly do about this, and why this is even a problem in the first place. Then I conclude with the main reason why people park illegally, which is pretty much just tradition.

Since my last post, new articles have come out due to Covid that are surprisingly related to parking. So because of the city being practically shut down, a lot of the travelers that usually come here to eat, tour, and party, now don’t. That means much less cars, and much more parking spots. Also, no one is going into work, so you can account for that too. I haven’t found many articles on this, but it’s pretty much a given. That being said, parking also may have also gotten a little worse. Let me explain, so restaurants are just now opening back up to their inside seating. So what have they been doing for the past year? Outdoor seating. But where do the seats go, we live in the city. They go right in the street, blocking the way for traffic and parking. I’ve personally seen this many times, but it doesn’t speak for every restaurant, so this is slightly less of an issue.

Wanting to do a little more research on this project, I reached out to my neighbor who works as a meter revenue collector. He told me a lot about how the PPA has worked in the past, and how it is changing today. The interview is linked [here] (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FHjv6_8-NYTpM_P63iPwdAvHs_p7sE1D/view?usp=sharing0) is very interesting and talks more in depth about the coronavirus and how it conflicts parking.

I feel that these changes are much needed. If people see that there are less spots possible to park in, maybe they won’t take the car out as much. There are many different means of public transportation that are cheap and pretty easy to use. This would significantly cut down on traffic, and most of all, parking problems. Road closures for pedestrians and outside seating might just be the accidental solution to this problem.

What I pursued for my agent of change is a bicycle taxi service/informant. Basically, I ride around on my tandem bicycle and pick up people and take them where they want to go. While im riding them, I talk to them about parking issues and inform them on how they can help. This has worked well for me because I don’t even ask for payment, I just ask where they are going. I do this because I think that any trip to center city without a car is a worthwhile trip.

Above is shown parking conjestion

For my You & The World project, I was trying to give off a what is the best thing to do for people that were born different from others and not just saying that we are different. We are the same because we are the same but just have our brains thinking different not all people will think the same things as you are but people that are born with autism makes them have a hard time talking because some people that have autism have a hard time just trying to talk with someone people because they can some times not tune out other noise that comes from different areas. After all, I have seen some families not show their kids they think that they are going to tell them that it is not right for society to have to take care of them because they need to work a lot with them just to make a connection with someone that has special abilities. To think that other people will say that is not right because if you were in that person’s shoes that has a special need kid and people telling you that it will give you a bad feeling because they are saying it to you when you were just saying that to the other person. I wanted to make a video but things got hard for me and I had to change a lot of things I could not make the video in time so what I did was try to explain the best I can about my video

The thing that I know from my research and my family members is that some people who have different needs for their children makes you think is autism the same for other kids and the video that I was going to make I was going to explain that others have different thing some people that have autism can talk and some that have autism can’t. My cousin is part of the people that have autism that can’t talk and he makes you read his body language to understand what he is talking about I have seen this because my aunt has different ways to talk with my cousin when he is hungry he starts to shake his hands and his head to make look and say that he is hungry. I have a video that I found about this person his name is Mark Rober and he has a son that has autism he has a video explain about it more than I do in the video that I was going to make he explains the things that he does as a father but makes the courage make a video to explain about his son and to teach others what is autism and I can tell that he does not feel right when he is making the video about his son. I have a cousin that has autism and my aunt and uncle don’t like to think about what other people will say about their son

Mark Rober and his son.

The process that I was going to do was make an animation video explaining what is autism? Why should we teach other kids about autism? and why is it important? I was going to make this question the most key idea of the video and I was going to make it be able to download for other people able to spread the word of autism and make them think to teach their children in the further and to make this video come up always to there mind when other people want to learn about autism

Links to everything I used https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r53VdN2-ogy4reWxAQZ5u9SKNc5C_PUohNhA7RlY9OY/edit?usp=sharing

On my last post, I explained the problems with having snakes as pets. This is a topic that needs to be brought way more attention. Snakes are captured from their natural habitats and transported to different places, this process can cause them a lot of harm. Then, for the rest of their lives they are kept in tanks that don’t even have the space they need to stretch. Not only their physical body gets harmed but so does their mental state. They can feel a lot of stress and anxiety in captivity. Most snakes are very cheap, which gives more people a reason to want to buy them. When I was looking for organizations that are doing things to help stop this, I couldn’t really find a lot, but the one I found was World Animal Protection. They have made articles informing people why this is such an important issue. They also have a wildlife pledge that people can sign to share support and help stop this issue. They receive donations to stop all sorts of animal cruelty, including my topic. And they also have an instagram account to raise awareness to this type of stuff. I think these are very effective ways of helping snakes and other animals. However there’s way more that needs to be done because there’s still not a lot of people know about this.

*A screenshot of my gofundme link

For my Agent of Change part, I decided to set up a Gofundme link so I could raise money in order to donate to World Animal Protection. Since the least amount you can donate to World Animal Protections donation link is $30, I thought it was best to set up a gofundme for people who still wanted to donate, but couldn’t exactly contribute with that much. I reached out to the organization so I could inform them of my plan, but I got no response. My gofundme actually didn’t turn out to be very successful, since I only got very few donations. I will still be donating to World Animal Protection but with my own money, and the donation money I received. Even though I didn’t get as many donations as I hoped for, I got multiple people to sign the wildlife pledge.

Screenshot of one of my friends signing the wildlife pledge *

Overall, I really enjoyed working on this project. I really liked being able to work on something I actually care about and having to do something to help. I also thought it was cool how everyone had such interesting topics, and helped in many different ways. I thought everyone’s topic also let me know a little more about the person and about what type of topics they cared about. I think there’s a lot of things that could have gone better if I was to do this project while I was in the country. Since I wasn’t, I had to change some things so I could still try to help in a virtual way. If I could do things in person, I would’ve loved to do some type of fundraiser in person since a lot of people that wanted to donate couldn’t because they had no way to pay virtually. There’s not much left for me to do but I want to wait a little longer to see if I can raise a little more money so I can donate more to the organization.

Annotated Bibliography

In my previous post, I explained why obesity is an issue that more people should care about. It can have fatal effects on your health and it disproportionately affects POC, lower class people, and people with less education. After researching the ways that others are helping to fight against obesity, I noticed that there weren’t many people with social media accounts related to the issue. However, I’ve found that there are organizations such as https://www.obesity.org/ that are focused on obesity research. They accept donations, so I’ve included a link to their website in my linktree. This brings me to what I did to be an agent of change!

I created an Instagram account to help educate people about obesity, encourage people to drink water, make healthy meals and snacks, participate in healthy challenges, and learn ways to relax and de-stress. Some of my posts include reminders to drink water, so I researched the benefits of doing so in order to make sure I had my facts straight. Giving people a reason to do something is always better than just telling them to do it! I’ve been designing my posts using PicsArt, an artsy app. It’s very easy to navigate and there’s so much I can do with it! My goal is to have my posts look simple and professional while also being colorful and fun. As stated earlier, I also make a linktree with links to places to donate, a relaxing music playlist, and any information mentioned in my posts. Although I tried putting it in my bio, Instagram is currently not letting me edit my profile! This has happened before and it usually works after a day or so.

Making my profile picture in the PicsArt app!

Creating a custom color in the PicsArt app for the background of a post!

So far, my experience with the account has been positive. I sent an email to everyone in my stream to gain followers and my first post did well! I plan on starting a week-long challenge this coming Monday, but I’ll have more posts up before then! In addition, I’ve been keeping an eye out for healthy snacks to post about, especially snacks that are healthy alternatives to unhealthy foods. For example, I recently posted a recipe for frozen grapes with lime juice as a healthy alternative to sour patch candy!

My account’s profile before sending the stream email

My account’s profile after sending the stream email

Overall, I love how my project is turning out. I think the ideas are there, but I wish I’d started posting earlier. I learned that orange stream is really supportive of everyone’s ideas and projects! I think we all pushed each other to create great projects and everyone was ready and willing to help their classmates out. There is still more work to be done for my Instagram account to be successful and I think I can really make a change if I continue to post! Please check out my account @fight__against_obesity if you haven’t already!

Annotated Bibliography

being ruined, but we can stop this. Their sea ice is being melted and less sea ice is forming each year in a steady incline. I go over the species of polar bears and how they are being affected in an earlier post You can check out my resources for my research in my [annotated bibliography.] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/13QkjYnWT__Qj6WRhkwGklubJLEqWO2cYQ9EWsRBVaUk/edit?usp=sharing ) In the end, they need help and we can give it. This is why I decided to write about polar bears because we should help them since we are hurting them.

Many things have been done to help polar bears and many people have been helping to do so. One of the ways I see people trying to help polar bears is volunteer work for organizations that help polar bears. Another way I see help for polar bears is that organizations and people are trying to stop gas cars since they cause the sea ice to melt, people are also trying to produce less smoke by walking and using a bike instead of a car. I also see people doing fundraisers and donations to help polar bears. These are just some of the many things people are doing to help this endangered species and if you want to know more about any of this you can go to [N.F.W.] ( https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Polar-Bear )or the [American Museum Of National History] (https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/earth/ask-a-scientist-about-our-environment/how-can-we-save-polar-bears-from-extiction ), which talks about some of the ways we can save polar bears.

I decided that just writing about them was not good enough, I decided I needed to do more. I wanted to do something that was possible for as a single person could do and that was able to spread the word. So I decided to do a fundraiser and the way I would raise money would be by selling shirts. The shirts I made said “ save the polar bears” in the front with a picture of a polar bear. On the back, it said “donate to Polar Bears International”, which was the organization where I was going to donate the money to help polar bears. My first plan was to sell shirts in person in a busy area on a good day, but after thinking about it I thought that Covid-19 would have gotten in the way. I say this because if I were to sell them in person I could have gotten the Coronavirus or people might not want to buy the shirts because of the same reason of getting the virus. So I decided to sell the shirts online and have them shipped to the house of the buyer after they purchase them.

Picture of my fundraiser on Custom Ink

At last, I decided to sell the shirts through a site called Custom Ink, and it lets make it so once the fundraiser was over I was able to donate straight to the organization of my choice. I let the fundraiser go on for two weeks and I tried advertising on everything I could and try to as many friends and family as possible to buy a shirt. I even have my fundraiser mentioned in the school news. In the end, I was only able to sell 1 shirt out of the 50 I wanted to sell. I guess people didn’t have the time or money to buy a shirt, and that okay because I understand why they didn’t buy any.

Picture of my post to the school newsletter

Picture of my advertisement on Twitter

In the end, I did the best I could to help polar bears and save them and their sea ice. I feel like this project was a good thing to do and shows me that I can do more to help the things I believe in. Something that I learned about myself is that I should put my heart into the thing I want to achieve and that I can’t always do things on my own and it is okay to ask others for help. Something I feel like I could have done better on was my action, I feel like I could have also advertised my fundraiser in person to others too. Even though I failed at raising money I can still try to not use a car all the time and volunteer to help save polar bears, and you can do this too all you need to do is try.

Amjed Washaha Mrs. Giknis English 1 5/20/2021 Social Media Impact On Sexually Based Cybercrimes In my last two posts, I covered social media’s negligence towards sexually based crimes. These crimes were anything from the distribution and sale of child pornography and the posting of unsolicited nudes from all genders and ages. We also provide photo evidence of online criminals interacting and advertising their illicit goods. We discuss statistics such as “child pornography of images had increased 1500% since 1988! Also, there was a 375% increase in the amount of child pornography websites between February of 2001 and July 2001. You can find the previous post here. The #megalink problem isn’t a secret nor is it located in a dark and inconspicuous alley somewhere on the internet. No, it’s right out there in the open for the world to see sometimes even appearing on the front page of Twitter. Twitter users are now trying to combat #megalinks by flooding the hashtag with photos and tweets unrelated to #megalink’s content. Many YouTubers are on our side as well. For example Youtuber “SomeOrdinaryGamers” made a 9 minute video explaining the situation. Feedback suggests that the video was rather successful gaining 968,421 views and 44,000 likes as of publication.
The attempts made by Twitter users against #megalinks are an easy and effective way anyone can help. It keeps the innocent distracted but may one day also move the #megalink community to other platforms. I also think the attempts made by Twitter users are quite humorous. You can often find memes and jokes when investigating. Here we see a user flooding the #megalink thread with something a little more friendly. Link from the Legend of Zelda series. Source: Twitter

YouTubers the likes of SomeOrdinaryGamers may also bring a lot of press to the situation. I mean 968,000 people is a lot of people, if they all shared the video once we could have millions of people that didn’t know about these disgusting acts of sexual assault, harassmet, grooming, etc… Sadly all these attempts aren’t nearly enough to put even a dent in the plans of the #megalink criminals. My agent of change mission was to stop this problem before it even happens. In my research, I’ve concluded that most of these criminals have suffered early childhood trauma or mental health trauma such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, etc… My idea is to implement a Peer Mediation program in SLA that will help students combat issues such as trauma or mental health issues. In order to make this happen, I’ll need the support of fellow SLA staff and students. I will assign trustable and reliable students hand picked by fellow advisors and staff. From there we plan on creating a safe environment for students to openly converse and socialize with fellow students. If this program goes as planned, students should leave the program knowing that they have added at least one more person to their lives that will always be there for them. I’ve worked as a mediator of other programs in the past and they went well in most cases. Getting in touch with the school counselor Ms.Siswick was rather easy and she was very cooperative and seemed genuinely interested in improving the wellbeing of SLA students and our community and for that, I am greatly appreciative. I have yet been able to complete my goals as of yet and the preparation and implementation of this program will begin in the 2021-2022 school year. I do believe that I have a solid plan and I can’t wait to put it into action. I really enjoyed this project even though I haven’t fully completed it as of yet. It pushed me hard and made me come to a realization of how bad the world can be sometimes. I learned a lot, statistics for these acts really shocked me. The number of child porngraphy can compare with the amount of legal porn out there which is absolutely disgusting and is a realization that I am constantly reminded of. I definitely could have made this program happen within this year but with the barriers, online schooling has imposed I didn’t feel comfortable having students talk about what could be serious problems over a screen, the fear of recorded conversations was a huge concern for me. For you, the people help us by contacting Twitter advertisers which you’ll find on the next page, and continue to flood #megalinks with appropriate content. Thank you to all of those trying to make a difference!

Twitter support→ support@twitter.com List of top 5 investors and emails: .The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Email): institutional@vanguard.com .Morgan Stanley. (Email): prospectus@morganstanley.com .BlackRock Fund Advisors Inc. (Email): complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk .SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (Email): geam_web@ssga.com. .ClearBridge Investments LLC. (Email): info@clearbridge.com

In my last slate post I shared my knowledge about the topic colorism. Its a hard thing to go through, it can happen with your friends even your family. I wanted to let people know they are not alone when they face colorsim. Colorism is prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group: Only darker skin people experience this type of treatment because they are the ones that are oppressed by it, lighter skin people benefit from it.

This is what I did to spread awareness about the issue. I made a instagram post about it, it was a three part post and all my friends were so supportive. I want to have a interesting but straight to the point tile and I think this was good. I think this is the first time I felt like I’m doing a good thing (when I post about important topics and issues on my instagram stories). It’s like I’m actually telling the story and people are my listens and learners.

Some More Slides of it And how other people Help Out Too!!

As you can see My friends helped me repost and spread awareness too about the topic. I tried my best to reach out to so many people and I think I did a good job because if I see other people liking it then it must be good for people to realize it’s that important. I think I have the privilege to share about what I know about my topic and how it effects people with darker skin tone. I know it can be hard seeing yourself if you are dark in the media or just being in life because some people can not going to except you but If you are a dark skin person, just know you matter. Everything you do and say matters and you are a beautiful person, don’t like your skin color take over you… embrace yourself and own your skin.

In my last slate post, I had discussed the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the homeless population of the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light on the struggles of homeless individuals. When many Americans were told to “Stay Home and Stay Safe” many of our fellow citizens were unable to stay home or safe. Social distancing and self-care was not an option for the United States homeless population. Whether through economic hardship, drug abuse, mental health, or other factors, many Americans met the unfortunate fate of homelessness.

In my research I have found that many people have been donating to many organizations, drives, and services dedicated to helping the homeless. I interviewed my neighbor, Ms. Melanie Dupree, who attends Tindley Temple united Methodist church organized a feeding program for the homeless. Tindley Temple has had a soup ministry since the early 1930s. Tindley served meals three to four times a week, however, as a result of the pandemic they had to shut down. My neighbor would walk by the homeless in the city, and she felt compelled to help out. This led her to start her ministry which is called CornerStone Feeding Ministry. She packs 50 lunches and distributes them near the Reading Terminal. She also distributes them at twelve and locust underground tent city. Meal distribution is done once a month. She obtains the help of the elderly shut ins at the Church to help prepare and pack the bags. These elderly individuals would have been isolated at home due to the pandemic, however her ministry provides them with a safe space to socialize. She distributes her meals with the help of her grandkids as well.

As my agent of change I created an Instagram page that is still up today meant to spread awareness about the struggle and conditions many homeless individuals face during the COVID-19 pandemic. This account has had a lot of traffic coming in, mostly composed of my fellow peers from SLA.

Separate from my agent of change project, as a result of living in the city I encounter many homeless individuals. I feel compelled to help them in any way, usually in the form of buying them masks and water due to the current weather.

If I had to reflect on my agent of change it would be very frustrating, confusing, and emotional. Overall, I am unsatisfied with my agent of change project I’ve done. Although I did spread awareness about the struggles many homeless people have faced during the pandemic, I did not do anything to help the homeless. After completing my project I felt as if I could do better if I had more resources as well as a greater time between deadlines. Hopefully my Instagram account could have spread enough awareness for someone to make a real change.

Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11CwTEXEKnChcW2FiM5xoa_Q1UCkBNoJR2YTW0fnXN-4/edit?usp=sharing

Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/shenk_miles/

Slate post 1: https://scienceleadership.org/blog/the_devastating_effect_covid-19_has_on_the_united_states_homeless_population_and_what_we_can_do_to_help

In my first post on animal cruelty in factory farms, I had learned about many issues of inhumane treatment in the factory farming industry. Majority of the animals raised for us to eat live painful and unnatural lives, packed together in uncomfortable spaces, stripped of natural behaviors and forced to grow extremely fast so that they can be slaughtered quicker. The livestock raised in this industry are not treated like the sentient beings that they are.

While many are unaware of the mistreatment that goes on in factory farms, there are still people and organizations working to battle this issue. Take Temple Grandin, for example; Grandin is known for her work towards the humane treatment of livestock, particularly cattle, and is one of the most respected experts on animal behavior. Organizations like Animal Equality launch corporate campaigns, educational programs, and undercover investigations to help document and end animal abuse in places like factory farms and slaughterhouses. There are also groups working to spread awareness about factory farming and similar issues, like the Organic Consumers Association. I would say that any and all work being done to advocate and act against animal cruelty in the industrial farming industry is beneficial to this issue.

It took me a while to decide on what to do for my agent of change. During my research, the ideal solution to change industrial farming that kept coming up was to influence it at a systematic level. There are lots of organizations working towards this goal, so I thought that maybe I could somehow donate to them. But the more I talked to family, friends, and peers about the issues in the factory farming industry, the more I realized how little people really know about it. So I changed my approach for the agent of change portion of this project. I wanted to educate members of my community about both the inhumane conditions that industrial livestock lives in, as well as what people can do about it. This second part was very important to me; a lot of times, after learning about an issue or injustice in our world, I’m left wondering what to do to actually create a change. And when it comes to factory farming, there are many ways to create a positive impact without giving up meat completely, like many people assume. I plan on putting my project in the advisory memo next week, as well as spreading it through other communities I am a part of.

Overall, I feel pretty good about my project. I think it is informative, and includes a lot of information on this topic. My presentation also encourages people to make changes when it comes to the animal products they eat in whatever ways they are able to. I just hope it is able to reach as many people as possible. If I could do this project again, I would want to add an extra part where I raised money to donate to one of the organizations I researched, like Animal Equality. Unfortunately, my time management skills this quarter were subpar, but think that I was still able to create a meaningful project.

When I first started my research on the issue of factory farming, I was flooded with information on how animals are mistreated, abused, and killed in this industry. On the surface, all I saw was the bad. But as I dove farther into this topic, I realized that there are a lot of people and organizations working towards a positive change. I think that bringing awareness to the atrocity that is the industrial farming system is a crucial step forward at this point. Whether that is through the media or even just through conversations, more people need to learn about where the food they eat comes from.

Annotated Bibliography