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What's really the best for you?

In my previous post I spoke about what people's food actually contains and how it affect their body. In my post I explained how meat can have a negative impact on your body. When I wrote my first post, it was based on the documentary What The Food and it glorified being vegan, but I wanted to personally find if being vegan is as good as it seems to be.     

To find my original research i decided to do interviews to get different perspectives on being vegan. I did three different interviews. The first interview I did was Gabe Sosa he is the father to one of my classmates, Miranda Sosa. He responded to  my question via email. When I did get a response I was shocked because I didn’t think he would say those things. Here are my following questions:

Q: What was the reasoning behind you becoming vegan?

A:I became a vegan because I was having health issue.

Q: Do you believe that becoming vegan was a drastic change?

A:I think that for some people it can be a drastic change for them, I know how to cook so for me it was just about making good wholesome food. So my instead of eating meat and dairy products I made substitutions. For example, for my cereal in the morning I used Almond milk, (has the same flavor of milk) and for meat products I used beans and made beef patties. For me it was not a drastic change. (for my kids it was, because they don’t like good food)

Q:What is the hardest part of being vegan?

A:The hardest part was taking the time to plan out your meals, For example I work a lot on the road, so I had to makes sure I have food to eat. A lot of food has animal products in it. So I could not eat it. it hard because you can’t just run into McDonalds and get some fires. Because they have beef flavoring on them so a vegan cannot eat there, and just so you know a lot of fast food does not have Vegan options.

Q: How much has being vegan benefited you?

A:I feel that being a vegan has not benefited me as much as it would have any other person. I think that if someone became vegan it would benefit them a lot more than it did me.

Q:·  Have you seen a change in your health after changing your diet?

A:My health has declined even after 3 months of being a vegan, as my issues are not with what goes in my body but what stays in my body. My blood holds on to too much iron in the blood, and you can get a lot of iron from Lentils, spinach and other vegetables (that I have been eating a lot of) along with meat. So I think that eating more of these vegetables might have hurt me as much as eating meat.

After reading his answers I was surprised but he had a valid reason why being vegan didn’t work for him. By searching on the internet I believe that Mr. Sosa might have a disease known as Hemochromatosis. This is when you have iron overload causing it to affect your heart, liver, and other organs. To manage with this disease doctors advise you to stay away from high contents of iron or vitamin C and vegetables are full of those.  When Mr. Sosa became vegan his body continued to absorb an excess amount of iron. He said that he consumed a lot of green leafy foods such as spinach, but spinach contains more iron than red meat.

Which one is really good for you?

My next two interviews they were completely different from Mr. Sosa. I got in touch with my friend Nile Shareef-Trudeau because her and her family are vegan. I sent her my questions and she interviewed herself and her mother because this was the only way the questions could be answered at the time. This is the interview for Nile’s mom and this is Nile’s. Nile and her mother believe that being vegan is the epitome of being healthy, unlike Mr. Sosa because of his condition.

By doing both interviews I get different perspectives of being a vegan. I learned that being vegan isn’t meant for everyone. I also learned this by changing my food habits for six weeks. For the last part of my project I decided to not to eat meat for six weeks. I broke the six weeks into three sections. For the first two weeks I was a pescatarian which means that the only meat I could eat was seafood. Then the next two weeks, I was a vegetarian, and the last two weeks I was a vegan. During the six weeks I gained 10 pounds because I wasn’t eating properly. The hardest part wasn’t the fact that I wasn’t eating meat, but that most of the time I was hungry unless I did a meal prep. When I was vegan (which I did not continue for two weeks) I learned in order for me not to starve I would have to carry food with me, everywhere I go because there were never any vegan options. Instead of me being vegan I went back to eating dairy and fish.

My annotated bibliography

 Discovering new research about The Dream Act

  I did more research and i also found out that when Trump decided to end the DACA, he put an expiration date on the legal protections granted to roughly 800,000 people known as "DREAMers," who entered the country illegally as children, meaning 800,000 children getting punished for something they didn't do, and that's really unfair for the children. After Trump called the congress to act, Barack Obama called the decision "cruel" and "self-defeating” he also said "Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn't threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us.", so he's just basically saying that he should not deport this children and maybe ruined their future, and also they aren't doing anything thats hurting us now or in the future.

On top of all of this new research i decided to go out and do my own research. I decided to do an interview, It was kind of hard to find someone to interview but in the end I found someone, and the person is my soccer coach his name is Sammy. When we did our interview i asked five questions. I decided to interview him because he's the one that told me about the dream act, and also he has family the are apart of the dream act. Let’s take a look at the questions and answers...  

Q-What do you know about The Dream Act?

A-”From what I know about it is a bill that would allow undocumented immigrant who were brought in at a young age with their parents a way to gain legal status in the United States”

Q-How do you feel about it?

access to. These kids are the future of this country and the need a chance to be able to make a better future for themselves and their family”

Q-Why do you think the Congress won't make The Dream Act a law?

A-”With how divided and split congress is with political parties I feel that there isn’t much a chance for The Dream Act to pass. I’ve been hearing about this bill for many years and it is still somehow close to passing. With the president we have in office right now I feel that we’re further away than ever to getting The Dream Act to pass.”

Q-How would you feel if you or your family were apart of the dream act?

A-”I do have some family members that are affected by The Dream Act. It really saddens me that there are so many children and young adults in this country that aren’t able to live their lives comfortably in this country through the actions of their parents. They didn't have much of a choice in coming to this country at such a young age yet they are being punished for it. I feel that this bill would be able to provide them with what they need in order to be productive members of our society.”

Q-What changes would you make for The Dream Act?

A-”The Dream Act does not do much for the parents of these young immigrants. If I would make any changes to this bill it would be to help the parents get a pathway to legal status in this country. These kids needs their parents together and I have seen firsthand the devastation when a parent is deported from the country and how it affects the kids.”

      One thing that really stood out to me when I did this interview with Coach Sammy is when he started talking about how parents should be involved in the dream act, and I totally agree with him because if the parents get deported and the kids are not, then that's just going to hurt the kids, because I’m sure that there isn't any kid in this world that wants to live with their parents far apart from them.

    After speaking to Coach Sammy I got a better understanding about what should be added to the dream act, and why the congress won't pass this bill.

In my first blog post about wildlife preservation I talked about all of the places out there that helped endangered animals. So for to further expand my knowledge and research I visited the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. I did a field observation of half of the trail and was able to spot some animals out and about. Since I went in the morning there was not much to see because most animals came out at night but what I did find was enough for what I needed.

The data I gathered was abe to help in my original research because I was able to see how much of an issue wildlife preservation is. While at the refuge I saw birds, swans, and even some horses. The animals themselves aren’t constantly cared for like you would see at a zoo but the ones here just live like they would in the wild but without having to worry about the dangers of being killed. So comparing this to what I heard about all of the endangered animals has really opened my eyes more as to how bad they have it.

Something I still have questions about is how are the rescued endangered animals cared for. Since I know that there are ones out there that find help they need and are going extinct for different reasons, I wonder how they are cared for. Another question I have which is revolved around this is how do the animals in the wildlife get there food. If all animals there are to be protected then how can they at least surrive food wise. For example if there was an eagle that ate squirrels in the wildlife, but that squirrel was also there for protection then how does it work out so that both can survive?

While at the wildlife center there are some things that I observed and noticed. One of those things were that the other people there were mostly adults and more importantly with there own pets. There were a few kids I noticed there but they were also with parents. But one of the adults I noticed there was actually there to take pictures just like me, except he seemed a lot more professional. He had an actual camera and possible a notepad with him. If I could have stayed longer i would have asked him if he came to this place daily or what other places he went to. Looking back on what I did there only made me realize what more I could have done.

To end it all off I think that my field observation went well. In the future I would have liked to find more animals since was a little bit harder to do during the morning and also maybe ask around from other people on what they have seen here.

In my last you and the world blog post, I wrote about the affects the crumb rubber has on the human body and why the topic interests and connects to me. I stated it's important to me in the world and in the sports industry. The last post included  the negative perspectives on the crumb rubber in astroturf. I interviewed Ms. Samantha from Star Finder to find out her perspective on the crumb rubbers on astroturf and her own personal experiences with it.

From my own perspective, crumb rubber in astroturf is a extremely hazardous and bad idea but for some people and places, the crumb rubber in astroturf is a smart and productive idea. The positives for having crumb rubber in astroturf are; it saves water, it can reduce some injuries because of mud and uneven grass spots, increases playability and allows more sports to be able to play on the field, lower maintenance costs, and it is way easier to maintain then grass.  All astroturf fields are the same size as a soccer field or bigger which allows more sports and activities to be held on the fields.

From my original research, I learned the benefits of having astroturf and the crumb rubber. Rubber is extremely hard to get rid of and different people and organizations have tried to find different ways of getting rid of these tires. The crumb rubber can be less harmful if it is cleaned well and in the places where people have got diseases from these tires, the tires were not cleaned well. When astro turf is in a inside place, it traps the heat from hitting the turf which makes the astroturf stay room temperature. When the astroturf and crumb rubber is outside, it captures heat which makes the whole field extremely hot which makes it more likely for an injury to occur.

My opinion on crumb rubber has changed in a small way. I believe that putting crumb rubber in the astroturf helps our environment by reducing these tires that are not biodegradable. The tires have to be cleaned extremely carefully so they are clean. I still believe that crumb rubber is dangerous though and when it is outside, it absorbs heat which makes it hotter which puts people's health in danger. When it is too hot, people can get dehydrated and are more likely to get injured. I wonder what other solutions could substitute crumb rubber and what will fields look like in the future.

For my agent of change, I am thinking about spreading awareness about the concerns of crumb rubber and try to find a solution to the problem.

Here is a picture of the organization Ms. Samantha works for

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jFkm10hpG_LrnTc7P7ys44l6ixd0LrPOnJrl-Y__u6c/edit

My first blog post addressed some issues with grey infrastructure and stormwater management in the city as well as briefly explaining the problems in the system. Now I gathered some more information around the situation with the help of my mother and some field observations.

Mz. Julie Snell (my mom) worked at PHS for a number of years before starting her own business in landscape architecture along with two other women from PHS. Now seeing as Mz. Snell worked in her field as long as she has as well as teaching a class about green infrastructure at Temple University, I consider Mz. Snell an expert in green infrastructure. So I chose to interview her. In the interview I asked a few questions that relate to stormwater management and green infrastructure in our city.

Is stormwater management a problem in this city and if so how? Was my first question for Mz. Snell. The response explained how that yes it is a problem because of Philadelphia's very old combined sewer system which when is overflowed will cause backups that’ll get your basement flooded.

My second question asked how quickly the city was changing to green infrastructure. Mz. Snell explained Green City Clean Waters, which is a 25 year, 2.5 billion dollar  project that started in 2011. The main goal is to get rid of the combined sewer overflows(CSOs) and the push behind the project is that Philly as well as other cities is mandated by the EPA to eliminate CSOs by 2026.

Knowing that Mz. Snell played a role in getting the Peco green roof all set back in 2009 I asked her about the process and specifically how long it took. I was surprised to hear that it was a very short project. It went from planning the concept of the green roof  in November to putting in the sedums only a month later. As Mz. Snell explained the timeline she also focused heavily on the fact that with green infrastructure the cost of installation is much less and will start working right away. Unlike grey infrastructure such as huge pipes and expanding sewer systems. So hopefully it won’t take that long for the city to reach their goal of getting rid of CSOs

In my fourth question I asked about what people around the city can do to help out. I wanted a better idea of what people could do to involve themselves some more. Mz. Snell explained how there are plenty of volunteering opportunities all over the city. You can choose to volunteer with PHS and join a tree tender group, you can help out with Parks and Rec friend groups, or you can even get a tree right out front of your house for free. The Tree City program can take a look at your space outside your house and see if you can qualify for a tree out there. Other than that you can do your best to keep the city a clean and healthy place by recycling and making sure your trash gets to a trash can.

My final question was simply if there was anything else Mz. Snell thinks people should know about green infrastructure in Philly. In response I got a message about how people who live in this city should be proud of the progress we’ve made with green infrastructure. I was kind of surprised to hear that at first but then I thought to myself that I should be proud of my city and it’s long plan for a cleaner environment.

• This is me an my mother shorty after I conducted the interview with her. I have her to thank for most of my information so thank you, Mom.

Other than an interview with my very own mother I also wanted a location in the city for field observations. Lucky for me there are plenty, the closet on eto SLA would be the Peco green roof. So going up there for my field observations was my original plan. Although it was harder than I thought to get up there seeing as it is not simply open to the public so I had to go with a backup plan which was Cira Green. Development for the green roof finished back in 2015 and if you don’t know the place I’m talking about it’s a green roof on top of the parking building next to the big FMC tower. Greenroofs.com provides the background information of the building such as the building type, the size, and the system. Other than when you go up there you can see how everything is put in place so when it rains it holds a good amount of water in the beds up there.

The coolest part about these projects is that they are usually public places like cira green so when the weather is nice they are really great places to hang out with friends. While at the same time time it’s a powerhouse of stormwater management. Why wouldn’t you want you city filled with places like Cira Green all over. Maybe they will be one day because in the last few years Philly’s green infrastructure has only gotten better and better so I know the only way is forward in this journey of making our city a better place.

Life is a Drug

In my first blog post, I did my background research about Teenage Drug Use. In this post I obtained information about teen drug use via databases, websites, charts, and diagrams. While conducting my research I focused on 3 of the most mainstream drugs used amongst teen which included cannabis, cigarettes/juuls, and alcoholic beverages. I conducted several things from my research including susceptibility to addiction, dependency, intrusion on personal life, emotional problems, and a slur of other psychologic.al and physical problems. You can read more in depth about my findings here.

For my original research I interviewed my Uncle’s friend who works at The Juvenile Justice Center who used lots of the drugs I mentioned earlier, and more including pills. This interview opened my eyes and introduced me to some factors of using drugs that I did not think of or imagine. The person’s I interviewed name was David, and he started smoking weed at the age of 12 and shortly after started drinking and smoking cigarettes freshman year. David impregnated his girlfriend he met in high school and became the father to 5 kids, 3 girls and 2 boys by the age of 25. David spent his early days of adulthood in taking pills (xanax) and other opioids such as OxyContin. He continued to smoke weed and cigarette and drink in the midst of the other drugs as well. David spent his life in and out of rehab centers and shelters trying to seek and commit to recovery. David’s girlfriend had cheated on him and this heartbreak is what pushed David to continue using drugs, even while he was in and out of Rehab Centers.

Everytime David found himself finding a better opportunity and bettering himself, he was easily stressed and the drugs were an escape for him, almost his top priority. He would use money for support he received (i.e. food stamps) and sell them for money to purchase drugs. David also suffered from minor depression from struggling to see his kids, lack of happiness, and little support from his family. In his case, drugs were his antidepressants, and it was his only way of keeping sane. Along the way of using and selling drugs, continuing to be in and out of rehab centers and shelters, he was able to find an plumbing job, which was extraordinary considering David was unemployed without a high school diploma. David found this job to be his passion and was very good at it. The only problem that was still present seemed to be his emotional problems and his drug addiction. David was provided and house, helped pay for by the shelter he resided at and started his own plumbing business after 20 years of being a drug addict and practically homeless.

With the acquired knowledge I gained from Mr.David as well as extended research, I still have a few lingering questions, but I have gained a stronger understanding of teenage drug use. What I can infer based on my research is drug use in teenagers is not strictly just to look “cool” of to fit in or to “fit in”, but can be used to help escape reality or as a downtime. For example smoking marijuana and videogames are very similar conceptually.They both release the chemical dopamine, which is the reward hormone in your brain. In addition both of these things are mentally addictive, but is possible to get addicted to both of these things due to the individual. The problem with Teenage Substance Abuse is not just the intake of the drugs some teens may use, but the lack of information they don’t know until later when it’s too late. Drugs also pose a more potent threat when used in the teenage years due to the brain developing in its most critical state and drugs can not only stunt the brain from developing by destroying brain cells, but may pose long term negative effects on the brain depending on how much of a drug you intake. In conclusion what I have conducted from this research is that Teenage Drug Abuse while on the rise of marijuana and nicotine use, the only way to combat this issue is by informing adolescents and children around us not only the danger these drugs can pose, but the all around truth about these drugs, and how to stay safe even if they do try or experiment with varied substances.

Link to my bibliography here.

Link to screenshots here

In my first blog post, I outlined the problems and instances of suppression of speech on college campuses. Specifically, I wrote about the misconceptions of our 1st Amendment Rights as citizens of the United States of America and what speech is punishable by law. I also wrote about the Evergreen State College student who tormented Bret Weinstein for opting out of a day without white people on campus.

The New York Times and the Washington Post have similar ideas in their recent articles. The Washington Post article suggests that young people support free speech seemingly contrary to the story at Evergreen, but Evergreen can be used as a measure of the extreme, not the norm. The New York Times article cites a Gallup study for its evidence.  There were several polls that stated/confirmed what we already knew, and some that went against our previous knowledge from the first blog post. First off, college students think that political conservatives are the least able group to openly express their views (69%), the next least able group is Muslims (80%). We already knew that many conservatives are less able to share their views. 10% of students say violence is acceptable to stop people from hearing controversial speakers. Some new information I have gathered is based on who feels “uncomfortable” on campus because they heard something about their race or ethnicity. Black and Jewish students are most likely to feel that way (43% Black) and (38% Jewish).

Since the first blog post I have gathered new research on my own about free speech on college campuses. I had the pleasure of interviewing two advisors at Temple University, Seth Finck and Bradley Pearson. They both clarified their centrist political positions early on in the interview which aligned well with my own beliefs, which I believe was productive for the conversation. Bradley answered my question “What are your thoughts on students right to speech and what should be done on campus?” in an incredible, enlightening way. He said that: “I’ll say that, you know, from my own experience, as well as my own research on it, it is difficult to really have one, university-wide, clear cut policy on what constitutes free speech and what doesn’t.” He then went on to explain and go deep into the “cost of free speech”, which he calls a cliché, but nevertheless, is a real thing. He explains that the security cost of some of the events that are held on campus are astronomically high and are not financially beneficial for the college. I did not mention this perspective in my first post, so I am glad to have captured and recognized this new perspective. The interview added a new viewpoint from which I can look at this topic: the angle of the administrator.

For my Agent of Change, I am thinking about sending out flyers to SLA students, who will one day be college students, about their rights as students now and their rights as adults. I am also thinking about creating a quiz that students will take and will show their 1st Amendment Rights.

Annotated Bibliography

Earlier in the school year I researched homelessness and the quality of homeless shelters online sources. Although these countless articles, anecdotes, reviews, and more were beyond helpful as a starting point, they yielded only a limited point of view into the life of someone staying in a homeless shelter. The conclusion I came to after conducting this research was that, as one would expect,  shelters are in pretty bad condition. An extremely easy way to see this would be, surprisingly, through Google Reviews. This was great for my research since it showed first hand experiences, both good and bad from a variety of people and locations. With this in mind I decided to set up an online survey for those who have stayed in a homeless shelter to fill out. This would let me see for myself whether the data I had previously collected was true.

One of my main focus points is trying to understand if race or sexual/gender identity played a part in the mistreatment of the people staying in shelters. This was, coincidentally, one of the greyest areas in any of the articles I read. One thing I commonly found while sifting through reviews were claims that white men were commonly being mistreated the most. I found this to be a bit… strange because of, well, literally everywhere else white men have privilege. So to combat the unclarity of this issue I just asked homeless people myself. For my original research I made a survey on google forms about homeless shelters and race/gender dynamics in said shelters.

I posted this survey to three subreddits. r/Philadelphia, the Philadelphia subreddit, r/Homeless whose name is self explanatory, and r/SampleSize, which is a community made for taking surveys and collecting poll data. Although I submitted to all three of these and received a mere 12 responses out of the 377 views I got some pretty grounding data. Among the 12 responses homeless shelters are biased against LGBT+ folks, even going as far as to “out” them to others staying in the shelters. Aside from that, the allegations of biases against white men were true (at least so far as to the responses I collected). Multiple of the survey takers stated that since there were few white men they were often targeted for theft (a common problem in shelters) and were less likely to have their belongings returned in a theft. I have included some of the responses in the picture below. (Here) is a link to the survey and it’s entire responses

On my first Y&TW project SLATE Post which you can find here. I talked about how sweatshop workers, work under horrible conditions, work long tiring hours and get paid very little for their labor. There was a article I read about a little girl named Meem who works at a Bangladesh sweatshop and she got to tell the world her story and how she got to where she is now.  In my last post I also talked about where the word sweatshops come from and where sweatshops originated from. You can also find shops that support sweatshops/child labor that most people today buy items from. Are you shopping for sweatshop?

In my last SLATE Post I added a picture where you get to see how much sweatshop workers around the world make hourly. After seeing how much sweatshop workers  make over the world I started wondering what were people from these countries personal savings? I decided to look at Bangladesh and Vietnam. I picked these two countries because they’re both pay the least amount of money to their workers compared to other countries.  

I used this website to find out the average personal savings for someone who lives in Bangladesh.  Turns out the average personal savings are $52.20, but the sweatshop workers in Bangladesh make $0.13 an hour and don’t really have the opportunity to save their money.  The website I used for Vietnam’s average savings was this one.  The average personal savings in Vietnam is $4.35 and sweatshop workers get paid $0.26 an hour.  Though Vietnam's personal savings is lower than Bangladesh, I would say the both countries sweatshop workers are in the same potion were since they get paid very little they both don’t have the opportunity to save their money.

I wanted to know how my peers felt about sweatshops and where do students from the United States knowledge on sweatshop is. How I went about this is making a survey on google forms and asking the following questions; Which stores do you shop in for clothes? Check all that apply,Look at the tags on the clothing you have on right now write down below the country where each piece of clothing was made, In your own words, how would you define a sweatshop?, Do you think there are sweatshops in the USA?,  Would you buy brand goods if you knew they were made in sweatshops?, If you had the power, would you shut down all the sweatshops in the world?

What I learned about from all my responses is that most people are educated on the subject of sweatshops.  I was actually surprised because when I would bring it up in class or when I learned about it last year in my middle school most to all people didn’t have a clue about sweatshops.  However what really caught my attention was the question responses.  Question; If you had the power, would you shut down all the sweatshops in the world? I thought many people would have just “Yes of course they are awful!” etc. But that wasn’t the case.  These are a few of the responses that caught my eye; “I don't really know what I would do because many people who already can barely support themselves would lose their jobs.”, “I would shut down all the sweatshops but then that would mean that we would have to find another way to make fast clothing with higher pay and better working conditions. Which might seem easy but won't be at all.” and “Ehh... maybe, but the economy as I know it would probably collapse. Ethically it should be done, but it has to be a slow process.” I loved how many of the people in my responses were thinking outside the box.  

I think the point where I am now is what will I do you I can inform other about this topic?  And that brings me to my Agent Of Change. I think what I want to do is have a protest near the liberty place mall area because there are a lot of clothing stores there that have sweatshops and we can help people know what they’re truly supporting. I thought this because from my responses it smells like people have general idea about sweatshops but they know know how to go about the problem and I want to be the one to push the conversion out to the public.

Annotated Bibliography

In my first blog post, I talked about how suicide is the second leading cause of death in teens and adults. I explained how the problem was that people ignore the problem and don’t like to bring attention to it. After I posted that blog, I did an interview with a therapist that specializes in teens and young adults. In this interview I learned more about what may cause these thoughts, why these thoughts may occur, and also some coping mechanisms and ways you can help people who may be considering suicide. Along with an interview with her, I also interviewed a teen who has tried to commit suicide before. With this interview we talked about the thoughts that may have been going through her head and why she might have felt that way. Both of which have helped confirm my beliefs and research from my first post. I have also found new website sources on suicide awareness to make sure all of my information and facts were on point. My first source includes many different ways that you can make a difference in your own neighborhood.  My next source explains how to help someone who is suicidal. This source also shows facts and myths about suicidal people. In my interview with the therapist, it helped me confirm that teens and adults feel alone in the world and don’t feel like their being heard enough. Also, I was able to understand more about what people could od do cope with thoughts of suicide. I also had an  interview with a teen girl  who has tried to commit suicide before. The interview helped me understand the thought process of the people that this affects. My opinion on this topic has stayed the same which is that suicidal people often feel alone and detached from everyone else and it's a subject that needs to have more recognition instead of ignoring it. I still have some questions on this subject in particular. My first question is why some parents will brush off their kids problems so easily. I have had friends talk about how commiting suicide is selfish and how suicidal kids or kids with depression are selfish. They talk about how kids don’t deserve to have depression or feel that way. My question is why. Why is it that parents and adults will say that a kid can’t feel sad or depressed because there are people who are worse off than them. Even in my two interviews, Especially with the girl, it was mentioned how easily some people would brush off the problems of their kids feelings. I would like to know the reason some people do this and the thought process. In my agent of change project, I am still uncertain of what I would like to do however, I was thinking about starting a social media campaign about suicide awareness to spread information about depression, suicide, and other mental illnesses. In conclusion, I believe that I, along with many other people, can make a difference in the small steps we take now.

Social Decline Continued

In my previous blog post I gave a brief description of my topic, the negative effects on social media. These effects vary from sleep, depression, and lack of communication skills. We also talked about the percentages of households that contain handheld devices, along with a prediction in the future of what the year 2020 will look like. I will go on into a little more details , listing and informing you, the reader, more negative effects of participating in social media.

So far we have talked about three negative effects caused by social media, Next I have another effect of social media, and it is kind of crazy how many non benefiting affects that I can find form the internet. So, the next one is the addiction aspect, and the time consumption, how it can eat up the time out of your daily life.

Doing some research on the topic I found some repeating patterns. Various ones showed up on different sites, one not loving technology so much, but what they really want to access is done through technology. What is one thing that requires a phone? That thing is communication with friends, and how they need to keep up with the “latest news”. One thing to notice is that with the addiction, it ties into the communication situation we discussed as said in a washington post “teens spend so much interacting with each other on social networks and phones that they are growing less comfortable with in-person interactions and not developing essential social skills.”  and this just proves my previous claims.

Adults are usually on there phones frequently, but they have a farther variety of reasons why to be on their phones as much as they are. Teens however are getting to the point where there phone time consumption is fit for an adult.

Observe image below

In this image they are showing how withing the four year span of 2004-2008 that the time teens are on there phones now imagine 10 years later in 2018 and see who is on their phones more.

The next thing on the list that I am going to mention is something more generally about female teenagers. How social media has a huge influence on their self-image. Girls are constantly are self conscious even if they do not admit, I can say that guys are also affected by it, but I think that girls go to the father extreme of finding the level of satisfaction, or just to satisfy other individuals.

Being a student that attended three different school, each one consisting of both genders. During those years consistently, I’ve observed and would say 75% of the students are drained and focused into there self image, and social media just boost it to another level. A short passage from cnn states… “it's not a law that you have to post a selfie before, during, and after every activity. But for kids, it's pretty much mandatory.  The resulting likes, thumbs-ups, and other ratings all get tallied, both in the stark arithmetic of the Internet and in kids' own minds. For some -- especially girls -- what starts as a fun way to document and share experiences can turn into an obsession about approval that can wreak havoc on self-image.”. Imagine a world without social media? Would you be better and healthier human being? Maybe you would get a more healthy amount of Sleep, are you obsessed? Those questions that I just asked were put to the test.

For the past month I have been thinking about what do do for my original research I figured why don’t ask our generation, the teens. So it started as interviewing teens, in person, for a quick five minutes. The process was smooth but I wasn't getting the information that I needed and I needed some insight where the person answering wasn't feeling invaded and was comfortable answering. So that is when i decided that I was going to conduct a survey. Answers varying from exactly proving my points to not so much. Considering both I cae to a conclusion, but first let's look at the results to  my survey.

Looking at this chart and with the results I can confidently say that the majority of the people who answered to the survey would be a better or a more improved version of themselves without social media. I can not say if they would be happier though.

In the first post we talked about the effects social media has one an individuals and one of those is the mass amounts of sleep lost to social media.

Going into this question I knew that sleep was something that was being taken over by social media or even Netflix( let's not get off topic) but at this point I think you get the point for this one Let us look at one last one.

The last one I will be looking at with you is how much time is put into your social media/cyber life. From how much I participate and noticing with my friends with how much they use it I can say that we are pretty consumed. One answer states ”I've become less attentive. Sometimes I go on it in the middle of class or something” Some though say that social media doesn't really bother them.. Let us take a look.

Some mixed opinions  but, with these varied answers it helps me come to a conclusion.

So my conclusion is a little bit of opinion and facts because I believe a lot of people can, and do experience negative affect, but there are some people who either can ignore the decent amount of bad or they just are lying. Anyways. This is a successful experience and I think myself have learned a lot. I am still curious about why people are so engaged into social media I’m into it a lot but I somewhat still don't have an idea why I am involved with it  so much. After all of the work I have done on this I still am not 100% sure about my Agent of Change but I wanna start small. People need to be aware before anything can be preached.

Anne Otated  and Biblee Ography

If you have been following my recent posts about Transphobia you can tell that I have a strong passion against hate crimes and the rate that hate crimes occur against transgender people. Hate crimes towards transgender individuals has gone up by 300 since January of 2016. There have been 24 transgender people killed since the beginning of 2017. In the process of learning about Transgender hate crimes and experiences, I decided to go out and interview two people. One, who deals with transgender patients when teaching them about safe sex. The second person is a transgender male who came out at an older age. I interviewed him about his life and struggles as a trans person. He then proceeded to tell me about the hate he received from his own family after coming out and how isolated he was for years.

For privacy reasons we will call this trans individual John. John then told me he was kicked out of his home at the age of 16 and lost all communication with his parents for years. The only person he had contact with was his sister.

He was homeless for several years and had to provide for himself. In my latest research 40% of LGBTQ youth are homelss and John was apart of the 40%. Throughout my years of knowing John I would have never expected such a painful story from him because of the way he presents himself. This is a first hand experience showing to never assume things about people and their story.

To further my research I interviewed a worker at Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia, Yexsy Alicea . His job is to educate trans youth on safe sex. He deals with a lot of patients whose parents are unsupportive and leave them to educate themselves on how to support their lifestyle. He talked about the amount of stress his transgender patients have in using public restrooms. All the hype in the media about what restrooms trans people can use has caused a restraint on them actually using the bathroom. 59% of transgender people avoid using public bathroom and there is approximately 1.4 million transgender people in the United States. In 2016 a survey in New York went around that 27,715 people answered.

It founded that 12% of transgender people have been verbally abused, 1% physically attacked and 1% were sexually assaulted in the restroom. After this survey was taken North Carolina passed a Bill which forces transgender individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender at birth. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said this Bill was necessary to “protect our children” and “preserve traditional values.”

Transphobia is still existent in the United States. Throughout my research of Transphobia I find that despite the growth of mindset in the United States toward the LGBTQ community, statistics prove that there is still need for improvement. Therefore, I believe that we must continue our efforts to overcome transphobia in the United States.

In my first post, I explored the horrific actions of orca captivity. As I studied and dug deeper into the treatment of orcas. I found current events about the situation and discovered facts that had shocked me, including brutal images that will haunt me for many days.

Recently, at SeaWorld Orlando, a female orca, named Malia, is living her final days as a captive orca. In the article, SeaWorld of Hurt: Campaign Updates, they had stated that the ten year-old orca has been facing excruciating and painful infections for years, up to the point where the pain had finally broken her down. The painful infections had caused an infection in her upper jaw area. The jaw is now discolored and many of her teeth are either damaged or broken. More than half of SeaWorld orcas have died due to the lack of care, resulting in the infections. Malia’s father, Tilikum and her sister, Unna, have died in 2015 and 2017 due to painful infections.

Image of Malia’s infected jaw. Credits

I found a very interesting  article, written by John Jett PhD and Jeffrey Ventre MD, both former SeaWorld trainers. These doctors were also cast members of the documentary, Blackfish. Both Jett and Ventre are orca captivity activists and do amazing things to aid orcas. John Jett has participated in “The Orca Project”, which is a “small but effective non-profit corporation, collaborating with some of the world’s top marine mammal experts and caring professionals from diverse backgrounds,”, stated on their website. There was a section in the article where they discussed the interaction between Corky and Kandu, two female orcas living at SeaWorld. An artificial death that wouldn't happen in the wild. The two already had tension between them for a long time, but one day, right as the show was going to start, Kandu rammed into Corky. Because of the force of the impact, it severed her jaw and severed an artery. Kandu, who was eleven years old at that time, slowly bled out for 45 minutes, in front of the crowds at SeaWorld San Diego, and eventually passed away from the loss of blood.

Image of Kandu bleeding into her death. Here is a video of it happening.  Image Credits

For my original research, it was a difficult and long journey. In the beginning, I had big envisions to have multiple interviews with marine biologists who specialize in orcas, but it ended up not working out. I contacted PETA and had gotten some answers back by an animal’s rights activist, Melissa White. Her answers were not what I had hoped for, so I had sent many more emails to anyone I could find. I even emailed all of the SeaWorld trainers that had a voice in Blackfish. I would have never thought that any of them would reply.

A couple of days after I had emailed the trainers, I received one email back from Jeffrey Ventre. It was a genuine exciting moment because I was so pumped that I had gotten to interview with a former SeaWorld trainer and a Blackfish cast member! Not to mention, he is a Physician and a medical doctor too. Shortly after, I emailed him my 10 questions I had, and within 30 minutes, he replied back with his answers.

Image of Dr. Ventre in Blackfish. Image Credits, also click to know more information about Ventre.

Here is a doc with the questions I asked and Dr. Ventre’s answers.

I asked him a variety of questions, ranging from his research to his personal experiences with orca captivity. I wondered what an experienced scientist, who specializes in the topic, would think what would happen to orcas in the long run. Dr. Ventre replied, “The only orca population that is endangered is the Southern Resident orcas, the ones SeaWorld decimated. They now don't have enough fish due to dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers. If the four lower Snake River Dams are not breached, I believe this particular group will go extinct in your lifetime.” SeaWorld have captured at least 80 orcas from the Southern Resident waters. When the orcas were becoming scarce, SeaWorld ventured to different oceans, up north, the perimeters of West Canada.  

Image of the Killer Whale range from California and up. (capture range)

Going back to something I had pointed out, SeaWorld employees were supplying uneducated people with false information. I thought it would be interesting to ask Dr. Ventre, a previous SeaWorld employee on his experience. He replied that  as a trainer, received PR lessons from SeaWorld company about orcas that could be said to the guests. The information was very misleading said Dr. Ventre. To give solace to my excitement, I asked Dr. Ventre about the filming experience of Blackfish. He answered saying that it was a super fun experience because he gotten to reunite with his former trainer friends, and film at a beautiful location. Dr. Ventre, I, and many other people who are against orca captivity agreed that, in order to support the cause, people should not continue purchasing tickets; henceforth, helping the business decline. Also to spread awareness, even if it is simply educating another person the facts behind orca captivity.

I have thought about what I, as a young teenager could do for such a massive cause. For my agent of change, I have many ideas in mind. I could do something creative. For example, making an illustrative book, posters, or create a film. I could also start a fundraiser and with the money, I would be able to donate to an organization helping orcas. I also thought about trying to march in a protest, but since I live in the Northeast, there isn’t  protests on orca captivity. Stay tuned because whatever my agent of change is going to be, I will make sure it does become an agent of change.

Click here for my updated annotated bibliography.

Bullying: My Own Research

  Hello, it's me Christopher Jacobs again and today I, after some of my own original research. My last post was all about the research and some personal experience in a major problem all around the world. BULLYING. Now this is a big problem that I have already talked about but  I have some of my own data from my fellow SLA students.

    For those of you who haven't seen my first post where I researched about bullying. It was basically me giving statistics about bullying. As well as me giving my own personal experiences on bullying and how it affects me. Now for me I had 3 options for this post and those were a field observation, survey and interview. I could have easily done any other but decided that a survey would be the most effective thing to do.

   What I made is a survey to collect data on personal experiences of people and bullying in their lives.  What I found was very interesting to be honest. I found that out of the 29 responses I got 13 were of people who told me they were not bullied. While the rest said that they were bullied before. Here's a graph that I have of this info from different responses.

After looking through this I found some interesting responses such as what I mentioned before. So then for my next question I asked them about the current state of this and if they were still being bullied and overall a lot of people said no. When I saw this I was honestly really happy as it shown me that out of this survey the students that answered (which a lot were from my grade were not ever subject to bullying.). But from what I read from their responses a lot of them were victims of bullying during younger grades for their looks usually.

  I also asked a question that I felt was just as, if not bigger than your standard bullying. Cyberbullying, now if you don’t know what cyberbullying is bullying but digitally such as messages, and social media. So I was curious and decided to ask about it and see if people were cyberbullied. Again I got a positive graph. So now  21 people said they weren’t ever cyberbullied while 8 people said they were. Graph is here below.

        For my final question I decided to ask any long effects from bullying. I got what I mostly researched such as anxiety. Plus some other things like people not making friends as easy as they used to. Overall this survey really opened up my eyes and some more and better insight from current students as well.

  This really to me gave me a different look as my fellow classmates that are currently students showed to not be bullied as much but were before. So I did some more research for this and found 20% of high school US students report being bullied. This after I compared it I found to be not that close to my own percentage of kids bullied being a bit higher.

   Overall I really enjoyed this survey as I got to learn just a bit more about my fellow students at SLA in a whole. This survey to me really made me happy as a majority of my classmates never had to go through the pain and suffering of bullying. I truly believe that even if not many people took this this really helped me as well to see how true the statistical “facts” about bullying are.

In my first blog post, I discussed the lack of sex education on a national level, as well as within the city of Philadelphia. I also talked about what could happen to a teenager if precautions are not taken before sex. Pregnancy, STDs, STIs, and other issues can occur when the necessary precautions are not taken before sexual activity. I talked about our country has a really high rate of teen pregnancy, and that our city has a pretty high amount of STDs. Since that initial post, I have learned much more about this topic, thanks to a primary source.

I conducted an interview to contribute to my own research. I interviewed SLA’s health teacher, Pia Martin. During our short interview, she brought up multiple excellent points that I have never even thought of. She explained that teens with depression or low self esteem were likely to engage in dangerous sexual activity. She also explained that drug use was a huge issue with teens, and said that it contributed to the STD statistics for teens. I looked into this claim, and found multiple sources that explained that drug use increased the chance of STDs.

The new information gathered from my interview added to my pre-obtained knowledge by providing great insight that could be translated to new information to cite, and widened my own perspective of the topic of safe sex among teenagers. In terms of personal opinions, I think that although it’s irresponsible to have a child or engage in sexual behavior (without protection), it’s a problem that’s bigger than the child itself, and more can and should be done to prevent it from happening. I still believe that it is essential to provide a decent sex education to ensure the safe future of teenagers. I also think that the idea that mental illness is involved with this issue brings a whole new dynamic to what needs to be done. We should also be concerned of the mental wellbeing of our teens! It should be a no-brainer, but obviously, there still needs to be change.

For my ‘agent of change’, I wish to design and distribute posters. I would ideally put them inside the school, and around the city. On the poster, I would put some scary statistic in bolded red, such as “Scary STD kills 2000 kids a second.” (something like this). This would be an interesting endeavor because not only would I have to compile information that could be useful for the poster, I would have to design the poster in such a way that would attract people walking by.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Something More Than A Litter Bug

If you haven’t seen my recent post on litter, come check it out here.

My first blog post was diving into an online research about litter. I discovered that one of the contributors to litter was straws. I found that I had to go further with straws after seeing a video of a straw stuck inside a turtle’s nose. I visited many websites on how straws could affect wildlife, more specifically marine animals. And so my journey began and I am here today to take my research onto the real world.

For my further research, I decided to go out and observe the area nearby my neighborhood. I first needed to make a list of what I needed to observe and have my purpose to be clear. I was first thinking about only focusing on straws but why ignore the remaining litter because any type of litter is still endangering. So then I came up with my purpose of observing litter in general. Many questions occured around me and some were “How many people littered?”, “How did they litter?, “Why did they litter?”. The questions could go on forever

I decided that I shouldn’t focus too hard on finding one thing because I needed an open mind while doing this research. There’s so much to find and everything could contribute to my research. I simply took out my phone and decided to take a walk around my neighborhood. I found many places where litter could be hidden or tossed into. Strangely, there are many places where litter can be found but there is almost a go-to litter place around the neighborhood where piles of litter can be found. Whether it be leftover food containers or old household items, it is still considered litter and I took note of this.

A photo taken of large amounts of litter stockpiled in a hidden gap.

A photo of litter found in the corners of houses.

As I continued my observation, littering became more obvious. I had never sat down and watched if litter occurred as often as it does now. I like to relate this to cutting or skipping a lunch line. Many people still do it and many people hate it. It’s something that we all know and can relate to. Some methods could be “meeting with a friend” or just straight up cutting. This goes in the same way as littering because I find that people sneak a empty bottle around a corner when nobody's watching or they throw trash without caring. To add to that, others also openly litter by dropping off their remainings of their lunch from their car window.

Photos of straws found hidden next to rocks or within grass.

After I was finished with my observation, I continued my online research. Recently, a CURBED Philadelphia article has been published. The article speaks about a new map that users could test the litter around their neighborhood on a scale of 1-4. I recently test this on my neighborhood and found that the average score was about 2.5. According to my observation, I found this accurate because I wouldn’t say everything is terribly dirty but there is still litter. In addition, the map also shows that the deeper you’re in Philadelphia, the more litter you might find.

In the end, change needs to happen and it will. Currently, Philadelphia is identifying the problem using a snapshot of how polluted the city is currently. Knowing this, I am thinking of my agent of change to be something around my neighborhood and friends. I want to start small and I can do this by referring back to plastic straws. I have seen many organizations on plastic straws and I plan to help them out by possibly calling restaurants nearby to only give straws upon request only.

Check out my Annotated Bibliography for further information

All of my research from post #1 has impacted the way I have continued to think about catcalling. My research before was about how growing up is not as easy as it may seem, especially if you are a young woman. Men have grown up in this society where they feel the need to make comments about our bodies without thinking twice about it. As women we do not appreciate theses comments. Obviously some women feel as though they enjoy the attention and feel as though men are doing nothing wrong going ahead and commenting on their bodies. They don’t think about how some girls can be 12 with a well developed body that makes them perceive as a woman at least 18 years old. So men believe it is okay to make sexual comments towards them without thinking that they may be under the age of consent.This is when catcalling becomes such a thing that needs to be seen and made aware to the world. When doing this second post I had did my own observations by making women take a survey and tell me how they feel about Catcalling.If you would like to view my first post the link is here.

Since the last post I have taken the initiative to dig deeper into the stories I have found on the internet and see what stories I can get on my own. At first I found some credible sources from women writing about what had done to make awareness of catcalling and their personal experience. As Rachel Hosie had said,“For me, it has always been more than an annoyance. It’s shaped my experience in public space. It’s affected my confidence and comfort walking down the street. It’s silenced me ― I’ve never felt comfortable responding to catcalls, as much as I’d like to tell these men off.” When I seen this article it made me think back into my 1st post and realize the connection between both. Each of the articles I had forund had a way of saying they needed something to change but neither one of them had done anything. They had just said they wanted to do something but writing about it was their way of getting something done. In this tense though this time someone wrote about how they felt and also even made a way to bring awareness. Rachel had put sidewalk chalk in bins in NYC where she let women right different catcalls they had received so, women and men were able to see that first catcalling is not a right thing but also to show to the women that they aren’t alone.

This article made me realize that if one person feels as though this way then multiple people may also so, I created a survey with a couple multiple choice and short answer questions that would help me get information for my cause from different age groups to be able to see how they view catcalling. This did take a little longer then expected trying to get responses since not everyone feels comfortable talking about their experiences or giving up about 5 mins of their time responding to this survey. At the end I had received about 80 responses giving me more than enough stories and their personal opinion about catcalling to write about. At the end of everything the results were very shocking. After all the responses I was still left wondering if there is anything that can actually be done to change and get through men's heads that catcalling is not okay.

The first question of my survey was How old are you? This was to get a general idea of the age range I was retrieving from survey takers. Majority of the people that had took the survey were between the ages of 15-16 making them freshman or sophomores in high school. With some of the data you can also notice that I had some survey takers that were between the ages of 11-12 which opened my eyes as soon as I looked at the data because it shows how not just adults receive sexual comments made towards them. This also relates back to the article in Post 1 about the statistics showing kids between the ages of 11- 12 recieve comment from men of all ages because of the way child may look may seem as though they are older then they truly are.

This was the second question of my survey was Have you ever been sexually harassed from catcalling? This showed how 77.5 % out 80 people which is 62 people have been sexually harassed from catcalling. Which is pretty intense that only 18 other people were not. This is showing to me how it is more likely to be sexually harassed then not so if you ask more people it would be more of a chance that they say yes then no which is such an eye opener to myself and I hope to everyone else too.

Now here is my third and fourth question: At around what age did you first receive a sexual comment made from an unknown male? And describe a time where you were the victim of Catcalling. This is when information received changed the way things were seen. When you look at the  the graph is is showing about what age did each women receive their first catcall. Majority of the people said they received their first catcall between the ages of 11-16. These were the 3 top age range that had gotten any type of sexual comment made to them. Then their is personal experiences given by 37 of our survey takers. Each of them gave a personal story they felt they would share for this project. This was the exact part that made me say wow. How can so many people have so many experiences with catcalling that could of lead to so many more serious problems; mental issues, low self esteem, and much more.

While looking at these two answer charts that I received from my survey made me realize that majority of the women feel as though catcalling is not a good thing and they really do not know exactly what to do to stop this situation because of the comments making women feel unsafe around their surroundings but also make them feels as though they are objects and not human beings and this is something that has been going on for so long that they feel as though that nothing that maybe thought of will change the mindset of a man to stop from making these degrading comments to women.

When looking at all this information I received It made me realize how many women go through catcalling on a daily. Also some of their stories showing how rude men or if you may want to call them boys degrade women with harsh comments that they feel as though will do no harm.This all adds to my research because I was able to see this for myself and not get this information online where I wouldn’t know if some of these stories were false, but when i had read some of my survey takers experiences it showed me that this is something that needs to change even if it isn’t a immediate change something need to give.

At the end of this all I am still left wondering what I could do for my Agent of Change because there are so many things that I could do to bring awareness. I feel as though if i put something together I can make a short film having women speak about catcalling and post it and see where it leads from there. Obviously this is one idea I hope to think of something more thoroughly.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1semQkUFkWIfrTt7-4D7wBLAFR4YS0_vT0ISagUwy2bw/edit?usp=sharing

Before reading on...take a look at my first blog post, Where Are Their Voting Rights?

This will give you background information of what is going on with Asian American voting rights from the past until of now. From the Voting Rights Act to the changes that have been made and the ways people have helped in this issue.

According to CAAM, in 2012, eight million Asian American and Pacific Islanders were able to vote and only 47.9 percent of them voted. Even though, the population of eligible voters increased by 29 percent since 2010, voting for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is still a problem. Asian Americans that live in swing states like Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania is also a problem because it would take a longer and broader time of allowing them to in civic participation. Ways that they try increasing the population of Asian American voters are phone banking, going to door to door, and having volunteers to help out with voting registration and language difference.

For some Asian American voters, language is still a problem at voting polls. For example, Saurabh Das was not only able to vote at the poll, he was able to help other voters at the poll by translating the ballot in different languages for non-English speakers or readers. IN 2014, he was put in jail for translating for his mother at the voting poll and for not being registered to vote in Williamson County, Texas. Because he was put in jail, his mother wasn’t able to vote for the person she wanted to and mistakenly voting for a different person.

For my original research, I decided on interviewing Wei Chen, the Civic Engagement Coordinator of Asian American United (AAU) and Xu Lin, one of the board members of AAU and currently the owner of Bubblefish. I was also planning to send out surveys to seventh and eighth graders at my old school, FACTS because I thought that it was be better to have two points of view of Asian American voting rights, not only from experts but so young citizens because they will be making a difference in the community one day and from asking them for their opinions about Asian Americans will change knowledge of what’s going on and my perspective of Asian American voting rights. I wasn’t able to send out surveys because I thought of it as a plan b if my interviews did not work out as planned.

While I was interviewing Wei Chen, I learned that if people that are trying to make a change to voting rights for Asian Americans, it would take at least five to ten years to see little changes happening in the community. For elders or older generations from China, some may be unfamiliar with voting booths or polls because in China, there is no voting booths or polls.

For more information of the interview, take a look at the transcript below.

From the interview with Xu Lin, I learned that you don’t necessary need to be apart of an organization everyday to fight for the justice of the issue that you think is important. For example, Xu Lin is now an owner of a restaurant and since he would like to see a difference in Asian American voting rights, he is willing to allow GOTV volunteers to borrow the room in the restaurant for meeting and more.

To hear my interview with Xu Lin, view the voice recording below. I apologize in advance if it is hard to hear.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R9REslzVWUGLt8CAMCoKl_Ii2gUKkdM_

For my Agent of Change part of the You and The World project, I was thinking of volunteering at Asian American United (AAU) to help out with voting registrations or notifying citizens in Philadelphia to register as a voter. I also thought of creating a presentation to present to the class or a class at a different school while volunteering at Asian American United because if I present this issue to others in the community, more people will be notified about this issue and pay more attention to voting rights and helping out citizens that are non-English speakers or readers. This is only an idea so I am not sure if my ideas for my Agent of Change would change or not.

Annotated Bibliography

In my first post,I discussed how the gender wage gap is different for different types of women. It varies based on both age and race. Some of my research for this post included finding some more statistics about the inequalities between men and women in the workforce. I learned that a woman with a masters degree makes about the same as a man with a Bachelor’s Degree. A woman with a Bachelor’s Degree make around the same amount of money with a man with an Associate’s Degree. Women also tend to go for sub-majors that do not pay as much. For example, women hold 56% of jobs in biological and life science while they only hold 17% of engineering jobs.

For my original research,  I conducted an interview with Laura Mattiacci. She is a partner at Console Mattiacci Law. This is a law firm that focuses on representing people who have been treated unfairly at work. She got into this type of law because she wanted to be able to represent people who could not speak for themselves.

After school on the day of the of the interview, I went down to the office. I get down there and I  told the security guard in the building that I was there to see Ms.Mattiacci, the security guard called up to her office and they said that she is not in the building. I am then told that my interview was supposed to be over the phone. At this point it was around 4:25 (my interview was scheduled for 4:30), so I did not have time to go home and do this interview. After getting some advice I went back into the building and asked if there was office I could sit in to do my interview. They said yes and I went up to their offices. Once I got on the phone with Ms.Mattiacci she said that she had not been notified of this interview, and had no idea what she was supposed to be talking about. Below are my questions as well as a few notes.

In the interview, she told me about how the best way to prevent wage discrimination based on gender is by being transparent about how much people are making.If people know what others are making, they can know if they are being paid fairly.  One way to promote this is through unions. In a union, where everyone is fighting for the same cause. She said that many people do not know that they are being paid unfairly.

She also told me about the Lilly Ledbetter Act which talks about how long you can wait to sue for unfair pay. That was the last law passed about the gender pay gap. Ms. Mattiacci said she does not predict that any new legislation will happen until the current administration is not in power. Sadly, she said that as of now we are going back in time when with wage inequality. After my interview, I am still wondering what I personally can do. It does not seem like there is much of a movement about this issue.

To go with this interview I also read an interview with NPR where a woman from an Icelandic Women’s Rights Organization was talking about a system that they are using to prevent the wage gap. This system involves an audit for businesses that have  25 or more employees. This makes sure that these companies are paying their workers what they deserve based on how much work they are doing for the company. If a company realizes that they are not paying their employees equally they are required to fix it so that their employees are being paid what they deserve. This has surprisingly resulted in raised for men as well as women. Since the program is quite expensive they are starting with the biggest companies and are hoping to make there way down to smaller ones eventually.

For my activism stage of this project, I am considering doing something that is based on awareness towards this issue. This may include creating a website about this issue or maybe creating flyers or posters about this issue. I hope that I will be able to do something that helps the women of tomorrow be paid what they deserve.

In blog post #1, I took an issue in the world and I further developed it to see what could be done to solve it. I focused more on why I was passionate about the topic as well as sources for information. I proved its significance as a valid topic and went into further depth about the issue. I explained the impact that it has on people and why it needs to be solved. Lastly, I had to explain what I wanted to learn going further, and from then I have learned a lot.

Since my last post a lot of new information has been discovered. In my recent findings, I found an organization who not only share my concern for gang violence but they are actually doing something about it. Philanthropy Roundtable is an organization that is combating violence with nonviolence. They offer a lot of programs and take in a lot of donations. I recommend checking out their magazine, Philanthropy Magazine and they have an excellent website as well. Another source that I used I actually reused the website and found a different article. It is an article about gang resistance education and training law from the site US Legal. It is about a program that teaches youth how to protect themselves from threats like gang violence. These programs are focusing on the same type of things that I am. Solving gang violence with nonviolence is the best solution when combating this issue.

In my original research I interviewed one of my classmates. Like me she lives in a neighborhood were gang violence is common. She is affected by gang violence everyday. This helped inform me on my issue because we both have different stories and different memories and live in different neighborhoods. We both have a different perspective on the same issue and are affected by it in similar ways. She informed me on how gang violence effects neighborhoods on a bigger scale. This helps me understand my topic better because it informs me that I am not the only one who realizes that this issue is an issue. It also helps me understand how specifically this issue affects others. With this interview, I am now very informed on the current issue that is gang violence.

After doing a fair amount of research and having a strong opinion on the matter, I feel as though the only way to protect neighborhoods and their citizens from gangs and gang violence is to non-violently inform them so that they can protect themselves. Also I think that putting more patrol cars in sketchy areas is necessary. After all of my research I still am left wondering what is the real reason for one to join a gang? Is there really one solution that solves it all? What can I do as a citizen and as a youth to inform people on this topic? I wanted to see if I could get this information from an expert. Along with my interview with my classmate I was supposed to interview a police officer who specializes in gang violence and gun violence, unfortunately the interview did not work out. Now that I have done all of this research I plan on looking into some of the programs about gang violence and developing my agent of change.

Annotated Bibliography

Interview

Two  Sundays ago I walked around the city with my mom and took some pictures of the tall buildings.It was windy, but me and my mom survived, we walked to 30th street up toward the bridge on Schuylkill River to take a good  picture of the city.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lSvMeJUmNnhbMoaLe4A-UnbLe8hMga5wY_CxSxMvZsY/edit. I took like nine pictures on my phone. This is a hard picture to take because it was a hard angel because it was when we were walking to catch the trolley in 22nd street.Trust me,it was really cold it felt like 10 degrees I hope you enjoy this doc.If the lights look green, it is really blue.    

I learned that Philadelphia is one of the worst cities with light pollution. In fact, Washington, DC to Boston has the most light pollution in the United States. Germany has the worst light pollution in Europe which has the worst light pollution on Earth.  

Here is the link to my annotated bibliography.

In my previous post, I talked about food waste and how it is a major world problem that does not get the attention it deserves.  The good news is that food waste is an issue that can be solved. Eliminating waste would save all of the resources that go into making, processing and distributing uneaten food.  It would also diminish the amount of methane released into the atmosphere. As I continued my research about food waste, I started to focus on where the waste starts: the farms where food is grown.

Since I made my last post, I found out that 20% of all food never even makes it off of the farm. Like I said in my last post, farms don’t give their foods to big brands like Acme or Costco because they know that the food won’t be bought by consumers. They don’t give away the food to shelters because the farms don’t receive tax cuts, which means all food transported to different areas comes out of their own pocket. Because of this, many farmers just throw out any extra or misshapen produce and leave it at that. Many organizations are starting up in response to food waste and have started delivering farm produce straight to people’s doorsteps, but these companies are few and far between.