​​For my capstone I chose to make a documentary about hispanic/latino representation in the media and how society treats hispanics/latinos because of this issue. I have conducted several interviews which feature different students and their thoughts on hispanic/latino stereotypes that they have observed in movies, television, billboards, etc. The students I interviewed gave a short introduction about themselves and where they were from, I asked them questions that ranged from personal experiences to people they may know that have been affected by stereotypes. The questions I asked will also help the audience understand how stereotypes can alter the daily lives of not just hispanics/latinos but of other cultures and ethnicities as well. Finally the last question I asked in my documentary will require the students I interviewed to define the difference between hispanics and latinos/latinas. By doing this the audience will understand how hispanics and latinos/latinas are separate from each other, my overall goal for creating this documentary is to inform those who don’t have to worry about stereotypes or people assuming different things based on topics they may see in the media and for those who may be concerned with issues surrounding the hispanic/latino community.

I use to drink those all the time when I was your age.

How long ago was that?

I don't remember.

The man and the boy look around to see if there was anything else that was useful that could be added to their cart. The man curiously walked near a flight of stairs that seemed to start near the entrance.

What is it?

Wait here.

Let me go with you, I’m scared.

No, I’ll be back. I’ll let you know if I find anything.

But Papa.

Don’t follow me.

The man slowly approached the staircase, he tip toed up the stairs keeping a tight grip on his gun. Before he reached the top of the stairs he looked to see if there was anyone in the room. Once he reached the top of the stairs he was overwhelmed to see what his eyes had not seen in years.

Get up here, I have something to show you.

What is it?

Come up and I’ll show you.

I don’t know, is it safe?

Just come up here, you’ll like it I promise.

The boy took a large amount of time to get up the stairs, the man didn’t mind as he was mesmerized by what he had seen.

What is it?

It’s a radio.

What’s a radio?

It’s like a box that plays any kind of music you put into it.

Does it work?

I don’t know, I’ll try to turn it on.

The man picked up the radio and observed it for a couple of minutes, he tested all of the buttons and was finally able to turn it on.

I don’t hear anything.

You have to put in the CD so it can play.

Where can we find one?

Help me look around, there should be some around.

The man opened the cabinet below from where the radio was, he grabbed the first one he saw and handed it to the boy.

Is this it?

Yes.

What does it say?

Greatest Hits of The Century. Put it in, and press the button that says play.

It took a couple of seconds for the first track on the CD to play. The first song was by Dion, The Twist. The moment the song began the man moved his hips and feet and sang the words of the song as loud as he could. The boy did not understand what he was doing and seemed to be bewildered as he stared at him.

Papa, what are you doing?

Dancing, come on it’s easy.

I don’t know, you’re acting really strange.

It’s not strange, just try it.

But I don’t know how.

Just do the twist.

I don’t even know what that means.

It means stop being scared and dance.

After three songs had passed the boy smiled and joined the man in the middle of the floor. The boy didn’t know any of the songs so he sang whatever seemed right. The man looked down at the boy and began to laugh. Once the last track ended they grabbed all their stuff and set out back onto the road, for the rest of the journey the man and the boy hummed each song they had danced to and disappeared into the cold dark night.

Rationale of The Creative Scene

I chose to write the creative scene after the man and the boy were in the supermarket and the man wanted him to try the coca cola because I wanted to add more nostalgic elements to the story. The scene where the man gives the boy the coca cola gives the reader a taste of what was a custom of the world before the events that have left it in the way it is now. Creating the scene where the man finds the radio and identifies what is playing and as well as his actions gives the reader more background information about the man and what the boy is familiar with pertaining to what he knows about the world the man grew up in, which would be the motif of my creative scene. I also wanted to introduced a different side of the man, a side to which even the boy wasn’t familiar with. It shows how much humanity the man still has inside of him, and how little the boy has experienced throughout his time in the world they know now to be a wasteland. The theme of my creative scene is similar to the scene where the man gives the boy the coca-cola, except it is more nostalgic and playful. When I wrote the scene I included how the man wanted the boy to join him, I made it clear that the opportunity for the boy to actually be a kid and experience something that the man had once experienced himself was probably the only one he would get. 

My essential question was “What is the relationship between the man and the boy? Throughout the novel we are given examples to when the man shows how he protects the boy, but we also see how the boy controls him and his level of authority. I wanted my creative scene to show a playful father and son bonding moment, something that the reader rarely sees in the novel. My creative scene shows a reflection of an important moment that had just passed, that important moment would be when the man tells the boy to taste the coca-cola. Suggesting that the boy should join the man when he was dancing and singing shows the same elements. For my vocabulary word I chose the twist to describe what the man was doing and what the man was singing. The Twist was a popular song and dance in the 1960's by Dion.

Analytical Essay:

Since the first world war many books have been published about the experiences people have had when they were deployed, my class has recently just finished reading one these books. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers follows the story of private John Bartle and his platoon as they enter in a bloody campaign to control the Northern city of Al Tafar. Like the narrator in The Yellow Birds  Kevin Powers was a soldier in Iraq for two years serving in Mosul and Tal Afar, his very own deployment had changed his whole world. A changing world could result in one’s self to change as well, whether the change is good or bad. An environment can either nurture, or drive it’s inhabitants to madness.

Kevin Powers in the past has described the problems he had when trying to describe those types of experiences that not a lot of people share, which includes the madness, and the extreme violence of war. For example in “The Yellow Birds” the main character John Bartle describes his time during war, “They lay in the dust, broken and shattered and bent, their white shifts gone dark with blood”. When I read this quote I was moved by the main character’s poetic analyzation of the dead bodies around him, almost as if the environment he grew up in didn’t even exist anymore.

To be deployed into war means to adapt to a new environment, but war isn’t always easy to adapt to. War can make soldiers or victims forget their past and their essential learnings that has made them into the human beings that they may be today, nonetheless nothing can prepare American soldiers for the toll war has. In “The Yellow Birds” the main character John Bartle gives his own input on what war does to people, for example “ We hardly noticed a change in September. But I know that everything that will ever matter in my life began then”. This quote relates to the essential question of self and changing world because it gives a reader a time sequence about what was going on at that moment, then goes right into his life and how war has changed all of that.

A changing world could result in one’s self to change as well, whether the change is good or bad. An environment can either nurture, or drive it’s inhabitants to madness. The environments that we call home have many meanings, and we have our own memories about our home. But adapting to a new environment isn’t always the easiest, it could either have a positive outcome or a negative outcome. This sort of change for many people isn’t the easiest and can introduce itself as an obstacle course that can mentally challenge one’s self. The essential question of “ What is the relationship between the self and the changing world” is a powerful message that I believe Kevin Powers has shown numerous times. During the reading of “The Yellow Birds” me and my group members were introduced to a very important character, Murph. Reading about his story and to read about his horrific death was shocking, me and my group members had come to the conclusion that in order to survive in the changing world, one must adapt to become it’s inhabitant. Although people may react in ways that they believe will help them cope , the outcome could be life changing for others.

Works Cited for Analytical Essay:

1).  MailOnline, Stephanie Cross for. "THE YELLOW BIRDS." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 07 Sept. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2199178/Kevin-Powers-THE-YELLOW-BIRDS.html>.

2). Tobar, Hector. "Kevin Powers' Haunting Iraq War Novel." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 10 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/10/entertainment/la-ca-jc-kevin-powers-20121111>.

Edward Snowden went from a loyal NSA contractor to a United States Traitor. Many people knew him to be politically conservative, very intelligent, and he was also a gun owner. No one expected this man, the most trusted man in the United States of America to be behind the biggest intelligence leak in history. Even after Edward Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents he still considers himself a patriot, and he is not the only one who agrees with this statement. Most people have agreed with Edward Snowden and his actions, but many others are deeply divided and worried by government surveillance. According to the Huffington Post Fifty-one percent of Americans said that Edward Snowden was “something of a hero” who should have been rewarded for his actions, while fifty-four percent of Americans agree that “security and anti-terrorism efforts mean we may sometimes have to infringe on civil liberties such as personal information privacy”. It is an issue that currently makes the American people question their privacy and the actions of the government. Edward Snowden’s actions have made the American people question the government and people’s safety relating to the privacy that American citizens are entitled to.

Many Americans are conflicted in what they think of Edward Snowden and his actions. The Huffington Post states that “fifty-one percent of Americans said that Edward Snowden was something of a hero who should be commended for letting the public know that the governments are running electronic surveillance programs that threaten people’s privacy”. While 49 percent labeled him more of a traitor who should be condemned for publicizing security activities and threatening western intelligence operations, along with the NSA. Edward Snowden’s actions have clearly surprised many Americans in a positive and a negative way, the previous example shows a statistic that proves that not only did part of the American government label him as a traitor but many Americans also suggested that he should have been condemned for leaking thousands of classified documents.  In response to my previous statement this situation causes people to have a hard time making sense to it because it clearly threatens western intelligence agencies that help protect security activities, but not one U.S. citizen was aware this was going on in the government.

Hero or no hero he has brought to light important information that deserved to be in the public’s reach, while doing no harm to the national security of his country. Many Americans today are genuinely and understandably torn by Edward Snowden’s actions. Even though he revealed many U.S. government actions and is now classified as a criminal, many Americans find it troubling that their privacy does not exist. It makes sense that people feel grateful to the person who brought this information to us, but is calling him a hero appropriate? In a recent interview with Edward Snowden people now have cause to doubt how much privacy they are entitled to. In this interview Edward Snowden stated, “The N.S.A. has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife’s phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.” This example not only shows the little privacy American citizens have but it also shows how easy it is for the government to access people’s important information that not only affects us as individuals but  families as well.

Today Edward Snowden remains a hero to some, to others he is a common criminal and wouldn’t characterized him as a hero of any kind. I believe this topic is very interesting because in though this is a issue currently going on in the United States, many people from different countries have expressed their feelings about Edward Snowden and his actions, for example in in The Huffington Post it is stated that 67 percent of the people living in Canada and 60 percent in the U.K. viewed him as a hero. Even after Edward Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents to public domain, it has come to the conclusion that the U.S. government currently uses intercepts to hack into emails, phone records, credit cards, etc. The reality of it is that American citizens have a very small amount of privacy than people think they are entitled to, which shows to point how the government contains personal information and why it is needed.

Work Cited:

Edwards-Levy, Ariel. "Americans Still Can't Decide Whether Edward Snowden Is A 'Traitor' Or A 'Hero,' Poll Finds." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/edward-snowden-poll_n_4175089.html>.

"Edward Snowden: 'I'd Volunteer for Prison' to Return to US." TODAY. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.

Why Edward Snowden Is a Hero - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. Http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/edward-snowden-says-motive-behind-leaks-was-to-expose-surveillance-state/2013/06/09/aa3f0804-d13b-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.

"Quora." Why Do Some Americans Believe Edward Snowden Is Not a Hero? -. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.

Improvements:

I first edited the mistakes that Ms.Pahomov had commented onto my google document, after I resolved the comments I looked for words that I know are not allowed in 2fer essays. Secondly, I had one of my peer's peer edit my essay just in case there were any mistakes that I couldn't see, there were a couple that my peer found but I fixed them just in time. I then clicked my sources cited to make sure that they were the right ones, I used a couple of sources but they weren't in the right order at first. I also tried to fix some of my paragraphs that repeated, I think I did a pretty good job trying to make it more sightful. If I could change anything I would change the sentence structures of my essay.

Through out history, revolutions have proven to be a useful source to change how systems and governments work and run. But behind every revolution, there is a major setback that can determine the future of every man, woman, and child involved in a revolution. You may have heard of a revolution that is taking place in Ukraine as we speak, but lets take a trip to 1968 all the way in Mexico City where many students were speaking out against the governments officials. The Mexico City Massacre began as a revolution between the students of the National Preparatory School. In this situation the revolution was expected to show the government their demands and as well make them give in, but things were soon to take a turn for the worse. The revolution turned into a massacre against the students that were part of it, and many of the citizens that had no part of the revolution as well. This resulted into the death of five hundred students, one thousand students wounded, and twenty citizens wounded as well. This example proves that revolutions can sometimes turn into something that no one expects and that it can not happen they way people want.

Over the years the world has experienced revolutions that have gone from peaceful to violent. Today revolutions that are successful in meeting demands are called “new revolutions”. The serbian revolution represents an interesting story for students of revolution, meaning that it happened it such a peaceful way which also made it popular. The serbian revolution used music, symbols, and other actions so that they could protray the dictator of the country opposed to the people’s interest. This allowed students to become more active into the revolution and inspired them to make student protests. This example proves that revolutions that are non violent are more likely to be more successful. It also shows how the people used other people’s interest like music to inspire them to protest.

Characters: Brian

Setting: Westmore School

Plot: Brian hears from another student that there was a protest and people were arrested. Brian then goes to class and asks his teacher about the pipeline and how it affects us.

Wait, say that again?

Who?

Why?

A Pipeline?

I don’t understand. What did they do wrong, why were they arrested?

Hold that thought. It looks like it’s time for class.

It’s ok, I’ll ask my teacher when I get to class.

( Bell Rings, Brian goes to his next class)

Hi Mr.Jones, Yeah I have my homework. Here you go.

Hey Cameron, do you have a pencil?

Uh, but no eraser, it’s fine.

Damn it, Cameron do you have another pencil, this one broke?

Thanks.

Wait, what was the journal entry?

I do pay attention, don’t question me just tell me what the journal entry was.

Finally.

( Brian completes his journal entry and awaits to ask his teacher about the pipeline).

Mr.Jones, can I ask you a question?

Ok, fine I’ll wait.

( Ten minutes have passed)

Mr.Jones, I really need to ask you a question.

I’ve already waited ten minutes!

Fine, I guess I can wait.

( Five more minutes have passed).

Mr.Jones!

I would really like for you to listen for five minutes!

Thank you.

Earlier I heard something at lunch talk about some kind of a pipeline, and

that people were getting arrested.

Why are people protesting against this pipeline?

Tar sands. what’s that?

Dirty Oil?

But isn’t oil already dirty?

Whoa. That sounds like a problem, but how does it affect us, and the

environment?

Pipeline spills have happened, what were the after affects?

Even our bodies have been contaminated by pollution from the dirty fossil fuel?

Honestly how can people live like this, knowing how bad it can affect our

drinking waters, our fresh air?

TransCanada, pipeline company?

But if the pipeline is built, it will create more jobs.

Wait a minute, really?

People have had toxic tar sands transported right through their

hometowns that have had disastrous effect?

How is this even allowed?

People are right to protest against this, they are extracting toxic sand oil

from deep within the earth and beneath our homelands.

Mr.Jones, can I ask you one more thing?

How can we as humans relate to the environment?

Well installing a pipeline isn’t going to help.

Yeah, being more proactive with the environment can help improve our

environmental issues.

Thank you Mr.Jones.

( Bell rings, Brian exits his class)

Nuestros cliente, Tenzin Ngawang

Bienvenido en la casa de preciosa. Está casa es la perfecto casa para tú y tú familia. Es muy moderno y está cerca de un grande parque, también está en la ciudad de Filadelfia. El parque tiene árboles, hermosas flores y un camino para correr en. Los vecinos son increíblemente simpáticos personas. El supermercado, las escuelas, el transporte público, y el centro comercial están cerca de la casa. La casa no es muy grande pero es bastante bonita. La casa es también cómodo. Está casa es muy elegante y extravagante para usted. ¡Está casa es de venta!

Descripción:

• La casa tiene dos pisos.

• Hay cuatro habitaciones

• Un jardín para que los niños juegan.

• Hay dos baños con dos lavamanos, grande espejos, duchas, y inodoro.

• La baño de la casa tiene bañera que està.     

• Tiene un sala con dos sofá, una televisión de pantalla y más.

• Tiene un comedor, y una cocina con mesas, sillas y más.

• La casa tiene muchos bonitas ventanas y puertas en todos partes de la casa.

• La casa es muy moderna y linda.

• Aquí usted tiene todo que tú necesita.

  
  
  ¡Ahora es el momento perfecto para que usted pueda comprar está casa! No es caro sin embargo, tiene todo el caràcter que usted quiere.
  
  
  Diseñado por Tenzin Chemi y Alex Colòn.
  Lugar de trabajo - Science Leadership Academy (SLA)
  Dirección - 55 N 22nd St  Philadelphia, PA 19103
  Llamar - 786-869-5321

Hola, me llamo Alex Colon y tengo quince años.  Soy un estudiante de Science Leadership Academy. SLA es un buena escuela para todos, y para mi porque la maestros son muy simpático. SLA esta en 55 N. 22nd St. SLA esta cerca de Arch Gourmet pero esta muy caro. Hay muchos estudiantes y maestros que van Science Leadership Academy, y también hay cinco pisos de SLA. Tenemos computadoras que la escuela le dan, eso es porque me gusta esta escuela. Tenemos fútbol, baloncesto, cruzar pais, y mucho mas. Participó en cruzar pais porque es muy divertido.