For my capstone, I am doing is an essential drive for homeless teens in Philadelphia. Knowing how bad the statistics are right now, I wanted to help my community out. For the past couple of months, I have been telling my friends and families about my capstone and how I’m planning to step up in the Philadelphia community to help teen that are less fortunate. My friends and families have donated as much as $150 towards my capstone and they donated essentials like paper towel, tissue, soap, shampoo, and more. For the money I receive and continue to receive, it’s going to towards to more essentials due to the face there are a bunch of teens that are in need. What I did was I went to BJ’s and Walmart where I bought a bunch of stuff that was listed on the email that the organization have given me. Everything was hard when the capstone was first introduced because I didn’t know what to do but after I had my first idea (Clothes drive) I soon began to realize that it wasn’t going to work out. Then I quickly turned to an essential drive because I knew it was going to be much easier and more useful. Throughout this project I want people to learn that they can be the reason why we can make a change in the Philadelphia community.

Coming from an Asian household, but being raised in America, there are many advantages and disadvantages between Asians and Asian Americans. Asian people who immigrate to America want to be successful in this country, and have a positive and fulfilling life. Back in their home country, it was a struggle and due to multiple reasons such as poverty, low income, no jobs, etc. So for their children who are born in America, they are considered, “Asian American.”

Asian American parents, much like many immigrant families, will go through difficulty like working low paying and tiring jobs. They must work hard to achieve their goals and to provide for their families. Asian parents will encourage their child, and help them to be hard working, do well in school, and have a nice job, in the future. Such as, working at an office, becoming a dentist, or engineering, and etc.

There are also many disadvantages for Asian people who have immigrated here. But for Asian Americans, they have more an advantage living in America. For example, speaking the english language. As I grew up, I noticed that my parents struggle with speaking English and they still do. At times my parents would ask me or my brother to translate for them, like talking to a bank teller, going to pay for a bill, calling someone, etc. If an Asian American were to live in Asia, they would have the disadvantage because they have not grown up in that country, for them to know the ways of lifestyle such as speaking the language, finding jobs, communicating with people, etc.     

My parents and I, are very different, but we always come back together as one family. My parents were immigrants, but now they’re United State citizens. But for me, I wouldn’t consider them as an “Asian American,” completely because they came to America for an easy and better life. Asians that are in America still struggle today with financial problems, jobs, and communications . An example would be working at restaurant, which could be a struggle for some Asians. “Working 12 hours on the weekday, and 13 hours on the weekend was tiring,” my Mom said with energy. My parents go further into how difficult working at a restaurant is, saying that there are “no vacations, if you injured yourself for example like getting a bad cut, the boss wouldn’t care as much because they’re not going to pay for your injuries.”

My parents told me since I’m “American,” they expect me to have a better working job than them. They don’t want me to be in their shoes, working hard every single day, barely getting any breaks, getting paid $8/hour which my parents think is considerably low, etc. They want me and my brother to go to college, since they didn’t, and do extremely well because as an Asian, they want their children to be successful in life. They want their children to be better than them since they experience it themselves.

To me, being Asian American or fully Asian, I’m happy and I’m not. I can communicate with people around me, but then I don’t usually speak Chinese with my parents. Although, I understand them I can’t really speak back and if I do try, I sound like a foreigner to them. This causes me to be confused about my identity. It is really different because I feel like if I choose one between Asian American or Asian, it could be right or wrong. I don’t know where I stand when people ask me about my “identity” to be quite honest. Am I fully Asian or Asian American? To this day I’m still trying to find out where I stand.   

Bibliography:

Tan, Jude. "7 Differences between Chinese and American Culture You Should Know About Before Living and Working in China." Teach English in China - Current TEFL / ESL Teaching Jobs. N.p., 31 Oct. 2016. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

Writing this essay I want the reader to understand the struggles I went through by my favorite sport, basketball. Throughout this essay I’m telling the readers the transition between my streetball life and my organized basketball life. Telling them how my first practice experience went. I think I did well explaining my how my first practice went and how I was determined to improve on my skills as a organized basketball player.

The whistle blew, everyone stopped and everyone looked at who caused the coach to blow the whistle. “Addison!” the coach yelled “What are you doing? Pass the ball. The other team's ball” I didn’t say a word, I just stood there and shook my head.

The day I realized that streetball and organized basketball is different. As a kid all I knew was streetball. Always playing at my schoolyard and the playground trying to embarrass your defender, showing of your handle and all these fancy passes. I thought I was the best streetball player in my neighborhood. As months goes by my friend introduced me to the Philadelphia Suns an all Asian organization. But jumping from that to organized basketball I noticed that it was a completely new atmosphere. Knowing that the play style is completely different, knowing that it’s a team sport, not selfish sport.

So my first practice there, oh boy was it difficult. Getting yelled at every minutes, “travel, turnover, walk, run!”  Frustration began to grow upon me, I never thought it would be this difficult. I whisper to one of my teammate, “yo, what are we doing?” He just gave me a look shook his head and continued to do the drill. I thought to myself was it even worth coming here. I’m a just a boy who got the streetball skills, who loves playing ball with friends and not caring about the rules. I don't have the NBA like skills like everyone in here. Throughout practice I made mistakes after mistakes. My coach came up to me, while everyone was taking a break and said to me. “Addison, don’t worry. I know this is your first practice and you’re still getting used to everything. I see you're getting mad at yourself, don't be. Just learn from your mistakes.” I just sat there with my head down. “Thanks coach”  I replied. As the coach blew the whistle telling everyone to get ready. He said “just sit here and watch everyone first.” As I got the concept of the drill that everyone is doing, i hopped in and tried doing it. Guess what… I made the wrong decision. 10 seconds into the drill, I picked up my dribble. “Addison! Don't pick up your dribble!” The coach yelled across the court. I looked around and saw people shaking their heads, saying “oh my god” underneath their breath. I tossed the ball at the coach and headed back to the bench. Throughout the whole practice I sat there and looked at everyone practice. “If you keep coming to Friday and Saturday practice I promise you, you’ll get better.” Said a teammate sitting right above me, startling me. “You really think that?” I said back. “I mean I’ve been coming to practice for months and I got so much better. not trying to sound cocky or anything.” He replied. “Alright” I chuckled  and shook my head. As practice comes to an end, I walked up to my coach and asked him when is practice. “Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday”. I told him that I’ll be coming every Friday and Saturday. “Great! See you then Addison. Remember learn from those mistakes you made today.” He said. “I will coach.” I said back.

As I got home, I went straight to my laptop. Type in “NBA highlight plays.” Hoping that I could learn something from the video. After watching videos after videos I thought that I could be just like everyone in the NBA. Lebron James, Rondo, Wade, and so many more. The next day, I went straight to my old middle school and started to practicing by myself. I started doing all these drills that I learned from yesterday's practice, dribbling drills, footwork drills, shooting drills, and running drills. Getting mad at myself because I couldn’t make a basket, slamming the ball onto the ground. As I continued to go to practices , I continued to get better.

In William Golding’s novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’ Golding raises a lot of questions about leadership and roles. Is it reasonable to have a leader or is it arrogant? People might say leaders are nothing but make us be in their “system.” Other might say leaders keep society together and it keeps people in place by making rules and laws. So does having a leader really matter in people’s eyes or does leaders mean nothing to them. Leaders or no leader, should people still obey any types of rules?

In the beginning of  Lord of The Flies by William Golding, there was these group of boys who crashed onto an isolated island. When they ended up on the island, there was this argument that broke out on who should be chief. Ralph and Jack wanted to be chief badly because each one of them fine themselves better than the other. “‘Shut up,’ said Ralph absently. He left the conch. ‘Seem to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.’ ‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance.” (pg. 22) Ralph and Jack are arguing about who should be chief because each one of them said they’ll make a better leader. People chose Ralph because he was better looking than Jack, Jack didn’t approve of this because he saw Ralph as a joke, but what happens if Ralph turns out to be an amazing leader? No one knows if he’s going to  be  an amazing leader, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Having a leader for a bunch of children that are stranded on isolated island to be honest is kind of smart because they want to have some they can listen to.

Just like in the real world, leaders are the reason why the society is still standing and running. President Obama for example, has brought job rates up. In an article it said that jobs have been increasing for the past two years and it has been the “longest streak” of job growth. Last month (March) data shows that 215,000 jobs were added. The Labor Department data showed that unemployment rate went up by 5% from last month. Wages has also gone up from the last month, 7 cent to their average hourly earning which is 25.45 dollars. People gave negative feedback/ comments to Obama, saying that he hasn’t done enough for this country but for minor things. But some other people say he has done a lot for this country. Having a leader like Obama, helps keep this society up and going, but what will happen if there was never a leader,  this society would probably go insance. Leaders are what everyone needs when the government are messing up, then that leader can step in and do something about it, just like the jobs and money issues.

In Lord of The Flies, everyone didn’t have a clue what they were going to do. They wanted to make a rule where they have a group to watch the fire and they wanted them to do anything possible to get rescued. “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the things.” (pg. 42) Jack agrees with Ralph’s idea, but savages? At this point of time people can be a savage because they want to find a way to live. It’s like survival of the fittest.  But at the same time it is kind of crazy. Why do they want to be a savage when they’re on a stranded island with their classmates and they’re planning to help each other out? That’s why Jack said that they should have rules and they should obey them because he said their “English” meaning that they are good at everything. But they’re still children, so maybe having rules could help them survive.

In the real world, people need to have a leader because they do great things for this country. Obama as an example again, he made a huge decision on whether or not they should invade Osama’s compound and assassinate him, people like Mitt Romney finds this a waste of money on trying to catching this one person. Mitt Romney for example, is Jack for a sense, he find Obama’s decision kind of stupid and pointless. But Obama made a decision on sending out serving and former US Navy SEALs to assassinate him, while he watches it live on T.V. In a video call ‘One Chance’ Bill Clinton said that Obama took “the harder and the more honourable path.” Meaning that he took a path where people might hate him if the SEALs were going to raid Osama’s compound and if he ends up not being there or it ends up not being him or supposedly the SEALs got caught and got held hostage or killed, then that puts a really bad reputation on the President. But he reasoned with himself and made that decision no matter what, and he got what he wanted and he assassinated Osama bin Laden and gain a huge reputation for himself as a leader of this country.

Leaders plays a big role in this society, they help us through many things and they help keep this society standing. Even though some leaders can be bad and all, it does not mean they aren’t important as other older presidents. Just like Ralph and Jack they had a fight over who should be leader, so they both ended up made a separate group, but as in the real world there’s only one big leader, the president and he plays a major role. Leader are almost everything we need when they want to do something big, like passing rules.

Works Cited:

• Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin Group, 2003

• Toby Harnden for the Daily Mail. "SEALs Slam Obama for Using Them as 'ammunition' in Bid to Take Credit for Bin Laden Killing during Election Campaign."Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

• "FACT CHECK: The White House's Private-Sector Job Streak." NPR. NPR. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.
  
• "U.S. Economy Adds 215,000 Jobs in March, Jobless Rate Ticks up to 5 Percent."Washington Post. The Washington Post. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.
  

My language changes a lot when I’m at home and when I’m not at home. At home I can understand what my parents are saying, and I can communicate back to them in the same language.

“Can you come here and help me?” my mom would say in fujianese.

“Okay” I would say back.

When I communicate with my parents I would respond back to them in either fujianese or english.

“Addison, come here and take out the trash.” my dad would say in fujianese.

“Okay.” I would say back in fujianese.

When I go to my grandparents place they would always speak in fujianese, they would never understand me if I spoke english. So when I want to say something I would try to explain it to my mom and then she’ll say it to them or sometime I can respond back to them.

“You have to learn how to speak fujianese because when you go to China you want to learn how to speak with other people there.” My grandparents would say in fujianese.

“ I know.” I would respond back in fujianese.

“Do you? Do you know?” They would ask me in fujianese.

“yes.” I would say back.

Speaking my own language is really difficult for me because I can’t say words that my parents would be able to say. For example, if they say something to me in fujianese, the only way I could respond is in english.

“Call dad and tell him to buy food vegetable for dinner cause we need it.” My mom would say in fujianese.

“Okay” I would respond back.

On the phone with my dad.

“Hello, dad? Mom said go buy some vegetable home.” I would say in fujianese, but in a weird way.

“What? Put mom on the phone.” My dad said in fujianese.

Speaking my language is hard for me because I never actually got a bunch of experience in speaking it because since I was born in Philadelphia, I was introduced toEnglish more than chinese (fujianese). My family would say to me that I’m not asian because I do things that asian people would do. For example, I can’t use chopsticks or speak their language. When any of my family members say to me ever I would feel

Now going to my school/ out of school language. My friends would say I sound black because my voice is low and I dress black. People would say I curse a lot. So I tend to curse more outside than at in my home.

“Bro, can you help me with this?” My friend would say.

“Nah, I’ll help you later because I have to do my s**t” I would say back.

Speaking in school really brings out my english language because at home I only speak english to my brother. So at school I feel more free in speaking english, instead of struggling at home trying to speak fujianese. I noticed that my language can change drastically, once I step outside of my household.

“Yo bro you down to chill today?” I would say to my friend.

“Yeah I’m down bro, just give me the time” My friend said back.

“I gotchu ya.” As I respond back.

When me and my friends were walking down at South Street, these group of teens called use racial names. But once me and my friends confronted them, they apologized because they thought we wouldn’t understand a thing they said, but they were wrong.

“Look at these chinks, go back to China.” As one of the tennager yelled, smiling at his friends after he said that.

“What the f**k did you say?! Just because we asian, means that we don’t understand a thing you say? You really think that you’re cool for saying that? If you think that is, maybe you should find something better to do with your life. Now say something f***ing stupid again and watch adjust your face!” As my friend snapped at the straighter.  

Trying to hold him back before things go bad.

“Okay dude, I’m sorry.” As they said

“Just f***ing leave, before he really f**** you up!” As I shouted

That day I noticed some people can be racist to you, no matter how you look because we was called out by random people just on how we look like.   

Bienvenidos a  Nosotros escuela Science Leadership Academy también conocido como SLA.  Hola, somos Jamal Hampton tengo años catorce.Trabajar difícil en SLA es un común característica. Nuestras escuela somos estudiantes de Science Leadership Academy. Science Leadership Academy está en  55 North 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103. Science Leadership Academy está cerca de y TFI (Aquí tenemos la clase de Museo experiencia). Science Leadership Academy es intellegente, divertido, y creativo.  Science Leadership Academy hay tiene más que quinientos estudiantes, tiene más que treinta profesores, y SLA tiene cincos pisos. Tambien, tenemos diferente programas. Tenemos TFI, después escuela consejería, benchmark proyectos, un grande almuerzo, y como si fuera poco tenemos Chromebooks® la computadora. Además, ofrecemos chévere ,robótica, danza deportes béisbol, fútbol, softbol, pista, voleibol, baloncesto, disco volador, y ellos son qué chévere. Yo participo en clases como geométrica, historia,bioquímica, Espanol, y literatura. SLA es divertido y ir a la escuela es no un problema.

Hola, somos palabras Jamal, Taytianna, Addison, y Kali. Tenemos quince y catorce años. Somos estudiantes de Science Leadership Academy. Esta en la ciudad de Filadelfia. Está cerca de restaurantes, tiendas, y otras escuelas. Nuestros profesores son muy antipático, útiles, y intelligente. Nuestro director es Senior Lehmann. Hay cuatrocientos estudiantes, siete treinta y uno profesores. Tenemos muchos clubs. Tal como, debate, arte, música. drama, robotics, y glee club.

      Nuestra  escuela es muy diferente y súper chévere!Nosotros cantamos y bailamos en las clases. Nosotros pintamos en las paredes de la escuela. !En serio¡ En nuestras escuela participamos mucho en los deportes.  Nos encantan último disco volador, fútbol, baloncesto y a correr.En la clase de Inglés, La Señor Kay, nos leemos libros.  Es bastante tranquila y chévere.En la clase de biochimica, La Srta. Dunda trabajamos en el laboratorio. La Srta Dunda enseña muy bien.

         Bienvenidos a <3 Nosotros escuela Science Leadership Academy también conocido como SLA.  Trabajar en SLA es un común característica Hola, somos Jamal Hampton tengo años catorce. Nuestras <3 escuela somos estudiantes de Science Leadership Academy. Science Leadership Academy está en  55 North 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103. Science Leadership Academy está cerca de y TFI. Science Leadership Academy es intellegente, divertido, y creativo.  Science Leadership Academy hay tiene más que quinientos estudiantes, tiene más que treinta profesores, y SLA tiene cincos piso,s. Tambien, tenemos diferente programas. Tenemos TFI, después escuela consejería, benchmark proyectos, un grande almuerzo, y como si fuera poco tenemos Chromebooks® la computadora. Además, ofrecemos chévere deportes béisbol, fútbol, softbol, pista, voleibol, baloncesto, disco volador, y ellos son qué chévere. Yo participo en clases como geométrica, historia,bioquímica, Espanol, y literatura.  

Hola, somos palabras Jamal, Taytianna, Addison, y Kali. Tenemos quince y catorce años. Somos estudiantes de Science Leadership Academy. Esta en la ciudad de Filadelfia. Está cerca de restaurantes, tiendas, y otras escuelas. Nuestros profesores son muy antipático, útiles, y intelligente. Nuestro director es Senior Lehmann. Hay cuatrocientos estudiantes, siete treinta y uno profesores. Tenemos muchos clubs. Tal como, debate, arte, música. drama, robotics, y glee club.

       Nuestra  escuela es muy diferente y súper chévere!Nosotros cantamos y bailamos en las clases. Nosotros pintamos en las paredes de la escuela. !En serio¡ En nuestras escuela participamos mucho en los deportes.  Nos encantan último disco volador

, fútbol, baloncesto y a correr. En la clase de español, La Srta. Manuel, nos enseña calzones.  La Srta. Manuel es muy enérgico. Es bastante estricta pero, esta divertido.

En la clase de Inglés, La Señor Kay, nos leemos libros.  Es bastante tranquila y chévere.

En la clase de biochimica, La Srta. Dunda nos trabajamos en el laboratorio. La Srta Dunda enseña muy bien.

     Bienvenidos a Science Leadership Academy. Science Leadership Academy es bastante estricta. ¡Es una broma! Es mucho chévere. Nuestros escuela es realmente libre. Science Leadership Academy es pequeñ, pero bueno. estudiantes que ama pequeñ lugares, entonces Science Leadership Academy es adecuado para usted. Science Leadership Academy tiene un montón de libertad.   Nuestros escuela Para más information. Contacto https://www.scienceleadership.org/

Addison’s Script:

Background music: Danza Kuduro     ce des     ke le dos

Slide 1 (Intro)- ¡Bienvenidos!  Él es los seres queridos en mi vida.

Slide 2 (Me)-  Holá me llamo Addison. Tengo los ojos cafés, pero el pelo negro. Me fascina baloncesto y fútbol americano.

Slide 3 (Girl)- Ella es Sopheary. Asistimos a la misma escuela. Ella inteligente, y alta. Ella también no te gusta escuela . Ella es camboyana.

Slide 4 (Boy)- Él Es Justin. Somos amigos por siete años. Él es delgado. Le gusta jugar videojuegos. Los fines de semana tenemos tener

 baloncesto práctica. Él no le gusta escribir.  

Slide 5 (We)- Es William y Chucky. William es gustos fútbol. Es alto y delgado. Chucky es catorce años. Chucky inteligente y bajo es . William y Chucky no es gusta fútbol americano. William y Chucky son los mismos.   

Slide 6 (We have) - Estos son mi amigos. Malachi y Kenna. Malachi gusta fútbol. Kenna gusta descansar. Ella gusta escuchar música. Malachi es alto y deportista. Kenna es baja y sociable.   

Slide 7- Gracias por su atención.