Many people don’t care about how bees are becoming extinct. They believe that they are just nuisance and that life would be better without them. Although this may be the case, people don’t think about the good things bees can provides for us. This is most likely because of how many people misunderstand how important bees are in the society and doesn’t realize that without them, humans wouldn’t be able to live long.

For those who may not know, bees are flying insects that collect pollen and nectar. There are about 20,000 species of them in which somes that stings and some that does not. As well as some bees who makes honey and some who does not. They are able to see every color, but the color red, have great sense of smell to get their way to the flowers they pollinate. The facts about bees are not really known because they are mostly known for what they are bad for.

Many people do not appreciate bees. From a blog Arizona exterminating co, it states how bees are known for being loud, having painful stings, destroying properties, being annoying and cause allergic reaction to others. There is always a time where someone experience the fear of getting sting or getting annoyed by the loud buzzing sounds continuously. Their stings are painful but they don’t always sting unless they think they are in danger, but some bees dies after they sting someone because they’re unable to take their barbed stinger back out. This includes their abdomen, digestive tract, nerves and muscle which kills the bees. This gives us some reason why many people may dislike bees because no one want their property destroyed and be annoyed to death by the sounds it makes. It’s possible that they dislike them and misunderstand what they dislike.  Besides these facts about how someone may misunderstand bees, bees are very essential for society.

Bees provides us with enough food. In BBC, it states how bees pollinate about 70 different types of crops that includes vegetables and fruit such as apple, mangos, peaches, grapes, etc. Some food for animals that are also consume by others. Bees provides us with honey and wax. In fact they make about 6,000 tonnes of honey as well as give the economy 400 millions dollars. Without bees, humans would not have enough of resources to feed themselves for a long time. Bees are disappearing globally and the cause is what humans don’t know they are doing.

Bees are dying rapidly from pesticides that people puts up to keep bees away from. This kills the bees. They are also dying from parasites, disease and habitat loss. Some people don’t realize how important the process of pollination is. Pollination is when one transfer pollen grains from the anter to the stigma which are used to grow fruits and vegetables. Bees are very important part of pollination and without them, a huge part of fruits and vegetable would be lost. This would cause problems for the economy and would limit the life on earth due to the lack of food. It has been estimated that without bees, the life of humanity would only be able to live 4 years.

From this, it can be seen that bees are very essential for life. But due to people misunderstanding how annoying they are to what they actually provides for us. If more people understand how bees plays a big part in our society and don’t use as much pesticide, it would save a large portions of the bees. This would also prevent them from going extinct. But due to the many factor of how bees are known as unneeded and just bad over how they are very essential part to society is hurting bees without people even knowing. Although bees can be annoying it doesn’t mean that they are not important. If more people realized all the good things bees provides for a person instead of all the bad things, bees won’t be as close to being extinct, life would be longer and not be limited to only 4 years.

Why this is my best possible 2fer?

I believe this is my best possible 2fer because I always have problem with writing the thesis since it would not be debatable enough which would result in a lower 2fer grade. I feel like this thesis is actually debatable and not just a statement or a fact. I also have enough evidence to back up the information with numbers instead of just stating opinions. I didn't argue it but I prove it since I know that a 2fer prove not argue with opinions. Therefore, that is why I believe that this is my best possible 2fer.

Sources:

"Pest World For Kids."Bees - Facts About Bees - Types of Bees - PestWorldforKids.org. Web. 26 Apr. 2017. <http://pestworldforkids.org/pest-guide/bees/>.

Museum, Canada Agriculture and Food. "What is a Bee?"What is a Bee? | Bees A Honey of an Idea. Web. 26 Apr. 2017. <http://www.bees.techno-science.ca/english/bees/what-is-a-bee/default.php>.  

"BBC iWonder - Would we starve without bees?"BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2017. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zg4dwmn>.

Jamwal, Akshayl Singh. "How long would humans survive without bees? Answer Request."How long would humans survive without bees? Answer Request. Quora, 19 Apr. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2017. <https://www.quora.com/How-long-would-humans-survive-without-bees>.

Gosh I could not wait. Tomorrow was finally the day where all the fun would begin. Bzzz…..Bzzz…..Bzzz. I slapped my phone/alarm clock repeatedly as if I was killing a fly. High school, I thought to myself. So today is finally the day, huh. Yesterday still feels like 8th grade. As I slowly removed my sleepy self out of my bed, I reached for my clothes that were prepared on my desk from the day before. I scrubbed my teeth with my toothbrush and drowned my face with water, trying to desperately wake myself up. As I head downstairs, almost tumbling due to my half awake presence, I got ready to leave. I was nervous since it was my first day but I was relieved that I had my older sister with me.

The first day of high school finally hits me and then I’m just like shit… Wait, what was I thinking? I was scared, I didn’t know anyone besides my older sister. I wasn’t able to start a conversation at first. I wasn’t social like my sister. I thought, what is wrong with me? Why can’t I talk to people? There must be something wrong with me because I remembered 7th grade I wasn’t like this.

In 7th grade, I was a different person. It was a new year for me. My mom pressured me because she believed that it is the most important year in school. She would say, “high schools mainly looks at your grades in 7th grade so make sure to stay on top of that”. Also, I was placed in class with people I did not know from my previous years; it felt different. Excitement filled up inside me of the thought of making new friends. I managed to succeed in hanging out with all types of people in my class and was liked by them. As Jada my best friend in 7th grade would say, “I’m glad to have a good, smart, funny friend as you”. I mainly hung out with Jada throughout the school year. I was only placed with one Asian in the same class with me compared to the other class of 7th grade that were filled with bunch of Asians that I knew from previous years. I learned to adapt to the changes. I became more independent because I had to do work on my own. Then 8th grade came and left me speechless.

When 8th grade came, it felt like I was placed with all of the Asians of my grade. I didn’t know if it was just coincidence or if race was involved in how the classes were organized, I just knew I was placed with most of them. I was filled with joy that I had my normal friends back. My squad in 8th grade was called “The Asian Squad” by the other students. This was because every morning, mainly all the Asians would meet up at a specific spot at a black fence.

The people I hung out with in the morning included people that were not in my class but were Asian. I started to grow on them. Only 4 of them were in the same class as me but it still caused me to be dependent on them which brought the side of me I never knew I had, my shyness. Being dependent on my friends meant asking them for help when I did not want to speak as much as them. My fear of someone creeping up to me to talk with me, increased. To this day, I disliked talking to people I don’t know due to this deep fear inside me.

Back in history class in 8th grade, when we would all be done our work, my Asians friends and I would play a game. It was a game that involved kiss, marry or kill with kpop stars. The names of kpop celebrities would be put on folded papers and each of us would chose 3 folded papers. Then we would chose which celebrity we would rather kiss, marry or kill. My friends were madly in love with kpop and since as I was already a bit interested, I decided to learn the names groups and found it oddly enjoyable. One day, we were doing our normal thing in history class but this time, the atmosphere was different. The history teacher came up to us to start a conversation with us. The sound of the room went pitch quiet as you could hear the teacher glaring at us. He asked us, “Why did you girls get so quiet when I walked in?” As usual, we looked at each other and almost cracked up and then looked at the teacher.

That year, I realized that I started to shut people out from the 7th grade, even my best friend. People from 7th grade that I was super close with would come up to me and say hi. But I would just ignore them and hang out with people I was placed with, my Asians classmates. I didn’t know if my mindset was that if I hung out with them and just them I would be fine. I just hung with one specific type of people and didn’t really understand why I did that, what was I testing. I noticed that I started to become dependent on my Asians friends.

Now I'm in my junior year at Science Leadership Academy. I’m not as shy as I used to be. I feel like SLA really helped me with my shyness because SLA is a very different schools compared to other schools. This is because SLA focuses on projects instead of test and have a core values. SLA’s core values are: inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation and reflection. SLA has helped me become who I am today through the projects and core values. Since SLA focuses on projects, I have to work with others and present with them. The abundant amount of presenting in each class has guided me to be less shy. If I went to a different school, I would not be who I am today and I would not be able to revert back to when I was in 7th grade. I feel like during 8th grade, I was holding back on who I could become and thought that if I hung out with my Asians friends and just them I would be fine. This is like Bartle from “The Yellow Birds”, when he made a friend. The death of Murphy, who actually became Bartle’s best friend, hurt Bartle. He coped by getting drunk and hallucinating. Although I did not lose someone like Bartle, I lost the people who caused me to discover a new trait that I never knew that I had. As I attend SLA, I feel like I'm reverting back to my usual self due to the core values that still shape me today.

A person’s education is considered essential because it places people in a box of being “intelligent” and gives them a better opportunity in finding a job. While being uneducated places people in a box of being “dumb” therefore, finding a job is a bit of a struggle. Due to the cycle of education and money, getting a quality education is not always a choice because of the fact that schools are not all free, so education is an investment in a person's life which means not everyone can afford. As a result, the biggest factor in how good of an education a person receives is not how smart they are, but how much money they have.

People who already have money are most likely to finish school than people who requires funding. The reason for this is because people who need cash has to work to support their family such as paying their bills or even school tuition or allowances. Based on an article published in the National Education Association, 30% of ages that ranges from 16-18 years old drop out of school due to working multiple jobs. The reason for these kids dropping out of school is because they have to take on so much responsibilities at such a young age which can lead to stress. If the person is unable to focus in school and does not attend frequently due to working multiple jobs, they are absent in their education. Therefore, they are lacking education since cash is something that everyone needs due to the fact that bills won’t pay on their own.

According to a report from the Albert Shanker Institute which is a nonprofit organization that honors the late president of Federation of Teaching, it stated that money matters and that people who have more money and use it correctly receive a better education. This is due to the fact that if the person seeking an education spends their money wisely, the people who do can basically get more help with their help of their rich parents when needed which equals more financial resources. This shows that people who have more money are able to buy more resources to help them excel in a subject that they are struggling with.

A better education includes being able to graduate college, and giving a person a better opportunity to be successful in their career. But due to the increasing cost of college, education has gotten harder, especially for the people who cannot afford to pay for their education. In the articles, College Board and Adventure In Education, it states four year classes in a public institution costs about twenty-three thousand eight hundred ninety dollars per year and can range up to thirty-two thousand dollars per year. The amount of payment needed for the tuition fees do not include the food, books, supplies, housing, or  transportation fee yet which costs nearly half of the price of the student’s tuition fee. Back in 2015,  based on College Board, tuition, room fees, and board costs about eighteen thousand nine hundred thirty one dollars. As of 2016, it has increased by 3.3% aka adding on an extra six hundred seventeen dollars. Although, different types of school varies from different amounts of tuition fees needed, a wealthier person can just go to the school they want to go to and pay it off. A person in the lower class has to work harder to satisfy their dreams which do not always go well.

The people with more cash have better advantages than people with less cash. This is because the people that are wealthier don’t even have to be smart and still be able to go to the school that person want to go too. In fact, the rich people can be the dumbest kid alive but be able to afford to get tutors to make them more wiser while a person who needs more financial support has to work harder to sustain their needs. Based on the article, Daily Mail, it states that being rich can actually increase brainpower. Researcher Dr. Kimberly Noble said, “This is the critical point. The brain is the product of both genetics and experience and experience is particularly powerful in moulding brain development in childhood.” People with less money are often more stressed out which can result in a bad behavior in school. Like the movie, Freedom Writer, Hilary makes the students write about their experience and some of them are caused by home problems. Not graduating college would affect the lower class knowledge and may force them to drop out of whatever dreams they have.

When asked, people with more money might say that they have their education hard, but on closer inspection, the people with less money have it harder. The rich people might say this because of the expectation their parent might expect from them. This results in them to be more stress out due to working multiples jobs and finding a job suitable for their living, it would result of them to have a higher rate of dropout from school which would interfere with their education. Even though, it is possible for people with less money to graduate and get a good education, it is more rare and most likely more stressful due to being indebted as well which would be difficult to pay off. Infact, based on Debt.org, it states that today the total U.S. student in debt is 1.2 trillions of dollars. This is a lot of money that needs to be paid off. This being said, the more money the person makes, the better education they get no matter how smart they are.

Works Cited:

"Education." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2016.

Baker, Bruce D. "Does Money Matter in Education? Second Edition." Shanker Institute. Bruce D. Baker, 2016. Web. 24 Sept. 2016.

By 2020, an Estimated Two-thirds of Job Openings Will Require Postsecondary Education or Training.[3]. "Fact Sheet: Focusing Higher Education on Student Success." Fact Sheet: Focusing Higher Education on Student Success. N.p., 27 July 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2016.

Neatoday. "Why Students Drop Out: The Economic Pressures That Make Leaving School Unavoidable - NEA Today." NEA Today. N.p., 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2016.

"Student Loan Resources: Financial Aid & Loan Debt Management."

Debt.org News. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.

Fiona Macrae for the Daily Mail. "Does Being Rich Make You SMART? Academic Success Is Linked to Your Parents' Wealth, Study Claims." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 2015. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.

"Average Published Undergraduate Charges by Sector, 2015-16." - Trends in Higher Education. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.

"College Costs: FAQs." College Costs: FAQs. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.

"Great Synonyms for "money" on the New Thesaurus.com!" www.thesaurus.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.

The different environments that humans are placed in has a huge role that shapes their life. Some may not even realize or notice the changes and some may ask “What are the changes?” There are usually two alternatives of how the changes will turn out based on how the person act. It is either savage or civilized. Someone who is savage is violent and uncontrollable and someone who is civilized is well mannered and polite. However, this behavior is not permanent. A person can always change from being civilized or savage based on the different environment.

In the beginning of “The Lord of The Flies” by William Golding,  the children were stranded on an island due to an accident where no adults remain. Since there were no adults, the children that were on the island needed to choose a leader and it was either between Ralph and Jack. Ralph got the most votes which means Ralph became chief. Even though he won, he still shared his power with Jack, “Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be-what do you want them to be” (Pg 23). Ralph was civilized by sharing his power to get Jack on his side. The audience can tell that Ralph is trying to keep everyone together since he is the leader. He even makes rules such as whoever holds the conch can talk. The conch represents hope for the boys to follow orders and to be civilized. Since they are on their own now, they can not depend on their parents as they used to.

This relates to the real world example of “Black lives matter”. Black lives matter is an activist movement that started in 2012 after Trayvon Martin was murdered by a neighborhood watch volunteer. The main point of this movement was to show that black lives matter. One example that happened in many schools is when the students dropped themselves on the floor for 60 seconds to support the movement. This is a civilized movement that does not require killing anyone. Their environment of where these events take place were placed on their own website for others who are interested to catch up on the events that are going on or about to go on. Based on their official website http://blacklivesmatter.com/, there was a quote that says, “This is not a moment but a movement”. This shows how they are approaching this in a civilized way. They are not ignoring it and killing every police or plotting revenge. In this case, it shows how they are trying to be civilized based on what had happen.  Although, there are probably thousands or millions of people pissed about the unfair case in which was the death of Trayvon Martin.

The Trayvon Martin case was a case about a 17 year old African American boy who was shot to death by George Zimmerman or the neighborhood watch volunteer which has been stated earlier. “I shot Martin in Self defense” was what Zimmerman said during the trial according to the news, CNN. The fact that he got away with this proves how savage he is because either way, he did kill him. This does not justify his death. Trayvon Martin was shot because of being mistaken for having a gun when he actually have a Arizona bottle. This could have been a fear of Trayvon Martin possessing a gun since it was an environment that Zimmerman was not very familiar with. The environment that Trayvon Martin was in was his neighborhood which caused his death since he looked suspicious. Zimmerman was afraid. This caused him to not make the right choice because Trayvon Martin was still killed by getting shot. He could have admitted that he was afraid but he did not and he still got away with it, this shows savagery. Fear is something that everyone has at least once in their life and it can be a uneasy feeling that affects a lot of people.

In the book of “The Lord of The Flies, there was a moment towards the end where the tribe killed Simon. Ralph and Piggy desperately tried to maintain the rule of the tribe but when fear approached them, everything went downhill because they became savage. They had mistaken Simon as the beast therefore killing him. “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood” (Pg 186) This quote was said before they killed Simon, they were just doing a ritual until they saw something moving. In the beginning of the book, they would have not killed whatever was moving but run. Instead, they killed the beast. This shows how this environment that the children were placed in has caused them to become savage. They were trying to be brave which showed how they were not afraid of what’s out there but in reality they feared each other.

In conclusion, based on the information that has been given, environment had a huge impact on children. In the beginning of the “Lord of the Flies”, the children got stuck on an island due to an accident and at the end of the book, the children changed. Since they had been stranded on the island for so long they became savage. Their mindset on their environment poisoned them to survive. Fear became a trouble for them and that pushed them to a crueler side making them kill for no reason just like in Simon’s case where they thought of him as the beast, therefore killing him. Same thing as the real world example but in the opposite direction. The environment where Zimmerman was at could have caused him to killed Trayvon due to fear of him having a gun which is savage since he didn’t. But they made a movement called the Black lives matter to support black people’s lives in ways that does not involve killing one another. This is called being civilized. Therefore, this proves how a different environment has an effect on a person on whether they become savage or civilized.

Work Cited

1. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies: A Novel. New York: Perigee, 2006. Print.

2. Botelho, Greg, and Holly Yan. "George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty of Murder in Trayvon Martin's Death." CNN. Greg Botelho and Holly Yan: Cable News Network, 14 July 2013. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

3. Garza, Alicia, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors. "Black Lives Matter Freedom & Justice for All Black Lives." Black Lives Matter RSS2. Black Lives Matter. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.
   

With 5 of the 7 of us that regard our parents as “strict”, it is true that the boundaries of strict parents aren’t just residing in that of Asian families. It can occur to every race and/or gender, no matter your background. Usually the term of strict parents comes from the parents childhood as well, as they might have considered their own parents as ”strict”. It’s a big cluster of “strict parents”, and you were possibly born into that lineage. But it’s not something that should overtake every family. They should take ease on their children. Hard work is needed, not just good grades. The parents should take into the account the amount of work the child puts forth to attain a B or below.

Pledge:

Yo …How many times do I need to call you to get your ass down here to eat, huh? ...Noon, uhh, don’t talk back at me… I have been calling you for the past 10 minutes, I should not have to call you a trillion times for you to eat! *paused silence* What’s this *sniff sniff* Andrew are you fucking serious! I thought that you’ll be different! Oh my gosh…*pulls weed out* ...S-So this is yours! I thought it was your brother’s. What did you just say? Oh, so it was your brother’s huh? He’ll beat you the fuck up if he finds out that you took his joints! Did you forget about what he did?! He killed the love of my life, your father, because he said your brother couldn’t do drugs. Now he’s suffering in jail for the rest of his life. I won’t allow you to take that path and end up like him! ..Be Quiet!, Let me finish.

Drugs is like an addiction. Once you start, you won’t be able to stop. You do it once, then again, and forever. Andrew, be honest. When did you start? A month a-go!? *Starts sobbing

This is all my fault! If I watched you and payed close attention to you, this wouldn’t have happened. It’s all my fault. Your father and I made an agreement together that your brother could not do drugs, but he paid for it since he was home! *Pause* I should’ve been home too. Forget working, I should’ve been home to help out when you needed help the most. I wish that it was not your father and it was me home at that time.*Starts sobbing*  I-I-I just wished that this wouldn't have turn out this way!

You're all I have right now. I can’t lose you too! Look what happened when your father died, I was depressed for a month. I won’t lose you too. You're only 17! You should be hanging out with friends, going to prom and having fun making memories, but instead you’re getting  high as a kite!

Why did you start this? This “drug” business?? Was it your dad? Was it me? C’mon, say something! Talk to me! If it’s dad, then talk to him, visit his grave. He’s a really good listener. So it’s not. What? You started doing this because no one wanted to go to prom with you?!...And I thought that there was a bigger issue!... You should have told me..! I can get a hot chick to go with you, did you forget? I look like I’m only 20! Everyone knows that your dad died but NO one knows that I am your mom. I had always wanted to go to a prom and if you don’t want me to go, I can always get someone for you? Would you do the honor to go to prom with me?. Yass now you're smiling. …But you’re going to have to go to rehab first!

…Why won’t you? You think this is funny!...You got Hookah from your friends not drug? *Shock* ohh my goodness, honeyyy! I’m sorry for making assumptions! I should’ve had known better that the drug was not drug!! The smell of drugs just trigger the memories of your dad and brother which you know that I am unable to hold back. I’m really sorry for making an assumption AGAIN! I should have learned from the last time. *Takes a deep breath* But you should know this, hookah is not that bad just don’t overdo it. It can damage your health even though it seems harmless. *looks at time* Oh my, so much time had passed by! Hurry up and go downstairs to eat, it is almost your bedtime and Andrew, I am really glad that it is not drugs! *Smiles*

“Is it this?” I pointed to the orange bags of apples in the fridge.

“No,” my mother said, “Tā shì zài niú nǎi de páng biān.” (It’s next to the milk)

“How about this,” this time I brung out the orange juice.

“Nǐ zhēn shǎ wǒ gào su nǐ yāo zuò yī gè jiǎn dān de shì qíng nǐ shèn zhì bù néng wéi wǒ zuò de,” my mother said. (You're so stupid, I am telling you to do a simple thing and you can’t even do that for me!)

“Well it’s not my fault that you didn’t teach us chinese when we was little,” I said in a frustrated tone.

“Hǎo bā sāng dí zhī dào zhōng guó hé tā de mā ma méi yǒu jiào tā,” my mother yelled. (Well, Sandy knows chinese and her mom didn’t teach her)

And there it goes again. She compares us to anyone she knows from the top of her head. Sooner or later she will bring up our cousins. My cousins in my mother's side who owned a restaurant.

She will say, “Kevin hé steven jiù xiàng sān zhì sì nián bǐ nǐ nián qīng  tā men dū yǐ jīng zài cān guǎn gōng zuò  kàn kan nǐ nǐ jiù xiàng yī wèi gōng zhǔ nǐ zuò de jiù shì děng dài wǒ tài zuò fàn chī le tā,” (Kevin and Steven is like three to four years younger than you and they are already working in the restaurant, look at you, you are like a princess. All you do is wait for me too cook and eat it)

She expect us to find a job and know everything. But when this occurs at this point, I’ll tune her out. I knew that the more I answer back, the more she will go talking about things other than what started it. I didn’t understand how I was suppose to know what to get when I can barely understand her. My mother is able to speak chinese, fuzhounese, mandarin and cantanase but how come she didn’t teach us when we were little. I have two older sisters and one younger brother, who barely knows that language so I wasn’t the only one.

I was born in New York and was raised around Philadelphia with my siblings. I attend school in Center City where all the students learn english and spanish and not chinese. Once, I had to ask my parents something for school.

“Mommy, can I interview you for my history benchmark?”

“Jì xù.” (Go ahead)

“Wǒ kě yǐ jì lù tā mǎ.” (Can I record it?), I said suddenly, wondering if she’ll say no,

I was able to speak chinese to her for a bit until my mind go blank to what I had to say.

“Nín de xuǎn zé.” (Your choice)

“I ask what culture shì bù (was different) compared to Philly.”

I usually struggle speaking in my language that I end up speaking in chinese and when I don’t know the rest, I speak in english. My mom would get lost of what I am saying causing her to be frustrated.

She responded with, “Shì bù tóng tā zuò.” (I don’t know what you're saying)

The fact that this was due the next morning, I was very frustrated. I tried google translate and other translators and she still could not understand me. I changed the question up and finally got something out of her.

No matter if a language is your first language, I believe our language can still be a conflict when speaking to a relative and parents. No matter if you're born to a chinese family, it doesn’t mean you will learn that language like that. In fact, some may talk amazing in their language but would not know how to read them and write them. It really depends on who you are raised around. If I was born in China, I guarantee that I would know chinese fluently because that what most people in china speaks.

My language barrier would also affect me in school. Since english is not my first language, I will still have to learn harder than people who language is english. I remember the first day I attended school. People, I guess my friends, would usually talk to me.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” I was say back.

Our conversation would end like that. When I speak english, I don’t speak that language fluently like some would if English were their first language. In fact, everyone has an accent. In my case, my accent is english and then when ending in words I would struggle and add a chinese kind of accent. This affects me when I am trying to learn a different language such as spanish. Spanish is a topic that I have a hard time pronouncing certain words.

“Hola, mi nombre es Don Marcos,” the spanish teacher would say on the first day of school.

One time, he wanted us to do the warm up so that's what we did but it was different, he wanted to go around the room to read the sentence that we had wrote. The person next to me would speak and say their sentence and then it was my turn.

“Ayer yo fuí a la casa de amigos. Yo hablé con mi amigos,” I said.

It was an humiliating moment for me. My sentence made sense and was good but just because I had a hard time pronouncing “fuí” due to my accent it had really got to me. I learned that I had to practice twice as hard to say those word. It was my accent.

My accent sucks, I had to admit it. But I just get rid of these though by thinking about how others who can’t even talk and feel graceful that I can. Sometimes, it may not only be spanish words that I can’t pronounce, but english.

This moment kinda reminded me of the book “The Language Instinct”. In this book, the author talks about language and how it is an instinct and not a skill. There was this one quote, “The mind is a neutral computer”. (Pg 81) This quote got me thinking about how our mind is so much like a computer. The word that come out of our mouth, the way the mind think to pronounce the unfamiliar words and sometime familiar words.

This had started when I was in biochem. My group and I had to film a video on variables. We had made a script and everything. All we had to do was read them and record it, so that what we did.

My classmate would say the script, “Nowww will you tell me the independent variable”

“An inddipendent variable is…..I forget the lyrice

“You're pronouncing the word wrong”,

I’ll pronounce it again and get it right but I will have to pronounce it really slow.”

“Indeepenndeenttt.”

This was the way I had to speak to get it right. At the end, I realized that my language and accents is an issue for me at home and in daily life. It doesn’t matter where I was, school or not, I would still have issue pronouncing words, and having conversation with my parents and ancestor. Though, I did not let this get the best of me. I still spoke with my accent, I just gotta learn to embrace it.

While researching poverty for this project, I encountered many glows and grows. Some glows are my discovery of many organizations that battle poverty. Since poverty is the cause of hunger, many organizations are aware of this issue and are trying to help. Though, for my research, some grows are I wanted to find more about people affected by poverty so that I could involve them in my original research. I believe that if I had added that information, more people will be interested in the topic of poverty. A question that was left unanswered and I am still wondering about is why were parents not as effective as much as children.

Some challenges I experienced during my original research was finding an organization that would allow me to interview them. It was something that I could not do since no one wrote back to me. So I was left to do a survey. I actually found some shocking information. For example, many people knew that poverty is an issue but they didn’t know that poverty affects mostly children. If I can do this over again, I would continue to reach out to organizations and if that is not possible, I could get better questions on my blog post 2 so that it would answer my point.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In my previous blog, I talked about how poverty is an issue, especially in Philadelphia. I gave a quick overview of what’s happening because of this issue. For example,  people are dying. I also focused on how poverty is affecting many people and how we could help minimize it. I talked about how people are dying due to poverty. But I did not go into exact detail to who is affected by it and how we can help out.

Through more research, I found that 1 out of 2.5 children live in deep poverty. That means some children are living with an income below the poverty line which is less than 6,000 and 7,000 if with a child. That is 35% of the total population of 440,000 people. That is extreme, since children are supposed to be the ones getting an education and reaching for their dreams. Children that are in deep poverty will result in hunger due to little money. Hunger results in a possibility of 60% to miss school, 50% to repeat the same grade again, and twice more than a original student to be suspended from school. This also brings down the percent of graduation rate to below 50%. I wanted to ask some students about this topic, so I decided to conduct a survey. One of the questions I asked was “Do you think poverty is affected in children more than adults?”

As a response to this, 4 out of 6 were unsure while 2 were sure that poverty affects children more than adults. This shows that students are not aware of this, even when it most likely to be affected in them but do you ever wondered why? It’s been proven that the population of a child takes up 20%, and most of their parents are most likely to be either a lone parent, large families with more than 3 children. Since many are born to a large family with a single parenting, not much is made and the children are most likely to be affected by it.  As to why, some students said because they aren’t able to get jobs like adults and others say because they are left out to starve. This shows that some do understand but some just states the obvious of starvation.

As for this part of my survey, I ask if they had any experience with poverty or see others suffering from it. As a result, it shows that 1 out of 6  say no while 5 out of 6 said I have seen some and some are even affected by it themselves. This show that some student are affected by poverty and some seen many people on the street due to poverty. This proves that it is indeed an issue since due to poverty they are most likely to end up homeless.

In the beginning, I wanted to bring awareness of poverty but surprisingly, it seems as everyone I surveyed understood that poverty is an issue in the United States. Many blamed the economy since it’s in debt while others blame the people that are unemployed. That’s right it is actually the feds. The feds tricks people making them pay more money than they usually pay. This also affect the student because they make the student in debt too due to educations loans. They make the old people entice to complete dependent   of medicare and medicaid program.

You can find more of the result of this survey here.

    Doing this survey, I learned that more are aware of poverty and bringing awareness is not an issue but not many know that it’s mostly affected in children. I was really excited to do this project but it was not how I expected it. I thought that it would be simple and easy sending out email to organizations but I was wrong. It was actually a lot harder since many don’t have time to answer back or feel like it. It was also hard to target Philadelphia and not other countries since my project is based on Philadelphia. Not only that but I had encountered many problems. I experience issue such as people not emailing back and not only that but answering my calls. I emailed various of organization and not one decided to write back which was disappointing. I felt like it was better to email an organization or person who have the same goal as me which is definity more useful than asking a confuse kid. Since time was near and a submission is better than nothing, I had no other choice but to do a survey. A question that I’m still wondering about is how the government became in such debt to increase poverty each year.

Overall, Poverty is an huge issue and even some childrens know that! For my Agent of Change for Blog Post #3, I am planning to do a bake sale where I fundraise since poverty is an money issue. You all can help out by buying the bake sale when it comes. I would really help out people in hunger since hunger is affected due to poverty. This will help some childrens from dieing since the money will go to a hunger coalition. This is not the only way to help. There are others way to help such  as a shared property organization in which is trying to stop poverty. They have goals such as better job and training employment, economic security, etc. You should check out shared property organization!

This project is meant to show how poverty is affecting people's lives. I want to bring awareness towards how we can help. Poverty, in my opinion, is an interesting topic and I think that we can and must raise money to combat it. Poverty means the state of being extremely poor. This means having barely any money and a scarce amount of money means no food. Due to this, people are suffering and even dying because of poverty. Today, this situation is critical since the United State’s poverty number has doubled.

This chart show that Pennsylvania have the highest in population and is one of the nation poorest cities due to extreme poverty. As the population increase, the number of poverty increases.

"Pennsylvania Poverty Numbers Available | Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger." Pennsylvania Poverty Number Available. Coalition Against Hunger, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://www.hungercoalition.org/story/recent-data-confirms-millions-pennsylvanians-continue-struggle-hunger>.

The Black Eyes Peas Where Is the Love”

Poverty can be relate to the song, “Where Is the Love” since in this song, The Black Eyed Peas sing about world problems such as poverty. They say how it is horrible, and peace and love should be the solution.

Annotated Bibliography Links

SLA-SEMPAI

Hola, nuestros nombres es Cindy, Paul-ann y Elías. Bienvenidos a nuestra escuela, el Science Leadership Academy.  El Science Leadership Academy es una buena escuela. Nuestra escuela es un poco loca y chévere. Hay cinco pisos pero nosotros sólo usó cuatro. Ofrecemos béisbol y robótica y fútbol y música y disco volador. Yo participo en béisbol y disco volador. Porque son divertida y deportista. En la SLA nosotros leemos y aprendemos y escribimos y discutimos y hablamos y escuchamos.

Las clase tenemos es informática, bioquímica, historia, literature, español, consejería, álgebra, almuerzo, teatro, y ingeniería. Nuestros favorita clase es inglés historia y teatro. Su clases es mucho divertida. En inglés clase leemos y en teatro nosotros acto. En inglés clase necesito una lápiz y computadora. En historia necesito una computadora y en el teatro tú necesito tú. Para tener éxito en esta clase, necesita más prestamos atención, trabajamos duro, participamos, y estar preparado.

El Science Leadership Academy tengo buen professors. Pero los encanta los inglés drama y historia professors. Señorita Giknis enseña la inglés. Su clase es mucho divertida. Leemos mucho interesante libros. Senorita es muy cómica y sarcástica. Senor Kay ensena drama y poetry. Su clase es mucho mucho exceptional. Señor es Señor Todd enseña historia. Escribimos mucho. Su clase es mucho interesante. Señor es muy cómico y  simpatica.  

Nos encanta Science Leadership Academy porque es una escuela basada en proyectos. Una escuela basada en proyectos es más interesante que tomó prueba. Lo que más nos gusta de Science Leadership Academy es los maestros.  Nuestro escuela, Science Leadership Academy los maestros son divertidos y inteligentes. Además, Science Leadership Academy es un bastante chévere, excepcional, y súper divertidos escuela.

Cindy Script:

*play music “ waka waka” (esto es africa)*

Show first slide

*Switch slide*  

(Welcome) Bienvenidos

Yo: Hola , Mi nombre es Cindy. Soy  asiática. Tengo quince años. Soy de Nueva York pero vivo en Filadelfia. Soy baja y trabajadora.  

*Switch slide, music in background, end*

él:  *sam: hola me llamo sam* Sam es un chico. él tiene los ojos cafés y el pelo negro. Le fascina leer. Es alto y inteligente.  Asiste a Science leadership academy. él es una mezcla de razas.

Ellas: Ellas son Paul-ann y Kay. Les gusta leer. Les tienen loca. ¡Es una broma! ¡Es una broma!  Les son fabulosa. Paul-ann encantaría decir miau. ¡En serio! Lo que me encanta ellas es ellas son divertidas.

Nosotras: Te presento a Yo, paul-ann Y Kay. Somos trabajadora y baja. Tenemos los ojos café y el pelo café. Nos encanta leer. Asistimos a Science leadership Academy. Nos conocimos en la escuela.

Fin: Eso es todo. Gracias por tu atención.

Teens should know about Net Neutrality because it teaches them about the internet and what is going on with it. With net neutrality, we are able to have equal access of internet. Not only that, we won’t argue about having faster internet than others. Teens need to know about the equal access and know that their parents are paying the same amount of money. If we don’t have net neutrality, we will have to pay more for faster internet when they will probably trick you into thinking that your internet is faster when it is actually slowing down. Without Net neutrality some web page will be block and that won’t be fair because you will have to pay more to access it. They will make media such as netflix and skype be slow or maybe even blocking it.

Net neutrality is also important to teen because without net neutrality it will affect our education. Teens may be doing their homework and need access to a certain website but can’t get on it unless they pay more. Not everyone is rich so that won’t be fair because some people that are broke won’t be able to afford it when they are trying to get a good education. It also won’t be fair for the person who is paying for your internet. For example your parents. Your parents would have to pay more when they have to worry about their bills and other things that need to be pay off. With net neutrality. we won’t have these problem because everyone will have equal access of the internet and you won’t have to pay more to view a certain webpage.

Teens also need to know that not all internet service provider have net neutrality. That mean that some service provider are charging you for website and faster speed without you knowing. For example Version and Comcast. Not only teens but I believed that parent need to know about this too. Internet service provider like Verizon and Comcast believes that making people pay more for faster internet and website access is better because they are able to control what you can get on. That is unfair and teens should know about these thing so we can prevent these things from happening and maybe checking to make sure they are not doing this to you.

Souces:

http://time.com/102268/net-neutrality-facts/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-calls-on-fcc-to-issue-rules-protecting-net-neutrality-1415633678