For my capstone, it was important for me to work with children. I originally wanted to volunteer at St. Christopher’s Hospital and do storytelling with the children, as well as creating a book. However, there were a few complications with that idea so my mentor, Ms. Giknis and I, were brainstorming of other places I could possibly volunteer at while still doing something similar to what I wanted to do. We eventually saw that Ronald McDonald House offers opportunities for volunteers, most times high schoolers, to create arts and crafts or play some kids who are long-term ill. My main goal for this capstone was to give children who are ill, the opportunity to “play” or “live” like a normal child would. These children are constantly in and out of the hospital, some even only knowing what a hospital room looks like. Most of the research towards this project was just looking up ways to approach children who are ill and even families of the children. A lot of it was also finding fun arts and crafts for them to do.

Dear person,

I’m sorry for breaking our promise.

“You won’t leave me right?”

“Never. But I know you will, right?”

“No. I don’t think I’d be able to.”

“Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise.”

At that moment you asked me to stay by your side through anything and everything. I asked for the same back. Our pinkies were out and then in a blink of an eye, they were wrapped around one another.

I thought leaving you was the best decision I have made in a long time. Being by your side for more than three years was probably too much for me. There were times where you made me feel as though I wasn’t good enough for you. I always believed that I had to constantly change myself just to fit your standards. You put me in situations where I always had thoughts of leaving you, but I knew my heart didn’t want that. When we first met, you made me feel special. I was comfortable with you. I shared with you everything about me. I thought that there was nothing that could have gotten in the way. Even though people believed we weren’t going to continue a long friendship and relationship because of our ages, we proved them all wrong, didn’t we?

I remember the first time we met. We were introduced to each other by mutual friends. It’s funny because when I first saw you, never would I had imagined us to be as close as we were. Somehow, we gave each other the nickname, “buddy”. Do you remember when I had field hockey practices during the fall and lacrosse practices during the spring? You always showed up, but I never knew that because you would always climb up your favorite tree in the park. I noticed you from afar when I saw your red and black Nike shoes.

“Wow. I have the same shoes as you. Hey buddy! What are you doing up there?”

“I didn’t want you to see me. It was supposed to be a surprise. Plus, I’m shy.”

“Why are you shy? We’re buddies remember? Now get down from there. Practice is over.”

You walked me home that day and we became closer. Since that day, everything else became clearer and I thought things would get better. However, you lied to me.

Your lies caused us to not talk for a couple months. They were the longest months of my life. We finally started talking again because you texted first.

“Hey buddy. I know it’s wrong of me to text you after lying to you, but I was scared that if you knew the truth, you’d see me differently. I’m so sorry.”

I didn’t exactly know who you were, but I decided to give it a shot of getting to know the real you. I texted back and from that day on we've become inseparable.

Our relationship became more serious further along the way and everything felt magical. Despite the age difference, you seemed to be the one teaching me things I've never seen before. We’ve shared many things with each other. Secrets, laughs, smiles, tears, arguments, we shared basically everything.

After nine months, things changed.

As we sat on my bed, you looked at me right in the eyes and lied. You lied to me again. Then again. I didn't know what to do. Your lies kept feeding off of me so I didn't know who I could trust anymore or what to believe from anyone especially you. At that point, I didn't know who I was anymore either. I was not the girl you used to know. I became more independent, more closed off, quieter. Because of those lies, my trust for you became more vague everyday. But instead of me leaving, I gave you another chance to redeem yourself. They were constantly telling me that you were just a child. I still didn't want to let you go though.

Everyone around us constantly told me that you wouldn’t have been able to handle a relationship because you were younger than I. It’s funny because sometimes I would forget that you were younger. You always acted more mature than I did.

Two years in, we thought things were great. At least I believed that they were. However, July 6th came and I started working. You were working as well. I didn’t expect that this situation would be the reason that we would became more distant. Days went by and there were barely 30 words made to each other each day. It was hard. I tried putting the most effort into this relationship, but there were too many things going on in my life where I didn't realize you were trying just as hard. I never came to you about most of it because we were both always busy. I'm not too sure how or when or why, but I thought the best thing for the both of us was to separate from each other.

I promised you that no matter what, we would continue to try and make things work for the both of us. But instead, I broke that promise. When we separated, I constantly believed that it was all because of me. I was torturing myself constantly. I felt as if you were pushing me away, and I thought you were slowly losing feelings. Instead of trying to help you gain those feelings back, I let them slip completely and tried making things easier by leaving. I wanted to remain as close friends but it was hard for the both of us. Things obviously weren’t the same. A couple days after the separation, we were still talking as close friends when you brought up the promise. That promise that was made two years ago. The same promise that I broke. It hurt me to know that you still remembered it. At that moment I wished that we had never made that promise. However, it was a lesson that needed to be learned.

So, thank you for teaching me that promises are sometimes meant to be broken. I hope one day, you’d understand why I did it. I’m sorry for breaking our promise.

Love,

Your Buddy Eb.

Teens boy and girls are placed in a position where they have to take responsibilities for a lot of their own actions. This could be caused by the lack of a parental figure in the person’s life. When there isn’t any attention given towards them, there’s no other way than to have another person fill in the spot. On top of working or dealing with pregnancy, teens are also given another huge level of stress everyday due to the amount of work given to them in school. Usually, when a person is stressed, the best thing for their mind is some type of comfort or support. Who wouldn’t want to hear some kind words? In America, a proper education is the main ingredient to succeeding. However, because of the lack of moral support provided for teenagers, or high school students, many follow each other’s footsteps by dropping out of school.

Consider the story of Kenny Buchanan, who dropped out of high school in Schuylkill County, PA. After twenty six years, Kenny realized that maybe his decision of dropping out was a bad idea due to the fall of the economy. This basically meaning that people that most jobs require a high school diploma, etc. Now, Kenny is struggling to find a job, because he does not have a high school diploma. According to an interview from npr.org, Kenny talks about his decision to drop out by stating, “[In] ninth grade, I dropped out of school. I was 18. I flunked twice, I had no interest, and I told my mom 'cause I was living at home at the time, I said, 'I'm done, I'm not going back to school,'" he says.” This shows a perfect example of lack of support. Kenny failed twice and finally spoke out about dropping out of school. Instead of his mother convincing him to stay in school, she apparently agreed to it, showing the lack of support from his parents. What Kenny really needed was some motivation or support from his mother to keep him going despite the amount of times he failed. Although there isn’t a stated reason as to why he failed twice, one thing that could be said is that he wasn’t getting the help and attention that he needed.

Teen pregnancy is a huge crisis in the United States. It is the top country in the world with the highest teen pregnancy rate. According to teenpregnancystatistics.org, “The drop out rates among pregnant teens is 90 percent across the United States.” This shows that more than fifty percent of the students that drop out are female. This is a huge percentage that could possibly show how females are the ones that lack the most support and attention needed.

Consider the story about a teen mom who made the difficult decision to drop out of school. Katie Vance is a teen mom from Charleston, West Virginia and she said, "Once my baby was born, I didn't really have much help with her. My parents were divorced, and my dad was always working. I tried a day care center, but there were issues with them. The father of the baby was still here, but he also worked. I just felt hopeless. I decided I was going to drop out and get my GED, which I did.” This shows that Katie’s decision was influenced by the lack of help and support from a trusted person. Katie was too busy worrying about too many things at once alone that she was not emotionally stabled. She did not talk about her mother, meaning that her mother was not there physically and mentally. Katie may not have been close with her mother and that is the parental presence that she may have needed in order to feel more hopeful since her father and the baby’s dad were both working.

When asked, high school teens might say that they are able to be successful without finishing school. But on closer inspection, it is hard for them to even find jobs because most jobs require a high school diploma. Teens need to be able to feel supported and motivated and if they’re not getting that type of attention, then they don’t feel the need to stay in school and finish because most teens will feel that they don’t have the potential to finish.

Works Cited:

"Drop Out Rates Among Pregnant Teens." Teen Pregnancy Statistics. Teen Pregnancy Statistics, 13 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.teenpregnancystatistics.org/content/drop-out-rates-among-pregnant-teens.html>.

"Making a Difficult Choice: High School Drop Out Tells Her Story."Charleston Gazette-Mail. Charleston Gazette-Mail, 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

<http://www.wvgazettemail.com/News/201401100105>

Sanchez, Claudio. "A High School Dropout's Midlife Hardships." School's Out: America's Dropout Crisis. Npr, 28 July 2011. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/2011/07/28/138741367/a-high-school-dropouts-mid-life-hardships>.

So, I’m back again with my third and final blog post about bullying; depression and suicide. Here’s a recap of blog #1 and blog #2. In blog 1, I talked about facts and statistics about bullying and how it leads to depression and suicide through research. In my blog 2, I talked about the original research that I did. For my original research, I did a survey and had kids at my old school, taking them from grades 6-8. If you would like to read about any one of the posts you can check here, Blog Post #1 and Blog Post #2. Now, for this blog post I’m going to be talking about my Agent of Change. This means, what did I do to make a difference or let others know about how important my topic is which is bullying.

For my Agent of Change, I decided to go to my old school and start a little support group. In this support group, there were children from grades 6-8. Some were in there by choice and others were kind of recommended by teachers and parents.

I chose to create a small support group because often times children are bullied and depressed, but they feel like they have no one to actually talk to. I thought that they would be a little comfortable and more open with children around their age and those who are going through the same things that they are. In the results of my original survey, more than 50% of the children that took it said that they have not told anyone that they were being bullied. So, this was the time to tell someone and be heard. They were given a journal where they would write in. The group was called Sticks & Stones. 

(This is a poster that the kids made about what they felt or thought about cyber bullying. It was not forced upon them. They had the choice to go up themselves if they had something to write.)

I can walk away knowing that I helped kids open up more about what’s going on in their lives, especially if they’re being bullied. This makes me feel amazing and proud because these kids know that it is very important to let their voices be heard. I now know that if I feel strongly about something, maybe the best thing to do is step up and do something. Every voice is important and should be heard.

Some things that could have been done differently is maybe do more activities of getting to know each other. Most of the children did know each other, but others were quiet and a little awkward. I would actually like to continue doing this because it was a nice way to get to know children and hear their stories.

Bullying is a very serious case leading into other serious cases such as depression and suicide. People should be more aware of what the causes and effects are. You never know if someone you know is being bullied. Most times it’s because they don’t share that type of information, but make sure you could make yourself a pair of open ears. They’ll feel more wanted.

Hey! It’s Ebony again. In my last blog post, I talked about how bullying could lead into depression and suicide. If you have not read the blog yet, you should!

I actually have found a couple new information. One of them is statistics of kids being cyberbullied and bullied. However, they are not kids in my community, but kids across the world in the UK. This shows that it’s not only an issue with mine or your community, but it is a worldwide issue. That is another thing that I wanted to prove. Also, it is something that should alarm people of how dangerous and serious bullying is. These are high percentages of kids who have been both been bullied, physically and through social media such as Facebook, twitter, instagram and even through text messaging.

Another part of this research is to get original research. For my original research, I decided to do a survey of kids in 6-12 grade. The reason I chose a variety of grades is because today, most kids are going through it, no matter how young they are. The point I am trying to get is what is the grade that’s being targeted more. Honestly, my main target was younger kids, ranging between 11-14. The problem about doing this survey is that I was not able to get any information about 7th graders but the majority being 6th graders. Although I was not able to get some of the information I wanted, I did get the information that I needed.

Here are some examples of the most important ones:

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The results that surprised me the most is the number of kids that do tell someone about being bullied. Even though more people have not told anyone about it, there’s only a 6% difference.

So far, this is goodbye, but I will be back soon to show you guys my agent of change part! I’m quite excited and hope everything goes well. Doing this part will give me a better understanding of what people go through. Thank you again for reading. If you went ahead and read this instead of the first blog, I suggest you read the other one too. It’ll help for a better understanding. So, click here! Thanks again.

For further information, check out this.

Hola. Mi nombre es Ebony, pero mi apodo es Eb. Tengo quince años. Soy estudiante de Science Leadership Academy. Esta en el centro de Filadelfia. Es pública, divertida, chevere, a veces es difícil y estresante. Hay 500 estudiantes y 20 profesores . Tenemos computadoras, deportes, clubes, y más. 

Mis clases son bioquímica, álgebra, español uno, historia, drama, arte, y inglés. Mi clase favorita es inglés. Porque es más o menos divertida y interesante. Mis profesores son La Srta. Dunn y la Srta. Lucy. La Srta. En clase inglés, siempre leemos, discutimos, trabajamos, escribimos, y hablamos. Tambien, a veces practicamos el vocab. Para tener éxito en esta clase es requerido hacer la tarea, prestar atención, y participar.  

Hay 20 profesores . La Srta. Manuel es una. Ella enseña español uno y cuatro. Español uno es divertida y extraña. Siempre hablamos, escribimos, y aprendemos español. A veces cantamos y bailamos. Para tener éxito, es requerido estar reparada, tomar apuntes, prestar atención y hacer la tarea. Otro profesores es el Sr. Todd. El eseña africano americano historia. La clase es interesante pero más o menos aburrida. El Sr. Todd es un profesor chévere. Para tener éxito en esta clase, es requerido hacer la tarea, prestar atención, trabajar duro, participar activamente, y tomar apuntes. 

Science Leadership Academy es un escuela fantástica. Me gusta mi escuela! Lo que más me gusta de SLA es los estudiantes son muy muy acogedor y amable. Venir a SLA. Voy ser espera!

Hi, I am Ebony Ream. In tech we are making one slide that describes us, but we have to make it presentable. Mine however, is quite simple. I just found a picture of a microphone from google and placed a quote of mine on it.

The techniques that I used was making the picture bleed off the page a little, so only half of the microphone is on it. For the wording part, I tried to make my words understandable and brighter than the picture itself, like contrasting. Another strategy I used was “the rule of the thirds”, when the screen is divided in a 3x3 fashion. I just evened the picture and wording out. I also made the picture larger. I learned that if you do that, then it attracts people more. This happens with words too.

Before I made this slide, I did get some tips from reading the Presentation Zen website. His tips really helped me out because before reading them, I had no idea there were ways to make your slide presentable and attractive.

I actually changed my whole slide because my main criticism was about the background being very pix-elated. I couldn't find a more high quality picture, so I changed everything but still based the topic of music.

I learned that if you want to have big words, make sure there’s not a thing called a tangent, which is a tight space between two things. Also, some slides are better to be left empty than busy. There’s also certain fonts used for the “advertisement” business. So, it’s better to use those fonts, in order to catch people’s attention.