As my capstone project, I decided to teach kids the essentials of financial literacy. This subject is not taught to every student. Understanding your finances is important, particularly as you age and gain independence. Thus, I choose to conduct a mini-course. As a result, I strengthened my students’ knowledge and enhanced my communication skills. No courses, workshops, or after-school programs were provided to teach students financial literacy throughout my time in the Philadelphia School District. However, I was lucky enough to have parents who helped me understand financial literacy, answered my questions, and explained debt, student loans, student loan repayment, credit card vs. debit card, savings account vs. checking account, and credit.

Let me tell you a story about my first con. Yessir, it was a real doozy. It all started in high school when I played the game “King of Mao.” Whoo-me when I tell ya this was one for the books. I even put money on the line, “If you win, you can have my lunch money, but if I win, I get your lunch money.” It was a deal! Chi’chingg, the sound of money in my head. I knew I was going to win this game. I handed them all six cards; there were four of us. I was the dealer of the game, of course, so that meant that I made the rules as we went along. These bozos had no idea that I was about to con them. The rest of the deck was put in the middle of the table, and one card was put face up on the table. I started. The first card that was on the table was 8 of hearts, so I slapped my damn 8 of hearts right on top. Next was Bobbie’s turn; he fiddled with his cards. Come’on, damnn, he taking forever; this must mean his ass don’t have anything. He has the worst goddamn poker face. He yells goddamit, I pull a card from the stack on the table and hand it to him. You’re not supposed to speak during the game. I say to myself, I got one fool so far! Then Max was next. I let him place his 8 of diamonds, and I didn’t give him an extra card; I decided to let him slide this time. Now it’s time for Daniel to go, and he puts down a raggedy 3 of diamonds. I could tell he was excited that he had a card. So I decided to ruin that excitement by waiting until he put down his card. I looked at him with an expression that suggested that he forgot to say something, and he didn’t say it, so I gave him an extra card. He thought he was off the hook because he had a card! You thought wrong, buddy. “Hey, why are you giving me this?” he says. Because you didn’t say have a good day to me. What, since when was that a rule, he said? But I didn’t answer him, and he’s a fool, I said in the back of my head with a smirk on my face. Now it’s my turn again, and I slammed down my 5 of diamonds. Then, there’s a pause in the game. We are all waiting for Bobbie to go, so I give him another card; the hell with that; he tak’in all day like we got that type of time. “I’m not taking that card,” he said; ohh, you sure as hell will. You took too damn long to go when it was your turn. “Okay, I see how this game will play out,” Bobbie says. Thirty minutes had passed, and only one card was left on the table from the extra card pile. Now it’s Daniel’s turn. As he goes to put down his card, my hand is up, holding that last card on the table. With a devious smile on my face, I gave him the last card. He didn’t even question why he just accepted the fact that he just lost. I told them to count their cards, and Max had the most, so I told him that he lost the game. Time for ya to pay up, Booyah. I took all his money. The true con always wins, and that’s just the way it is. Well, well, well, this was my first con, and when I tell ya, it felt Goddamn good, it felt Godddamn good!

Artist Statement: When choosing to write from the point of view of McMurphy, I wanted to show all his Greed, manipulative ways, and competitiveness. These attributes stuck out to me and intrigued me to explore more closely. Throughout the book, he speaks very passionately, uses a lot of profanity, thinks that everything is a competition and needs a vote, is cocky, playful, and wants to win at everything. What better way to show all of his traits than him being a mastered con man? This also further adds a significant part of the book: characterization and how different characters appear to the readers. His specific talking style and background appeal to readers and help create a dynamic tone to his story. The specific moment from the book I wanted to build on was on page 72 when McMurphy states, “The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he’s getting it.” Furthermore, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to explore his character further and find ways to extend that outside the book. Being a dynamic character includes many aspects of culture and language, which I wanted to utilize in writing this scene.

The novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” shuffles a lot with the idea of religion and what that looks like for the main character. In close reading #4, it was brought to my attention that Offred deeply struggles with her religious identity. On page 195, chapter 30, Offred states, “I feel as if I’m talking to a wall. I wish you’d answer. I feel so alone”. To the readers, this reveals that, on the one hand, Offred does acknowledge that she is talking to God. Still, then, on the other hand, Offred is struggling with having faith in the fact that God is listening to her, but because she’s not getting answers to her prayers, her faith is fading. Furthermore, Even though Offred struggles with how strong her faith is, she doesn’t deny that God is a creator because, On page 195, chapter 30, Offred states, “You might even provide a heaven for them. We need you for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.” to the readers this shows that Offred is saying that Heaven is the peace that God created. Hell is what people create hence Gilead and its creation. In her eyes, Gilead is almost the representation of “hell.” The society is very dystopian, and the individual’s freedom and rights have been stripped away from them, which causes them to experience a lot of brainwashing and manipulation. This further proves that Gilead is similar to hell metaphorically, and this pushes characters such as Offred to focus on religion to cope with the loss of identity.

This piece of artwork that I created represents the moment when Offred was praying/talking to God in her room, sitting at the window. This moment is significant because I felt that the author intended to show not only Offred’s struggle but also how people in the real world may battle with having faith. The struggle of talking to God through prayer, asking him questions for guidance and clarity, and being unable to get a direct answer. I choose to create this sense in this way because not only do I believe that this is a vulnerable moment for Offred, but I also believe that this is a vulnerable moment for all people struggling with faith. This scene, among many others, indicates that religion is a significant symbol throughout the novel, and the characters experience it in many ways. The artwork represents her journey and struggles to live in this new society, and she views religion as a safety net to fall back on when there are tough times. Before this scene, the readers didn’t consider Offred a religious believer. This signifies character development and explicitly represents Gilead and how it changes people. What is being portrayed in my scene is God up in the clouds looking down at Offred while she’s praying. We don’t see God’s appearance, so he is just the clouds. Offred is sitting in her room, sitting on the window, getting a full view of her room in a gaze, asking god why she can’t see him or at least get a direct answer from her prayers.

In the earlier post that I made, I talked a lot about the issue that I am studying. I am focusing on homelessness in Philadelphia. My former post discussed many other factors that play into people becoming homeless such as mental illness, being laid off of a job, Covid 19, and not being paid enough. One of the biggest things I talked about was not just adults being homeless but children and families as well. For further background and information on my research, you can click here to see my prior post.

Two words Chosen 300. This establishment made my idea/experience come to life. It was very realistic and worth every minute and second of my time. I partnered up with an organization called chosen 300. I really admired their mission statement. Their mission is “To bring people of different membership groups together; helping them to realize that despite our differences in our race, ethnic group, denomination, social class, economic classes, or the diverse ways we practice our faith; we can unify ourselves for the common good. The purpose of our unification is to distribute meals and services to the homeless throughout the Philadelphia Region and around the world.”

To begin, I knew that I wanted to do more than my original idea which was to take up a fundraiser and donate the collection. I wanted to also give more of my time. Not only was I able to give my time, but I was also able to convince my family to give some of their time as well. On May 15th, My family and I arrived at Chosen 300 to volunteer our time. During our time there we labeled approximately 150 food containers, prepared the food, packaged food, and snacks, organized, cleaned, handed out the packaged food and drinks. During this time, we were able to hold conversations with the people in need about their day and how it was going. I was also able to interview the Project Manager for this particular location (Spring Garden).

There was a line of people outside waiting to be served. I have mixed emotions about some of the attitudes. Some people were genuinely grateful, and some were demanding and some would snatch the food right out of your hands. I believe that My presence was definitely effective because the organization was very short-staffed, they were overwhelmed. Giving out the food, having a conversation, and being generous really has an effect on people and shows people that you don’t look down on them for their situation.

After looking back at all of the work that I did for this project I can say that I really enjoyed doing this project and highly recommend everyone doing it. While doing this project I learned that I definitely need to go out of my comfort zone a little bit more because when I do I do excellent work like this. I also learned that there are people and organizations that actually go really hard and full in for my issue which brings warmth to my heart to know that I’m not the only one trying to make a change. I wish that I had more time because I had so many ideas that I am still going to do, and I could have used them for this project. I would say that in order to make a big change we need everyone to fundraise, donate, and give their time to volunteer and help out organizations like chosen 300 make a change.

Have you ever noticed a homeless person in Philadelphia that needed help but you didn’t exactly know-how to help them? The Philadelphian community is suffering to get Homeless people, families, and children off the streets. This is a big issue that should be discussed and fixed to get people off the street and help anyone in a bad situation. “Homelessness In Philadelphia.” I chose this issue because it needs more discussion, more awareness, more attention to make the issue a little better. My family and I, at any free moment we have we always try to donate or give something to the homeless people on the streets. This issue matters to me because I try to put myself in anyone’s shoes, and if I were in a dire predicament, I would want people or anyone in my corner to care enough about me and my situation to want to help. This topic is essential for others to know about to help but to know that there are many non-judgemental people in the world who are willing to help you or anyone you know that is in a challenging situation.

Homelessness is a massive issue in Philadelphia. According to Know Homelessness, there are about 5,700 people that are considered homeless, but 950 out of the 5,700 are unsheltered. Philadelphia has the lowest number of street homeless people than any other city in the U.S. Things you should know about homelessness in Philly also talked about how 1.6 million people that live in the city of Philadelphia, and 400,000 of them were found to be living below the poverty line in 2015. They can’t find jobs or have jobs but don’t get paid enough to pay bills, and the rent gets higher. People no longer have enough money to spend, etc. to add on Project Home stated: “A person would have to work 86 hours per week at the minimum hourly wage of $7.25 to afford even a modest one-bedroom apartment.” this just makes me think like how does the government expect people to be able to live comfortably? But then it goes in talking about children experiencing homelessness, and it exactly said: “3,899 School District of Philadelphia (SDP) students experiencing homelessness, 58 percent remained in their school of origin, 19 percent attended different schools, and 5 percent enrolled in more than two schools.” These are some excellent points to bring up because I know that some people in this world take children to a very soft spot in their hearts.

Now that we have some background knowledge of the issue, we can see how recent events made the Homelessness population go up even higher. As we all should know, Covid-19 is a big deal now, and while we were in Target, Walmart, and other stores arguing over who will get the last pack of toilet paper, I don’t think we ever thought about how this pandemic will affect the homeless. Well, the City of Homelessness enlightened us on the experiences of homeless people during the pandemic. They first started by stating: “After SEPTA enforced new Covid-19 rules and placed barrier decals to ensure social distancing, fewer homeless people were seen sleeping on trains, though many still ride the rails for hours in a semi-hypnotic, drugged state. Even in a pandemic, the trains serve as a kind of temporary home.” Then it went in on how Liz Hersh, the director of Philadelphia’s office of homeless services, talked about how the “city streets are home to about 850 unsheltered homeless people.” City Life gives us the perspectives and quotes of actual homeless people. “T.S. Eliot ( a homeless person) talked about how December is one of the cruelest months because of the holidays that are coming around, and it reminds you of everything that you’ve left behind.” going back to my thought of putting myself in someone else’s shoes I would be really sad about not having any family on special holidays.

Lastly, Understanding Homelessness talked about the challenges that homeless people face, such as “Safety & Security, Physiological Needs, Cleanliness & Hygiene, Barriers to employment,” etc. It had a page called the “Explore Data,” and you can find your state, city, country, or region to see how many homeless people there were in January 2015. 1 Dot=5 Homeless people. One of the parts that I enjoyed about this sit was that it has a section that tells you and shows you how you can help homeless people. For example, it says that you can help with “Addiction services, Better data collection, Clothing supply, Finding jobs, Flexible housing types, Food provision, Fundraising, Health services,” and many more.

After all of my research, I feel that I have more knowledge of the different things that factor into people becoming homeless and how I could help them live better in this world in the situation they’re in. I’m wondering if more people were to take just an hour out of their day could the homelessness population decrease? What is one good strategy you have to help homeless people? I hope to learn more about how to make things better in the world in general.

[Annotated Bibliography] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lEoKEJ6IvhtKKP79x-XdYJC9ZNH2gBteyY7hIkInNao/edit?usp=sharing)

Mi familia y yo somos simpáticos, trabajadores, responsables, sinceros y divertidos. Yo tengo un hermano mayor. Yo tengo cinco tías, cuatro tìos y cinco primos. Yo vivo con mi mamá, mi hermano y mi abuela.

Mi hermano, es simpático, vago, atlético y divertido. Él tiene el pelo negro oscuro y él tiene el pelo corto y espeso. Él tiene ojos oscuros . Él es muy alto. Yo creo que él es más atlético. No es ni callado ni responsable.

Mi mamá es simpática, trabajadora, divertida, sincera, y responsable. Ella tiene el pelo pelirrojo y ella tiene el pelo corto, liso, ondulado, y rizado. Ella tiene ojos oscuros. Ella es baja. Ella es trabajadora y responsable. No ella es ni mentirosa ni persona desordenada.

Hola mi nombre es Jabree Brown. Yo soy afroamericano y vivo en Filadelfia. Tengo los ojos oscuros. Yo tengo el pelo oscuro marrón y mi pelo es rizado. Soy un poco tímido, divertido, sincero, responsable, y simpático.

Mi hermano y yo tenemos el pelo corto, rizado, espeso, y marrón oscuro. Nosotros somos ojos oscuros, y él y yo llevamos gafas. No somos antipáticos ni mentirosos. Somos simpáticos, trabajadores, sinceros y divertidos. Los dos somos bastantes altos y llevamos diez años en edad. Somos de Filadelfia y somos afroamericanos. Él es mucho más perezoso por cierto!!!

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2076171046

I started this project once it was given to me. at first, I was not sure what I wanted to do then it came to me a comic of my life in 2020. I would sit outside in mother nature to get ideas and in many other parts of my home. I chose to do a comic because I thought that it would be way better for everyone to see my point of view instead of reading my point of view.