For my capstone project, I was able to travel to Cuba in the spring. During our trip, we were allowed to research a STEM related project of our choosing. For my topic, i decided to look at business and entrepreneurship in Cuba. My research questions were:

• How are entrepreneurs able to start-up in Cuba?

• What does entrepreneurship look like in Cuba?

• How are people able to brand their names in a socialist country?

Because Cuba is a socialist country, many people believe that citizens aren't able to branch out to make money any other way. By going on this trip, I was able to destroy that myth, but I also learned of the many different opportunities for Cubans to make money.

For my final project, I made a website detailing some of the most popular  ways Cubans are able to make money. I was able to include pictures to show just how life changing this trip was.

Link to my website:

https://sites.google.com/scienceleadership.org/establishing-business-in-cuba/home?authuser=0

Link to my annotated Bibliography:

In this unit, we were going over how violence is incorporated in today's society. From all of our discussions, I decided to write about if we, as human beings, could live in a utopia, which is an absence of violence. My goal was to look towards the future and empower individuals. I use the stories of people who have been involved in wars in order to show how these violent situations can destroy the innocence of people and it starts with ourselves to have a utopia.

The world is a tree. It stands with strong roots built throughout the evolution of humans. In addition to building roots, human beings are the bark and stem of this tree. We have made societies that help make a strong system in order to exist in a world together. At the top half of this tree, the leaves are made up of the individual people of the world. The world is one big tree, but from the very beginning, this tree was always destined to have an ugly side. The side that is always shown is the side where it looks like every single person is able to receive the necessities and every person connected to the tree faces no type of traumatizing events.

This idea of the world being a tree is is presented in the above picture. The picture is made of  hands. It is a representation of the world and the countries that make up the world. There are seven bigger hands in the back of the smaller hands. This could be a representation of the 7 continents of the world. The entire picture is of hands, making it show humans make up everything given to us in this world. Throughout the history of the world, humans have found a way to adapt to certain situations and environments and this has helped us evolve overtime. The picture shows that everyone is born with an acceptance of every person no matter who they are and where they are from and this allows us to build a strong rooted tree, or just a strong society.

The idea of a world in which everyone happy and nobody experiences pain is something that would be ideal, but could we, as human beings, live in a society rooted in nonviolence? The real question is could human beings live in a utopia? The simple answer is no. The evolution of human beings has had tremendous bloodshed and with that bloodshed, people have held ideas that keep them from accepting others. This is just the unfortunate truth as to why humans couldn’t live in a utopia. But how does violence make a society unable to be in harmony?

In many instances through history, when a problem between two countries, groups, or people occurs, violence is the first solution often looked upon. As defined by Google, violence is behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. When applied to conflicts between countries, these acts of violence lead to war. War is somethings that has heavily influenced the reason why humans beings wouldn’t be able to live in a utopia. For instance, Michael Abbatello joined the Marines and after coming home, he describes how his whole mindset changed. “Something is changed. You know, you feel down to your spirit. You know that you’re different now. You know, we don’t really have a consciousness of our own spirit until it’s wounded, and then it needs help” (PBS 2010). Micheal Abbatello is a real life example of of how war can destroy a person. When someone is placed into a very raw situation, such as war, the mindset of a perfect world is destroyed. As a result, as the idea of a peaceful world is destroyed and the world becomes a dog eat dog place.

In addition to Micheal Abbatello, many other people who are in war, whether they are civilians or soldiers, end up having their minds, morals, and outlook changed to a more negative perspective. Veterans came to our school and one of them named John Graham stated that “ war is easy to start, but hard to finish”. This is something that is true because no human being is born with an understanding on misery. Humans are born in an innocent state and this mindset is ruined because nothing in war is innocent.

Even though human beings could not live in the utopia anytime soon, there is still hope for the distant generations to live in a utopia. Right now, the world has a lot of violence penetrating the everyday lives and minds of innocent people. From the Syrian refugee crisis to the police brutality in the United States, violence in today's society is so prevalent that the current generation on the verge of living more into a dystopian society. However, the answer of how can this change lies within each individual. As Scilla Elworthy states, “It’s my response, my attitude towards oppression that I have control over… And what I need to do is to develop self-knowledge” (Fighting with Nonviolence, April 2012). This self knowledge is the realization that violent acts like war happen when humans let emotion overtake their thoughts and actions. In a situation,  Elworthy states, “That means I need to know how I tick, when I collapse, where my formidable points are, where my weaker points are. When do I give in? What will I stand up for?”. By being in control of our emotions, humans are in control of the world.

So the world tree that is in a wiltering state is able to stand upright once more again if people are aware of the power their emotions have in this world. “The only thing you can do is get up, make a cup of tea, and sit with that fear…...and anger is like gasoline and if you throw it around and someone lights a match, you have an inferno”. Controlling emotions is a major key in order for the world tree to go back into its original state: a utopia.

Works Cited:

• Elworthy, Scilla. "Fighting with Nonviolence." TED. Apr. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

• Severson, Lucky. "Moral Wounds of War." PBS. PBS, 28 May 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

• Gregory, Sam. "Images of Horror: Whose Roles and What Responsibilities? - WITNESS Blog." WITNESS Blog. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Reaganomics was during the time period from 1980-1988 in which Ronald Reagan was president. Ronald Reagan is considered, by some, to be one of the greatest presidents America has ever had. However, this was far from the truth when it came to minority groups. Reaganomics included the “Trickle Down Theory” in which Ronald Reagan gave tax breaks to the upper class, believing that the extra money the upper class saved would trickle down to the lower/working class. However, Reagan also conveyed the idea of  the “Welfare Queen”. She was portrayed as a lower class black woman living off of the government and as a result, many upper class people refuse to give money to minorities. However, the harsh reality was that the Black unemployment rate was at a devastating 22% and by 1983 the Black poverty rate reached 25% . It was during the time of Reaganomics that Blacks went through a time of change on both the East and West Coast.

On the East Coast, there was a sense of equality at night clubs. “ More than anything the Roxy embodied a certain vision of what New York could be”(Chang,177). Night clubs, such as the Roxy, became ground where everyone came with nothing to hold back. People from all different backgrounds came to nightclubs on the east coast without any sense of danger. People were just allowed to let loose and not have to worry about their troubles. “ But the Roxy night always opened into a Reagan morning that was much more than a comedown” (Chang, 178). After the dancing was over for the night, classes returned and lower class citizens, which included a majority of Blacks and Latinos, had to return to their struggling reality. With Reagan’s Trickle down theory not being proven and Black unemployment and poverty rates soaring, minorities had to be able to work longer hours. This then made Hip hop need commercialism because more people had found a way to gain more income. In contrast to nightclubs gaining more popularity, graffiti was being more attacked transit police and “ On May 12,1989, the MTA declared that it achieved the ultimate bluff” (Chang 203). The MTA had stripped almost all trains from graffiti. In symbolism it was stating a stripping of Hip-hop branching out of where it started. Graffiti, being one of the pillars of Hip-hop, allowed people to make a name and let others see it. It was an art, but the rest of the world believe it was was just vandalism. If upper class people were riding trains with graffiti, there wasn’t a sense of safety, so the MTA made it a crime. Later on in Reagan’s America, there was an increase in police brutality. People like Michael Stewart became influences for the East Coast to say enough and fight back. This entire time, minorities fought back even harder with every step taken against them. They voiced themselves through graffiti and protest.

On the West Coast, students at U.C Berkeley were raising awareness of apartheid. “ The anti-apartheid movement represented the climax of a century” (Chang,215). All over the West Coast, students were creating protest to Reagan’s support of apartheid. The movement resembled what was happening here at home. Many students started to see the connection between themselves and the Blacks in South Africa. In addition, the West Coast was seeing a rise in drug use. As soon as cocaine or freebase was introduced to a community, there was little time available before entire families were destroyed and it became dangerous to walk around the corner. Drugs, being basically authorized by the government in secret ways, became widely available. However, the genre of Rap was on its own rise with  rappers like Ice T and Kid Frost. “ This was a new breed of renegades. The hip-hop generation had reached childhood’s end” (Chang, 211).

Intro:

For this essay, I was studying the impact of culture on the definition of literacy. In particular, I was studying the Liberian culture on the definition of literacy. Liberia is heavily influenced by the United States and its definition of literacy. As a whole, first world countries have a great influence on third world countries view of literacy.

Essay:

This was the second time we’ve gotten my brother’s report card and his teachers were saying he wasn’t on his grade reading level. The feeling of knowing that my brother wasn’t on the top half of the class was something my father refused to believe. Being the fastest reader between all my siblings, my dad gave me the task of teaching my brother. I saw the potential in my brother as he continued to read, but the problem that I saw was that my brother had no motivation. He would start off really strong, but then he would always just stop and say, “I don’t feel like it anymore”. That attitude is what a lot of Black boys face and it was something I could never understand. I have always had that drive to keep pushing forward. My father always told us the story of his struggle growing up in the liberian civil war. The drive was something my dad described as something people have to just keep going. Sometimes we want to just in one place and give up and life just happen, but when someone has the drive, they refuse to sit down, maybe they stand for a little bit, but they never fully give. Knowing thing and having someone just give upon himself, was something I could never relate to.

Culture has always been in direct correlation with the general ideas of literacy. Throughout the world,I believe that there is a shared understanding how literacy is important. However, in different places throughout the world, the definition and application of literacy is very different. Cultures have different beliefs that influence the way literacy is interpreted and how it influences the way of life for people. Specifically, coming from Liberia, my parents never had an opportunity to have a great education, which is why their definition of literacy is to excel above others in all aspects of school. Liberia was founded by America, so many of the definitions Liberians have is heavily influenced, or basically copied, from the American system. As a result, school is a place where literacy is the thing that defines how you will live the rest of your life. While these values are of American value, Liberia is not in the same economic standpoint of America. Upon those facts, Liberian culture has a tremendous impact of the definition of literacy and literacy is defined as education everyone must obtain in order to be happy.

When I was younger, my Father was very pressed on all of children being advanced readers. My Dad would have a set time, usually in the evening that we would have turn off the tv and all other games we had, which was little to none anyways, and he would sit us around the dining table. We would all choose books and my dad would tell us we would for read for a set amount of time, the minimum time would be 30 minutes. After reading, we would be responsible for writing a summary of what we read and my dad would check over it and then we would read our summary back to him. The process was always something that I dreaded so I would always rush to read as much as I could and write quickly so I could go back to watching tv. This was a habit that developed of the years and as I got younger, I started to rethink of why my dad was so eager to have all his kids be at a certain level. When I would ask, my dad always described his struggles as a child in the civil war and he would tell stories of how America was always the goal for the Liberian people. It is the place where happiness and wealth come intertwined with one.

The type of images and messages sent to other countries who value America as a role model for literacy makes up very high standards set by people. This is due to the fact that America has had a reputation of being the country to hold the freedom and that freedom is built off of literacy, which is just defined as education. Literacy had a huge impact on the way people see life. Specifically, literacy in the Liberian culture is to embrace the american culture. In How to Tame a Wild Tongue, the author states “ if you want to be American, speak “American”. Liberia specifically takes this statement at the heart of its definition of literacy. The bigger idea is that third world countries have always looked up to first world country fro influences on definitions of literacy. This is due to the fact that first world leaders have used their definitions on literacy in order to advance their country and third world countries want to be able to give their civilians those same opportunities.

In this unit, our class was introduce to the topic of climate change. Change change, at this time and possibly in the future, is effecting almost every single person and if nothing is done, the earth we know today will be destroyed. Also in this unit, , we looked at the effects of climate change all over the world and its impact on daily life. After exploring, we were given this project to create three monologues through the point of view of people who are relevant to the topic of climate change. My video for my first monologue is below:

            Hello everybody! My name is Siawale Vesslee and this is my last blog post for my You and the World project for my english class. As you should know from my first and second blogs, my topic is how do parents influence their chil outlook on education. This topic is something that is impacting my life everyday and I knew that this topic was something a lot of other kids in the city of Philadelphia struggle with.

   For this final stage of this project, I was suppose to find a way to take my topic and be an agent of change somewhere in the city. At first, I wanted to try to talk with parents and show how they can be motivation with their kids. However, I couldn't work with work schedules and many parents didn't want me to even talk with them. Because of that, I decided to focus on the kids. I know that in my life, both of my parents never received a college education. Because of that, they have to work a lot of the time. Because of this, I had to find a way to motivate myself to see how much education is needed in my life. One thing I found out was that because I had positive friends who had the same goals I had, I was motivated to get an education make something of my future.

 Working with Casey made me stronger in my opinion that parents are really needed in their kids education. She describe to me how she gets in her parents involved. She talks with them and they ask her questions about her school work. She motivated me to get my parents involved.

 Overall, I know that parents are needed in kids education. They help shape how their child will think of education. However, I know that there are many kids who are in my situation. They have parents that work all the time, so they don’t have the critical support from from home. However, I can say that having friends can not only help shape your educational goal, you can gain confidence in helping your parents get involved.

  Hey everybody! My name is Siawale Vesslee and I attend Science Leadership Academy. This is my second blog post for my english You and the World project. To see my first blog post click here.

    As many of you should know, my topic for this project is how do parents effect their child’s outlook on education. Just to give some background information on my topic, I noticed that a lot of kids in Philadelphia are not motivated to college. When I noticed this, I started to think of reasons why this was problem effected so many kids. After researching, I found that many kids don’t have parents who motivate them to receive education. After finding this out, I choose this topic for this project and I hope by the end, I will be able to influence more kids that education is very important.

   Since my first blog post, I decided to find out some present statistics on my topic. In order to do this, I decided to give a survey to my fellow peers at SLA and my old school, Hardy High Mastery Charter School. After analyzing the results, I was shocked to find that out of 60 kids survey, only 27% have parents that check their homework on a daily basis. I found this very shocking because out of the same 60 kids, 92% of them have parents that motivate them to go to school. I feel that this meant that parents talk to their kids about the importance of education, but they do not actually help their kids in receiving education.This finding just shows that actions speak louder than words.

    After analyzing my survey, I also found that 25% of kids said that if their parents were not around, they would not go to school. This number is lower than what I expected, but it made me a little upset. I felt this way because I feel that parents should be responsible to not only motivate their kids to go to school, but they should make kids see that learning is very fun. If kids realized this, they would be more enthusiastic about going to school. I am aware of the fact that other factors, like environment and teachers, influence kids on whether or not they like learning, but I also know that the most influence comes from the home. I feel that if parents became their child’s personal cheerleader, kids would love coming to school.

    With all my information collected, I feel really kids in Philadelphia, and all over the country can do better. However, they just need the motivation. The best place that motivation can come from is no other place than their home. If parents would just take the time to help their kids, they would realize that their kids would really appreciate. I know that in my life, my parents have to work in order for me to have my daily necessities. However, because I don’t see them that often, I don’t really have a strong relationship with them. Once in a while, they do ask how school is going, but I feel that if they were around more, I would be more confident in going to school.

  Overall, this topic effects not only me, but millions of kids in the US. To help  shrink this project, I will be motivating kids that don’t have the motivation at home. After completing that, I will be posting my final You and the World blog post.  Until that time, I hope you guys will stick around!

http://www.powtoon.com/p/cy4vMmpGfh6/    Me llamo Siawale. Sin embargo, mi apodo es ¨ Siwawa¨ o ¨ Wale¨. Tengo 15 años. Soy de Filadelfia. Soy un estudiante de Science Leadership Academy (SLA). SLA esta en el centro de Filadelfia. Es muy divertida, bastante extraña, y es muy  pequeño. Hay 500 estudiantes y los profesores son divertidos. Tenemos club de poesía, muchos deportes, y muchos proyectos. Participó en club de poesía porque me gusta escribir.

    ¡Tengo muchos clases! Tengo geometria, español uno, teatro, bioquímica, historia, inglés, asesor, y arte. Mi favorita es historia porque la clase es muy divertida y súper fácil. En la clase de historia, nosotros siempre hablamos y escribimos. No me gusta nada las clases de bioquímica y inglés. Los profesores son El Señor Sheriff y La Srta. Dunn. Las clases son muy aburridos. En las clases, dormimos y escuchamos la música. Me gusta más o menos las clases español uno y arte. Para tener éxito en esta clases, es importante tener lápices, la computadora, unas hoja de papels, y unas carpeta.

  Tengo seís profesores. El Señor Todd es mi favorita. El enseña historia y el es mi tutor. Tiene una hija. Me cae bien El Señor Todd porque ell es muy cómico, divertido, y increíblemente simpático. Sin embargo, no me gusta nada el Señor Sheriff. El enseña bioquímica. Enseña muy malo. El es loco y súper extraña. En la clase, aprendemos poco. No me gusta la clase porque  la clase es muy aburrida y no entiendo la clase.

  In this unit, an experiment was conducted to introduce the topic of respiration and photosynthesis. From that experiment, this group was assigned to learn more about respiration. To open up a basic idea of respiration, videos and extensive research was conducted. After gaining all this information, a Google Presentation was created and that presentation was used to teach the class about respiration and it also included details, unknown to the class.

      Today, now more than ever, parents are influencing their child’s outlook on education. Everything from checking their child’s homework to just giving them a pep talk, everything a parent does affects their child. However, according to a New York Times article,

  There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement…...But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents.     Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement.

As stated above, teacher play a huge role in students education, but parents have an important part to play too. Parents influence their children in a big way, but many of them don’t even realize this. This leads me to my topic: How do parents influence their children’s outlook on education?

        This topic hits very close to home. Both of my parents never received a college education. Because of this, they could not receive well paying jobs. Even though they are able to get by steadily, they remind me everyday how much education is important in order for me to have a good future. I have met and still know many kids who have the same situation as me, but their parents don’t motivate them. Because of this, I see these kids, who have the potential to be great, set education as a non-factor. Not only is this sad to see, but it gets me, and probably other people, infuriated because their parents don’t step in. According to TIME magazine,                      

 What they need to do with their children is much simpler:   talk. But not just any talk. Although well-known research by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley has shown that professional parents talk more to their children than less-affluent parents — a lot more, resulting in a 30 million “word gap” by the time children reach age three — more recent research is refining our sense of exactly what kinds of talk at home foster children’s success at school.

This quote shows that parents, even in the littlest ways, affect their kids. By just talking, some parents give their kids 30 million more words than parents who don’t talk to their kids. I know that every parent wants the best for their child. However, if they don’t take the time to support them or even just talk to them, they won’t see how great their child can become.

     Another reason why this topic is so important to me is because of the fact that I have friends who I know can be great, but they don’t have any motivation. For example, I have a friend named Trapetas. She is one of the smartest people I know,however, her family doesn’t support or motivate  her in any way.  But even with no support, Trapetas still focuses on school and always gives 110% in everything she does. After noticing this, I knew that parents do not always have to influence their children. Trapetas could have been just like my many other friends who basically gave up on education. She went against what was expected to be her outcome and she inspired me to help people like her. What I mean is that if kids don’t have parents/elders to motivate them, could I give them support? Could I be their “parent” to advise and help them? Questions like these led me to choose this topic.

   In an article by the Washington Post, It states,

               Let’s begin by noticing that the whole question is framed by the extent to which educators think parents ought to be involved.  The parent’s point of view is typically absent from such discussions.  And, of course, no thought is given to the student’s perspective — what role kids might want their parents to play (or to avoid playing).  But then that’s true of so many conversations about education that we scarcely notice its absence.

Essentially, the author is trying to make the point that parent involvement is not really provided because student’s inputs are not looked at. When people think of parent involvement, it’s either two things: parents don’t do enough or they do too much. However, if students were able to make comments on how their parents should be involved, parents would be  to meet their child’s specific needs. But what if kids don’t have parents that are willing to listen? That’s where I step in. As I start to access the needs of students, it becomes clear that I can help them, if only I listen. Many people would look at kids in Philadelphia as kids who are not going to do anything with their lives. Those assumptions will not help them. The first step is must to listen and for these kids I believe in, I will be all ears.

      This topic has been on my mind for a while and now because of this project, I will be able to finally do something about it. I believe that you give everybody the benefit of the doubt until they prove you wrong. You give them a chance and that’s what I am going to do with these students. If everybody else has given up on them, I will be their support. Every child has something great to offer to the world, but they need help to see that and I am prepared to give them that help.

       As this project goes along, not only will I be able to figure out the problems kids face with education, but I will be able to build a support systems with these kids. Even if their parents don’t support them, I will show them that they still have people that care and will work hard to see them succeed. Like I said before, I believe that every child has something to offer to the world, but they need people to just push them to their own greatness.

        Thanks for reading my blog and watch out for follow- up blogs 2 and 3!

  Before creating this slide, I watched a video about how advertisers make billboards that capture the attention of its viewers. I learned that these advertisers use “empty space” as an advantage. They leave the people looking at the billboards wondering what’s next, but they know what the billboard is about. Because of this, people might be more likely to go into the store. Another thing that advertisers to is let the pictures “ bleed” off the page. This basically means that when people look at this picture, they show believe that the picture continues off the page and goes on further. Throughout this project, I had a lot of trouble. I didn’t know how to express myself in one slide. However, as the project went along, I learned that not everything has to in many words. This meant one thing to me: just be simple! There is no need to try to make a long power point and add all these effects to be “cool”. One slide can express all you stand for and how you are like as a person.

In this unit, the class was focused on how to make a slide that not only looks good, but it captures the attention of all those who look at it. At the very beginning of this unit, I was so scared. I only knew the basics of creating a slide. However, by the end of this unit, I learned all the different techniques that goes into planning slides.