Hi again, it has been awhile since my last blog posts. In my first post, I introduced information about the late effects of childhood cancer. Late effects are illnesses that can occur after chemotherapy. Some of these late effects include memory impairment, heart abnormalities, impaired lung function, and a secondary or original cancer occurring. In my second post, I conducted my own research on childhood cancer. For my own research, I created an online survey. From the responses I received, I learned more about the patient’s family and friend’s point of view on childhood cancer. Though I did not receive responses from people who experienced late effects.

The final portion of this You and the World project is Agent of Change. For Agent of Change, we set out into the world to help with the issue we chose. In my second post I stated that I was going to volunteer at the CureSearch walk but unfortunately the timing of the walk and the project timeline did not match. Even though those plans fell through, I was able to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House of Philadelphia.

At the Ronald McDonald House located on Front & Erie in North Philadelphia, I was a Guest Chef. My parents and I came in and cooked dinner for the families on Memorial Day; I prepared everything in their kitchen and then set it out for families to get for themselves. When I was preparing the menu there were some guidelines provided by the Ronald McDonald House. I had to have a salad, at least one meat entree, a vegetarian dish, 2 dishes (a starch and a vegetable), and a dessert. I had decided that the menu would be a garden salad, roasted chicken, and ziti with yellow rice and broccoli as the sides. For desserts, it was chocolate ice cream and chocolate cookies.

We had to cook for 40 families even though only around 25 families came to dinner but some were in the hospital and would come in later. When buying for the menu we got 6 chickens, 5 boxes of family size yellow rice, 5 boxes of ziti pasta, 2 family size bottles of pasta sauce, 8 lbs of cheese, 4 heads of lettuce, assorted toppings for the salad, 2 large bags of broccoli, 2 large rolls of cookie dough, and a tub of ice cream. It may seem like a lot but at the end of the night, most of the food had been eaten.

                 

As I just mentioned, my topic is Financial Education and Literacy in America, and how people don’t learn enough about money to be safe and successful in their lives. People are being sent out into the world with no training on how to pay taxes, manage debt, or make money. And even though it is more important for people to learn more about the necessities, such as using a credit card, it’s also important to know how to make money. Not nearly enough people know about or use stocks to their advantage. I went on a quest to change this.

A lot of lessons about Financial Literacy and Responsibility are being taught around the world, and they help, but they aren’t always accessible. Many schools don’t have a program properly suited to helping kids get out into the world with the proper tools and knowledge. I tried to make my own little dent on my little community.

As I said in my Second Blog Post, I was hoping to teach at least one lesson to a class of First Graders, Third Graders, and Eighth Graders, as well as a presentation to some Ninth Graders. I only succeeded on one of those counts; I taught my advisory, the Ninth Graders, but I couldn’t get the scheduling quite right for the students at my old school, ICS. In the end, I made a smaller impact than expected, but I still taught about 20 students some of the very basic skills they need to flourish financially.

However, this is only 20 students out of millions that aren’t being taught correctly. Even if I had gotten to my goal of about 100 students (the ones listed above), I still wouldn’t have made enough of an impact. The real threat is that education mandates WORLDWIDE are not giving our students a fighting chance. They would rather teach students about the Pythagorean Theorem, which only some of them will use, than about how to get a job, which all of them will need. Also, even if you’re the most qualified person in the world, you still need to know how to get and maintain a job, and how to manage the money you make.

These are some of the things I talked about in my presentation. The presentation that I showed (the slideshow that I used) is here, and some of the notes that I used are here (I used the section titled “8” for eighth grade, as the lessons were similar). I had the students talk in groups, and I taught them from the notes as well. At the end, I let them ask questions about things they weren’t sure about or wanted to learn more about.

Hi. My name is Isabel Medlock and I am a freshman at SLA. Earlier this school year my English class started a project called You and the World. Everyone in my class chose an issue and researched that issue. I chose the stigma of mental illness, the negative way society views mental illness. After we chose an issue and researched it, we wrote two blog posts about it. Here is the link to blog #1. In this blog post I wrote about what the stigma of mental illness is and how people are affected by it. In blog #2 I wrote about the Mental Health Parity, discrimination those with mental health issues face, an interview I conducted with a mental health professional, and my opinion on the stigma of mental illness. This is my last blog post and it is the post for change which is the last part of the project.

There are several ways people are trying to raise awareness of the stigma of mental illness. There are some organizations and campaigns. Some examples of these types of campaigns are Stamp Out Stigma, Stand Up For Mental Health, and I Am Not Crazy.  Stamp Out Stigma is an organization that tries to reduce the stigma of mental illness and substance abuse by educating people and encouraging to them to discuss this issue. Stand Up For Mental Health teaches mental health consumers how to turn their problems into stand up comedy acts and perform them. I Am Not Crazy helps raise awareness of the stigma of mental illness by using social media and the internet. Also, every year on the first full week of October is Mental Health Awareness Week. During this week there are events that educate others about mental health and promote the education of mental illness. These events are designed to help end the stigma. These are all very good ways of changing society’s view on mental illness but I think more should be done. Even with all these organizations and events not that many people know the truth about mental illness or know about the stigma. I think children should be educated on this subject in school. If children were educated about mental illness they wouldn’t believe in the stereotypes surrounding mental illness and that would greatly reduce stigma.

Students on a website during my presentation.

For my agent of change piece I made a presentation to my advisory about the stigma of mental illness. In my presentation I explained what the stigma of mental illness is and why it is a problem. First I told them to go on a website and learn some things about mental illness and take some quizzes. Then I had each group read some stereotypes and discuss whether or not the stereotypes were true. At the end I showed a video from Bring Change 2 Mind. By doing this I helped raise awareness of the issue. Hopefully the people who viewed my presentation will want to learn more about mental illness and the stigma and maybe try to help reduce the stigma.  I enjoyed doing this project and learning about the stigma of mental illness. I think it’s a very important issue that needs to be talked about more, especially in schools. One thing I learned about myself and others is that when we are ignorant about something it often leads us to believe in stereotypes. The reason there is so much stigma surrounding mental illness is because people don’t learn about it.

My presentation.

All the pictures above are from my presentation. In the first two pictures students are on a website, learning about mental illness. In the third picture students are discussing common stereotypes about mental illness. In the fourth picture I am explaining what the stigma of mental illness is.

I think I could have done a better job with my agent of change piece. I don’t think I’ve done enough. There are still so many people who don’t really understand mental illness and the stigma surrounding. I wish I had done something that would inform more people about this problem. There is still so much left to do to change people’s view on mental illness. People need to be educated about mental health. We need to change the laws that discriminate against those with mental health problems. We need to make people with mental health problems feel accepted instead of ashamed.

I would like to thank Ms. Dunn for all her help and advice. I would also like to thank all the people who helped proofread my blog posts.  I have enjoyed doing this project and I have really enjoyed learning about the stigma of mental illness. I hope that in the future it will no longer be a problem.

Thanks for reading my post! :-)

Links to my presentation:

Advisory Presentation Slide Deck

Hello everyone!

This is my third and final blog post for my You and the World (YATW) project. Just a quick summary, if you haven’t read my previous posts. In my first post I introduced my issue of global poverty. I wanted to focus on a specific topic in my first blog post concerning global poverty which was global hunger and its effects on children and adults today. The UN Millenium goals were introduced, one of the goals being to decrease global hunger and poverty by half by 2015. An organization called Heifer International was also introduced in my first blog. They believe in something called the 12 cornerstones, which they accomplish by giving families in need heifers. In my second post I talked about my trip to Ecuador, and how I helped the families in need there, and what I experienced throughout this trip. In this post I am going to talk about my class presentation, an interview I had with someone who works in the Heifer International Organization, and how you can help.

My experience in Ecuador was one I will never forget. The joy and laughter when kids were given toys. The tears that rushed out of the eyes of the parents as they saw their children so excited and energetic for the first time in a long time. Words cannot describe the things I saw, but I wanted to share what I’ve done, I wanted people to see what I saw and become aware of this issue. I created a slideshow with pictures from my trip, and tried my best to describe each and every one of them to my audience. My goal was to inform people of the world we live in now, and that everyone can do something to make it better. I explained to my audience the purpose of my trip, which was give toys, food, and clothes to the families in need from 6 towns that were high up in the mountains. We drove trucks filled with all the items, and it took the entire day, from 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. to go to each town. My family does this every year around Christmas, and I was lucky enough to join them this year. I wanted everyone to know that while everyone might celebrate Christmas differently, my family and I wanted to give families we visited, a holiday experience that they might not have had before. My presentation goal was to not only inform people of what I did, but to encourage everyone that little things like what I did in Ecuador, can be a huge impact on someone or something else.

Click here for my presentation video, and to see my slideshow, click here.

Here I am giving my YATW

presentation.

Here is another picture of my

YATW presentation.

I became very interested in the Heifer International Organization and wanted to learn a little more about their work. I wrote an email to Donna Kilpatrick, the Livestock Manager of the organization, and asked her a few questions, which she answered with great detail. Currently there are 2.8 billion people who live with an income of less than two dollars per day. Heifer International has helped 20.7 million families, this brings 94.5 million men, women, and children they have helped thus far. Now, if one little organization can help this amount of people, imagine hundreds, even thousands of these organizations, poverty would be decreased greatly. Heifer International also has an educational program where people can visit their farm, and learn about what they do to help decrease poverty, and how they do it. They want to teach people about what it’s like to live in poverty and encourage them to take action. I personally went to their farm three years ago, where I spent three days in their educational program. I was given a tour and was able to experience the lower class lifestyles that so many people live in today. I recommend paying Heifer International a visit because it is an experience like no other. If you’d like to know more about my interview with Donna, please click here.

By now, I hope you’re asking yourself, What can I do? Well, if you are, then that is a great question. There are so many things you can do, such as, start an organization, organize a fundraiser, travel to a poor town and help the them build things that are needed. There are hundreds of things that can be done! There are people who need your help, whether it’s little help, or huge help, because remember, every little step, is one step closer in decreasing poverty. We want to help the UN get to their goal to decrease poverty by half between 1990 and 2015 with people who get an income of less than one dollar per day. Why help? Well approximately 2.6 million children die each year because of hunger-related causes. 2.6 million children who can’t grow up and accomplish their dreams. 2.6 million children who can’t experience the world like you and me. 2.6 million children who can’t laugh and play, and live life to its finest. In 2008, 9 million children died before their fifth birthday because of hunger and malnourishment. We’re losing our next generation because we can’t fill their stomachs. Our next leaders, doctors, scientists, they're dying. Parents are suffering and working hard everyday to provide for their family. Some die because of too much hard work, and some suffer seeing their children suffer. Is that convincing?  

Thank you, for reading, and I would like to thank Donna Kilpatrick for taking a little of her time to allow me to interview her, Ms. Dunn for guiding me through this entire process, and DuBois for taking pictures during my presentation.

Welcome back to my third blog! For those of you who have not read my first and second blogs, click here for the first and here for the second. For those of you who have read them, thank you so much for sticking with me! Again, my name is Cacy Thomas and I am making these blogs because of my 9th grade English project called You and the World. In this project I am creating 3 blogs talking about an issue in the world I am passionate about. This issue is concussions in young athletes. As stated in my first blog I have had a few concussions in the past that have ended my athletic career before it even started. Anyhow, this piece I am writing at the moment is about what I have done to spread awareness and try to change this. But first I will tell you what has been done, and what is going on right now.

The ThinkTaylor foundation is run by a former professional soccer player named Taylor Twellman. I learned about this organization because I was asked to speak with him at a concussion symposium in 2012. You can visit his website here and see the symposium details here. As I was sitting next to him listening to him talk about his experiences, I noticed something. I was not alone in this. There were so many other people going through the same thing as I was. After talking about his story, he asked me to talk about what was going on with me. When I was finished I realized I wanted to help people like he is doing. Now I finally had the chance. I knew I couldn’t do anything huge like him, but I finally got the chance to do something. Because of this project I was able to present concussion facts, information, and my own story to my advisory. While I was presenting I could tell my classmates weren’t very interested in the statistics or facts. When I began to tell my story in depth that was what really got their attention. I noticed that this was the same in the concussion symposium. People reacted more emotionally to my story than certain facts. I was proud to be able to spread awareness of concussions through my experiences.

A picture of my presentation during advisory

A picture of my classmates playing “Concussion Jeopardy”, a game I put together for the presentation.

A picture of myself explaining an answer in “Concussion Jeopardy”

Everything that is being done to support concussions in young athletes is amazing. It is preventing kids from becoming seriously injured and also letting them play the sport they love. I feel like the best way to make people aware of what is going on is speaking from experience. This way to change this issue is amazing. It makes people know the hardships others have been through because of concussions. It moves people to do something about it because now they know how terrible what’s going on is. This is the only way an audience can truly feel what happens to those who have suffered concussions.

Doing this project made me feel great. It finally gave me the chance to be like Taylor Twellman and inspire people to do something. I’ve made about 30-35 kids aware of the effects of concussions in young athletes. I know it isn’t much but it’s a start. And I learned that people react much more to personal experiences than statistics and facts. I feel like I could have done better by telling even more of my story in my presentation. I left out some things just because I forgot, however every detail  contributes and makes my story come even more alive. There is still a lot to do in the world of concussions. People don’t pay attention to facts they are told. They only pay attention when they or someone they are close to have experienced this. As Mario Manningham said,

“It’s part of the game… Until it’s you.”

   Hello all, I see that you’re back again to check out my blog post #3. If you’ve forgotten, my YATW topic is Alzheimer’s And Dementia. In my previous two blogs ( Blog #1 & Blog #2 ), my blogs were all based off of research. Blog #1 consisted of research that I searched for and found, Rather than in blog #2, which consisted of original research that I specifically made myself. This blog is the total opposite of the two. After all of the extended research that I conducted, it’s time to now share my Agent Of Change.