Blog #2:

In the first blog i focused more on what happens to the body when a teenager goes through an eating disorder. After doing an interview and new research I inquired a few new things. http://www.something-fishy.org/isf/mentalhealth.php  Some girls that suffer from eating disorders do it because they would rather deal with physical pain or put emotion into something else rather than deal with emotional pain. Its such a common misconception that girls just don't eat to lose weight and they can start eating whenever they want. But that is completely not true, not eating is also very similar to self mutilation its a way to hide behind what is really wrong.  

For my second blog post I had to conduct our own personal research. The options were fieldwork, surveys, or lastly the one that I choose to do an interview. My subject was a PHD student at PECOM. I felt like this would have been the most effective choice for me because she has spoken to many teens with eating disorders; and could really understand the mental state of somebody suffer with the disorder. Since i did an interview i did not really receive any statistical information. While i did inquire a lot of useful information. First I found out a lot about triggers and why it can be more common in a teen than an adult. Being in school surrounded people that are all different body types. Can pose a physical threat which makes a young person question themselves.  Being in a social environment daily can cause pressure to fit in or pressure to be the best at whatever you do; and sometimes that can be out of a students hand. So not eating is a thing that they can control. Something that no nobody can take away from them. To conclude that school itself and everything that comes along with it can be a main trigger.

Finding out this information really helped me with my YATW project, because most parents in particular look at school as a place for children to learn and be with friends. Which for a lot of kids it is, but in some cases it can be a place of fear and sadness in many young teens. Another reason the information as well as the interview process was helpful is because i was really able to get a deeper level of understanding what really effects tennagers with eating dissorders. And i needed to get that perspective so i would be able to help as effectively as possible when i go on and do field work.

As said in the previous paragraph this information really helps me with my issue, because sure a lot of people don’t really realize why. The issue is so much deeper, learing more about what trigger the appetite suppression can really help stop a lot of the problems early on. A person can be doing really well in the recovery process but at any given moment  it can be set off if the patient does not have the proper outlet. I also learned that girls in particular when it comes to triggers can really never let that particular thing but the thing that people need to recognize is that its how we can better understand how to hekp with ways to try and forget what made us unhappy.

After doing additional research I was able to form more of my own opinions about teen eating disorders.  I realize that there really are really not a lot of places or people that really understand the mental hurt in a patient. I feel that there needs to be more attention payed to high school children that maybe are not the happiest. That why these teenagers are able to get so out of control with their disorders because people are just so blind. I always knew that eating disorders were more than just wanting to lose weight but my eyes were opened to so many more reasons behind the disorder.

There are still a lot of things that I would like to learn. For example I would like to talk to a treatment facility center and learn different treatment methods out of the very few that exist. I also want to venture more into how eating disorders can cause other issues like anxiety and depression. And if so how, is it more likely for a teenager to suffer with other issues while going through remission? I am also left wandering in not eating is encouraged by society is i really unavoidable to have these sort of issues?

For blog number three i would like to take the idea of some of the dove commercials but apply it in a school setting. By doing some activities as well as i quick lesson. My goal is to help kids my age understand that we all have worth, as corny as that sounds. I want people to understand that we all struggle with presser being the way we look or even academically. So i will be taking these ideas to my advisory and have us all talk about what we fear and dislike about ourselves as well as others.  And take that a connect it to eating disorders and how they all relate.

To access the interview: Original research

  Hello, It seems as if I've kept you interested enough to continue on to my second blog regarding Alzheimer's & Dementia. Once again, I'm Jamilah Woodards of Science Leadership Academy and I'm here to give you some more updated information on my topic of Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Unknown and Hidden Facts. Just as a reminder, my ninth grade English class in currently in the process of completing a project that goes by the name of You And The World. This gives us students the opportunity to go out into the world and choose a topic that interest us. We'll be able to conduct research and with our research, find a way to become an Agent of Change regarding our topic in the Spring (which is taking forever to come).

  In Blog #1 post, I gathered a lot of information regarding costs to fund a patient with either of the diseases, stereotypes of the diseases, and definitions of what Alzheimer's & Dementia is. I was able to share how costly it is and how Medicare and Medicaid only pays for a portion of the funding and how a lot of the money is out of your own pocket. Also stereotypes of how much can a person of either of the disease can manage to still do and etc. Although the information given in the last blog was very insightful, I wanted to open up other topics regarding Alzheimer's and Dementia.  

  After my past research, I wanted to look more into how Alzheimer's & Dementia affects the caregiver and the family of the patient. Since I was apart of a family of a person who had one of the diseases, I already had an insight and opinion on how families are affected by it. Yet, I wanted to create original research from a person who was a main caregiver of an Alzheimer's and/or  Dementia patient.

  For my original research on my topic, I decided to conduct an interview with my mom. I chose to have an interview with my mom in order to get an inside perspective on how it is from a caregiver's point of view when dealing with someone of the two diseases. The interview held between my mom and I did not last very long, but the information that I gathered from her helped me a lot.

               Group of words based among Alzheimer's & Dementia

  One thing that stood out that was said by my mother in her interview with me was that although there were a lot of things that my grandmother could remember, things of her daily, monthly, and yearly routine were sometimes forgotten. With that being said, I did some more research and came across a website that gave lots of caregiver information that my mother seemed to agree with in her interview.

Check out the transcript from the interview on Alzheimer's & Dementia held between my mom and I in the link below.

LINK

  For my Agent of Change portion of my You And The World, I've decided to do a fun activity with my advisory. The activity will be a memory game. The memory game allows us young teenagers to appreciate the strong memories that we have now and to appreciate them.

Agent of Change Banner

  After all the research that was completed thus far, I feel as though my knowledge and also the readers of my blog are steady increasing. There has been a lot of information obtained, but it does not stop here. Stay on the lookout for my Blog #3 to see how I accomplished my Agent of Change portion!

Stay Tuned!!!

What Is The Fur Industry?

In my previous post I talked about mostly statistics of the Fur Industry, but I never really said what it is. In this post I hope to give you a better explanation of what the Fur Industry is:

Fur Industry/Fur Trade/Fur Exchange:

The trade or selling of any kind of fur from any kind of animal.

The Fur Industry was originally called the Fur Trade which began about 300 years ago, in the early days of the country when it actually helped established the country. The Indians traded fur from animals such as beaver (which the Europeans made their hats out of) for tools and weapons. As the 1500’s came about, Europe began to develop a certain fondness for fur, this led to the Indians searching for other sources of fur which include fox, otter and mink. When Samuel de Champlain set up a fur post in Quebec, Canada, it became the “hub” for the fur trade in North America.

A recent survey that I set up was sent to my peers to measure the amount that people knew about the fur industry. The chart to the left shows that the majority of people I asked knew what the Fur Industry. But when I asked if anyone wanted of owned fur items, the responses became a little more mixed. This graph shows the responses when I asked if anyone owned fur items, as you can see more than half of the people weren't even aware if they owned something with fur.

Since I interviewed teens, this helps show me how their thoughts on fur trade may evolve as they grow older and learn more about the topic. My understanding is that enough people aren’t aware of my topic and need to be informed about it. My opinion about the Fur Industry is that although it helped develop our country, has gone too far. Due to over-hunting many animals have been hunted to endangerment or even extinction. One of these was the Caspian Tiger (to the left.) They went extinct due to mass extermination by the Russian government when they wanted the land that the tigers lived on in the cotton fields, the last of the tigers were hunted for their fur by trophy hunters. On the right is a picture of Benjamin, the last Tasmanian Tiger who died in 1938 in a zoo. They were blamed and killed by many farmers for eating their livestock, which was actually encouraged, and Van Dieman’s Land Company (a textile company) helped destroy the rest of their population.

After all this I am still curious as to how the governments (of different places) decides when “enough is enough” when animals are becoming endangered due to the fur industry and even other problems like pollution, hunting, habitat destruction, etc. I also want to know what plans are being created and are already in motion to protect the animals facing all of these problems.

For my next blog post I am going to be informing my peers at school and through social media resources (Facebook, Twitter) about the Fur Trade.

Here is my bibliography.

Welcome back to my second YATW blog. For those that don't know me my name is Daouda Njie. In our English class we were assigned to choose a cause we thought was important and write about it. For my cause I choose to write about if the school districts were doing everything they could to help kids with Autism prosper. In my first blog post I learned that kids with autism tend to not do so well since they have trouble socializing but classes are offered by the school district to help the children out.

Since my first blog post I have learned that Autism might be hereditary and that once you have had a child with Autism it is 5% more likely your other child will have Autism. Also that if a twin shows signs of autism its a 90% chance that the other twin also has autism. There are therapy sessions for kids with autism some like PRT, VB, DTT, and ABA which stands for applied behavioral analysis.  ABA helps with communication, academic, self care, and more. This is just one of the options but since every child is different the therapy sessions all differ.

Here are some of the recent websites I have looked at:

http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec04/autism.aspx

http://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/100-day-kit/treatments-therapies

For my original research I interviewed a student at SLA that has Autism and also a special ed professor from Penn that studies people with autism. The SLA student said that Autism does affect him when it comes to socializing in school but he has gotten better. I also learned that here at SLA they offer him studies skills which allows him to stay focused and get his work done. He also stated that his family supports him by having him take therapy sessions that help him better understand facial expressions and tones.

Here is some of the professor responses from my questions  I thought it was surprising when she told me that when communicating autistic kids speak literal. I can tell this might be a challenge in school because if they are interacting with anyone in school they may not understand how to respond to a person.This interview helped me in my research because she gave more of an image of how autistic kids act.

This research made me see how just because a child has autism doesn't mean they can't get the best of their education. The student I interviewed even said that his autism doesn't affect him that much anymore. It is because of the programs schools offer. The original research also helped me with the understanding of Autism because the interview with the student with autism allowed me to understand just what exactly it feels like to have autism and still communicate and interact with people. It gave me a better feel of some of the challenges they face.

Welcome readers back to my post! Back in my blog post #1 I spoke about an issue that  interested  me: sex trafficking in India. The definition of human trafficking was stated. Then I researched information on the enslavement of those women and how diseases are spread throughout the southern region of Asia.  Organizations that are involved in ending human trafficking were included at the end of the post.

After continuous months of research I have come across new information that affects the US. directly.  An article on CNN  based  in Savannah,Georgia. They have discovered a sex trafficking ring that has been going around in the city. As a result various people in custody. This horror has shown that sex trafficking occurs everywhere, not just in India. This event should us aware of the dangers and circumstances of our world today. Additionally, information on Ross Kemp -- British “actor-turned to-serious documentary-maker”-- and his journey on discovering the stories behind sex trafficking in different parts of the world. It was shocking to find out how the sex trafficking trade has grown  rapidly. It is estimated that about “100 million people - 10 per cent of the population - and sees girls as young as nine being sold into the sex trade.”

For  my original research I decided conduct an interview via email. I was able to interview someone from the Free the Slaves Foundation.  The results of the interview were successful. Through the interview it was possible for me to obtain updated information as of 2012. See email at the end of article. It is evident that many organizations and foundations are coming together to fight sex trafficking. While sending emails to different foundations it become clear that there were open lines of communication. Through this arduous process each organization that was contacted contributed to the quest to find the answers to my questions. After serious research and information gathered I have come to the conclusion that sex trafficking is a worldwide issue. Currently there are many institutions willing to fight with all legal tools within their reach. Their work is starting to becoming noticeably in all parts of the world, especially those that suffer from poverty.

Subsequently at the end of my research my personal interest on sex trafficking has increased for the better. Even though the research done has been focused on India, it is clear that the issue has international repercussions. The questions now are what about the rest of the southern region of Asia? What about other six continents that also affected? The real question is how can I do my part in bringing awareness to this issue. In conclusion for my ¨agent of change"I would like to present a slideshow on the information gathered about the issue so far and share it with my peers.

Annotated Bibliography here .

Hello!  If you remember from blog #1 and by reading the title,  I’m talking about women in the engineering work field and the large difference between the genders.  If you have not read my first blog post, you can view it here.  When I started this project, I researched the reason behind why there aren’t many women in the engineering workfield.  One reason I found was that society puts it into our heads that certain jobs are for a certain gender.  That causes women to feel like jobs in the science work field(which are aimed towards men) aren’t available or offered to them.

“It wasn’t until I was a professional woman mentoring other girls in math and science that I learned that openly liking math and science is unusual for girls,” Marissa Mayer, President and CEO of Yahoo.

For my original research, I made some open ended survey questions but really wanted to see peoples reactions when they answered.  So I asked 14 people my to answer my survey and wrote down their exact words.  Half of the questions were facts about women in the workfield that the people had to respond to with their opinion.  9 of the people surveyed were female and the other 5 were male.  The age range was from 10 to 55 and everyone gave similar answers for the questions/facts.  The first fact I had everyone respond to was, “ 13% of engineers worldwide are women.”  The answers were either something along the lines of “I expected it to be a higher amount” and “that’s not right.”  One person's response was “It’s sort of unfortunate because the sciences overall are not offered to women in a way that they can be involved.”  Another person said “I don’t think women are encouraged in anyway in that direction.”  That goes back to one of the possible reasons for the gender difference I talked about in my first blog post.  

What I’m still curious and confused about is if everyone agrees,  then why is their still biased?  Males and Females in my survey thought that the fact that women don’t get equal pay and are nowhere close to the amount of male engineers in the world is unfair.  “As a father of two daughters I know my girls can do as well as any guy.  To deny someone's full opportunity is wrong,”  was one of the answers.  

I’ve decided for my agent of change piece that I want to make this issue apparent to others, because I feel like the only way to change this problem is for people to know about it.  From my survey results, I saw that many people don’t know who Ada Lovelace is or that 13% of engineers worldwide are women.  Specifically, I’m going to present my project to my advisory.  I plan on making a slideshow that includes the most important details of my project and then seeing what they think about the subject.  I’m also going to find an activity that my class can do after, that allows everyone to be creative.  Be sure to look for my next blog post!

Hello Everyone!

If you read my first blog post you know that my You and the World (YATW) project is about global hunger and poverty. I talked about two organizations who have been trying to reduce the number of families in hunger and poverty. They also encourage people from all around the world to join them in their journey. Although both organizations are using different strategies to accomplish their goal, they won’t give up until the amount of global poverty is decreased. If you’d like to learn more about these organizations, please click on the links below.

Heifer International

UN Millenium Goals

After writing my first blog post, I took a short trip to Ecuador. Every Christmas, my family in Ecuador go up to the mountains where there are lots of poor towns. They bring food, toys, and clothes to give to the families. My family believes that it is better to give people in need something they can use efficiently, something they know that will help them, instead of money. The reason for this is because we don’t know what they will do with the money, they could use the money for something they don’t need.

I went with my family for the first time this year, and the experience was like no other. We drove to five different towns. Toys were given out to the children, clothes were given out to adults and children, and this year we gave out candy and crackers to everyone. Some of the towns were big, and some of the towns were small. There were at least a hundred people in two towns, and there were 20-40 people in other towns. The houses were all hand made with stone or mud, and the schools were all just one room. Each town had a church, and the church in each town, was the largest building.

While researching this topic, I thought I knew everything there was to know about this issue, but nobody will ever know everything about anything. I learned so much from my trip and experience. I got to meet people who are struggling with poverty. People who try really hard to keep their families healthy. Mothers who would do anything to see a smile on their child's face. There were lots of kids who weren’t attending school when I was there, instead, they were working or taking care of their siblings.

When we arrived, every child in the town would run up to the car and peek inside. They saw the toys and jumped up and down in excitement. Each and every child waited patiently for their toy, and when they got one, they opened it; their patience getting weaker and weaker. And finally, they were able to open that toy, their expressions after that, are indescribable. I’ve never seen somebody so happy, it was amazing! Some parents cried, and others laughed, others just smiled, because their children were smiling. Candy and clothes were given out as well. We made goodie bags that had crackers and candy. The first thing that was eaten (by almost everyone) when the bag was opened, were the crackers, and the candy was saved for later. We made sure everyone got clothes and shoes. Some people didn’t have warm clothes for those unexpected cold days, or an extra pair of dry clothes for the days that rained. We also gave out shoes that could be worn in any weather, most people wore sandals, or worn out shoes.

I will never completely understand this issue, no matter how much I try to. I don’t know how it feels to be in their situation. As much as want to understand, I can’t, but that doesn’t stop me from helping. Poverty and hunger are global issues, which means people from all around the world should be helping to decrease it. Join an organization, or start your own organization, or even help out at a soup kitchen. Every little thing matters, every little step is one step closer to help decrease poverty. What really leaves me wondering though is, does there have to be a goal? For example the UN has a goal to decrease poverty by half from 1990 to 2015. Will they stop there though, or will they keep on going. Poverty and hunger can’t go away just like that. Awareness of this issue has to be brought to the attention, people have to keep on helping because there will always be something to do.

Not only will I keep on helping, but I will be sure to bring awareness to this issue. I am going to create a presentation for my classmates and explain to them what I’ve been doing these past couple weeks. I’m going to show them what I got to see during my trip, and I’m going to explain what I did, and what they can do to help.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for my next post!

Fieldwork Photos

Hi. My name is Isabel Medlock. Earlier this school year our class started a project called You and the World. Each of us chose an issue, researched it and then wrote a blog post about it.  Here is the link to my first post.  The issue I chose is the stigma of mental illness, the negative way people perceive mental illness and those affected by it. In my first blog post I talked about people’s opinions on mental illness, the discrimination that those with affected by it face, and the fact that the mentally ill don’t seek the help they need because of the stigma.  Since then, I have researched my topic online further and also conducted an interview with a mental health professional.

Recently, I have learned about the Mental Health Parity, which requires health insurance providers to give the same benefits, financial requirements, and limitations as those that apply to physical health benefits. I also researched discrimination against people with a mental illness in other parts of the world. For example, in Lithuania people with mental health problems are not allowed to own a home. In some parts of Korea people with mental health problems are not allowed to enter a swimming pool. I also learned that about 75% of Americans and Europeans with a mental illness don’t receive treatment. 

This is an image that provides information about how different places in the world have rules that stigmatize people with mental illnesses.

For my original research I interviewed Dr. William Fox, a psychiatrist. One important thing I took away from the interview was how people are affected by the stigma. It limits their ability to get help because of “lack of awareness —often willful, lack of effective treatments/options, and lack of access.” Sometimes they are unaware of their condition and in other cases they don’t want to believe that they have a problem. Also people lose health insurance coverage, employment and relationships. I also learned about the Kübler-Ross 5 stages of grief and how it also relates to how people cope with mental illness. The five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. When people find out that they have a mental illness they don’t want to believe so they are in denial. Next, they are angry about having a mental illness. Then they try bargaining with the doctor to get them to fix their problem. Next is depression which “is both a stage and diagnosis, but often people have " secondary depression" about having another psychiatric issue.” Last is acceptance, which is not the resolution of their illness but coming to terms with their situation. Stigma is causing people with mental illness to act so ashamed about having a mental issue. I think that it’s terrible that people get secondary depression just because they have a psychiatric issue. This interview helped me understand what people with mental illnesses go through, how the stigma affects them and what people can do to help.

After analyzing the information I've read online and conducting the interview I have gained some new insights on the many issues that people with mental illnesses face. Reading about the Mental Health Parity made me realize that some things are getting better for people with mental illnesses.  Although some things are getting better there is still a long way to go until the people with mental illness aren't stigmatized and don’t have to face prejudice and discrimination. I reviewed some more statistics that reaffirmed what I already knew about the stigma of mental illness and how it prevents people from getting help. For example, only 25% of Americans and Europeans get treatment for their mental illnesses. All the new information made me realize that this issue is worse than I imagined it to be when I began working on this project.

This image provides information about people with mental illnesses and whether or not they are violent.

Now that I’ve learned more about the stigma of mental illness I’ve realized that it is a much bigger issue than I originally thought. It is unfortunate that people aren’t able to receive the help they need because of society's negative view on mental illness. And because they can get help some people are driven to commit suicide. If there wasn’t so much stigma associated with mental illness there would be less people committing suicide and so many people would have better lives. It is also unfortunate that the mentally ill are so misunderstood, which the image above shows. People see the mentally ill as violent criminals when in fact they are usually the victims of crimes. This is another way stigma affects the mentally ill. I also feel ashamed of our society and of myself. Before I started this project I didn't know anything about mental health stigma and I believed the stereotypes about people with mental illness. I never considered how those with mental illness felt or were affected by those who didn't understand or even know what they were going through.  It’s extremely important that people start raising more awareness of this issue so there is no more stigma.

The image on the left is a poster that is meant to help fight stigma. The image on the right is from a magazine that wrote an article about how violent people with mental illnesses are.

Even after learning more about the stigma of mental illness I still have several more questions. When and why did people start feeling so negatively towards mental illness and those affected by it? How were those with mental illness treated in the past? What were the conditions in mental asylums in the past? What are the conditions in mental asylums now? As I keep on researching my topic I hope to find the answers to these questions and also to find ways I can help.

As part of our project we have to do something to help solve the issue and be an “Agent of Change”. Since I can’t really volunteer somewhere and do something meaningful, I’m going to spread awareness of the issue. One way I hope to do that is by discussing this issue with my advisory so they can learn about it and hopefully teach others about it.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to read my next blog post!

Annotated Bibliography

Here is the link to the entire interview.

Articles about this issue: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natasha-tracy/mental-illness_b_4761908.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-fader/stigma-mental-illness_b_4680835.html