Hey everyone, it’s Devia again! If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts on youth violence, you should know that I’ve been researching on youth violence. For my first blog, I mostly wrote about what my topic was and why it was important to me. Also, it spoke of what caused the majority of youth violence and teenagers’ participation in violent behavior. For my first blog post, click here. My second blog contained information on my piece of original research. For that, I conducted a survey marketed towards teenagers in questions that could help the reader and myself better understand what goes through the average youth’s mind. To access my second blog post, you can click this link.

This blog is the final piece of my English class’ “You and The World” project. To conclude the segment, we had one last mission; become an Agent of Change. To become this ”Agent of Change” it was our sole duty to not only research and write about our important topic, but to help to better our issue. This is just us getting involved in our topic, trying to be of service in any way we can, any way that we can think of. For my Agent of Change part of the project, I chose to spread the word. Even though this blog is helping get the word about youth violence, it still isn’t enough. I needed to do something else, something greater than just this blog to spread the word. Around my neighborhood, I’ve been posting up papers and posters that support anti violence in youth. I’ve also spoke with my peers at my church on this topic.

I know it isn’t much, but it’s more than what somebody else didn’t do. By putting up posters and flyers, the word to help subdue youth violence will disseminate. First, through my neighborhood, then the city and from there, there’s no telling what could happen afterwards. There’s no telling how far my anti violence campaign will go. With that, the additional piece of my Agent of Change work was with my church group, where I briefly spoke on my You and The World project and youth violence itself. I hope that it was good enough to subordinate anyone that I spoke to to partake in youth aggression. Furthermore, I hope that the people I spoke with can follow in my footsteps to help spread an anti violence campaign in youth. I’m fraught with satisfaction based on what I’ve been doing. I feel as though everything that I do is serving a helping hand in detaching violence and aggression from teenagers.    

Other things are also being done to discontinue teenage violence as well. Various organizations and clubs have programs that help prevent youth violence as well. For example, the city of Philadelphia has conducted a project, located as a pdf here, designed to become a bulwark, stopping violent behavior from reaching youth beforehand. The plan is a multiple step project whose focal points are broken down into the categories of Education, Training and Employment, Meaningful Engagement, Health, Detention and Diversion and a Safe Environment. The city’s main idea is that by doing things to prepare them for the future, distract them from violence, and help promote safety, youth would more likely be prone to a nonviolent behavior. Furthermore, there are an array of clubs and programs that teens can join that influence a stray from violent behavior. One of those organizations being PAAN, the Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network, which strives to help reduce the violence in youth.

Even though I did a lot of work, I still wish that some things were to be done differently. If I could change anything about my project, I would change how much I worked as an Agent of Change. I think that I could have done more to promote my issue to others. I could have scheduled more opportunities to speak about my topic to others and maybe helped out in an organization as a volunteer. Everything is okay though because I still think that no matter how much I didn’t do, I did enough.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who helped me while I was trying to do this project. I would like to thank my teacher, Mrs. Dunn, and my student teacher, Ms. Lucy, for assisting me and answering any questions I had about the project. I would also like to thank my old teacher, Mr. Crain for helping me to get more people interested in my issue. I would also like to thank everyone who’ve read my blogs and been keeping track of my issue.

Thank you!

Hello again.  If you do not remember me my name is Jason Greene.  I am a 9th grader at Science Leadership Academy.  In English class we are finishing a 6 month project called You and The World.  During this project we have to find a issue we are passionate about then go into the world and try to make a change in it.  My topic is public education in the city of Philadelphia.  I am passionate about this issue because I grew up in this city and went to public school in the city for all of my life.  In my first blog post I introduced the issue.  Link for that blog is here. In my second blog post I talked about the original research I did on the subject.  Link for that blog is here.This is my third and final blog called the post for change.

During the last part of this part of this project was a part called Agent of Change.  This is when I go out into the world and try to make a change.  I went to my elementary and middle school, J.S Jenks in Chestnut Hill and volunteered for half of a day.  I got to volunteer in Mrs.Croak’s classroom.  She is the 6th and 7th grade English teacher.  While there I helped out in the classroom, stapled papers together and answered some questions about high school the 7th graders had for me.  While it was fun to see lots of old friends and teachers it was hard to see how the budget crisis affected the school.  This last year some teachers were laid off.  Because of this the remaining teachers either had to teach a new grade or teach more students.  Mrs. Croak also said the school only gave her limited supplies like one case of paper to last her the whole year. Only about 10 to 12 laptops work on a daily basis. The students also had to buy the three books that they were going to read during the course of the year. I left the school around noon to head back to school.  No teacher should have to go through that. Budget cuts hurt and we need to find a solution.

Sign outside the school

The three books students had to buy for school

The advance group reading ahead

How can only one box of copy paper last a whole year?

I am not the only wants a solution to this problem.  The School District of Philadelphia is facing another shortfall for the 2014-2015 school year.  If they do not get the funding from the city and state they will have to make more cuts. There have been protests to stop the cuts and get more funding for the schools.  So far there has been no solution.  I think protesting is a great way to get your voice heard but at the end of the day we need to get results. According to superintendent William Hite the district needs almost 210 millions dollars. Most of the money would come by extending the one percent city sales tax hike and a two dollar per pack tax on cigarettes.  Without more funding up to 1000 more layoffs could happen and class sizes could go up to 41.  To make a change we need funding.

Public education is this city is a very important topic and it is not going anywhere anytime soon.  We can not expect the students of this city to be the best they that they can be if they don’t have the resources. Recently, a seven year old boy passed out while at school in South Philadelphia.  Because of the budget cuts there was no nurse at the school that day.  The counselor ran to the boy and called 911.  He died later that day at a hospital.  Maybe if there was a full-time nurse on duty that day he might have lived. We can not let this happen again.

This whole project has been a great experience.  I never did a project like this before I am glad that I got to this. The whole process, from the first to the last blog the project went very smooth.  One thing that I feel like I could have done better was when I was volunteering at Jenks.  I wish I could have volunteered there for the whole day but I couldn’t.  I feel like if I stayed there the whole day I would have done better.  I would like to thank Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Lucy,  Mrs. Croak, Mrs. Lynskey and everyone that filled out my survey earlier in the year.  Thank you.

This blog post is the third part in a 3 part series on our English class' You And The World project, where we each tackle a problem in our society that we want to spread awareness about. Blog #1 is about our initial research on our topic. Blog #2 is about our field research, where we gathered data ourselves based on survey results or observation. I took a survey of everyone in our class on their opinion of littering.

A signed SOSNA trash bag

In my research between now and my Blog #2, I looked into organizations like the South of South Neighborhood Association who hold neighborhood cleanups periodically, where they supply grabbers and garbage bags (pictures below) to small groups of people who help clean up the street. For my Agent of Change assignment, I participated in the first SOSNA spring cleanup of 2014. I put an ad in the school memo for it, but nobody could make it there. Neighborhood clean ups are a great way to get involved in improving the environment and beautifying your city, and other than that, it's great exercise for your back and arms. A few more interesting things were that we filled up around 10-20 trash bags over about 9 blocks and a couple parks, there was a 4 block stretch where there were no trash cans (except for one belonging to a business), and that the quality of the sidewalks and surrounding buildings appeared to be a big factor in the amount of trash in those places.

Various supplies provided by SOSNA

This was a fun project, and I’m looking forward to participating in litter cleanups in the future. The project has also taught me alot. Mainly that people don’t litter just because they don’t care. It’s also because they just don’t want to touch those gross garbage can handles when it’s so easy to just toss your stuff on the ground, but I digress.

Even though our city is bad in terms of cleanliness, it's only considered the sixth dirtiest city in America. Others include Atlanta at #5, Los Angeles at #4, Baltimore at #3, New Orleans at #2, and the Big Apple itself, New York, at #1. The cleanest was Cheyenne, Washington. Cheyenne even received the EPA’s Clean Drinking Water award in 2009. According to the website, they use special precautions and techniques to prevent large plants from leaking toxic fluids into the water supply. This may help with problems involving larger structures, but it wouldn’t be as effective here. If we as a whole really want to do better, we can encourage more cleanups and stricter laws in those places.

To conclude this post, thanks to Andy from SOSNA for agreeing to let a group of SLA students join their neighborhood cleanup of this spring. Also, big thanks to the 22 people who took my survey on littering (except for that one guy, you know who you are). And thanks to Ms. Dunn and Ms. Lucy for their continuing influence and support.

Annotated bibliography (Sources for #2 and #1. See hyperlinks for #3.)

Take this survey about littering!

As you probably already know from either common sense or experience, hurricanes and other severe storms are some of the most destructive things nature can throw at us. As you already know if you've been following my blogs, it can be difficult to find out how to prepare for storms beforehand, and a lot more emphasis is placed on storms while they're happening as opposed to during the beginning of the season, when it's relatively easy to prepare.

I recently interviewed Hurricane Sandy victim Mrs. Parks, proud owner of a house in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. Her tales of how “you could see through the house because the walls were gone” provide a caution for how damaging storms can be even with the proper precautions. It's very difficult to rebuild when you have “to gut the entire house,” while “still waiting for our insurance, we haven't gotten a cent yet.”

Of course, hurricanes aren't the only type of storm that can necessitate gutting a house. A recent blizzard caused a pipe to freeze over burst in my family's house, also in Sea Isle. The resulting damage destroyed all of our appliances and flooring, and most of the walls in the front of the house had to be removed.

The interior of the shorehouse on Pleasure Ave. in Sea Isle, NJ

Now that I've personally experienced storm damage, I can see that sometimes it's not possible to take all necessary precautions. However, that only means it's more important to be aware of the threats faced by storms. The fact that storms that may not be considered “natural disasters” can cause catastrophic damage just as easily as those that are only makes it more important to be ready for storms of all kinds at all points in the year.

One of the easiest parts of preparing for storms of all kinds is to have a disaster supplies kit. However, it can be difficult to keep one ready and organized at all times. For my Agent of Change project, I plan to put together basic supply kits to distribute to residents of a shore town in anticipation of the next storm. Wish me luck!

Annotated bibliography

Hello, again! My name is Talya Laver and I am a freshman at Science Leadership Academy.  In my english class, we have been doing more work on our You and The World projects. The topic I have been focusing on is Leukemia. To refresh your memory, Leukemia, as well as Lymphoma, Myeloma and Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS), are all blood cancers.  In my first blog post, I explored what Leukemia is, the different types of Leukemia and different organizations that are looking for cures as well as great places to donate. For this blog post, instead of doing a lot of research on the internet, I conducted my own research in the form of a survey.  

The goal of the survey I conducted was to see how well know Leukemia is compared to other types of cancer. I did not know almost anything about Leukemia and had never known anyone personally affected by the cancer before my aunt was diagnosed. Going into the survey, I thought the responses I would get would support my idea that most people do not know anyone affected by the cancer and do not know much about it. I was not completely wrong. I received 47 responses to my survey, the largest percent of responses from people in High School (Grades 9-13), closely followed by people ages 31-45.  

Response to Survey

On my hypothesis that most people have not personally known someone affected by Leukemia or have been diagnosed with Leukemia, I was not proven wrong. Although over half of the people I surveyed had said they have not know anyone affected by Leukemia or have been affect by Leukemia, it was not exactly the response I had thought I was going to receive. I had thought that there was going to be a much larger difference between the number of people who have been or have known someone affect by Leukemia and people who have not had that experience.  The gap was only three responses.

Response to Survey

That was not the only area where my hypothesis was not proven wrong.  59% of people who responded to the survey said that they were Not Informed or A Little Informed on the topic of Leukemia. Only one person felt they were Fully Informed on the cancer. This does not surprise me, especially due to the responses to another question I asked, “Which type of cancer do you hear the most about?” 89% of people said the type of cancer they hear the most about is Breast Cancer. This question went hand-in-hand with the next question I asked, “Which type of cancer do you know the most about?” The responses to this question were not quite as concentrated as the previous, yet no one said the type of cancer they knew the most about was Leukemia/Blood cancers. 

Response to Survey

In addition to conducting my own research, I have also found some new information published on the topic since my last blog post. On February 11th, it was released that a “Researcher discovers new target for leukemia treatment” for Acute Myeloid Leukemia. The research may have identified a powerful protein in the development of the cancer. This could become immeasurably helpful in finding treatment and cures for Leukemia.

Keep your eyes out for my next, and final, blog post!

To view the work sited, click here.

Hello everybody. This is Devia again with my second blog post about violence in youth. If you weren’t able to read my first blog, you can access it by clicking here. My first blog had a lot of information about what can influence an adolescent’s violent behavior, like peer pressure or a low IQ. Along with that, it gave insight on the rising of teenagers’ participation in violent activities, articles and statistics that support that statement. My first blog also contained information about the increase technology has on a youth’s violence and how much our generation is affected by this.

While researching, I’ve been trying to collect new information to go along with my topic. I’ve also been trying to find more recent statistics as well. One website that I have encountered is one of Drexel University's. Although it may not be much, the website still gives some potential causes of youth violence, which I didn’t realize before.

Another website that I used before can also be used for more information now. The Philadelphia Police Department has a page full of crime maps and statistics. The page, which you can view here, is interactive. Not only can you view up to date statistics on homicides throughout the city, but you can access the amount of assaults, rapes, and/or homicides within a set time period for any specified part of the city. That information can be combined with this. The point that matters most says that juveniles were accounted for 16% of all violent crime arrests and were accounted for 11% of all murder victims. That, together with the Philadelphia Police Department, would make for roughly 5 juvenile homicide victims year to date.

Another part of my research included an original research piece, for which I decided to conduct a survey for. The survey asked a group of 8th graders their opinions and personal experiences with what could be the beginning or youth violence. The survey's results showed that over 80% of the teenagers interviewed had been physically hurt by another youth, which can be used as an example of youth on youth assaults and bullying as well. The results also showed that two-thirds of the adolescents had seen a weapon and half of those who’ve seen a weapon, also held one and/or attempted to use it to hurt someone else. When asked their opinion on youth assaults on peers versus adult attacks on youth, most people responded that the latter was worst because adults should know better or because it is taking advantage of the child’s age and vulnerability. When asked what influenced a person’s violence, the most common responses were that it was technology, their environment, or just their feelings in general. Lastly, when asked who how much of a role a youth’s surroundings and technology played on their violence, majority agreed that it depended on the person.

The original research I conducted gave me an insight on the many different perspectives people the same age can have on the same topics. It also helped me realize that not everyone is the same so therefore, there can be an infinite amount of reasons why a youth has a violent nature and the ones I found online are just the tip of the iceberg. Moreover, the results of my survey made me conclude that there is a lot of work to be done in understanding the ways youth violence is differentiating and whether if youth were to be put into groups based on their age, environment or race, the causes would change. I also wonder why youth violence is not at a steady increase or decrease and is instead, happening at various percentage changes. I also am wondering why it is so hard to find more recent data and statistics on youth crime rates. To help change the issue of youth violence, I am thinking about going back to my old school where I sent my survey to. There, I plan on talking with the older children about youth violence prevention and the consequences and repercussions that come with crime and violent acts. Make sure you tune in for blog post number 3!

Hello again.  My name is Jason Greene and I am 9th grader at Science Leadership Academy.  In English class we are doing a project called You And The World.  During this project we have to find a issue we are passionate about then go into the world and try to fix it.  My issue is Public Education in the city of Philadelphia.  This is my second blog post.  To read my first blog post click here.  In my first blog post I introduced my issue and how it is one of the biggest problems facing the city today.  I also talked about how there was a lack of funding for public schools.

   

For my original research I decided to do make a online survey.  I wanted to find out if the people taking the survey had special classes while in middle-school.  I also wanted to find out if there were cuts while they were attending the school.  I got lots of good responses back.  Almost all the people who responded said that they went to middle-school in Philadelphia in the past few years.  Most if not all of them said while they were there that the school made cuts that hurt their learning and safety. Some of these positions were Teachers, Counselors, Secretaries and Lunchtime aids.  All of these positions are very important.  If you don't have enough teachers than you have to put more students in each class.  If you don't have any lunchtime aids there will be no one to watch the kids while at lunch.  The results I got really informed me on my issue because now I knew that the budget cuts of the school district just did not affect me but also my friends.

While most of the people who filled out my survey did have special classes like art and music…

Does/Did your middle-school offer...

Art               6  22%

Music/Band  5  19%

Computers   6   22%

Gym            5   19%

Health          5   19%

Over the past few years there have been lots of layoffs.

Over the past few years did your middle-school cut any of these positions?

Guidance counselor	2	15%
Secretary	1	8%
Dean	2	15%
Teachers	5	38%
Lunchtime Aids	3	23%

Now that I got my results I believe even more that this has to change.  The change has to happen now.  It is not fair for kids not to be able to get the best education they can get.  They can not get that without simple things like teachers and counselors.  As I was doing my research I started to wonder how many schools in Philadelphia were shut down and how many students had to be relocated because of that?

The next part of this project is called Agent of Change.  This is when go out into the real world and I go volunteer somewhere and try to have an impact on my issue.  As I said in my last blog post I will be going to my old school, J.S Jenks.  J.S Jenks have been badly hurt by the recent budget cuts.  My sister still goes there and she told me that they don't even have an art teacher anymore, that a dad that used to be an artist now comes in 2 times a week and teacher classes.  When I volunteer at the school I want to help out in a 6th, or 8th grade classroom.  I think I will have a big impact when I come because I the school needs as much as it can get. When I am at the school volunteering I hope to help the teachers in anyway I can if that means making copies or help teach the lesson I will try my best.

     

Seal of J.S Jenks

Stay tuned for part 3!

My bibliography.

Hello, my name is Gabrielle Kreidie. I am a ninth grader at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. If you had read my Blog Post #1, I am doing a project on refugees, focusing on Syria. For the past three years, there has been a conflict unfolding, a conflict that has killed nearly half a million people. This conflict is called the Syrian Civil War. The people of Syria have been rebelling against their government controlled by the brutal, President Bashar Al Assad. This has resolved in endless deaths, homes burnt to the ground, small supply of food and water, and a refugee crisis that is scaring everyone.

Since my last blog post, there has been a lot that has changed in Syria. There is now Cases of Polio becoming aware in a country where vaccinations are nearly impossible to receive. The refugee crisis in Syria is NOW the worst refugee crisis since World War Two. Out of all the genocides and wars in the past seventy years, Syria has now made the top of people having to leave their homes than any other. Not only have 2.5 million people become refugees in Syria but an additional six million have become refugees in their own country. This means six million Syrians who have left their homes, either from random attacks or destroyed homes, taking refuge in other places in Syria.

There have been many new articles I have found in the past three months since my last blog post. Check them out on my Annotated Bibliography. Stories have been pulling into the internet as the world starts to get the real sense of the struggle of the Syrian people. I wanted to go deeper though, than what the media portrays. I wanted the complete picture of the Syrian people. That is why I conducted two interviews. One Interview with Marwan Kreidie, a Middle Eastern studies professor at Villanova University and a Lebanese-American, who just so happens to be my father. The other Interview with Chukri Korchid, a Syrian-Ameircan businessman who is head of the Al-Aqsa school. The way these two men described the sickening details of the lives of refugees in Syria and in neighboring countries. The truth came out, and I must say it was not one to be proud of.

Al Assad is a horrible person. I think we can all put that behind us, he is killing his own people and no one from the international community is really stepping up to the plate and helping the horrified Syrians. Surely it does not help that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is the strongest ally of Bashar Al Assad’s Regime, which makes the US almost scared to strike Syria. This is what gets me damaged as a US citizen myself. Why is Obama and Congress not striking Syria? I do not know why these politicians believe that watching innocent people die is not our problem. Look I am no patriot, I do NOT believe that the United States of America is the greatest nation on earth- honestly we do horrible stuff all over the world. That’s not the point, however, we are the most powerful country in the world. We have the largest military compared to the next ten largest militaries combined. We have large allies that will stick by us all the time, England, France. We have the power and resources to strike Al Assad’s regime, yet we do not do it. We claim that we promote freedom to all yet we are one of reasons why twenty two million Syrians are in suffering. Just because we are scared doesn’t give us a reason to step out of the picture. As Mr. Korchid said: “We missed out on the opportunity to change it (to end the Civil War in the beginning of the fighting). In Libya we didn’t care if we threw in a missile.”  

As long as the US does not jump in and start helping, the CIA is projecting that this war will go on for another decade. That’s a very long time. I’m disappointed on how the international community is handling this. The United Nations tried to do a conference, in hopes of promoting peace for all sides. That did not turn out so well, and I’ll tell you why. Mr. Kreidie states, ”We (the United States of America) are too eager in playing our regional games there. To solve this conflict we need all people in, we had this peace talk that did not go well. Iran and Hezbollah should we brought in, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia- they are all involved. Iran is supporting AL Assad, Saudi Arabia rebels. This shouldn’t have to be on who is the US enemy or ally- the conflict is in Syria, everyone needs to be involved.” That’s just it, this is not a US issue, we are barely participating yet we want to take control of the conference. Every single person needs to get involved in this conflict. We need everyone to promote peace.

For my next step in this project I have to come up with a way to change this issue, one way or another. Since Syria is halfway across the world for me, I have to think small to help a crisis. I plan on making my own blog promoted in keeping a strong view on Syrian refugees and the Syrian people. As well as getting other humanitarian crisis on alert, including Congo, Ukraine, Venezuela, Thailand, etc. I will interview all sort of people to get their opinions, to get the truth on what the people are thinking.

I hope the end of this crisis approaches, I hope that people will return home. We need to act as people, we need to get our government completely involved in this crisis. We need our government to listen to us, the people who they should be listening to. We need their attention, before a whole generation of Syrians are ripped apart.  

In my first blog entry, I talked about how Philadelphia is known as the second dirtiest city in America, and how that has an affect on the air and our marine life. I haven't found much new information in real life, but this week I took a survey of 22 people in Philadelphia, mostly from my school, and the new information I found showed a lot about our city's causes of littering.

Of everyone that took the survey, less than half littered (10/22). And of those, none of them said that they littered often. Of everyone that littered, nearly all of them said it was because they were never near a trash can or didn’t have time to find one (9/10), and that they wouldn’t litter so much if the city installed more. Some even said that the city's trash cans were too hard to use (3/10) because they didn't want to have to touch the lid to open it. Every one of the people surveyed said that they thought littering was wrong.

I agree with the survey results. Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to find a trash can in some areas of Philadelphia. You can carry your trash for blocks and blocks, and even if you do find a trash can it doesn’t always have a recycling bin next to it. I thought it was interesting that so many people didn't litter or littered rarely. I think that if there had been a wider variety of people taking the survey then there would've been different results.

Also, I might soon be collaborating with a local business to organize a neighborhood clean up in Philadelphia. They do clean ups regularly in my neighborhood and even hire 8th graders to help over the Summer in exchange for school supplies. Stay tuned for more information.

If you would like to take the survey, visit http://www.tinyurl.com/SLAtrashsurvey.