For my final english one project we were assigned the You and The World (Y&TH) project.The purpose of this project is to learn about a current event that connects to ourselves and raise awareness about the topic by researching and making a positive change based off of the new information learned about the topic of our choosing . For my project I decided to do the DC crisis about the missing Black and Latina girls. In DC the new commander of the Metropolitan Police Department posted pictures of the missing girls and made the hashtag #MissingDCGIrls. Knowing social media is an outlet  to spread news quickly in the 21st century , the hashtag got around to many people all over the country. According to an article found on the Cable News Network “Social media responded with outrage that not enough was being done to find the children by law enforcement” I chose this current event because I am a young Black female in this society and to know that young girls just like me are missing and no one was putting as much effort as they could to find them makes me furious. As my research continued I soon found out that the DC crisis wasn't a crisis. By researching the topic more I learned that the commander was just raising awareness of the missing girls. My research has brought me to a extened issue. My official issue is minors running away from home. Minors running away from home is an equally important current event but studies show that there has been no spark in missing persons in DC.

Based off the research I have done so far minors that run away are running from something or someone. There are many reasons on why minors run away from home. A very important thing that young people don't know is that running away is illegal. Most people don't know that running away is illegal , when a minor gets caught running away police can take a them into custody and it will result in having to go to family court. My research so far has impacted me because it taught me new facts about a subject that matters to me, that not a lot of people know enough about. Something that is important to fix this problem is focusing on what is making minors run away. If we focus on who or what is making minors run away as a whole community everyone could help face the problem head on. For the rest of my upcoming research I will be looking into ways to stop minors from running away. Also I will be looking at organizations that help minors get through issues that may lead them to running away. Stay tuned for a second blog post about minors running away. For more information look at my annotated bibliography.

English 9

You and the World

Philadelphia is made up of thousands of small neighborhoods. Each neighborhood is unique in its own way, however most share one similarity. Many of the streets and sidewalks in Philadelphia have litter spread along them. I live near Taney and Bainbridge Streets, and it is hard not to notice the trash that is carelessly discarded. The city of Philadelphia has trash trucks that go down our street every Monday morning.  http://www.philadelphiastreets.com/sanitation/residential/. Philadelphia Streets department has a Litter Cabinet that is supposed to reduce trash in neighborhoods http://www.philadelphiastreets.com/zero-starts-with-one/ . But I have never heard anything about them in my neighborhood before. So I think that Not In Philly is a more effective program http://notinphilly.org/. first moved into this neighborhood in the Summer of 2012. It was beautiful and clean thanks to a few of our neighbors who really cared for and supported our neighborhood. They would go out on the street almost every day and pick up the trash, keeping it a healthy place to live. After a few years of living here, some of those neighbors moved out and were soon replaced by new ones. These newcomers were not like the previous ones who left. Instead they lived an unhealthy lifestyle of smoking cigarettes and drinking. They dropped their cigarette butts out on the streets when they were done, leaving a mess behind. In addition, when they put their trash cans or bags outside for the garbage pick up, and they toppled over, they did not pick them up, or pick up the trash that had been left behind. A few years ago construction for CHOP towers began and is still going on to this day. The demolition of some of the nearby factories, the dust, and the litter of the construction workers increased the existing garbage.

During this past MLK day, my family and I went to clean up the streets with trash grabbers and trash bags that were given to us by a nonprofit organization, called Not in Philly.  Not in Philly was started by a family friend of ours, who wanted to help make Philly a better place to live.  We were some of the only ones to pick up the trash while a few neighbors just stood on their door step and watched. We also had the chance to share about Not in Philly with one of our neighbors when he asked what we were doing, and he sounded interested.

There are two reasons, in my opinion, that our neighborhood has become messier and litter filled. First, some of the newer neighbors (mostly in rental properties) do not seem to care about keeping the neighborhood clean.  Second, there is ongoing construction in three places  in our neighborhood, which leads to increased dirt and litter. Our new neighbors on both Taney and Bainbridge streets have contributed to the problem and it is getting worse. This is a negative and damaging situation happening in the community and this affects all the people in the area because it may influence the current people and the future generations in the neighborhood that it is okay to leave litter our streets. This would continue to make Taney and Bainbridge an unhealthy and non-beautiful place to live. Also, the increase in the amount of pollution on Taney and Bainbridge will increase the inhabitants chances of sickness and disease.

http://notinphilly.org/ N Not In Philly Logo

Https://southofsouth.org/sites/southofsouth.org/files/PCPC%20South%20of%20South%20Plan.p

http://www.philadelphiastreets.com/sanitation/residential/¨Sanitation¨ garbage truck: From http://www.philadelphiastreets.com/sanitation/residential/

Hi, my name is Michael Ing and when trying to decide on a subject that ment alot to me that I knew I would relate with I chose bullying because let's face it we have all experienced bullying in some way shape or form, so that's what I chose to pick for my subject in my You and the World project. I know I have been one of those people to experience it and I want to make a change, as much as I can anyway. While I can't go around and stop bullying myself what I can do is looking at the past experiences of those who were bullied and use it to help others cope and understand it. I can also use statistics to see who is affected more by bullying and why it mainly occurs.

`Now before we go any further we have to actually understand “what bullying is”, well bullying is a form of aggressive behavior towards a person that is always intentional. Usually “bullies” will choose the easiest target to pick on since it is usually done for entertainment. Bullying can occur in any different grade, and to any person. How the community reacts, well since Bullying is most familiarized in school environments i'm gonna use my examples in school environments mostly. In most common cases all students play roles even if they do nothing at all. In situations like this the most common types of roles include the bully/bullies, the person or persons being bullied and the bystanders. When reading through one of the cites it said that you shouldn't refer the “bully” as a “bully” but instead a person who has bullied (This also applies to the other roles also), this is because labeling the person might make them believe how they are perceived won't change and can't change so they just decide to not change anything.

My project is about Generation Z and the story behind it. Generation Z was born in between 1990-95 to 2000-10. Gen Z is one of the most confusing and muddled generations in history so far, and i’m here to untangle this story.

Part 1

What is Gen Z.

Gen Z has one of the most insane and confusing stories in modern history (so far). This story is important because this is the story of me. But before we get into that story, what exactly is Gen Z. While Gen Z has no real solid data on it, there is a basic consensus on what Gen Z is like. Gen Z has a very short attention span, they are great multi-taskers, very entrepreneurial, and they value individuality. This is what the typical Gen Z person is like. The average age range of your typical Gen Z Person is 7-21.

Hi my name is Alina Seing and for my English project, I will be researching about immigration. Immigration has been a big problem in our society and I think that it’s important to me too because I know many family members and friends who are immigrants that come from a different country to the United States. There are a lot of consequences for being an immigrant and there are a lot of dangerous things that could happen to them. One of the consequences of being an undocumented immigrant is that you get sent back to your country, you could never be able to see your family members again, and also get convicted of crime.

The reason why I chose immigration was because it is a big thing in our society. The reason why people come to America is because that want a better lifestyle. Their lifestyle is having to pay lower income tax, better jobs, equal payment as others, and being with family. Immigration is so important to them because it helps them learn new things such as the language that they speak and the way the society is. To be able to come to America, immigrants must have legal documents. If immigrants do not have any legal documents saying that they are allowed to come to the United States, then they are going to get sent back to the country that they came from or get sent to jail. I think it is important for immigrants to legally come to the United States because they want to have a new experience with society and a better opportunities. It is also important for immigrants to come to the United States because they want to be independant and find jobs that are secure enough for them to work in.

There are many problems with being an immigrant. If your are an immigrant, depending where you are at for example, Cubans come to the United States by train. They go through more than just bumpy roads, there are more than just a couple of families that want to immigrate so people fight for the room and sometimes people fall off from the trains to go to the destination they want to go. There are also a lot of people who need to go to bathroom and so they carry illnesses with them along with new ones. To come into the United States, you must have a green card, visa card, and a legal document. Once you have entered the United States, the first couple months are very isolated and unbalanced. The reason why it is unbalanced is because you must become an American Citizen to stay in the United States. If you don’t past your American Citizen test, you must retake it in the next year or you must get sent back to the country you are from or get arrested.

If you want more detail on immigration and how undocumented people back in the day, was able to pass, you can learn more from my annotated bibliography.

Immigrants are protesting to make immigration legal

           Masculinity and

Self-esteem

Blog Post #1:

Have you ever heard the phrases “Take it like a man” or “Real men don’t cry” or have you ever been told that for someone to like a man he has to be wealthy, physically fit , good looking or highly intelligent? Well if so, whoever told you was most likely misguided or even blinded by these deceptive morals.

My topic that I am studying Masculinity and Self-Esteem, in a way expose the truth behind these theorems. I would like to try and decrease the amount of low self-esteem in at least the freshman class at SLA. I want to do a poll for the current freshmen, that asks if they have any self-esteem complication, and if so what is the reason for it.

I am really interested in this topic because of personal experience that I have had with it. My personal connection is that when I was younger people always told me things that made me good...in their eyes. The false rumor that “Real men don’t cry”, I believe is extremely misleading. I think this because people always told me not to cry when I had to experience burdensome events. For an example, all of my grandparents passed away within a span of 3 months. Every time I thought of them I would always want to just cry. A lot of times people would tell me that I shouldn’t cry and that I should “take it like a man”. So, without knowing any better that’s what I did.

When I look back at it now, I realize that the longer I held it in the more independent, lonely, and even self-conscious I became. These emotions affected me big time because they were starting to show in my grades. I began to think that I wasn’t good enough for school or even life.

I think that it is important to know my story and how this relates to me because it shows how things that are natural in life can really affect you emotionally. And those emotional effects can be displayed physically.

This dilemma is significant because this is an issue that is widely spread across the world but, not many people are doing anything to solve it. This is also an important issue because if an individual lets the emotions that they get from this issue get the better of them a lot of the times it leads to suicide or suicidal thoughts. It’s not only good for people who struggle with this to know about it but it’s good for everyone to know about it. It is important for others to know about it because often times the thoughts of not being good enough randomly cross through everyone’s minds and it’s better to recognize it now than to have the thoughts and not know what to do about it.

This topic has really affected me because I always thought about self-esteem being an issue but I never thought about where it might have came from or why it was such an alerting issue. I just would like to know why boys and men always judge someone and or themselves based on their outward appearance and why they start doing it at such a young age.

You probably already know or at least heard about how important exercise is for you and your body. But what you don’t know are the facts behind that importance. Like, did you know that exercise can help prevent heart diseases like, diabetes, low and high blood pressure? My project is about exercise, how we don’t get enough and why it is important. There’s more for you to know so if you’re interested please read the rest of this blog to learn more.

First we will talk about the benefits of exercise. As mentioned before, exercise can prevent heart and other diseases  like diabetes, low and high blood pressure and even some forms of cancer. Exercise is really important, especially when you’re younger. If you start an exercising routine when younger it will be easier for you to keep up with it as you get older. Children nowadays don’t get enough exercise. Now I know what you’re thinking,”kids don’t get the exercise they need because of the TV and new technology of today”. Although that plays a factor, that's not the entire reason. Some of issue simply they may not know what to do or have anybody to do it with. If you’re a parent/guardian it is part of your job to help them stay active. If you are asking yourself why is this so important please visit this site to learn more about the importance of child exercise. Exercise isn’t just for kids, it’s just as important for adults to get exercise. To learn more about click here.

adults working together https://www.consumerhealthdigest.com/workouts/exercise-according-to-age-group.html

training, and flexibility training. Aerobic exercise is any type of exercise that gets the heart pumping and quickens your breathing. Strength Training is when you basic things that you’d do in a gym that builds your muscles. Flexibility training includes stretching exercises for the purpose of increasing one's range of motion. For more information on the benefits and how these forms of exercise help your body click this link to learn more.

This shows the difference a person who exercises regularly and a person who doesn’t http://reclaimyourlongevity.com/articles/reduce-disease-risk/muscle-downgrade-is-a-blow-to-your-body/

Now you can just go outside and go for a run but there are also cool routines and specific exercises that can help your body in whatever way you need. This site suggest a few of those.

I choose the issue of the importance of exercise because not a lot of people know how important it actually is. As an athlete I take my body seriously and like to keep it healthy and in shape. I want to spread the word about exercise so that those who want to become lean and healthy now have the knowledge to do so. Now you have no excuse.

My project is about the access of healthy food for everybody in Philadelphia, even for poor communities. I want to make a change because the city has the capacity to act way better on this and food issues are at the source of mortal diseases on a long term, like diabetes or overweight. The question isn’t only the fact that healthy food is very expensive, the issue is also going through education actually plays a big role, and that’s what I want to improve!

All these restaurants are very unhealthy but common on highroads! (source)

This topic really matters to me because this is really one of the first aspect of the city that I noticed when I came in the US: most of the cheap food quality is deplorable, and healthy food is crazily expensive- to give you an idea, the fruits price are twice bigger here than in the center of Paris! As a person that is new to the U.S  I’ve a different viewpoint on this issue and more stepback on what’s different compared to Europe, and what could be the origins of it.

I believe that knowing these benefits of healthy food is very important for many reasons. First, a lot of people don’t even know why it is bad for your health and body to eat junk food and what are the multiple consequences. I also think that the whole Philadelphia public school food system is to reconsider: in public establishments, the services have free (or cheap) services with a mediocre quality. Imagine all the repercussions on your health if you eat lunch there every school days. A solution could be every students pay a cotisation depending on their wealth, to dramatically improve the service quality. Then, it would still be possible for everybody to have more access to equilibrated food. While talking about school, another important point to do would be to give an education about health to childrens via school- it maybe already exists but I don’t know.

This map shows the relation between obesity and poverty. (source)

This issue is significant because it touches all the social classes (even if mainly disfavored communities are victim of this issue) and it is a global problem for people health. We know as well that the most penalized are children because habits are taken at this life period, also children's health is more fragile, then could reduces it on a longer term. Sadly, this issue is also social and discriminates poor communities. Besides all these reasons, I think it is important for you to know what’s wrong with this issue, because, even if I think that you know a bit about it, the origins of this problem are mainly going through education. Also, it’s good to know that some associations are doing an excellent job in Philadelphia for improving the situation. Another example the Eat Right is an excellent association that helps people of all the ages (children, seniors…) to adapt their diet.

I think that the thing that I’ve discovered through my researches that could educate the readers is every time you buy food, no matter what, you’re shaping the future and the world in what you live: the food quality is traced on what population buys.

Growing up I have always been “different”, I was the only mixed girl with locks at a afro centric school. Being the only mixed girl made me feel like I was too light and people always made comments about how I was too white for them. Along with my complexion I had locks, which wasn't quite a common hairstyle to see. People would say it looked like I had a dirty mop on my head or that I looked like Medusa. The comments that people made about my skin and hair me feel bad about myself, which drove me to comb out my locs. This is similar to how body image is affecting people everyday. Body image seems like a common thing because we don't really make it a big deal, however it can play a major role in someone's life, that is the cause of many issues. For my “You and the World” project i'm am going to be focusing on body image and how the media affects girls in high school. For this project I would like to see how body image really effects the girls in my high school, and based off of the information that I receive I hope to spread the reality of how body image is affecting people in my community.

Body image is mentioned often, but I don't think that people really think about what body image really is. The Merriam Webster Dictionary definition of Body image is “a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others.” As mentioned in a BBC News article, social media is one of our main ways of communicating, however we don’t always put our true self forward. We tend to use filters or alter our pictures before we let the world see them. We want to be “perfect” so we don’t let people see our flaws.

Did you know that Americans spend altogether about 250 billion hours of watching television? And about 30% of that is comercials? “The Media And Body Image” by Mirror Mirror Eating Disorder says that “ads seldom portray people that look like us.” the average model wears a 2 or a 4 while the average american wears a 12 or 14 (in women's sizes.) so people are striving to look like these models when on top of being way smaller than the average size, the images we see are altered to make the model look even skinner.

Body image is becoming an issue that young girls are dealing with as well. The article “The Issues” by NYC girls project says that “80% of ten year old are afraid of being fat.” As well as “By middle school, 40-70 percent of girls are dissatisfied with two or more parts of their body.” knowing that people may not be the happiest with their bodies why does it matter? Not having the body image that you want can cause low self esteem and decrease your confidence. “The Issues” Article says that body image can cause eating disorders from low self esteem, alcohol abuse, smoking, obesity and bullying. These are some of the consequences that affect the people who suffer from not having the body image they want.

After reading “Male vs. Female Body Image”, I was able to see that men are affected by body image just not as severely as women. However that doesn't mean that it isn't and issue, men tend to be more discreet about it.

Body image is a simple issue that can become a very large issue in someone's life. The images we see on social media make an impact of how we see ourselves. That view of ourselves can cause bigger issues like an eating disorder or low self esteem and a lack of confidence. Taking what I have learned from research, I now want to see how real of an issue body image is in my high school.

If you would like more information on my research, check out my Annotated Bibliography

​Hi I'm Sam Gualtieri, I'm a freshman at Science Leadership academy and my topic for our You and The World Project is Technological advancement and the singularity. Technology is an incredibly powerful tool. It has become part of our lives, and yet most people don't know what's behind their screens.

The graph shown here represents the rate of advancement in computer technology since 1900 in comparison to human brain power. The rate consistently increases as time goes on. This consistency has lead many to expect that at some point in time not long from now, the line on the graph will be vertical. This point is most commonly known as the technological singularity. Many theories have arisen about the singularity on the graph, but the most popular and likely theory is that this is the point when computers will start building more computers, which will most likely not have an optimal outcome for humans. Scientists and engineers like Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk are among these theorists and have all expressed concern about this point in time

Computer technology is already faster and much better at retrieving information than humans are. The only thing preventing that from being a threat is that we command them what to search. But as the way computers process information becomes more and more like that of a human brain, it’s only a matter of time until a chip could be able to become aware of itself. And if that is to happen, it’s motives will be entirely up to it’s choosing. As a human would probably do if they physically could, these computers would likely start improving upon themselves. Faster processing times, faster computers, faster improvement, until robots build even more, even smarter robots in milliseconds. This sounds like pure science fiction, but humankind is alarmingly close to hitting this point. Elon Musk Said in a recent CNN report “AI is much more advanced than people realize, and the pace of progress is much greater that people realize.” He mentioned the dangers of Artificial intelligence “What’s not obvious [to detect] is a huge server bank in a dark vault somewhere with intelligence that’s potentially vastly greater that what a human mind can do.”

However, Artificial intelligence is the ultimate point at the end of a path with multiple dangerous lanes. Much technological improvement is in the name of what’s cool or marketable. Every day a new advancement is made to bring our smartphones closer and closer to us not only in lifestyle, but in physicalness. Places like Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology are working on modifications to access a mini computer through your eye contacts. Let’s cover one thing. That is super neat. And that seems to be the mass consensus amongst smartphone users around the globe. But while microscopic, less silly looking google glass does sound appealing, internet connection that’s attached to your face comes with multiple foreseeable problems. In the age of the internet, most of us know that what we do online is not private. Our search history is tracked by Google. Lot’s of our photos are stored on the cloud or an online drive. Search engines and websites track when and what we do on them. We have a severe lack of privacy online. All this information is being stored online, where a computer could easily reach it. One of the many paths on our journey towards the singularity. In the future of this project, I’m going to be going over future technological advancements, current problematic technologies, and all of their places on the path to the technological singularity. This is something I’ve discussed with my 7th grade English teacher time and time again. I’m fascinated by technological advancement and have been for a long time. Topics that will be covered include lack of privacy, the potential dangers of cellular data radiation, online storage, human workers being replaced with machines, and at the end of the road, Artificial intelligence. If you’re a frequent internet user, all these things affect you or will affect you soon. It's important that you are aware of your place in the world of technology, and how such an integral part of your life could be quite a bit more dangerous than you may have thought.

Annotated Bibliography