As you know from my previous two blog posts, my name is Ava, and I am a teenage girl from Science Leadership Academy that is making a difference in the community. I can’t believe I am already writing my third and final post to this project.

(Click here for my first blog post. (Every Animal Deserves a Home) Click here for my second blog post. (Every Animal Deserves a Home... Part 2.)

For my Agent of Change part in my You and the World service project, I have been volunteering at animal shelter for 7 months now. I started in early November, and have been going as often as I can. Overall, it’s been an absolutely inspiring project, and without having this due for English class, I don’t think I would’ve gotten into it so easily! Helping people is one thing, because you can communicate and encourage them to improve themselves and the community, but helping animals is another thing, because they can’t speak our language, and don’t have anyone to speak up for them. Through this project, I have learned so much and have been able to say that I’ve been making a difference in the world, one animal at a time.

To begin, I had to take an orientation session at Operation Ava, the shelter where I have been volunteering. They helped you get to know the ropes, and know exactly what you have to do, and where everything is. After that, you were free to go to the shelter as you pleased, walking dogs whenever you could manage, and playing with cats. I began by walking dogs in the yard, so you could get a feel for the dog, and understand how to hold the leash, etc. After a while, I could walk them out on the street and through the park. I started playing with cats as well. The cats were really adorable. I was petting one cat named Brody, and then leaned down to pet Soza, and before I knew it, Brody was on my back and licking my neck. I also washed and groomed lots of dogs. It’s strange when you wash the first one. There’s a huge sink, large enough to fit a pitbull, and there’s a hose connected to the top. Most of the dogs liked getting cleaned, but some didn’t like it, and I got all wet. 

This project has had an extremely huge impact on me. I realize that through just coming to the shelter, the people there are so nice. They have since then inspired me to be more outgoing. Being in front of people, or with new people has been really hard for me, but by taking the opportunity to help animals, I’ve also been helping myself. I have definitely seen the difference, and I’ve been saying as much as I can to new people. 

So far, I haven’t encountered any problems besides the fact that I can’t go and volunteer everyday! I have ice hockey four times a week, now that the season is over, so it’s been a little difficult to squeeze in the volunteering, but I’ve managed so far.

I feel like I’ve also inspired other people, because when I tell people about how I volunteer at an animal shelter, they might want to get themselves to go and volunteer as well. 

In the community, I see myself as a female teen that people may be bias towards. I know that through my experience, teens have many stereotypes, such as being lazy, listening to loud headphones all day, being rude, and not caring about school or the people/things around them. I hope that through this project, people will be able to have a more open-minded view on teens, and realize that the stereotypes are not all true, and that we can be whatever we want to be. I know that I’m still learning, and that nobody is perfect, but through this project, I have been striving to be a better person. I’ve usually been a follower, depending upon the group of people I’m with, but since I started volunteering, I’ve realized a definite change in my schoolwork. I’ve been taking more of a leadership role, and I feel that I’m becoming someone that represents Science Leadership Academy better.

I’m going to take this newfound courage and leadership, and use it to make a better community for everyone. I think that I have already started subconsciously, becuase I’ve been taking a leadership role in school already!

Please click here for my bibliography.

I hope you take the time to watch my video showing the shelter, dogs and cats, and featuring a few brief interviews that were done with the Operation Ava family. Please like, subscribe, or share with your friends! Operation Ava said they might even be able to feature my video on their site, so please like and share! It will also be passed along to the founders and their mother by the director of Operation Ava!

To watch an amazing video, please click this sentence. Thank you!



Picture Below:
Sade Lawal holds Pompom, one of the dogs featured in my video.

For my “ You and the World “ project I choose to focus on the issue of animal vehicle collisions. After researching this topic I realized that there is a major issue with vehicle collisions involving deer. I live near Wissahickon Valley Park, and in the park their have been deer that have been hit by cars. I decided to focus my issue on local deer collisions. 

On a particular road near my house their have been some collisions with deer. Wissahickon Avenue runs between Carpenter’s Woods and the rest of the Wissahickon. Many animals, including deer, have to cross this road. The road is very busy, and the cars move very fast. Occasional collisions with wildlife are almost inevitable. Maybe if people knew about the risk of hitting deer, they would be more careful, thus reducing the number of collisions.

So, for my agent of change part I was able to get a deer crossing sign posted on Wissahickon Avenue, so that drivers will know to watch out for deer. The sign isn’t actually posted yet, it will take a while before the Streets Department manages to get it put up, but I do have verification that the sign will be posted.

It may seem like getting a sign posted is a pretty easy task. But trust me it’s not. Putting the sign up myself would be illegal, so I had to request it from the Streets Department. The problem is that making a request is not enough. In order for the sign to be posted I needed to get other people to request the sign. I put up signs around West Mount Airy and on the bulletin boards in the park telling people to go the Philadelphia Streets Department website, and request that a deer crossing sign be posted on Wissahickon Avenue. 

Presentation on my Process: https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/presentation/d/1E8rU-MdDL0QU6yeyZxbGVr8toQoJ5bjkFGROnxrcQj8/edit#slide=id.p

I also raised awareness of my issue by requesting that people go to the Streets department website, and report deer road-kill incident, on the Friends of Carpenter’s Woods website. People saw my signs and I got some publicity. Someone saw my sign and promoted my cause in the Chestnut Hill local newsletter, and in January, while I was photographing a dead female deer on Emlen Street, Brian Rudnick interviewed me about my project, and wrote about it on his blog. Also Barry A. Bessler, Chief of Staff

Office of the 1st Deputy Commissioner, Parks & Facilities Philadelphia Parks & Recreation requested that the sign be posted to the streets department. He also pointed out to them that there are deer vehicle collisions that occur on Allen's Lane, which is near Wissahickon Avenue.

Chestnut Hill Local Article https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1WXRglc-zwed5Mwhi9u9brL5amiSEhYeHai-Ek-U5Vjw/edi Rudnick Article: http://closeup.brianrudnick.com/2013/01/studies-roadkill.html

I needed to do a lot of things in order to get this to happen. The first step in getting this done was to request that the sign be posted on Wissahickon Ave. to the Philadelphia Streets Department. I also needed to write to Cindy Bass from City Council.  

In order for a deer crossing sign to be posted in an area, the area needs to be declared a deer crossing area. For that to happen, there have to be reported incidents of deer being killed in said area. The problem I ran into was that there weren’t any reported incidents. This was annoying because I have seen four deer killed by cars on Wissahickon Avenue in the past two years. 

1. A six-seven month old female fawn struck by a car, found dead ten yards from the road in  October of 2011. Her stomach was swollen due to the impact.

2. A full grown, eight point male found dead one hundred yards from the road in November 2011

3. A doe found dead 100 feet from Wissahickon Avenue in December 2012.

4. A young male with his antlers cut off (featured in photo) found on the edge of Wissahickon Avenue on January 3, 2013

There was also an article about a deer that was hit by a car on Wissahickon Avenue after being chased by a dog, which I put in my first two blog posts, in the Friends of the Wisshickon Newsletter. I sent this, along with the other incidents I had seen, to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. I also asked others to report any incidents they might have seen. I contacted David Dannenberg, who is on the Board of the Friends of the Wissahickon. He lives near Wissahickon Avenue and he had some incidents to report himself. 

Click here to read about them https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/18rX2vdXZGI4TV06HrMOqAASe9uXTDVmOZht-jN3Ttvo/edit

The main way that I wanted to go about solving this problem was to get a deer crossing sign posted, and to get people to watch out for deer. But as you can see by some of David Dannenbeg’s incident reports, and the article in the Friends of the Wissahickon Newsletter, off-leash dogs chasing deer across roads, and into oncoming vehicles is also causing these collisions. It is required by law that dogs remain on leash in Fairmount Park. This to insure the safety of people, dogs, and wildlife. Sadly this rule is often broken by dog walkers, causing dogs to harm wildlife. Some of theses collisions could be prevented if dog owners kept their dogs on leashes.  

I received email conformation from Job Itzkowitz that the deer crossing sign will be posted. It will take a while for it to be posted because these kinds of things take a while, but it will happen. This sign will hopefully reduce the amount of deer getting hit by cars on Wissahickon Avenue, and make Carpenter’s Woods a safer place for wildlife. Deer are abundant in Fairmount Park, and we have to learn to co-exist with them. Despite the fact that there is an over population of them, and they destroy gardens, demolish plant species, and spread lyme disease (which I have gotten twice) I think that deer are beautiful, peaceful animals that deserve to be protected from vehicles, as do all other species of wildlife.

This project has shown me that getting change to happen is a challenge. When I first started my Agent of Change I thought that it was going to be pretty easy. But it turned out that I had to get a lot of publicity and support to make this happen. I think I greatly benefitted my community by getting this necessary sign posted, and showing others that this is a major local issue. I made an impact on the rivers in my neighborhood and the local wildlife. This project was largely an individual project, buy I couldn’t have done it without the support of The Friends of the Wissahickon, the Friends of Carpenter’s Woods, from the Philadelphia Streets Department, City Councilperson Cindy Bass, The Pennsylvania Game Commission, Brian Rudnick, and my Mom and her connections with the Friends of the Wissahickon, and the help of my Community, and their willingness to take action on this issue. Thank you.

Blog 1 http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Animal_Vehicle_Collisions

Blog 2 http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/Animal_Vehicle_Collisions_blog-2_Deer

Bibliography

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/14hFwpveQ8vAPawj9qXVlfF69uZXki43pHuin_RFXKcw/edit

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For the last part of my You and the World project I did a presentation to my advisory. If you're new to my You and the World blogs then you should look at my past blogs before. Click here to see my first blog post. Click here to see my second blog post. I made a iMovie about gay rights. The purpose was to inform others on the problems that the LGBT community faces today. I presented on April 25, 2013 to a class of about 20-30 students. After the presentation I ran a very short discussion on the video and answered questions anyone had. Even after my presentation I was asked questions not only by my friends but other stream members as well about my topic. If you would like to view my video I have a link at the bottom of this blog.

       My presentation to advisory

  (Click picture to enlarge)

My process was very challenging yet fun. At first, I wanted to raise money in some way and donate it to LGBT places such as The Attic or the Human Rights Campaign. That didn’t go so well because I saw other people that had the same topic doing similar things for their project too. So, I went with a movie instead to present. I wanted this movie to be funny but serious. To execute a plan like this I incorporated multiple pictures and narration. I had pictures that came up as soon as I said a word or two that related to it. For example, I said “What has the world come to?” and for the picture I used a world with a question mark on it. I found this to be creative and fun to make.

The problem I encountered during this project was finding a song that would set the mood for the movie. I didn’t want a song that was highly sad or depressing. As a result, I chose to use “It Ends Tonight” by All American Rejects and leveled it out with “One Day” by Matisyahu.

I think personally the overall project went well. I am proud of what I made. If I had to choose what I think was the best part, it would be my choice in the words and tone  used in my narration. I believe I used it to my fullest potential. It is my goal to have people acknowledge and possibly make a change in the world we live in. If you’ve read my other blogs you can probably understand where I’m coming from and agree.

This projected impacted me in many ways. It’s easy for someone to say that they support an issue, but to actually make an attempt to change the world is another thing. I first had to ask myself “Am I really supportive of Gay Rights or am I just saying that for my project?”. The answer was clear seconds later. I support gay rights regardless of what anyone says. This project has allowed me to see my true self.

The project impacted my community by leaving them with questions. At the end of my video, I left the question “Are we truly equal?” Just as I said in the beginning, I had not only my friends but other students asking me about my topic. They had a thirst for knowledge of gay rights and I quenched their thirst.


I see myself as someone who is still learning. I’m still learning about life itself. I’ve still got a long way to go until I can become an actual leader. I’ve been told I show some leadership qualities at such a young age. My plan is to become a leader, not a follower. I want to set a path for myself, not follow someone else’s. Now if someone wants to follow my path by becoming a leader themselves...well it's a little hard to explain that.


This is, unfortunately, the part where my blog ends. Though my desire to have equal rights for everyone will not end. I will continue to fight for gay rights. I won't be documenting my acts or travels through blogs anymore, but maybe you'll catch me one of these days in the act. I appreciate the time you took into reading my blogs and maybe, just maybe, you can be the one to step up and make a change. 


Click here for my bibliography. 

To access my pictures dealing with my presentation click here. 

To see my video click here. 

I'm Tobi Hahn, and my You and the World project was on internet privacy. The agent of change portion of my project happened at the same time as the reintroduction of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a controversial internet privacy bill which was voted down last year. It would allow the government and corporations to share your private browsing data without a warrant or any justification. You could file a complaint saying that your data was used in a wrongful way, but CISPA also has a clause that keeps the use of your information secret. It could be abused for warrantless wiretap, copyright enforcement, and targeted ads. It is in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment. After it passed the house, I presented to my advisory about it. I explained to them how the bill would impact everyday internet usage, and encouraged them to sign a petition. On April 25, the Senate stopped CISPA in its tracks by refusing to vote on it. But CISPA is far from dead. It was voted down in the house last year, but came back this year. It is likely to come back again, possibly in separate bills.

My process changed significantly with the reintroduction of CISPA. My presentation was originally going to be about how you could improve your privacy on the internet, but then CISPA was reintroduced, and I recognized it as a bigger issue. If CISPA was passed, there would be no browser settings you could change that would preserve your privacy.

I encountered some problems with scheduling my presentation, as there were many presentations happening at the same time. I managed to find a time to present, however, and fixed the problem.

I think my presentation went well, as it raised awareness about CISPA. CISPA got little coverage in mainstream news outlets, and it could have had negative consequences for internet privacy if it was passed.

This project impacted me, as I saw that it was possible to make an impact in my community, even if it was just my school's community. Before it seemed like something that was not really possible to do without huge amounts of people and coordination. I think I am still learning how to make an impact, though, as I think I could have done a bit more. I only did one presentation and probably had time to do more.

For my presentation, I talked about what CISPA was and why it was a threat. I also talked about how it could be abused, and what you could do. Josh Berg said that my presentation was very informative, and it made him more aware about the topic.

You can see my slide deck below.

Since my presentation was before CISPA's defeat in the Senate, it seems a bit out of date now. I have made an up to date Prezi slideshow about why CISPA is a threat. You can see it embedded below.

Thanks for reading my Post for Change. I enjoyed doing my You and the World project and making an impact in my community. You can read my first blog post(it's on internet censorship) and my second blog post by clicking on them, and you can see my annotated bibliography here.
Please sign a petition to stop CISPA at cispaisback.com.

When 9 people fill twenty enormous trash bags with litter in one hour, you know you've made a difference.

I'm Zack Hersh, and as an Agent of Change for litter, I organized a litter pickup around SLA, on April 13th, 2013 from 12-1 pm. While it wasn't quite the turnout I had hoped for, the nine of us picked up pounds and pounds of litter on 22nd Street and the disgusting Trader Joe's parking lot and green space. We left the area much cleaner and greener, and went home feeling satisfied.

But it took a lot of effort to get there. First, I had to familiarize myself and get to know the issue inside and out, and I did that through my first and second blog posts. Afterwards came the pickup.

The only thing I thought would really make sense to do for my Agent of Change part was a pickup, especially of the local community. This was narrowed down from other possibilities being Raising Awareness, Money for Organizations like "Keep Philadelphia Beautiful", and petitioning or trying to get more trash cans put in.

My vision was a bunch people all gathering around SLA, and working together, making a difference, and having a good time, in purging the neighborhood of litter.

Once I had the idea and vision in place, it was time to set a date, and time. It was a surprisingly tough decision. I was conflicted between having it be after school or on the weekend. If it was after school, it would be much easier for more people to come. But that would've limited it to mostly SLA students, and most sports, including baseball and track, have practice after school every day. With a weekend pickup, this wouldn't be a problem, but it would be harder to get a turnout. 

Ultimately, I decided on a weekend pickup, and scheduled it two weeks in advance for Saturday, April 13th from 12:00-1:00.

The next, and most important part of my process was getting other people to join me. 

I made flyers, and put them up all over school. I made posts to Facebook. I got two announcements in the Advisory memo. I talked to people directly. And, after all that, I had 3 people in total who said they would come, plus me and my parents.

But things have a way of working themselves out, and following that motto plus help from friends, when the pickup came, we had nine people in total.

Ridding the streets of all the garbage felt really good, and really satisfying. In that way, devoting myself to this issue, and being an Agent of Change, has strongly impacted me, for the better. Even the first two blog posts, researching it, and spreading the word, really made me feel like I was making a difference. It really made me feel like I was doing something right. I feel that this project, this experience, has strongly instigated fundamental, significant growth in me, and this is visible through my actions and who I am after this. It showed myself that I can lead, and surprised myself with what I am capable of. This was a demonstration, awakening, of leadership I didn't know I had. 

In the end, I can go to sleep at night knowing that my community is different, better, cleaner, because of me. Knowing I started something that snowballed into so much more than I ever thought it would. 

Knowing that I impacted, knowing that I changed my community, and almost without realizing it, let, and inspired others to do the same.

Click here for my bibliography.  


 

Hello everyone, I’m Jiwon Choi and for my You and the World Project, I chose domestic animal abuse. If you do not know what the You and the World Project is about, click here to get a basic information about what this project is about and for. After I wrote my second blog post of why animal cruelty should be put an action to, I started my agent of change part of the project. The agent of change is when individual go out into the world and make a change for their issue. For example, they can present to others about their issues or volunteer somewhere to help make a difference for their issue. For my agent of change, I volunteered at Operation Ava. Operation Ava is a no-kill animal shelter located at 3rd and Poplar in Philadelphia. At the animal shelter, I volunteered for about 45 hours from March 25th to April 30th.

   

   The first time I researched what animal shelter I was going to volunteer at, I had some difficulties because had to be at least 16-18 years old. Then, I came across the Pennsylvania SPCA and I received an email telling me to attend the orientation. I started to take classes on the basics I had to learn, but they told me that it was a mistake that they made for sending me the email. I had to find a different place to volunteer, and I came across Operation Ava. When I first went to Operation Ava to volunteer, I had some problems with taking the dogs out from the kettle because some were very nervous and shy, while others were very hyper. The staff and the experienced volunteers there were very kind and helped me whenever I needed any help. As I learned how to handle the dogs as time went on, I didn’t have any problems dealing with them. At Operation Ava, I walked dogs and played with them in the backyard.

    This project has impacted me in so many ways. I realized that there are a lot of domestic animals that were neglected a lot more than I imagined; I was sort of shocked when I saw all the dogs in SPCA and Operation Ava had. Also, I was sad when I saw some of the dogs shivering whenever I walked by their kettle. I knew that they were afraid of me, of what I will do to them, of how I will treat them. In the other hand, I noticed that most of the dogs were very energetic. It made me believe that if you give them love, if you show them love, they will actually trust you and like you, even if they were hurt by someone in the past. By noticing this and by knowing that this is why I am volunteering, I felt accomplished because this was a way that I was helping the animals. Even though this project impacted me a lot, I believe that this also impacted the community because I think that if more and more people are aware of how many animals are neglected and abused, they would help adopt animals and give the animals love. I believe that more people would donate to animal shelters and volunteer to help these animals. I think that I need to learn more like the people who don’t as much about neglect and abuse because I know that there is more to this problem. I know that the more I study this issue, the more I will learn from it, but I also think that I can lead. I think I have the ability to make this issue more known by giving people presentations about it.

  I am definitely not done with this issue yet. I am still planning to go to Operation Ava and walk the dogs, and I am still planning to help this issue become more known to the world. Also, I thank my 9th grade English teacher, Mrs. Dunn for letting me have this opportunity. Thank you.

    Lastly, I made a scrapbook for my memories at Operation Ava. I made the scrapbook so that it seems like I am actually talking to the dogs. At first, I made it so that I am describing every dog to the people who are reading the text but it seemed to get boring because I was using the same words over and over. Therefore, I made it so that I am talking to the dogs, and I made the font like an actual handwriting font to make the scrapbook more realistic. I’m glad that my scrapbook came out very unique.


Click here for my scrapbook. 
Click here for my bibliography.

Below is a dog featured in my scrapbook.