For those of you who don’t know, my topic for my agent of change was Gay Marriage/Gay Rights. This entire subject is very controversial and is a topic of debate everyday. I for one, haven’t told my stance on the topic. On whether I do, or do not support the movement. I wanted to be unbiased and go into this process with a free and open mind that could possibly be swayed. If you ask me, this is the best choice to do for anyone that is introducing themselves into a new way of life/element. All in all, it was a life changing experience.

  I may have been unbiased, but this didn’t stop me from helping out the cause. I began volunteer work for The Attic Youth Center. A community designed as a safe haven for lesbian, gay, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) youth to find and develop into free thinking and healthy adults (If you are interested in joining like I did, visit their website here. Or if you'd prefer a different community organization, click here). There are many young people on the streets that have been kicked out/abandoned, especially gay youth that have accepting parents. The Youth Attic helps shelter some of the youth as well. These kids are still kids in my eyes. Gay or not. So I decided it would be an amazing idea to sell baked goods. From April 8th-April 26th, I fundraised for the Attic by selling donuts to the fellow SLA student body while also outside. Nearly $100 was made, which was greatly appreciated by the Attic. When first discovering the Attic, I really wanted to be hands on “involved” with them, volunteer wise. Sadly, in order to do so, I had to be 27. Being a minor can sometimes limit you in a sense! But not in this case because I did get involved and I was able to get my peers involved as well.

When setting out to make a change, I thought I had it all figured out. Originally, I had planned to get involved with Giovanni’s room, the nation's first gay library not too far from the Attic. I told you guys about it in my previous blogs. In my vision, it was going to be a sleek and smooth interview with the owners who would give me a piece of their life as gays. But then I realized, what else would have happened from there? There wasn’t much else that I could extend from and make my own. But from research and other numerous sources, I discovered the wondrous  Attic Youth Center. I found out about the organization whilst looking for other gay youth centers in the Philadelphia area. When setting out to find a place like such, I mainly aimed to connect with people of my age. Of my generation. To see what it is like growing up for them and how they deal with who they are.

   Some of the main, but minor problems that occurred were the fact that many of people I interviewed/that were involved, were very camera shy. They were pretty open with answering my questions, but when it came to documenting it, that was another story. I had to respect their privacy. I completely understood where they were coming from with wanting to stay discreet. But their words made up for the lack of identification. The main subject of my interviews was with the one and Mr. Jay Jacinto Grant, one of the directors of the Attic who enjoyed my company and my tons of questions. You can read the interview I had with him here.

Q1: Why do you support gay marriage?

    They should be able to get married. They are people too. It’s their constitutional right, let alone, human right.

Q2: What do you think keeps people from supporting?

Ignorance. They are people in this world that don't support gay rights mainly because of religion. I think this connects, because essentially, you’re forcing your religion on someone else.

Q3: Do you think sexuality defines somebody?

    No. It doesn’t define who you are, it defines your sexuality.

Q4: Knowing you as a supporter of civil rights, do you think there is a connection between civil rights of the early 20th century and gay rights?

    Yes. Before gays were getting discriminated, blacks were getting discriminated. Even though race and sexuality are different, it can still have the same affects on someone's mindset.

Q5: Do you know anyone that is gay?

      Yes. Nearly all of SLA.

Interview with Andrew Roberts:

Q1. Do you support marriage?

No.

Q2. Why not?

I believe that marriage should be between a man and woman and that man should not change it. Marriage is a scarcer thing with divorces and what not.

Q3. Do you think religion has affected your views on the topic?

Most definitely.

Q4. What do you think will happen if gay marriage is legalized? Will there be positive or negative effects?

A lot of democrats will be happy. The problem I see with gay marriage is it expands marriages ideals. If you expand the grammar to gay marriage, people could protest polygamy as well. People will say we did it in the pass, we can do it now.

Gay rights, I think that people will be happier, but it’s not going to benefit really.

   These people were amazing help to me in all ways possible. As the world gets older and generations grow, will there be changes? Interviewing two members of my day and age that come from opposite sides, it was nice to see that everyone is different. Even as youths, we still have our own independent beliefs and not everything is determined or set by adults.

     I feel like I’ve experienced the turn of a new leaf by doing this project. I’ve become more aware of the problems that do affect someone’s everyday life. At first, being a heterosexual, I didn’t think I would ever have to deal with the problems that gays do. Being unaccepted by family. Abandoned. Kicked-out. All because of your sexuality. In most cases the reasoning for being against someone’s sexuality is because of religion. But as a religious person, I would understand that you should love everyone. Even the bad things about them.

   I used to turn my nose up at the thought of community service. It felt as though you were being forced to help people. But after stepping down from the clouds and trying it, I actually felt pretty good afterwards. It was a rewarding feeling and made me want to do it again. I wasn’t earning anything physical, but strangely I was okay with it. This project has made me less selfish and more selfless. It’s made me acknowledge the world and one of the tons of problems it has.

   Most of the people  I’ve came to about my project were rather shocked at first. They knew the subject was controversial. The first thing I was being asked was “Do you support gay marriage?”. It seems that this question has became a casual phrase in everyday conversation. Mainly because it is one of the discriminatory topics that is frequently discussed by the Church and our government on a daily basis. It never bothered me when someone asked this, but I always took a mental note of who. The question itself is almost a trick question. If you answer yes, you can either get a congratulations, or a side-eye of disappointment. If the answer is no, you can expect complete avoidance from most and get labeled as a homophobic. There are positives and negatives.

    I see myself as a person who is still learning, but can be leader as well. Even without a full understanding of most topics in the world, I can still make a huge difference. It’s been one of my goals, in life, not only for this project, to make leave my fingerprint somewhere. Being commonly called a leader has it’s good and bad connotations, but I do prefer to have group collaboration sometimes. Sharing ideas and helping one another can only bring positive things. For most people who are used to doing this on their own, it can be scary. Having to share the attention with others can be anxiety filling. But it’s the things we don’t try that usually benefit us in the long run.

    Walking away from this project, I definitely will take away a better understanding of the world itself. Meeting new types of people and being exposed to a completely alien environment has definitely changed a part of my mindset. I’ve seen that stepping out of my own element was very beneficial. I’ve created a bond with people I never would have thought I would. Just by doing this project, It’s been made clear to my psyche that everyone is just a human being. The fight for gay rights is another mark that going to be embedded in history. It’s happening right before our eyes. But what we need to understand is that, we aren’t going to be perfect. The only thing I can do, and we as a whole can do, is grow and learn. Thank you readers for following me on this journey. I hope that from watching me explore the World and some of the things in it, you'll aspire to do the same. And possibly, make a change.

It’s been a hot year

Hi guys!, Today I am writing my 3rd  blog post, this is for  Mrs. Dunn’s English 9 class. I know it has been a very hot year for all of us and it’s really ad, but I will continue my agent of change to help this change in temperature and make more people aware of what is happening to the world each day.

Jamie Turner

5-14-13        Orange Stream

Final Blog Post

Since blog post two a lot of progress has been made with my YATW project.  The biggest thing being that I did my Agent of Change part of the project.  Also this blog post will be wrapping up my YATW project.  On Saturday April 27 and Saturday May 4 my mom and I went to a soup kitchen to help out those who are living in poverty.  We also went there to set an example for anyone who wants to make a change in their community.  Now I will get into more detail about my agent of change.

My mom and I went to St. Michael’s LutheranChurch two Saturdays in a row.  We help set up, Serve food, and clean up. On the 27th there were a lot of people coming for food.  After talking to a few people the said that the reason there was so many people was because it was the end of the month and most people’s checks some in at the beginning of the month.  When we went on April 27th there was over 100 people served.  On May 4th there was about 80 people we served.  That is because most people got their checks.  Now I am going to talk about this project’s impact on me and the people around me.

This project has impacted me in many different ways.  One of them is that I now look at people that are living in poverty or homeless a lot differently.  I think that I also made the people around me feel the same sympathy which was my goal.  I would say that this task would have been a lot more challenging if I had to arrange something myself.  I am more of the someone who likes to collaborate with other people to accomplish a task like the Agent Of Change.  In a way I would consider myself a leader because in my community no one really tries to make a change and I feel as though I have set an example for people who are unsure about making a change in our world.  In the future I plan on going back to St. Michael’s to do more work so I feel as though this project sparked something new in my life.  It definitely changed as it went along.

When I first found out about this project I thought to myself “So all I have to do is some community service then I write about it?”  Now I know that this project was meant to be more than that.  The project has inspired me to go out, and do good things because I have the power to change and inspire our generation.  All it takes is one person then others will follow.  That is how my opinion of the YATW project has changed and what I will take from my experiences during the process of this project.

Hello People, Today I am writing my last of my 3 blog posts on Mrs. Dunn’s English 9 Blog. Yes I know it is sad, but I will continue my agent of change and help the Jersey Shore rebuild from the horrific damage done by Hurricane Sandy.

Some Background Knowledge: 

Over the last year, I have been informing people all throughout the SLA community about Hurricane Sandy Relief. Now the reason I picked this topic is because I was effected by this. It destroyed where I spent my summers for 14 years of my life. I also chose this because most of the people in my school saw it as 2 days off. I saw this as a life changer. I knew I needed to help some how and some way.....

I had to do something, like start donating or making shirts, but I had no structure. When Mrs. Dunn announced this project, I knew exactly what I would do. Hurricane Sandy Relief. 

What I Did:

The Donation Jars I made are at the bottom of this post.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been collecting money for the Hurricane Sandy Relief. I put donation containers in my mothers work which is at the Franklin Institute in their private executive kitchen and over 35$ were raised there. I also did presentations to my Mom, Dad, and my Mom’s Boyfriend. I sat them down and explained what I was doing with this project and exactly what my agent of change was. It was very successful and in those cases I raised over $40. Now I am a huge Supreme Collector, Reseller, and Enthusiast; now over the last month I have made over 15 sales. From the money that I made, I set aside 10% to donate to the cause. I raised over $20 from that.

Over that time I raised over $95 for the cause and all of that money will be going to the Red Cross Hurricane Sandy Relief. 

I am still getting donations from family members and I will do the final tally of donations by May 23rd. This will be an ongoing project. 

Some challenges I encountered when I was doing my agent of change was how to get myself out there. Well like I said above I went up to my family and that is where I got my word out to and I was collecting money from them. 

The Impact:

Some people lost it all and that is not fair at all, they never deserved this.This may not sound like a lot of money raised, but it actually is. This $95 is going to a great cause. The money is going towards the nails that help rebuild a families house, the wood planks that allowed the kids to play cars on, the clothes that the families use to wear, and the food they use to eat.  I feel that this will go very far and that the people that have actual organizations are doing such a great thing. The families that you are helping are so happy and thankful for what everybody is doing for them. 

Goodbye’s: 

I am sorry, but this is coming to the end. There will be no more blogs, but there will be more donations. There are plenty of ways to donate and there are so many organizations being started for this. I will list them here: http://sandynjrelieffund.org/

http://sandyrelief.org/   https://www.ujafedny.org/hurricane-sandy-relief-fund/   http://www.robinhood.org/rhsandy 

All of these sources are very legit and will help people. 

Thank You For reading and staying till the end!

This is the third and final portion of the You and the World project I have been working on for the past six months. My first and second blog have both led up to this one post where I present the work I have done in the world to combat the problem of animal abuse and neglect. Just as a reminder, the You and the World project is an assignment that allows my classmates and I address an issue in the world that we want to assist in eliminating, We simply try to help solve the problem or be part of the solution by volunteering or raising awareness. So here is what I did.

I went to Operation Ava at 3rd and Poplar St. in Downtown Philadelphia and volunteered roughly 10 hours so far walking dogs. I do plan to continue my work there because it is requested you volunteer there at least 25 hours or three months, but I also enjoy working with the dogs, so for me, it is not even like working. I have served my 10 hours over 5 days, April 9th, 10th, 16th, 22nd and May 2nd. I worked an average of 2 hours each visit because I usually went after school and I had homework to do after I was done there. During my time here, I walked/played with about 20 or more dogs and sometimes the same dog multiple times. I have really enjoyed working with all of the dogs and cats at Operation Ava.

I am really proud of all the work I have done with this project and thrilled with what it has turned out to be. Thank you to Ms. Dunn, for giving us this wonderful opportunity to go out into the world and make a difference. This is absolutely, one of the projects I will remember for years to come.

Click here for my bibliography.

Since the second blog, I’ve taken my plans into action. Almost every week on Thursday, I’ve asked some class mates to come and join the SLA Support Group Lunch. Surprisingly a hand full of students arrived. It’s fine to start small, it’s easier to control.  I’ve had about 4-5 or so support group lunches and they’re around an hour long. I hold this lunch in my english teacher’s room during Y band lunch. This group of kids are ranging from 9th grade to 12 grade. My idea was to generate a “theme” for each week. For example, our discussions have been well organized with the help of Siobhan, our school's counselor's intern. She’s been guiding my support group lunch into something more planned out.

The first week, which was the introduction, consisted of getting to know each other and explaining what “Safe Space” is. Safe space is basically an area where students can say anything they wish and not get judged. Also in the safe space, we’re not allowed to discuss what happens outside of the area, therefore defeating the purpose. The students who came to the lunch, understood and followed that main rule. At first the group of kids were extremely shy about sharing. I thought, I’d talk about myself and my story first so my peers can see that it’s fine to talk about personal infomation regarding their lives. Everybody only shared little things in the beginning, which I’m alright with. They were making progress. It turned out totally different than what I imagined before the actual lunch took place. In blog one, originally I wanted to create a formal support group where everybody sat in a circle and discussed their problems. I've looked up images of "Support Groups" and that was the major theme of them. Here's one example that I looked off of when thinking about a support group.  Thinking back to it, that was such a horrid idea. I' I'm glad how it's really chilled and relaxing, and not stiff. 
The next week I held the gathering, we talked about what depression is, what it looks like (symtoms), and how does one cope with it.  The great thing about having these free discussions, is that we jump from one topic to another. In that hour lunch time we might either talk about the main subject or a couple different ones regarding depression. During the second or third lunch, I’ve been noticing an abundence amount of comfortablity within the members. They’ve been sharing more and they are comforting each other. This project has already impacted my life because I have this bond and trust with this group of people I’ve never thought in a million years I would ever talk to in my high school life. People are actually looking forward to my lunches now on. The people who are attending frequently are my motivation to go on wared through out my four years of high school.
This picture was taken on April 18th, 2013.