Sattera Mark                                                     You and the World Blog post Two

Here's a link to my first You and the World blog post

     I’m doing a project in my English class called “You and the World”. For the project me and my classmates had to think about an issue in the world that we cared about and seek to change it. I thought about it for a while and decided to work with Teen Haven. Teen Haven is a Christian camp in Brogue Pa. There, three different cities meet. Those cities are Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York Pa. Being at that camp for four years, I heard numerous of stories from some of the kids that come there. Many of them are foster kids and come from broken homes with no father in their life. Knowing this I was excited in getting an opportunity to volunteer there.

   A field director, Chanea Whitinginton asked me if I felt ready to take a leadership roll as a junior counselor. I immediately said yes. I also got involved in a leadership group at camp called Restore. The theme of Restore is to Restore, Rebuild, and Renew. It’s for kids who are already apart of Teen Haven and want to take their leadership up to the next level. At restore meetings we discuss how to become better at what we do. We go over how me can improve and also what were doing well. It’s also a chance to make new friendships with other leaders and learn from each other. 

   The last Restore meeting I attended was very recent. It was January 11-13. I had a wonderful time spending the weekend with other leaders and getting to know each other. During that weekend we had five meetings. In the meetings we discussed these topics., Trust, Lifestyle, and Conflict Management. In some meetings we were asked questions. We wrote our answers on index card without our names on it. Two of the questions were who do you think you are and the second one was who do people say that you are. After listening to everyone’s answers I realized that sometimes people think better of ourselves than we even do. Those questions made of learn more about each other and we are much closer. After the meeting people started opening up to each other and sharing things that they hid. 

    After last weekend I feel like I’m ready to serve this winter/spring camp session. I now know that I can trust the other leaders. I can’t wait to do my job and to help in any possible way that I can.

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Hello Everyone!

Last time I had made a blog post was last year. It’s crazy to say it’s 2013! So far the Hurricane Sandy clean up is coming along well. One of Mom’s co-workers helped out with the clean up in Red Bank New Jersey which is right next to Asbury Park. She also had helped out with Hurricane Katrina. I had an interview with her and this is what happened....

Q: What was it like to help out everyone effected by Sandy?

A: It made me feel really good and I felt like I made people’s day. I felt like a hero in a way .

Q: What did you do to help?

A: I went and cleaned up debris all over the place. In Red Bank it wasn’t as bad as other  beach towns, but it was pretty bad. I helped people find their belongings and got them into a temporary housing unit.

Q: Is there any other things that were interesting?

A: Well when I was there I met a family that their house floated away literally and it was crazy that it happened. 

Lately there has been a ton of relief efforts made by celebrities, but the biggest one had of been the 12.12.12 concert held in Madison Square Garden in New York City. The concert was to collect monetary donations for the victim’s effected by Super Storm Sandy. Some of the biggest musicians of the century were there. Including the Rolling Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Adam Sandler, Eric Clapton, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, and the one and only Kanye West. It raised over $400 million dollars for the great cause. (source) 

The U.S. congress has just passed that gives $9.7 billion to insurance companies to help with flood insurance claims for the ones effected by Sandy. It lets the people that had their homes and businesses dusted by Sandy get back on their feet and try to get their normal live’s back. (source)

I really want to help this issue and I will be in a few ways. One will be in a saltwater fishing tournament in June at my dads yacht club and the money will go to sandy relief in Belmar, NJ. Another way I will help is do a donation jar system in local businesses around my neighborhood and I will donate the money directly to Red Cross. 

The pictures below are before and afters of Hurricane Sandy and pictures of the clean up and what happened  (source)  (source)

Bibliography 

Jamie Turner

1-18-13       Orange Stream

    The Causes of Poverty

Since my last post I have done a lot of research.  I did a survey to see what people’s views are on Poverty in Philadelphia.  I got a lot of feed back and a lot of different answers.  I also got to see a few different point of views.  My results will most likely determine what my agent of change.  It all depends on what people think we can do to help prevent poverty.

In my survey I asked people the questions that I wanted answered in my first blog.  First I asked if they thought poverty was a major problem in Philadelphia.  91% said yes they thought Poverty was a major problem.  My first thoughts when I saw that 9% said Poverty wasn’t a problem was “ What are they Thinking?”  But when you think bout it they have a point.  Philadelphia has so many other problems.  I know multiple people died on New Years Eve this year.  As a matter of fact my dad’s cousin was killed in a hit and run on City Line ave.  So I can see that we do have other major problems besides Poverty.

This survey really interested me in a few different ways.  One way is that I got to find an understanding for other people’s points of view on Poverty in our city.  Another way is that it totally changed my point of view on how poverty could be prevented.  I think These things are the exact reason I did a survey.  I think the next time I do a survey I would try to get more people to take it because I didn’t have too many people take my survey other than that I think this was very successful.

Click here to see my first blog post on Poverty In Philadelphia.

Click here to see my bibliography.

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     Hello everyone! This is my second blog post for; You And The World. As you may know my issue is teen suicide due to bullying. In my first blog post, I informed you everything you need to know about teen suicide due to bullying. For those of you who didn’t view it, you can view my first blog post here. Ever since my last post I’ve found new research that relates to teen suicide. I also decided to do my own research by creating a survey with various questions for teens. 

    I decided to explore more about teen suicide, that isn’t due to bullying. According the Wexner Medical Center, suicide risk factors vary with age, gender, and cultural and social influences and may change over time. Risk factors for suicide frequently occur in combination with each other. The following are some suicide risk factors that may be present:

• one or more diagnosable mental or substance abuse disorders
• impulsive behaviors
• undesirable life events or recent losses (parental divorce)
• family history of mental or substance abuse disorder
• family history of suicide
• family violence, including physical, sexual, or verbal/ emotional abuse
• prior suicide attempt
• firearm in the home
• incarceration or the detention of a person in prison
• exposure to the suicidal behavior of others, including family, peers, in the news, or in fiction stories. 

                                          

    Research after research, I’ve became more curious. I wanted to find out about teen suicides before the year 2,000. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (nami), here are some of the few facts I found:

 

• In 1996, more teenagers and young adults died of suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease combined.
• In 1996, suicide was the second-leading cause of death among college students, the third-leading cause of death among those aged 15 to 24 years, and the fourth- leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 14 years.
• From 1980 to 1996, the rate of suicide among African-American males aged 15 to 19 years increased by 105 percent.

     It is a hopeful sign that while the incidence of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled from 1965 to 1987, teen suicide rates in the past ten years have actually been declining, possibly due to increased recognition and treatment. 

       Taking research into my own hands, I’ve created a survey called “Teen Suicide.” This survey was answered by 59 teens. According to the survey 48 people out of 59 didn’t know anyone who died from committing suicide and didn’t help to prevent it. Which was awesome! In the other hand, 42 people out of 59 are unaware of the frequency of teen suicide in the United States. Also, 46 people out of 59 said that they were once bullied in their life. It’s unbelievable! Fortunately when asked “ What do you do when you see a person getting bullied? “ 38 people out of 59 answered, “ Tell an adult.” Seventeen people out of 59 answered “ Watch, and keep it to yourself." Only 12 people answered “ Participate in the action.” 

        Some of the responses on this survey affected me. They were quite confusing. For example, I couldn’t believe that amount of people who took the survey were bullied. It was more than half! I didn’t expect this. Also, I thought it was very surprising that some  people would actually answer “ Participate it the action “ when asked, “ What do you do when you see a person get bullied? “ That was quite unexpected. 

    Next time, I would be writing the last and final blog post. Action will be taken. I’m planning to do volunteer work for my agent of change. 

Click here for the story of one the most popular, but saddest teen suicides due to bullying, Amanda Todd.                               

                                 

Click here for my bibliography. :)

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Jesse Shuter

English 9 - Dunn

Orange Stream

Blog Post #2

Hunger and Poverty in Philadelphia is an issue that keeps going under the radar. For our English class at SLA every student is creating a You and the World Project. Each project consists of a world issue that we are then responsible for teaching the public about. Something that I feel is an important issue is hunger and poverty in Philadelphia. I like researching this issue because it is easy to feel close to since it is a local issue. It is also an important issue because millions of people are suffering day after day.

For this blog post I am including original research. The first part of this research was a survey that I had sent around to family, friends, teachers and pretty much anyone that was willing to participate. There was a common theme in the answers that were given. The first question listed was, Where do you think of when you think of hunger? Some people said South and Central America which are both suffering from hunger. Many people said America which is very true. However every single person that responded; whether they listed one place or many; said Africa. Now I’m not going to sit here and say that people in Africa are not suffering from starvation, because that would be absoulutley wrong and ignorant. However at the same time the point I am trying to get across is that people are suffering everywhere; even in our backyards; yet people always focus on Africa.

Why? The answer to this is clear, the reason that everyone connects Africa to hunger and forgets about Americans is propaganda. A few people commented on their responses. One person said, “Because that's all everyone hears about, but there is hunger every where else also.”. Another person says, “It's one of those things there are always hungry kids in commercials from the places I marked”. A few other people also commented saying that the reason they feel this way is the sad faces of the children in Africa that are on television and need our help. The propaganda on television is a powerful resource. Something that I have learned from this is that if the people on television could use this power to inform people about poverty in America, then it could help a lot of people get off the streets.

Something that I found interesting in these responses were that two people said that it is hard to pinpoint certain locations that suffer from hunger, because it is such a global problem. These people are exactly right. Poverty is spreading everywhere. It has always been a lower class problem, but recent studies show that even the lower middle class is starting to get hit with money issues. The hunger is growing and if we don’t stop to feed it, then everyone is going to feel the pain of living without the luxury of 3 meals a day.

Another one of my questions was what kind of community service do you participate in. Majority of the answers were that people donate clothes and toys. Only a few people actually went to help people in person. However I was pleasantly surprised because majority of the people that answered my survey did do a form of community service which is great. 

My favorite question that was on one of my surveys was, “If you faced poverty how would you react?”. This was a multiple choice question so there were multiple options as an answer to this question. The options were: Go to the government/welfare for help; Go to a shelter; Try and get a job; Ask for money from people on the streets; or Become depressed/give up. I had expected the majority of the respondents to answer that they would go to the government for help, or go to a shelter. However nearly everyone that chose to respond to this question said that they would try and get a job. Now while this seems like a logical choice from the standpoint of someone that is not facing poverty, someone that is impoverished would know how hard it is to get a job when you have no money, no references, no college degree, nothing to show for. I also found this response to be thought provoking because most people that are impoverished you do not find good jobs. Most people that become impoverished give up and either go to a shelter, get an extremely low paying job, or ask for money on the streets.

Poverty and hunger is a huge problem that needs more attention. People need to realize what is going on outside their houses every day. To see my blog post #1, which introduces you to poverty and hunger in Philadelphia and gives a better understanding of what is going on, click here. To view my bibliography click here.

In my next blog post I will include what I have been doing to make a change in the world.

To view or take my survey on Poverty and Hunger, click here.

Above is a Picture displaying the results to my question "If you faced poverty how would you react?” (source).




The image above shows an impoverished man suffering from the cold (source).

Since the first blog post I’ve written, I’ve done research on new information for my topic, “Teenage Depression.” In my school, I have conducted questions based on the subject and formed a survey to deliver out to the student body. The basic questions were for example, asking their age, their grade, and if they have ever felt sad, and what might be the cause of their sadness. So far, an abundant amount people answered my survey. 

           From the pie chart at the bottom, you can tell that the majority of the participants are females. This shows that the males weren’t as eager to answer as the females in this survey. 

  

    This conspicuous question, “Are you Sad/Depressed?” was asked, and the outcome is very close. 57% of the students answered no, while the other 43% said yes. 

  The students who also answered this survey were between the ages of 12-18.
The people at SLA who answered this survey, was also required to answer, “What do you think causes your sadness?” 

*The highlighted words were all answers that occured more than once.* 

• Insecurities
• Low self-worth 
• Seeing people better than me, or better off. 
• School 
• Stress with my relationship with my boyfriend/girlfriend 
• Changing how I look at myself; disappointment
• Family
• Benchmarks
• Rumors 
• Bullying 
• My Past 
• Loneliness 
• I occasionally feel extremely dysmoprhic. Or as though I don't matter to others.
• Love, how I feel that nobody loves me. 
• Self-esteem 
• Self image 
• Life and Death 
• Hormones 
• My Weight 
• Not having any friends
• Girls 
• Language problems 
• Thyroid condition 
• Negative enviornment 
• Drugs 
• Problems of the world 
  
  

One of the most popular answers for causes their sadness is family issues. For instance, there could be many problems at home; Divorce, death of a loved one, abuse, arguments, etc. This can have a lot of impact on a teen. Another main problem found in my suvery was stress regarding school. Most people went to school and delt with school work, homework, projects etc. 

My research has gotten me a better understanding on my perspective on teen depression. I found out that most people at my high school struggle from depression like me. My personal opinion about my results is that all of those people who answered to being sad are around my age let alone go to my school. I would love to help and talk to them; to let them know that I'm on their side dealing with the same problems. The thing that I am still wondering about is that what can I do for those teens at my school who are struggling with depression? Well, I can start by listening to them at my support group lunch at school and giving them comfort with their situation. 
My agent of change has been to develop a support group lunch, which was said in the first blog post. I've done a lot of research on how to run a big project like this. For instance, this website has many ideas I am basing my group on. What you see on television about support groups being portrayed as just a bunch of people sitting in a circle talking one at a time nervously is the total opposite of what my support group lunch is going to be like. It's going to be a very safe environment supervised by my school counselor and english teacher. 
Here is my Bibliography

Denise's 5 dogs are named Josie, Domino, Toni, Joey and Frankie. I asked Denise if any of her dogs were abused or neglected in some way and she told me that Josie, Domino and Toni were. Josie, a pit bull, was saved from the kill list at the shelter and is very needy and possessive and often “wakes out of sleep, fighting.” But Denise makes sure that Josie gets individual attention and takes the extra time to calm her down when needed.

Next is Domino, who is also a pit bull who appeared to have had a little bit of a harder time. His old father took him to her office since he could not take him to his new home. He also “always raised his cane at him” and as a result, Denise welcomed Domino into her home with open arms. “The first night was awful and we almost called the guy to say it was not working. “After he was neutered, he did not settle down but the torment to my girls did,” Denise said. He is also so terrified of hollering that whenever someone does holler, he cowers behind her. Domino needed a subdued environment where he does not feel threatened by his owners, and Denise's home provided that.

Finally, is Toni, a Shepard mix who was named after her dad. She acquired Toni from someone’s front yard where “she was out in all weather tied to a tree” and then moved to the front yard on a short leash after she dug holes in the backyard. She and her partner “went on a dog napping caper” to save her since Denise had seen the dog everyday while taking her son to school. When she first brought her home, Toni had never seen stairs before. As a result, Denise had to carry her up and down the stairs in the house and even to get to the car so that Denise could get her to the vet . Also, when Toni saw herself in the mirror, she would pee all over even while Denise was still holding her. Toni also dislikes men especially when they are wearing hats;  so much so that Denise, “had to make my father in law remove his baseball cap before he entered the house.” However, with lots of love and attention, Toni is much better now.

A. Josie B. Toni (healing from a hematoma) C. Domino

Denise doesn't regret getting any of her dogs. For Toni, "the only regret is not taking her sooner.” She also has some advice for people who are thinking of adopting abused or neglected animals. “No screaming or hitting ever. Patience is key. Know what you are getting into and be prepared. They are not perfect.” 

In recent news on this topic, PETA wages war on Pokémon for virtual animal cruelty. PETA says, ‘"The amount of time that Pokemon spend stuffed in pokeballs is akin to how elephants are chained up in train carts, waiting to be let out to 'perform' in circuses."’ They are so upset about it that they have made a ‘spoof’ Pokémon game called Pokémon: Black and Blue. In the game, the characters fight their trainers for freedom by using attacks such as group hugs, protests, quick attack and thundershock. This is not the first, and most likely not the last time that PETA will be “taking jabs at video games.”

Here is my bibliography.​