For my research, I wish I had interviewed Lily Palmer because of her recent experience with Dress Codes. I think her story would have made a great contribution to my project and i'm really upset I didn't have the time to talk to her. I wanted to know how it made her feel, what emotions was she feeling when she was called out for her attire, how she reacted, and how is she going to prevent this from happening again.

My original research went really well. Many people did my survey, so I got a lot of insight on what people think about feminism and how they feel about it. If I could do something differently I would have released my survey sooner, and I would've made my questions mandatory to answer because a lot of people skipped questions on my survey.

My project had a pretty good impact because a lot of people learned about feminism and what it really is. Many girls showed up for my photo shoot, and many people shared a picture with the hash tag #MoreThanADistractionSLA. What really shocked me is most people posted pictures of themselves in black and white with the hash tag which was weird and random, but it was something that made my project stand out. It basically created a trademark for itself.

If I had the chance I would do this project again because it was something I enjoyed. I also liked that I got to do my work based on a topic I am very passionate about because it gave me the chance to reach my full potential and do a good job on it. I really hope that my project has, or will make an impact because feminism is something I strongly believe in, and knowing that I made or can make a difference makes me feel 100% more motivated to fight this issue than before.

I am extremely impressed with my You and the World project. To me it seemed like a mini Capstone project. By far this is the best benchmark project I ever had in SLA. I remember when it all started which was in the beginning of the quater. When Ms. Giknis was explaining the benchmark I got really excited. There were so many topics to chose from. Idea after idea ran through my mind and surfaced in my notebook. Bullying and depression were the first few topics that I wanted to choose. That’s until I came up with stereotypes. I thought this topic was great for me because it was not a topic that everyone had already considered. Every time I told someone about my topic they gave me a weird looked and asked more about it.

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/

I am choosing animal abuse because there are a lot of people around the world abusing animals. There are too many people using animals to take advantage of them just because they may make one small mistake. Some people would make up an excuse saying that they would hit their pet just because they were not listening to their owner. Also thousands of animals would be abused each day just because they were with the wrong owner. The most abused animal is the pitbull. This one pitbull, she was a girl and she was homeless until one night a stranger had came up to her in an alleyway and tied a wire very tight around her mouth. Her nose had to be surgically removed. It is really sad that humans would be so cruel to hurt or attack a sensitive animal like this.

Now wouldn't you like to see a dog happy or sad. Why would anyone want hurt a poor little puppy or kitten. Some people say that it's hard to train an animal or they don't like how their pets react to certain things. That's why ASPCA would help. Nobody could ever make up an excuse hurt a dog physically or mentally.The main reason why I chose animal abuse is because too many people think that animals shouldn't be treated as well as humans. Sometimes I really just wonder why humans would take their anger out on poor little animals, and why would they do that, why hurt little animals at least you could confront the people that hurt you instead.

You can actually help the fight against animal abuse. You can spot animal abuse by just walking down the street. If an animal has untreated wounds it can get infected.  An owner could be seen giving it's pet dirty water. If you look closely to a dog's neck it might be a scar on it's neck from the collar being too tight. I think animal abuse should be stopped by arresting the owners that abuse their pets. It is not fair to the animals that have to deal with this in any time in their lives.

Reproductive freedom is a problem in this country. Politicians (mostly male) everywhere are trying to limit women’s access to birth control and abortion clinics, and are passing regulations and laws to make sure schools teach abstinence-only sex education.

I think everybody everywhere believes that an abortion is not a pleasant procedure, though it is very safe. However, I think it should be available to women everywhere without some of the limits like the twenty-four hour rule, forcing the woman to look at the screen during the procedure, and the requirement for a guardian’s signatures for under-age women. For the people who are pro-life because of religious reasons: women were put onto this planet by God with the unbelievable ability to carry and birthe a child, and I think the choice of what to do with that should be up to her. I wrote more about this in my first blog post.

For my original research, I was able to speak to Adrienne Ralston of the Options Industry Council of America, a non-profit organization. Ms. Ralston’s work is to educate today’s youth about sexual health, and its dangers, options, and circumstances. I greatly enjoyed speaking with Ms. Ralston, and I learned a ton. We spoke for over an hour and I asked her many questions, and it was amazing to receive the insights of somebody who’s immersed in the reproductive freedom and choice world every day.

One of the first questions I asked her was about what ways Philadelphia is successful when it comes to educating people about reproductive freedom. She answered that Philadelphia has a very involved community of people, organizations, and companies that are focused on educating the public - especially young people. She said that, compared to other places in the US, Philly is a great place to be to learn about reproduction rights and resources in general.

However, there is still a ways to go. I followed the previous question with one regarding specific topics about which people lack knowledge and education. She responded that STDs and HIV infections were overlooked and underestimated topics in our city, and not thought about nearly enough. Philly apparently has five times more cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea than the national average, which is scary to think about and is a result of the ignorance about these things.

Ms. Ralston and I spoke about many other things, but those were two that I thought I’d share. It was a great experience to hear her thoughts, and I would not change a thing about it. There were no obstacles, other than the beforehand communication. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we set the interview up, since I’d never met Ms. Ralston. I was very lucky - it went smoothly and easily, and I had fun. As of now, I cannot think of anything else I wish I had asked her. I am curious to find out more about the different ways people can help reproductive freedom and sexual education, and I hope that I have or will inspire others to do the same.

For my agent of change, I will find a petition that needs many signatures and help to get names from my community onto that. I’ll try to find one that is about sexual health in some way, whether it’s about abortions, sexual health insurance, or contraception.

Screenshot of the end of our phone call

Screenshot of the recording of our conversation

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Adrienne%20Ralston%20Talk%20Copy.m4a?_subject_uid=400656945&w=AACJJYVCA094wdN0LIBZeoWlYPxXJktVKVS9jyeJovy1kQ (link to Dropbox recording)

Overall, I think this project was a great way to get teens to start thinking about problems around the world that we usually don't think about. Also, this ¨ You and the World¨ project was also a good way to get teens involved in outside of school programs. Some of us even got to meet new people during this project. On the other hand. this was a very hard project. I wish we were introduced to the project ahead of time because this would of gave us more time to think out better ideas and things we wanted to do. In the beginning of this project, I was excited and was really to have a good project. Near the end of this project, I was so exhausted from this project. I tried so much to go with my first Ideas, but things went downhill. I also wish I could of found a person to come in and talk to the class. I would hope that more people are open to my brochure. I wish I could of got deep facts that would truly hit a person that would make them want to change. I wanted to get stories from people who has experienced drug abuse and addiction. My original research didn't go as plan because of time and I was unable to find a center that agreed with me. I would choose a different topic which would probably mean a different original research. I don't know if people actually used my brochure, but I hope that if people are really having problems, they go to get resources. I want people to sit down with a person that may know is going through this stage and talk about possible solutions to become a better person. I want people to know that the start of their better life came from me. If this interest you, take time to check out my brochure.

Looking back and knowing that I did a full project about something I felt passionate about is completely astounding. Being able to say that I helped a cause that I felt passionate about makes me really proud of what I did. But could I have done better? Yes.

During the process of my agent of change project, I think the hardest part doing all the research. It wasn't that I didn't have enough research, it was that I still didn't have a clear idea of what I was looking for. I think I would've had a stronger project if I had more of an idea of what I wanted to be focusing on, that way I could research topics more in detail. I also wish that for my original research I would've tried harder to look for someone to interview. I think by interviewing someone it could have helped me connect with the issue a little bit more, and give me a better idea of what I might be able to do to help. Even though my original research wasn't awful, I don’t think it really help support my point, and it kinda swerved my idea a little bit, which made me second guess what I really should do.

In the end, I think the final product I wanted was to take something from this, and have learned more about my topic and myself. With that said, I think I could say I did do that. I loved being able to do my own research, and find out what I really was interested in, and I truly think I took something from this. I also hope that others learned something from the posters I made, and take the time to read and process the information that I've put. Overall, I am pleased with what I did, and I hope that someone will learn something knew about gun control like I did.

My research went well, one thing that went well was my interest in the topic throughout my entire project.  For my research I used some very reliable websites and I found quite a lot of information on anti-semitism. Some glows that I found in my research was that, I was so interested in my topic and I researched my topic a lot and found a lot of information on it. Some grows was I wish I had been more punctual with my work and had submitted my project. My research was very interesting to me and it helped that it was something that I could connect to.

My original research went very well. I met with, and interviewed a Holocaust survivor. He had a very sad story, he lost a lot of his family in the Holocaust and he says he is lucky to be alive. Some glows I had were my interview, and finishing my blog post on time (with an extension.) I wish I had worked more efficiently in scheduling my interview and had done the emailing myself so I could have gotten research in on time without an extension. My original research overall went very well.

On my first blog post I introduced the topic I researched, ELL(English Language Learners) bullying. For the part of the project I went over to my old school where I interviewed one of my old teachers about my topic. The seconds blog post was all about the interview and what went on during it. I also did more research. So, for my Agent of Change, I went back to my old school to give a presentation on ELL bullying. This school has a lot of ELLs and I figured they had experienced this problem.

Usually when you are reading/watching something about bullying, you expect statistics that show how many students were bullied and things like that. Well, during my research I learned that people haven’t talked about the bullying of the ELLs. There needs to be more articles written about that and more publicity about it so the people are aware that it’s a big problem. There were specific examples but very small numbers.

I wanted to make a change by spreading the word and letting people know that ELL bullying is a very serious problem. In order to do that I contacted one of my old teachers and we talked to the principal of the school. He agreed for me to go there and give a 45-min presentation on ELL bullying. If you would like to see my presentation, take a look.

About thirty five people attended my presentation. As I was getting everything together I heard some of the students say “Why are we here?” or “Ugh… another bullying presentation!” I turned around and I explained what I was about to present. I told them that it wasn’t just about bullying, but ELL bullying. Bullying that happens to students like them. Then suddenly, they were all paying attention and became more interested.

During my presentation a teacher, Mr. Dale Perkins, helped me a lot. He explained more thoroughly the things that I was saying because some of the students couldn't understand. He also helped me with the activity at the end of the presentation. We passed out four poster boards and we told the students to write mean things on them. At first the students were kind of shy but then, after a few words, they starting writing so many things. Then we collected those papers and passed out four other poster boards, but this time they had to write nice things. The students started writing nice word and everyone wanted to write something. After that, I took the posters that had mean words written on them and ripped them apart. I told the students that the words had no meaning and did not matter. Then, I took the posters that had nice words on them and we all read them out loud.

On my first blog post I introduced the reader to the topic of feminism. I explained what it was and why it should be a common goal for everyone. On my previous blog post I showed trending hashtags and gave situations that show why gender equality is an issue, not necessarily by the law but in between people themselves.

I recently began a project to raise awareness about feminism via social media by using the hashtag #MoreThanADistractionSLA. I asked a group of girls to let me take pictures of them with labels representing feminism which can be viewed on the website I created linked in the hyper-linked text. I then asked all my friends, family, and anyone I came across to share the pictures or post a picture of their own with the hashtag I created.

I personally think this was a really good idea because our world currently revolves around internet and social media. That's why I believe social media is a very efficient way to make people aware of modern day issues and topics of interest.

I had a pretty good turn out for my project. The hashtag did not trend, but may more people of become aware of the topic of feminism. Many of my friends, family, and even strangers  made statuses, post, tweets, and posted pictures with the hashtag #MoreThanADistraction. I feel very confident that this hashtag will become more known as times goes on. I really enjoyed doing this project because I got  to work on something I'm passionate about, and I got to do it in a way that was fun and that everyone could participate in. Down below I will include some of the images from the Feminism Photo Shoot. The rest of the images can be viewed on the website I created.