In my last two blog posts I talk a lot about what dyslexia is and how I was affected by it.  You can click here to look at the first blog post.  You can click here to see the second blog post.  Since my last blog post I was able to actually do my agent of change.  For my Agent of Change I presented to advisories and did a presentation where I tried to destroy all the stereotypes there where on dyslexia.  You can click here to see me present to my advisory (Mr. Ames advisory.) In the the presentation I started off by asking everyone what they thought dyslexia is.  I asked this question to see what stereotypes would come out right away. And I got seeing things backwards and floating off pages.  So then I showed a video to explain dyslexia and then went into the stereotypes.  I think I really got across what dyslexia is and I feel after my project they had better knowledge on dyslexia.  Also after the presentation people presented to me some good questions such as “What is mild dyslexia actually?” To answer, I told them about my dyslexia and how I struggle with reading and writing because I have mild dyslexia.    

Some new resource I looked at to get more information on dyslexia and to add to my presentation was websites that had different pictures that represented dyslexia.  I used this to add more to my presentation.  This is one picture I found: push here to bring you to where I found the picture.

For the final part of my English You and the World project, I decided to help out the American Civil Liberties Union send in a petition to Congress of 25,000 signatures to protect insurance coverage for abortions. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a non-profit organization that, in its words, works to “defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” My contribution was to get at least one hundred signatures onto the petition from my community. I went around my different classrooms to gather emails and names, and I emailed my family members and friends. When I finished, I felt satisfied and happy to look at the number of signatures go from 23,500 to almost 24,000 (though not all were my work). I felt that I had contributed to this, and I had actually made a change instead of just sitting around and complaining about my issue.

I focused on women’s rights and reproductive freedom for my You and the World project (and more can be found in my first and second blog posts). The topic is one that I’ve cared about and followed for many years. I think that it is unfair that getting an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy is becoming more difficult with each passing day. I think that it is unfair that it is mostly male politicians in our country who control the rules of what happens to my body. I think it is unfair that some people are trying to ban birth control or make it so difficult for women to get access to it. All of these things anger me, and that is why I chose reproductive freedom for my project. Some people argue against abortion because it is “murder” and wrong. If I put myself in their shoes, I can understand why they think that, honestly. Nobody in his right mind would think, “wow, abortions are so nice! They are such pleasant procedures.” However, I believe that every woman everywhere should be able to decide what to do with her baby. Bearing a child and being a mother are such big things that no woman should have to go through if she doesn’t feel ready or able. I think that abortions are actually kinder for the babies since usually the mothers feel they would not care properly for them.

The hypocrisy in the political world of reproductive freedom is jaw-droppingly frustrating and leaves me speechless. Many of the male conservatives (male: gender of the human race who will never be able to become pregnant) who are solidly anti-reproductive rights have been known, in their personal lives, to think otherwise.

            Another thing for these politicians to keep in mind is that birth control and abortions are also in the male population’s favor. Yes, unwanted pregnancies ultimately affect the woman more, but the women are not getting pregnant on their own or with each other - and hopefully, their male partners would stick with them through an unwanted pregnancy (which, presumably, they wouldn’t want any more than the women).

            Maybe this all sounds very negative, like it’s all going downhill. Things are not great right now, but there are some very powerful and admirable leaders and organizations out there that are trying to turn the tide. Organizations and people are creating petitions, marches, and strikes to raise awareness about this topic. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are both powerful organizations that work hard to protect women’s rights. Planned Parenthood gives women access to birth control and abortions for free (and many other things), and the ACLU fights politically for reproductive rights. There are things that are being done right now to help this, but the conservatives are strong and the direction of legislation in most states is going more anti-reproductive freedom. This is why I chose this topic - I want my generation of young women to know exactly what we’re up against, what the current issues are, and what we can do.

(This is the petition for which I gathered signatures.)

Annotated Bibliography

Lyle Seitz signing his name for the petition.

One page of the list of names and emails I gathered for the petition.

In my first Blog Post I introduced my You and the World project. My topic was stereotypes and how they affect youth. I found that stereotypes have the ability to judge a certain group or class of people based of off multiple encounters. When researching my topic I found that stereotypes are issues involving ignorance, racism, and hypocrisy. I was interested in the topic because it wasn’t something that you heard often.

In my second Blog Post I introduced my plan for original research. I decided to make a survey that was school wide. I only wanted responses from students because this project is based on youth. I have gather some incredible information from the survey. I found that 100% of the people that took the survey were aware of stereotypes. I also found that 91.3% of the people that took my survey used stereotypes.

Since the last post, I had a few thoughts about what I wanted to do for the Agent of Change part of the project. My topic is so quirky that every thought I had was not good enough. They had no effect on the purpose of my topic. It took a while for me to come up with a superior idea for my Agent of Change. After a while I just stopped thinking and went to google for some ideas. I had no luck with that either. An idea of a petition came to mind when I was watching an episode of Zoey 101. I decided to create a petition, but a single question got in the way. “A petition for what?” I did not really know what my petition was going to be for. I had to brainstorm a little more. How do you fight the causes of stereotypes? Well if everyone censored what they say it would not be an issue. I remembered a rule from my elementary school. It was for when you wanted to make a joke or say anything not too appropriate. It was called T.H.I.N.K.!

T.H.I.N.K. means to think…

T- is it True?

H- is it Helpful?

I- is it Inspiring?

N- is it Necessary?

K- is it Kind?

By considering these steps not only are people censoring what they say they are also bettering themselves as a person. By signing my petition you are agreeing to T.H.I.N.K. before you speak. After getting the word out about my petition, multiple people asked question about if they could still say what they intended to. I just reply “do what you think is right”. If we all T.H.I.N.K. before we speak the world may become a better (less ignorant) place.

I think that I could have made a better decision on for my Agent of Change. There were only a few choices and I picked the one of best fit. Maybe I could have given a quick presentation about it at TFI like another student did or maybe I should have given a presentation about it during advisory. These thoughts came to mind a little too late. But knowing so much about this topic now, I don’t want to give up on it. I still will be collecting signatures long after this project is over. I am determine to get the word out about stereotypes affecting today’s youth.

Annotated Bibliography

In my first and second blog posts I introduced some of the negative side effects that technology has on people. For example, lack of social interaction and joint pains, like carpal tunnel. In my first blog post I spoke about how people don't realize how much technology is hurting them until the aftermath of it. I showed some of the statistics of the average amount of hours people go on their phones or use technology on a daily basis. It is actually quite frightening how much people use technology within a few days.

As I moved on to expand my learning and research I decided to do a field observation on a few people. I asked permission from a few of my friends to observate them but I never told them when I was going to do start my observation. After an hour of observing them I noticed that everyone was using a form of technology within an hour. One person was using a phone and their laptop at the same time. After a few minutes they put away the laptop and sat on their phone for the rest of the time period. My observation provided me with some more knowledge and also proved some of my research to be correct. There was an insignificant amount of social interaction. These people sat at a table together for an hour and rarely said anything to each other because they were so caught up using their phones and laptops. Then I had an idea.

I started to ponder a few ways I could make a change. I knew what I wanted to accomplish I just couldn't decide how I was going to do it. After thinking long and hard about how I wanted to reduce the technology use in my school, I finally found a solution to this problem. I decided I wanted to make a contest where everyone in my class can take part and also challenge themselves. The contest was who could last the longest without using their phone for two days in school. In the end the winner(s) will receive a cool prize. Once the contest started I caught ten people within a period of fifteen minutes. I heard a few people say things like '' I forgot I couldn't use it, I naturally check it every five minutes'' while others said '' I don't really care if the winner gets a good prize I need to use my phone I can't live without it.'' This just shows that people can't handle not using a phone not for even twenty minutes. As the first day ended I caught more than half of the class using a form of technology other than their laptops.

On the second day there were about fourteen others who were not disqualified. One student (Conor Meier) attempted to eliminate everyone else and did a great job resisting using his phone. By the end of the day I had two winners, neither of the contestants would even bother to check their phones. So I had to choose two winners. The victors of my contest were Conor Meier and Jonathan Saldivar. They both did an exquisite job in my contest and really helped me with my change.

I decided to interview each of them asking them both the same question. '' How did you feel not using your phone for two days?'' Jonathan responded with '' It was horrible I wasn't able to use my phone all day, I almost accidentally used it like ten times''. Conor said '' It was not as bad as I thought it would, at times I really wanted to use my phone, especially when it vibrated.'' I asked a few others and someone responded with '' You really made me realize how many times I use my phone in one day, even when I am in school and I shouldn't be using it, I check it so much more than I thought I did''.

A minute after class ended I found both of them pull out their phones right away

and use them.

After my research and being an Agent of Change I found that I really did make a difference. I reduced the amount of technology use in my class by at least 15%. My contest helped two teenagers reduce the amount of technology by almost fourteen hours. I am glad that I did this for my project and am satisfied with all the new things that I learned after researching and writing these blog posts.   

After continuing my research with Immigration and getting to know more in my original research, I have begun to get involved in the community around me. I wanted to find a way that I, as a fifteen year old could make an impact on my issue, and I decided that getting involved in with an organization that handles immigrants, and helps them in the process of becoming a full U.S. citizens. There are numerous organizations that are set up around Philadelphia that help immigrants with learning English, U.S. history, and any other information they might need to pass the exam for citizenship. It takes a lot of work to learn this information, and I know most of it by heart, so it may be the perfect fit for me. I found an organization that had a great program for immigrant education, and worked hard trying to contact them, I called two times, and sent an email, but sadly I never received any response from them. I searched for organizations that would be able to take somebody my age to help out and learn something about the immigration process. I searched and searched until I found an organization called PICC or Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, at 2100 Arch street, right around the corner from my school, Science Leadership Academy.

I contacted the organization over phone and talked with Maria Sotomayor, who told me about all of their volunteering opportunities, and helped me get involved. I volunteered to help sign new citizens up to become voters. On Friday, May 22, I went out to the USCIS building in West Philadelphia, and witnessed a citizenship ceremony where men and women from 38 different countries came to finally become citizens. They went through the process of signing documents, singing the National Anthem, and saying the pledge of allegiance. Finally at the end we went around and helped people register to become voters.

These are two images from my experience at the ceremony

I found this to be a very gratifying experience that made me feel good to know that these people were working so hard to achieve this, and I got to experience it with them. I was able to be a part of their first American experience, and I now know after doing all of my research, what these immigrants have to go through. I would have liked to get involved with illegal immigrants, and help them on the road to citizenship, but that would have been harder for someone my age to do.

There is still a lot more work that needs to be done to help with immigration in the world, and there still is an increasing number of illegal immigrants in the United States. There still is a large problem with immigration law in the United States, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done. I hope that someday there will be someone who speaks up for immigrants in this country, no matter who it may be, it is needed to start filling this bottomless pit of confusion.

In Blog Post #1 I talk about my general findings on the topic of Sex Slavery. After that, in Blog Post #2, I furthered my understandings on the issue by constructing an interview to ask an expert. And in this Blog I actually did something about it. Something to help better the issue in the way of bringing awareness.

For my agent of change part, to bring awareness, I have decided to make stickers promoting a website I have discovered in which are experts on the issue. Meaning they specialize in helping victims of Sex Trafficking. They have lots of factual information on their site and they are very honest with their findings. Therefore, I chose to promote them by creating stickers and placing them around the city to bring an incredibly wide range of an audience. My stickers will contain some specific facts from their site directly. I think the stickers will definitely gravitate the viewers’ awarenesses in a way that will make them want to read them and also visit the website. I am hoping for more people to discover the site and to notice that slavery is actually still an issue in the world that people are actually working towards helping.

{Stickers made}

{Stickers I created containing Love146’s quotes}

{Stickers promoting Love146}

I am glad that I was able to further my understanding of the issue that happens today in the world. I am greatly thankful that I was able to share this information to lots of people. I have a lot specifically about the victims of Sex Trafficking and the troubles that have brought them to that particular system. I have learned that this is a huge issue and that a lot of different organizations are looking out to help endangered sufferers. Something I could of done better was probably to make posters along with the stickers to put up in the school. I feel as though a lot of people should realize how much an issue this is and statistics about it. What I have left for other people to do is simply to visit the website present in my stickers in which I was promoting and to share it with others.

Annotated Bibliography

In blog post one and two I talk about how tv makes teens depressed and violent video video games make us more  For my agent of change I made a video that basically summarized my annotated bibliography and included all of the important facts.  I also talk about how if you use your screen for an hour before you go to sleep it will typically take you an hour to fall asleep if you are normal.  My brother helped me to film the first scene which I appreciate.  I think the video is very good and clever and will hopefully raise awareness I will post it to Facebook and other public 

media's even though it is already on youtube to try and get the most attention.  I feel like as a side thing to this project I have spent less time on screens even though the project kinda required a lot of screen time.  If I were to do this again I would film the agent of change sooner.  Filming my agent of change was very tricky because I am no professional and I don't have fancy equipment so I have to find ways around problems; like when I needed to read off my script but didn't have a teleprompter or anything so I just taped it to the wall.  Also I originally wanted to film myself doing fun stuff like swinging from the monkey bars or doing a handstand but their were a bunch  of flaws with those desires such as I couldn't hang from my feet on the monkey bars because I had never done it before and I coudn't read my script when I tried to hang upside down, and when I tried to do a handstand I couldn't hold it for all of my lines and it was also hard to read my script because all of the words were upside down.  Nature was also a hastle because I would have like to have filmed more things outside but it took forever to film the first few and by then it started to get dark and I didn't want to film in the dark because I don't have any fancy lights and stuff like that.  My parents also played a part in where I filmed because my mom was on the phone for a while and I didn't want to bother her so I didn't film near her and my dad was working in his study at home so I didn't want to film near him also I felt self conscious when they could hear me recording, so I mainly filmed in the basement where it was quite.  However I do not like to film in my basement for a couple of reasons

1 because the lighting is pretty bad

2. because it's really quite like creepy quite

3. and lastly it's really creepy mainly  because of the lack of light and lack of sound but that just makes it all the more creepy and makes me paranoid, so that's why I don't like filming in the basement.

here is my annotated bibliography

In my First Blog Post, I gave you a basic summary of what Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) are.  I also talked about why they are used, the risk you take when you use them, what i think about the topic, and a few side effects if you take some certain PEDs.

I have recently come across a story on CNN News that talks about Performance Enhancing Drugs in sports dating back to 1976.  It also has timeline about the evolution of PEDs in sports history.  This website has been very helpful to me giving a lot more information about my topic that I needed to know.

The interview that I wanted to do didn't work out the way I wanted it to.  I couldn't find anyone to talk to that specifically specializes in my topic.  That made it difficult because to make up for not having an interview, I did a lot more research and found graphs of College player who used PEDs.

I have struggled with some things along the way with this project such as time, not getting an interview as planned, and trying to figure out an agent of change.  Time has not been on my side at all with this project.  My schedule has been full and it has been hard to find time to work on this.  I put myself in a hole where I didn't get to work on this as much as I wanted to but, it still took up a lot of time.  And not getting an interview and thinking of an agent of change just added more unwanted time.  I didn't think I was going to have to put as much work into this as I did.  But, it's all working out and I'm happy about that.  

For my agent of change I am ordering wristbands and I am going to have members of my baseball team and other teams wear them.  Hopefully the word will get out and I will have a lot of supporters wearing these wristbands.  

Previously I wrote about anti-semitism and anti-semitism in the world. Throughout the world Jews are being mistreated and persecuted for practicing their religion. Throughout the world there's  a lot of anti-semitism raging on. From Europe to the middle east people do not like Jews and our religion. Another issue about anti-semitism that I wrote about previously is that there is a lack of knowledge about Jews and anti-semitism in the world.  Due to this lack of knowledge the issue is not getting solved.

For my original research  I met with and interviewed a holocaust survivor, Rabbi Charlie Kraus. He is a Holocaust survivor who was sent so several camps at the age of 14. In

Rabbi Kraus with his two daughters 1975

1944 his father was taken away by German soldiers, he along with the rest of his family were sent to Auschwitz. He was there for a week and a half, in that time his mother, brother and grandparents were all sent away and killed. After Auschwitz he was sent to Dachau (another concentration camp.) After Dachau he was sent to Mühldorf where he stayed for the first time by himself. After Mühldorf he was sent to Kaufering. Typhus and starvation were rampant at the time and people were dying every day. In the interview Rabbi Kraus said the last concentration camp was the worst. He forgets the name of it but he said the things people would do for nourishment were unspeakable. He was in the last camp for a couple of months until he was put onto a train with thousands of other jews. While on the train American soldiers in plains above began to shoot down onto the German soldiers. The person sitting next to Rabbi Kraus was shot and killed instantly. While in this commotion Rabbi Kraus noticed the Nazis were nowhere to be found and he jumped off of the train. He ran into the woods and stayed there for several days. He then was found and taken to a hospital. The war had ended and the Nazi regime had been destroyed. He went back to his home town where he was reunited with his father. After Europe he went to the United States and became a rabbi. He was taught by a famous rabbi and teacher Abraham Joshua Heschel.  

Anti-semitism effects people. Rabbi Kraus was lucky and strong, he manages to keep a happy life and stays optimistic after everything he has been through. Others are not so lucky, many lost faith and could not continue living after all that they had seen and been through. My understanding of anti-semitism is now more personalized, I have heard an account of someone's experience in the Holocaust and feel closer to my faith. I am still left wondering, why Jews? Before the Holocaust Jews in Hungary were prominent members in society. They were lawyers and doctors and businessmen. Why were Jews picked out as the evil ones, as the evil religion. Not just during the Holocaust but throughout history. With the exile from Babylonia, the Crusades, Pogroms, the Inquisition and even in this country there were quotas to limit Jews in universities and in professions.  Jews have been persecuted wherever they went.

For my agent of change I would like to make a presentation and present to some of the classes at Greenfield Middle School. I want to inform people about this issue and get the word out in the world that Jews are being mistreated and persecuted. I hope students will get out of my presentation a new look on Judaism. Not as a religion that seems to be nonexistent or a religion to pity but a religion that has endured so much and still continues to thrive and be existent in the world. I want to show people that people who are anti-semitic often masc their beliefs behind being anti-Israel. I want to inform the world and make a difference.

I Conor Meier am doing artist rights for my you and the world project. i chose this because i am an artist and i know how i would feel if someone took my work. basically artist right are the fact that bigger companies and really just about anybody can steal an artist's work, and we usually can't do anything about it

the significance of artist rights is that anyone can steal an artist's work that they have been working on for along time and take it. if it is jewelry a large company can take it and mass produce it in a factory and the artist is making like one every few days and of course the factory sells it for less so not only does the artist have less even if someone finds it they wouldn't buy it because they can get it cheaper elsewhere. it is important for people to know about this so that we can put a stop to it. also we can look out for it at all stores and if anyone that we know does it.

I learned that some companies aren’t stealing stuff, they can buy the rights to it.

Artists Rights Society-http://www.arsny.com/

Quick Guide to Artists' Rights -http://www.collegeart.org/guidelines/rights

R.I.G.H.T.S.-http://www.rightsforartists.com/

Artists Bill of Rights-http://www.artists-bill-of-rights.org/