While researching poverty for this project, I encountered many glows and grows. Some glows are my discovery of many organizations that battle poverty. Since poverty is the cause of hunger, many organizations are aware of this issue and are trying to help. Though, for my research, some grows are I wanted to find more about people affected by poverty so that I could involve them in my original research. I believe that if I had added that information, more people will be interested in the topic of poverty. A question that was left unanswered and I am still wondering about is why were parents not as effective as much as children.

Some challenges I experienced during my original research was finding an organization that would allow me to interview them. It was something that I could not do since no one wrote back to me. So I was left to do a survey. I actually found some shocking information. For example, many people knew that poverty is an issue but they didn’t know that poverty affects mostly children. If I can do this over again, I would continue to reach out to organizations and if that is not possible, I could get better questions on my blog post 2 so that it would answer my point.

I think interviewing Mr. Lehmann was awesome, because I was working to help my cause, (school funding) and at the same time work in my own school, which I think is cool because I can see the change from inside out.  Also, I am glad all of my work got to be internal to the school because it gives me a deeper sense of pride, knowing that I am directly affecting the people around me.  However I hope it can affect the whole school district, and if I continue with this cause throughout my high school career or even further, possibly, I change the way schools are funded completely.  I also am glad that I am now well informed on this topic.  It is a relatable topic amongst all my peers, and I should have understood the problem better, becuase up until now did not know why there was a problem at all.  However, I am able to explain our school funding fairly well now.  

Something I am not happy with is that the organization I tried to work with responded at first, but when I tried to solidify a time to work with them, they were silent.  Also, getting posters printed and put on the walls have been a struggle, and I am just resolving that now.  I wish I had found out more about the politics of how the schools are funded, and what measures can be taken to change the system.  If I had known who to go to or an organization that dealt with that, that would have been nice.

I think my original research went great.  All my interview questions were answered and provided much of the information I wanted to know.  The only thing I can think of for it to have been better, would be to interview more people for a variety of answers and more information.  Putting up posters is something I like to do and hopefully will have some impact, but if I were in a different, more powerful position, I would have liked to make a bigger impact.  

 I did my you and the world project on animal abuse and neglect. I wish that I would have found a lot more because I did not find at much as I planned to find. One thing that I wish that would found is more information about factory farming because it came to me at the last minute and I did not have much time to work on it. Also, I wish I found at least eight topics on animal abuse because I only found at five topics. Another point that I to mention is that I want to know more about why animal abuse is not taken as seriously to most issues in the world today.

 My original research went bad but also good in a way. The reason why I say this is because my goal was to gather  how much my school knows about animals abuse. Instead, I gathered how much my school did not know about animals abuse because the majority of the people who took my survey failed. Although, I did find out how many people were not educated which informed me and that is a good thing. One that I would make change is the difficulty of my survey because it might of been to hard. Also, I would of interviewed someone who works at the ASPCA instead. I would of done this because now it seems more easier and informational than a survey.

I actually had more of an impact that I expected. I thought that nobody was going to bother to look and visit my website but instead a lot of people did and it educated them. Just look at my website blogs for example. I received comment that “It was a very informative website. Before entering this website I thought that animal abuse was simply just pet owners hitting/starving there pets. Now I am aware of the different types such as animal testing and circus abuse. In addition, I hoped for people to get educated and from my comments I learned that a lot of people did.

PIC: Reflection

Looking back on my Passion, Information, and Change project on the Syrian Refugees, I think I did fairly good work. My first blog post was Research, in which I did all of my base research. It’s where I found the first facts I needed for my project, so I could begin working on it. I wish I had found more on why the issue was occuring in my first round of research, however. I felt like I needed more on that, and I found very little on it. All in all, however, I think this part was very successful and I learned a lot about my project through the first research section. My second blog post was on my Original Research, where I contacted Melissa Fleming of the UNHCR for an interview. This was a rough part at first, as I couldn’t find someone to contact, and I didn’t know who I would do my interview with. I knew a survey wasn’t going to help me, and there was no real way for me to do field observation, so I had to do some sort of interview. Finally, however, I found Melissa Fleming, and got in contact with her. She kindly answered my questions, and I had the information I needed. While it was difficult at first, this part was generally a success.

My third blog post was on my Agent of Change, and this one went decently. For my agent of change, I did a bake sale with the assistance of a classmate of mine. We successfully sold everything we had, however this only netted us about fifty dollars to donate, which, while big for a single bake sale, was not very much to donate. If I could redo my project, I would do multiple sales, as to raise more money, so I could donate more money to the UNHCR to give to the Syrian Refugees. Other than this, though, I think this third part of my project went well, and, while could’ve had some improvements, was also generally a success. All in all, I think my entire project was a success. I think there was things I could’ve done better, such as more in depth research, better interview questions, and more money raised. I do think that I did do a good job on my PIC project otherwise.

         Glows & Grows

I want to start off with my glows throughout my whole You and the World project. I think I did a really good job connecting the past to the present and what I mean by that is connecting what happened in the 20th century to what has happened in the 21st. The Civil Rights era was a very brutal era with police brutality and since it is sadly recurring in 2015 I thought that connection was great. Another thing that I thought I did really good at was finding different cases that involved different races to prove my point that police brutality is a event that is victimizing people of all different races like black and white. So, I think my edition of white people who were brutalized helped me not have a bias opinion on police brutality. One final thing that I think I did very well was choosing which organization I wanted to donate to for my agent of change and I think I did a good job on my bake sale to have enough money to donate to them.

Starting with the things I could grown on, I want to begin with the research I did. I think that I found older cases back in the 1900s to connect the present to because that would have gotten my point of police brutality lasting so long across and I want to know more about what police men/women have been charged or prosecuted for their crimes. Next my original research, my original research was OK , I could have something so much better. A lot of the plans I had which included talking to actual policemen of different races to find out how they feel about the topic police brutality was sort of unsafe so I had to flush that idea down the drain and I had to resort to interviewing my grandmother and Mr.K which wasn’t bad but I wanted people’s opinions that I didn’t know. If I was to change something I would have just went along with my interviewing policemen idea and would have just gone with an adult instead of excusing the whole thing. Lastly, for my agent of change I did not get the impact I wanted. I wanted people to really learn about how horrible police brutality and how they could stop it and even though I was happy with my donation I think I could have really expressed my topic way better to many more people.

As you may or may not know for my You and the World project I decided to bring awareness to what is in Fast food. In my first blog post I explored the ins and the outs of different fast food restaurants researching what’s actually in their food rather than what they tell us and what we believe is in our food. What fueled my project is I feel that people don’t know what is in their food when they eat from fast food restaurants. What I wanted to do with my project is bring awareness to what’s in their food and hopefully stop people from eating so much of it. In my Original Research I decided to do a survey to show that people don’t know what’s in their food. In didn’t turn out as well as I thought it was but it did prove that some people don’t know what they are eating and it’s sad. What I hope to do with my agent of change is hopefully change this and help my generation out.

For my agent of change I decided to bring my project to the SLA hallways and social media. For the first step of my agent of change I made a twitter account for my project. Social media has been such a key component in this generation’s lives and I thought what not a better way to bring awareness to my issue than social media. I came with a hashtag for people who followed the page and were really passionate about it and wanted to join the movement. Here’s a snapshot of the twitter page.

Although there’s not that much of a following now it’s a gradual thing and hopefully soon there will be a huge following and everyone will be hashtagging #ChickensDontHaveNuggets in no time. But I didn’t just stop with the twitter account, Step two of my project was bringing it to the SLA hallways. I decided to show a picture of a 12 year old McDonald’s Hamburger. You would think after 12 years there would be some type of mold but there wasn’t a spot. The burger looked exactly the same. What I put on the posters around school is that picture and the twitter page for my awareness campaign. Here’s what the poster looks like below.

What I hoped to accomplish with this is having students all around SLA looking at my poster and feeling disgusted but educated. Not much has changed now because it is only the beginning but even now I hear from some of my peers that they have taken a strike on eating certain fast foods because of my blog post and the information that I provided. Just hearing that makes me want to make this more than just a English project.

Throughout this whole project I’ve had mixed feelings about it because even though it is a great topic for this project there isn’t much you can change about it because some people aren’t willing to change. No matter how many disgusting facts you tell them they’re still gonna eat the food. But I’m still willing to fight for the cause. I feel like this project there are countless things I could do better because with this kind of topic there really isn’t a wrong way to go for me. But if I had to do something better or change something it would be my Agent of Change. Although it was a great idea and it turned out great I just wish I did something that could’ve make a bigger impact but I’m my biggest critic so who knows. But all in all I’m happy with my project and how it turned out. Maybe now some people know what’s in their happy meals.

Finding information on my topic was really easy, considering this Teen Peer Pressure affects lots of teens around the world. So, overall information was one of my “Glows” of my project. However, I wish I could find full interviews with teens that have been a victim of peer pressure and discussed on how this issue changed their teen lives. I mostly found some videos with researchers on the issue talking about it and answering questions like why this issue consistently affects teens. On Teen Peer Pressure, I would like to gather more information on how to avoid it. From research I came to a conclusion that since every teen is different in their own ways, some find it easier or harder to say “no” and ignore the presence of the pressure from their peers.  

For my Original Research, I created a survey for my fellow peers to read and answer. It went well overall, which is another “Glow”, but I should of gave it more attention by alerting more of my peers that I had a survey from them to answer honestly, which I can admit was one of my “Grows.” However, I did expect the results to be what they was, which kept me on track for what I wanted to do for my Agent of Change, which the goal was to help teens with figuring out the tools to avoid the pressure and having the confidence to know you can do it. If I could do it over, I would make another survey along side of the one I made. Create another survey, but goes in deeper on real-life situations that teens have experienced.

Change

In both my blog post #1 and blog post #2 I gave a lot of research on homelessness. In blog post #1 i gave a lot of information on the different types of people who become homeless easily. I gave rough estimates on the percentages of the different types of people who become homeless for example, veterans, children under the age of 18, people experiencing chronic homelessness and etc.  I wish i had found a lot more information on the homeless spikes that cities use to prevent the homeless from staying there. I also wished I had found more information on homelessness in the past compared to homelessness in the present. I want to know more about how homelessness originated.

In blog post #2 I reflected on my original research. I decided to survey people on their stances and opinions on homelessness. It went not as I expected. I expected more people to not care about homelessness but instead they actually did care which isn't a bad thing. Somethings I would change would most likely be the questions. I feel like the questions were too broad and general. Maybe if I created more in depth questions it would've been more valuable research

For my agent of change I decided to go out in public and give money to the homeless. It was a great experience and but I was very nervous. I hope I did give the impact i wanted to give. I was aiming for the homeless people who recieved my ¨care package¨ and my word of advice to pass on that hope to motivate others. I believe that words is more valuable than items and actions. I hope I gave the impact i aimed for considering that i can't determine that at the moment.

I had spent so much time researching about my issue which is social anxiety and even though this project is about to end, I still wanted to know more the issue but I wish I had more time to do it. I wish I found something about how people who has suffered from this issue got better. I wanted to read more personal experiences and understand more about how these people coped from this devastating issue. I feel like I know more about the symptoms and what social anxiety is but not about the people who suffered. I wanted to know more about real life experiences because it tells you what the issue really is like not just through what the internet think it is or what other people think it is.

Like I said above, I like knowing an issue through a person who actually experienced social anxiety in real life. So for my original research, I interviewed a very close friend of mine who suffered from social anxiety. I was pretty familiar with what she was sharing to me because of the research I have been doing. But, I wasn’t entirely informed about the treatment of this disorder. I learned from this friend of mine about one of the treatments of this disorder. She had to go through intense therapy for 4-5 months and that was new to me. My original research went pretty well and it helped me a lot for this project. I gathered a lot of information through this original research but I wish I interviewed a few more people rather than interviewing only one person so that I could have an even better understanding about this issue. I also wish that I just reached out to a couple people rather than reaching out to organizations and waiting for their responses that never came.

For my agent of change, I collaborated with Tk Saccoh and Jae Regino both a student from SLA. All of us agreed upon making a website and spreading awareness through a 7 second video called the "Tongue Twister Challenge". So, we made a website and made people do a very simple task to spread awareness for social anxiety. Here is our website if you would like to check it out and here is an explanation to the "Tongue Twister Task". I think that me and my partners had an impact we hoped for because people joined us to do the 7 second task and it just kept going when we did after school for only a day. I think that the impact we hoped for was successful even though we just started and our website was not promoted that much yet because people helped us support our project especially support the awareness to social anxiety. Also, but we will try to keep doing it and  let people know about it.

In my last two blog posts, I introduced raders to my You and The World  and shared with readers my original research, which composed of creating a survey and interviewing a fellow classmate.  In both blog posts, I have explained that it is importing to bring awareness to America's broken mental health care system and stressed the impact of educating the youth about the breaches in the current system.  Because I did not want to be someone who preaches what they do not practice, I crafted a 3-step plan to bring awareness to this issue because I believe, as youth, we have the power to drive salient discussions that can engender effective results.

My 3 Step Plan consisted of two collaborations and 1 independent project.

1. Bake Sale collaboration with Opoku Kwateng

2. Presentation at The Franklin Institute

3. Website collaboration with Jamina Regino and Jhazzelle Majurucon

Bake Sale

Opoku Kwateng and I held a bake sale on the 22nd of May during lunch to raise money for Autism Awareness.  When I first learned that his issue was autism awareness, I did not immediately think a collaboration would be likely due to the focus of one mental illness; however, I soon realized that dealing with specific types of mental illness is as important as dealing with a broader assessment of mental illnesses. Opoku approached me and proposed the idea of a bake sale and I ultimately agreed. We then took about two weeks to prepare and advertise our bake sale.

The main attraction! Vanilla cake with the words "Autism Awareness" iced deliciously onto the surface.

Informational pamphlets were distributed to those who purchased items and even those who did not.

Through our successful partnership, we donated $245 to the Autism Society Organization stationed in Mount Laurel, NJ

I believe the bake sale was indeed successful in bringing awareness because it reminded that mental illnesses exist and that it is impactful. Our bake sale also helped raise money for autism research, which will help bring awareness to this specific type of mental illness.

TFI Presentation:

The second part of my Agent of Change plan was to deliver a presentation at The Franklin Institute to my 9th grade peers. I thought this was an interesting setting because most presentations were held at school. In my presentation, I explained where I got my inspiration for bringing awareness to America's broken healthcare system and educated my grade about the detrimental impact the gaps in the system engender. I provided a few statistics, personal anecdotes, and quotes from credible sources to support my message. At the end, I explained that it is most important that we break the discussion stigma affiliated with mental illnesses and make those who are mentally challenged feel accepted and welcomed into society.

Highlights from presentation: uploading error

In the end, giving this presentation allowed me to educate my peers on something they may have not been aware about.

Step 3: Website

With the help of Jae and Jhazzelle, we created a website to inform people about social anxiety, another specific type of mental illness. We decided to create an alliance after we learned our issues centered around mental health.

Some screenshots from our website.

The special feature of our website was the tongue-twister challenge:

From website : "I will simply explain how you could raise awareness to Social Anxiety since I found this really cool website that will explain further the details to raising awareness for Social Anxiety. Some people may call it a "challenge", but this website calls it the #TongueTwisterTask. The #TongueTwisterTask is the idea to raise awareness to social anxiety because of the fact that people who suffer from this condition avoid social situations and public situations. It's as if their lives are an impossible tongue twister and the words in their minds are all tangled up.

How do I participate?

If you would like to participate, you make a short video of just yourself or with a friend or a family member doing a tongue twister three times fast.

When you are done doing this challenge, post the video on social media sites such as: facebook, instagram, twitter, etc. using the #TongueTwisterTask hashtag. But, wait! Don't forget to challenge two or more people to donate or post their video within 24 hours and send us a link to your post or your friends'. You could even send us more tongue twisters!

Here are some tongue twister ideas:

• “She sells sea shells by the sea shore.”

• “Red leather, yellow leather.”

• “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

• “He shot three free throws. He shot three free throws.”

• “Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.”

• “Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.”

• “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.”

• "How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?"

• "Send toast to ten tense stout saints' ten tall tents."

• "Sheena leads, Sheila needs."

• "Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?"

• "You cuss, I cuss, we all cuss, for asparagus!"

• "Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks."

• "Timid talking turtles told Timmy to tell tommy to talk to Tally"