Cigarettes: The Murderous Crop that Kills Humans


Hello readers, if you’ve read my previous post on cigarettes the you’ll know that i’ve put in many hours of research proving to you how bad cigarettes and smoking is. I’ve also been trying to convince you to stop smoking if you already was or to not smoke. If you haven’t read that post here . In that document you can see all of the research I have conducted online and summed up based on the different websites I visited. In there contains facts on lung cancer, chemicals in cigarettes and much more but I wanted more. I wanted to get deeper research and a more human answer not just from online. So what i’ve done over these past weeks is interview 2 doctors asking them questions about smoking and its effects on the human body and why they think it’s so addicting. I also interviewed a dentist who happens to be my friends dad to talk about cigarettes effects on oral health. Here is the interview with a MD. Basically what he talked about in the interview and went over five different questions that I asked him over a period of around 10 minutes and gave me good, thoughtful answers that were very detailed.

The first question I asked him was some health risks of smoking and the first thing that he responded with was what I put in my first document which was kung cancer. He described it as basically a tar build up; and he has seen a human lung which was filled with tar and other chemicals from cigarettes. He also explained to me that if the person that smoked  just stopped smoking for even about 5 years the lungs would have regenerated because that’s one of the traits they have and that means the lungs would have been able to retract and allow air to come in and out. This has a lot to do what a neurologist that came to my school to speak last year about smoking and he said smoking makes the brain work 10x harder using 10x less of the help then it had before. He told us that smoking reduces the oxygen flow to the brain and that also happens to the heart. Speaking of the heart, Another question that I asked Dr.Michael Mccoy was about another major organ in the body. The heart. Dr.Mccoy told me that there is less oxygen being pumped to the heart and that means less oxygen that is being pumped and that means less oxygen that is going to the body. The last major question that I asked him was what major cause comes from smoking. He responded to me with a strong answer in a sense. It was one of those answers that you think about after you hear. The answer he gave was death. Death is the 1 repercussion of smoking and if you think about it is, every other disease or dysfunction leads to death.

Intersectional Feminism Film Review

The Bechdel Test and Mako Mori Test are tests that measure the gender diversity and/or treatment in movies. The Bechdel test consists of three questions for any chosen movie:  (1) Does it have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man? If the answer isn’t yes to all three questions, the movie doesn’t pass the test. This test mainly focuses on whether or not the female characters within the movie have senses of self and value their individuality apart from the men in their lives. The other test, the Mako Mori test, also asks three simple questions of a movie: (1) Does it have at least one female character; (2) who gets her own narrative arc; (3) that is not about supporting a man’s story? Like the Bechdel test, the movie must pass all three questions in order to pass the test. This test is a measure of whether or not the movie lends its female characters the development and narrative that the male characters receive. These two tests test whether or not a movie displays gender diversity and whether or not it portrays women well enough. They both help us get a gauge on whether or not a movie includes strong women that have lives outside of the male characters. Meeting the criteria that these tests demand is important so that impressionable young (and older) women get to see strong role models in movies to show them that they’re capable and have potential.

The first movie I’ll be reviewing is called Ratatouille. Ratatouille is a well-plotted Pixar movie about a talented rat who loves to cook. Remy the rat is born into a rat colony surrounded by other rats that have no appreciation for divine cuisine. Remy feels like an outsider. He’s pressured to live his life a certain way. He has dreams to become a chef, but his family doesn’t approve at all. He’s pressured to live his life the “rat” way and eat trash instead of cooking. One day, Remy’s rat colony invades a Paris townhome. They get chased away and into the sewers by an old woman. In the panic, Remy gets separated from his family and ends up alone in the sewer. While trying to find his way out, he comes across a window above an extremely fancy French restaurant, which he learns is the restaurant of his late idol, Auguste Gusteau. Remy sees a garbage boy, Linguini, ruining a soup from the window, so he scurries in to fix the soup. The soup ends up getting served and the guests love it. Linguini confronts Remy, making a deal with him that he’ll let Remy cook as long as he gets the credit and Remy hides. Remy ends up hiding underneath Linguini’s chef hat and pulling his hair to control his hands and cook. After they begin to cook together, Linguini realizes that he has control of the restaurant since he’s Gusteau’s son, and he takes the restaurant as his own, kicking out the current owner. Then, a renowned food critic announces he’ll be coming to the restaurant to review it. With the help of his rat friends, Remy cooks Ratatouille for the food critic and he ends up loving the dish. They reveal to the food critic that Remy was the one who cooked his meal. The food critic builds Remy and Linguini their very own restaurant and they both pursue their careers together. As much as I enjoy Ratatouille and remember it fondly from my childhood, it in fact does not pass the Bechdel test. There are two named women in the movie, Collette and Renata. Collette is a chef from Gusteau’s restaurant and Renata is Linguini’s mother, but the two never speak. I think this movie could have passed the Bechdel test by adding another female chef to work alongside Collette. This would have provided a lot of non-man conversation between the two. Ratatouille, however, does pass the Mako Mori test. Collette is a female character who gets her own narrative arc. She grows as a chef and at the end of the movie she gets to work an upgraded main position in a new restaurant.

I made a test that is going to measure the LGBT diversity in movies. My test will consist of two questions: (1) Does the movie have at least 1 canonically LGBT+ person? and (2) Is the movie about said person’s sexuality? An important note about my test is that to pass it, the answer to the first question must be yes and the answer to the second question must be no. I think having diversity within sexualities in movies is very important because it provides role models and exemplars for LGBT youth. I added the second question because I think while sexuality can be as important and unimportant to someone’s sense of self as they want, it’s important to recognize that there’s more to a person than just their sexuality. The movie I chose that passes my test is The Way He Looks. The Way He Looks is a Portuguese Netflix movie about a blind Brazilian boy named Leonardo. Leonardo’s daily life is very simple but difficult as a blind teenager. Every day, his best friend, Giovanna, walks him to and from school. One day, a new boy named Gabriel shows up to Leo’s class. Giovanna and Leo befriend him rather quickly. Soon, Leo takes a romantic liking to Gabriel, and they become closer with time. Gabriel becomes very helpful in assisting Leo considering his disability and protects him from bullies that pick on him for being blind. Eventually, Leo can’t hold back anymore confesses his love for Gabriel to Giovanna, who supports him and encourages Gabriel to go confront Leo. This confrontation results in the start of a relationship. This movie has in fact two canonically LGBT characters (who are both Brazilian which is a bonus for diversity). While this movie is advertised as a romance movie, it mainly focuses on navigating adolescence and love while having a disability. This movie includes two LGBT characters and it isn’t a movie solely about sexuality.



There's a Way to Change

Justine Koffi

Ms.Giknis

English 9

18 March 2018

There’s a Way To Change


For this portion of my You and The World Project, I was meant to do a survey, interview, or  a field observation. I planned to have an interview with the communications director at the G.E.M.S program. I mentioned them in my last post, click here for it. I planned to have my interview Monday afternoon, during advisory, but it had to be rescheduled for the next day. The same thing kept happening until thursday which was the last day I had the time to conduct the interview. I forgot about the interview which was my fault. Overall, there was fault on both sides which resulting in me not having the interview I needed for this part of the project. Instead, I decided to further my research.

For my first post, I looked into the statistics. I found some horrible facts about the children we are losing to this industry and how much they are suffering on a daily. Can you believe that some kids are sold 5-6 times a day? Vulnerable children are targeted, ages 11-17 all the time and they are put into this horrendous life. Since I found very interesting information about the general industry of child sex trafficking, for the second post, I decided to look into some specific stories of women who were sold into the sex industry as children. I found some more surprising information.

First, I found the site Human Trafficking Survivor. The girl in the account said she was raped about 43,200 times, which I found hard to believe until I really read and thought about it. Karla, the woman bravely speaking out about her past, said she was abused since she was five by a close relative. She felt rejected by her mother, and the overall dynamic of her family was dysfunctional. When she was twelve, she was pursued by a man who spoke nice and had a fast car that she liked. They spoke, and exchanged numbers. He started talking to her as a friend and Karla was excited. They met up again and he brought a different red car that she liked a lot. From there, she recalls seeing red flags everywhere. She was convinced to go stay with him since her mom locked her out one night. The next couple months, he shows her kindness and gave her everything she wasn’t getting at home. He then started telling her about the pimping business and how she must act and speak for her to get money for him. He explained the positions to her and how much money she must earn. "I started at 10 a.m. and finished at midnight. We were in Guadalajara for a week. Do the math. Twenty per day for a week. Some men would laugh at me because I was crying. I had to close my eyes so that that I wouldn't see what they were doing to me, so that I wouldn't feel anything," Karla says. They moved to other cities where she was still expected to see about 20 men a day, seven days a week. There was even a day she thought she would escape her unfortunate circumstances when a police officer came in to one hotel known for prostitution. Instead, the officer forced them to do things too. Karla got pregnant at 15 years old and gave birth to a girl. The baby girl was now threatened if Karla didn’t fulfill her duties as a prostitute. She was rescued in 2008 during an anti-trafficking operation. She was 16 at the time. She is now 23 and a speaker and advocate against sex trafficking. She says,  "These minors are being abducted, lured, and yanked away from their families. Don't just listen to me. You need to learn about what happened to me and take the blindfold off your eyes." I think it’s very important to letr Karla’s story sink in and reflect on it. Just as I said in my first post, vulnerable children are being pursued by predators and being taken away from their homes. It’s important to take into account that this could happen to anyone and that we should be doing more as a community to speak out and try to prevent it.

In addition, Karla’s story was fascinating to me, especially the part about the corrupt police officers, so I started to look into the police involvement in child sex trafficking. I looked into this article about police help with the issue at hand. From this post, I found that a lot of the time, police arrest sex trafficking  victims on a prostitution charge in which they are threatened to be prosecuted, which obviously isn’t working very well. The girls, who are victims, are held accountable for their circumstances instead of the people who are actually the problem which doesn’t seem fair to me. They don’t seem to take into account that the girls need help. They just see a crime that someone has to pay for.

In conclusion, although I wasn’t able to conduct the interview, I found some more shocking facts about the sex trafficking industry.


For more research and facts, click here for my annotated bibliography.

Industrial Farming: The Story in the Soil

At the beginning of my project, I saw industrial farming as a looming monster that destroyed the environment, tortured animals, and poisoned our produce. If you read my first post, this negative opinion on agriculture is obvious within the first five sentences. But as a lifelong vegetarian with an extremely health-conscious mother, I couldn’t help but view organic produce as “safe and beneficial” and non-organic produce as “dangerous and harmful.” However, what I failed to realize - and what I now know - is that despite the few, there are still many small farms and organizations that are working towards a brighter future of sustainable, humane, and environmentally beneficial agriculture. And simply because an issue exists does not mean we can ignore those who are working to combat it and we cannot ignore the other sides to the issue. I only now know this thanks to the contacts who were open to being interviewed and because I did the research to find out the real story in our soil.
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plant-soil-gardening-sprout

My research began with deciding who I wanted to interview. I didn’t have any names but I knew that I wanted to interview someone who knew about pesticides, someone who knew about animal welfare, and someone who knew about the environmental impact of both. Who I ended up interviewing was a Regional Pesticide Expert for the EPA, a Hub Manager for the PASA, and the manager of an Animal Welfare Approved slaughterhouse. Each and every one of these contacts shined a different light on the broad topic of agriculture. The light was positive, negative and sometimes just neutral, but still always educational and informative. Yes, industrial farming and agriculture are two very broad topics, so to be able to interview everyone I wanted to was not exactly a reasonable feat - especially as a high school student. But that just made the information I learned even more valuable.

My first contact was Mr. John Butler, a Regional Pesticide Expert for the Environmental Protection Agency. Before my conversation with him, I believed that pesticidal use - while significantly more restricted than in the past - was still generally unmonitored and extreme environmental damage was a common occurrence. During my conversation with him I learned extensive information on the processes that farmers have to go through in order to be authorized for pesticide use. Not only do they have to receive a pesticide license - which requires rigorous tests and constant inspections - but they also have to follow strict codes on worker safety, amounts of chemicals used, and disposal of said chemicals. In fact in 2017 alone, there were around 41,000 inspections in the Mid-Atlantic region with extremely rare cases of violations - the majority of which were met with a monetary penalty. And while a monetary penalty may not seem like a very influential punishment, in the already risky business of agriculture any loss of money can be immensely detrimental to a farmer.


[Below are the notes I took during our conversation.]


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Now I would be lying if I said I had done thorough research before my second interview. A tired baked potato of a human being I was barely awake as I typed my questions and so I cannot complain when at first I was disappointed as my second contact also seemed to be focused on pesticides. However as I talked with them, I quickly realized that while at the EPA Mr. Butler focused on the procedures and rules following pesticide use, this contact’s organization worked to educate and support small farmers when it came to sustainable agriculture - and that included making sure their workers were wearing proper safety protection when working with pesticides.

I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seat at this point so I’ll just tell you. My second contact was Mr. Aaron de Long from the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. The P.A.S.A. is an organization of farmers, for farmers. They work to provide educational opportunities for smaller farming operations in order to make sustainable farming and planting more accessible to them. Farmers communicate techniques and resources with one another all while working together to create a sustainable and profitable agricultural community. As a former farmer and the current Delaware Valley Hub Manager for P.A.S.A, Mr. de Long manages programming for and with dairy farmers in Eastern Pennsylvania. A helpful and friendly resource, we discussed the programs he runs, one of which is a push for grass-based dairy farming.


[Below are the notes I took during our conversation.]

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I’m sure you’re confused at this point. You’re going, “Wait a second. All cows eat grass - why would there need to be a specification for grass-based dairy farming?” Hold on to your brain because I’m about to blow your mind.

Yes - all cows eat grass. However, that does not mean they are all fed grass. Unless it says so on the label, the majority of bovine produce is sourced from grain-fed cattle. Grain-feeding cattle is not uncommon, but it is also not natural, not healthy for the animal and not healthy for the environment. Don’t forget that cows produce milk and also eventually become the burger on your plate, which means that whatever unhealthy life the cow lived is now becoming your life - you are what you eat.

In fact, only 2 to 3% of cattle are actually grass-fed while the rest are confined to feed-lots and fed grain and corn.


BT_Empty_Feedlot_Bunk_Cattle
BT_Empty_Feedlot_Bunk_Cattle
And while the P.A.S.A does not advertise themselves as an animal welfare group, by pushing for grass-based farming, animal welfare is an obvious byproduct as it encourages free-range, natural farming techniques.

[Look at that happy cow.]
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PJ-BW233_GRASSM_P_20140729174717

During his interview, Mr. de Long mentioned a few other resources that I could contact and later continued to be a helpful resource by giving me the contact information of a Ms. Helen Kollar - McArthur.

Ms. Helen Kollar-McArthur is the manager of Rising Spring Meat Company. RSMC’s official mission statement is “to provide high quality meat processing services to local farmers in Pennsylvania.” My first question was, why do local farmers need high quality processing services? It turns out that, in the agriculture industry, the process of turning cattle into meat is fraught with cases of butchers keeping portions of meat for themselves or even returning the wrong meat to their customer. As a way to combat that and create a more trustworthy business, RSMC has a unique identification system that tracks an animal throughout the entire process and ensures that all parts of the product are returned to the farmer. And, although it may seem unlikely at first glance, RSMC is a slaughterhouse that is extremely conscious of the welfare of their animals. According to Ms. Kollar-McArthur, they RSMC is Animal Welfare Approved as are the majority of the farmers that they work with.

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animal_welfare_approved_by_agwv2
And while they still process any animal brought to them - despite the previous conditions in which the animal lived, once the animal is brought to them they treat it with the utmost care and respect. “We are proud of how we handle animals during the slaughter process. Our holding pens have fresh air [and] light and animals always have access to water prior to slaughter. The animals’ holding pens and shoots were redesigned to lower the stress that an animal experiences. We believe that being calm [and] moving animals gently and humanely is not only the right thing to do but also makes for a better product in the long run. An animal that is under too much stress at the time of slaughter will taste different from the adrenaline it produces while under stress [as it] causes the muscles to tense up.”
[Below are the emails following our conversation.]
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Now all of this information I had to learn through extensive interviews, online research, and face-to-face encounters with individual passionate about industrial farming. If it was so difficult for me to find even basic information on my own issue - I could not help but wonder how an ordinary individual viewed my issue. So, I created a survey. And while I have only received 22 responses so far, they are all so varied in opinion and levels of knowledge they tell a story I could never research.

For each of my questions (the majority of which were multiple-choice), my options for responses were usually based on a scale of complete care and knowledge to no interest and no knowledge. Usually I received a combination of the two. However the most interesting question was my open-ended one that asked “If so, what do you know about them (pesticides and GMOs)? Please feel free to answer in as much detail as possible.” Some were adamant that pesticides were not harmful - they were over-exaggerated and were in fact completely safe. Some insisted that all pesticides were harmful and said that they tried to avoid them as much as possible. And many of them just said “Idk.”

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How can something so influential in each of our lives be so unknown? How can we, as consumers and as people, not know what we are putting into our bodies? How can we as proclaimed “animal-lovers”, be the cause of hundreds of torturous animal treatment? While my original research is technically over, I will continue to interview individuals in the agricultural industry in order to advance my understanding of the issue so that, hopefully, I will be able to advance every consumers understanding of the ingredients behind their dinner. For my agent of change, I am unsure as to what I want to do because, as I said before, the agricultural industry is such a large topic which such diverse issues, to be able to focus on one is extremely difficult.

An Interview with Rachel Clements

Rachel Clement

Rachel Clement, co-chair of Girls Not Brides USA


In my previous post I discussed the topic of child marriages and went into detail about  some of the impacts that they have on young girls. Child marriages happen all over the world and the fight to end them does as well. The next step in my research and this project is doing an agent of change related to child marriages. To further my understanding of what is already being done to help stop child marriages I decided to interview someone that have a hand in doing so. I interviewed Rachel Clement, a co-chair for Girls Not Brides USA.

The first questions that I asked her were about her job as a co-chair and why she became one. In terms of how she got the job, Ms.Clement was already working with the Girls Not Brides organization but was recommended for the job when her boss stepped down. She then went into detail about how she sees child marriages as the biggest problem that young girls have to face around the world. She also talked about the health problems that girls involved in child marriages face. Like I talked about briefly in my previous post, it’s very likely that those girls will end up pregnant. Not only will their bodies suffer from complications but their children will also face health issues. Their children have to deal with things like stunting growth and wasting before they even turn 5. This can result in them dying at a very young age or growing up with health complications. One point that Ms.Clement talked about in the interview was the financial aspect of child marriages.This practice that results in children facing stunting, malnutrition or death, costs the global economy between $56 and $106 billion dollars. Child marriages not only takes a toll on the children involved but also the global economy. I also wanted to learn more about what she does as a co-chair for Girls Not Brides USA. As someone who does coalition work, her job is to build a consensus about the actions that they should take in relation to child marriages. In addition to what she has done as a co-chair I asked about her goals for 2018. Ms.Clement talked about how she wants to work more with Congress and with non-profit organizations and incorporating youth in her work with the IRCW.

My last question for her was about how young people, like me, can get involved in this issue. Ms.Clement encouraged me to continue reading and learning about child marriages and also get involved with local politics. Pennsylvania is considering passing a law that raises the current legal age of marriage from 16 to 18. She also talked about possibly contacting congresspeople in Pennsylvania and voicing my opinions about different laws that affect Pennsylvanians. From her answers I got some ideas about what I could do for my agent of change. I have a couple of options ranging from donating to talking and getting involved with the congresspeople in Pennsylvania.

To conclude my post I wanted to talk about the progress that has been made with reducing child marriages, in the United States. Some examples of laws that have been passed are, in New Jersey a bill was passed that banned all marriages before the age of 18. Texas passed a bill that eliminated most child marriages except for those between emancipated minors. These are just some of the bills that have been passed to help end child marriages in the United States. There’s still work that needs to be done but progress is being made.

Bullying:My Own Research

Bullying: My Own Research


  Hello, it's me Christopher Jacobs again and today I, after some of my own original research. My last post was all about the research and some personal experience in a major problem all around the world. BULLYING. Now this is a big problem that I have already talked about but  I have some of my own data from my fellow SLA students.



    For those of you who haven't seen my first post where I researched about bullying. It was basically me giving statistics about bullying. As well as me giving my own personal experiences on bullying and how it affects me. Now for me I had 3 options for this post and those were a field observation, survey and interview. I could have easily done any other but decided that a survey would be the most effective thing to do.


   What I made is a survey to collect data on personal experiences of people and bullying in their lives.  What I found was very interesting to be honest. I found that out of the 29 responses I got 13 were of people who told me they were not bullied. While the rest said that they were bullied before. Here's a graph that I have of this info from different responses.




After looking through this I found some interesting responses such as what I mentioned before. So then for my next question I asked them about the current state of this and if they were still being bullied and overall a lot of people said no. When I saw this I was honestly really happy as it shown me that out of this survey the students that answered (which a lot were from my grade were not ever subject to bullying.). But from what I read from their responses a lot of them were victims of bullying during younger grades for their looks usually.



 

  I also asked a question that I felt was just as, if not bigger than your standard bullying. Cyberbullying, now if you don’t know what cyberbullying is bullying but digitally such as messages, and social media. So I was curious and decided to ask about it and see if people were cyberbullied. Again I got a positive graph. So now  21 people said they weren’t ever cyberbullied while 8 people said they were. Graph is here below.


   





        For my final question I decided to ask any long effects from bullying. I got what I mostly researched such as anxiety. Plus some other things like people not making friends as easy as they used to. Overall this survey really opened up my eyes and some more and better insight from current students as well.



  This really to me gave me a different look as my fellow classmates that are currently students showed to not be bullied as much but were before. So I did some more research for this and found 20% of high school US students report being bullied. This after I compared it I found to be not that close to my own percentage of kids bullied being a bit higher.



   Overall I really enjoyed this survey as I got to learn just a bit more about my fellow students at SLA in a whole. This survey to me really made me happy as a majority of my classmates never had to go through the pain and suffering of bullying. I truly believe that even if not many people took this this really helped me as well to see how true the statistical “facts” about bullying are.



Check out my annotated bibliography:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ir9GL1stvGdU6-QBAzoREZ49DQpITADvoQ2oIMPZYA8/edit


Boys Ultimate Goes 6-0 at Virginia Tourney!

The SLA Boys Ultimate team traveled to Arlington, VA for the YULA Invitational this weekend! The boys went 6-0 against teams from up and down the East Coast to win their division! SLA started Saturday with two quick wins against Catonsville 13-2 and Yorktown B 13-1 to set up a match-up versus New York City's Stuyvesant High School. SLA and Stuyvesant have had some epic battles over the years, but Stuy was no match for SLA on this day, with SLA storming to a 13-2 victory. SLA was led by junior Eli Zimmerman's five assists and senior Nate Little's four goals. This win put SLA into the quarterfinals for Sunday with a match-up against New Jersey's West Windsor-Plainsboro North. 

Sunday morning saw the Rockets dominance continue with another 13-2 win. Junior James Adams paced the Rockets with three goals, and Zimmerman contributed another four assists, but the real hallmark of the game was how much the entire team contributed with seven different players scoring goals to push the Rockets into the semi-finals. 

The semi-finals saw SLA match up against nationally ranked Chapel Hill HS. Chapel Hill came in ranked 21st in the nation, and the Rockets came out with a strong man-to-man defense to set the tone and take a 2-0 lead. Chapel Hill hung tough, eventually tying the game at 7-7, but the Rockets reasserted themselves and went on a 5-0 scoring run to end the game 12-7. Senior co-captain Eli Block threw three goals and senior Malachi Johnson scored three goals to put SLA into the finals against Washington & Lee High School.

The finals was perhaps SLA's sloppiest game of the weekend as the Rockets' legs showed the weariness of a six game weekend, but again, the Rockets came out strong, scoring the first two points of the game, and this time, their opponents could not come all the way back. The SLA defense made up for offensive miscues, and the team held on for a 8-6 victory to win their division! Block again led the way with four assists, and Little had two goals and five blocks as SLA played one of its best weekends of Ultimate in team history. 

The weekend was a team success with so many players contributing to the success of the team. Senior co-captain Saamir Baker contributed four blocks and four assists, senior Jori Gerveni had eight goals, four assists and three blocks, and sophomore Elijah Afrifa had four blocks and and three goals to help fuel the Rocket! 

Next up for SLA is a home game against Masterman on Friday, March 23rd at the Highline Field at 31st and Chestnut! Come out and see the team! Go Rockets! 

One side of a story

      In my previous blog post I discussed one of the many problems today currently in the world which is Police Brutality. Part of my original research was to go out into the world and gather our own information. I was given the opportunity to interview Officer Mitchell of the 12th district who I was fortunate enough to interview in which he said the following:
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I found this Interview to contradict the normal norm of how many people see Police Brutality you see that for question 5 the question was, ¨ Lots of people argue that police brutality is often based on racial bias. What do you think of this?¨ to which he responded, ¨I dont think its racial...I think it is more lack of training and lack of background checks prior to hiring.¨ I found Officer Mitchells response very interesting because his perception of Police Brutality is the opposite to how others view it. Over the course of the Interview I found it very beneficale I was able to learn that contrary to popular belief not all police officers are bad in fact most of them in particular want this agent of change and wants to show that they are just like us human. However with the way things are looking most of society is against authorities they believe there is no level of trust between the two parties we are different and in this case being different is not what we need. In the words of Barack, ¨This is not just a black issue. It’s not just an Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we should all care about, all fair- minded people should be concerned.¨ The problem with Police Brutality is that it is a frequent thing and with that being said instead of people complaining about Police Brutality we should all try to band together and find a way to change what has happened to our community. An important question that we all must think about is why? why does Police Brutality constantly take place amongst so many people? In my interview with Officer Mitchell he said it might be lack of training and there may be a need of background checks. In conclusion I think Police Brutality is sad, but we as a community must also try to figure out why is it happening and what measures can be taken to prevent it. If you would like to see my annotated bibliography please click this link thank you for reading. Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13wTzYcJCdMGtSsozTe1VAUYwjLW3z1r577zruis1Vrw/edit?usp=sharing

One Step Towards Change

One grows when they finally see reality. I have done a lot of research and have been  coming up with my solution to better make the situation for the homeless. Through my research I have seen things that have given me a whole different perspective of how I see the homeless now since my Slate Blog #1. In Slate Blog #1 I talked mostly focused on the misconceptions about homeless people. How they are seen as lazy, drug addicts, and people who take advantage of their situation. I focused only on how they were viewed, treated, and reasons why they were in the situation they were in. Never did I focus on how their life was like before they came into the situation they are in. I never mentioned the true definition of homelessness for me. Most people would think about why the homeless  didn’t they just go to homeless shelters instead of staying outside. I was no different from these people. I have better prepared myself by making myself more opened minded and even went out to find information from a person who has indeed experienced homelessness. I researched more about the reasons why people go homeless and even went deeper with it. I also found possible reasons why people don’t go and stay in homeless shelters. With the information I have gathered I came up with my own definition of what it means to be homeless.

What does it mean to be homeless? For me being homeless isn’t just not having a place to live, but you can also be considered homeless if you have a place to live but you can’t really keep up with the rent or you can maintain yourself or your family, also fleeing from domestic violence can be considered homelessness. For me this is what it means to be homeless, for others there’s more to it. After you see what I have gathered here, you can up with your own definition of being truly homeless. In Slate Blog #1 I got most of my info from a site that was reliable but it was updated in 2015, I recently got new information from a site that was recently updated in 2017. The site was a pdf file of The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, it gave me a lot of updated facts in 2017 about the homeless. When going through it I found out that 553,742 people were experiencing homelessness in the U.S, 65% of the people that were homeless were in shelters or had housing support while the other 35% were unsheltered. 61% of the homeless are men while 39% were women. Race is something that shocks many of us because each race is given a stereotype and many believe them, people believe that hispanics and blacks are more prone to becoming homeless but in reality whites have a higher chance of becoming homeless. 47% of the homeless population is white, 41% are black, 22% are latino or hispanic and 7% identified as multiracial.


Screenshot 2018-03-18 at 7.44.00 PM
Screenshot 2018-03-18 at 7.44.00 PM

For many of us when we hear the word homeless we think of someone lazy and is a drug addict who just doesn’t want to work and keep things easy for themselves. The truth is that this isn’t the case for many of the homeless. It’s different from what we hear and it’s hard when you are in this situation and you have to change your life around. To get a better perspective i went to the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission and got the chance to interview Eric who was homeless and now he helps other homeless people turn their lives around. This homeless shelter is located in 1010, 302 N 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107. In this interview I wanted to get a better insight from someone who was homeless to understand the truth of how some people become homeless and how their experience was. I wanted to hear Eric’s opinion of how he feels about the stereotypes about the homeless and what he would do to change this problem. Of course, before I asked him these questions I had to first hear his story. This is the document of my questions.


Click here for video!

My inquiry was an interview and my questions were answered in a very detail way by Eric because I could see what he said and feel what he felt. Eric helped me better inform me about the homeless by telling me about how he got in the situation of being homeless, telling me his experience, and how he got out of that situation. He proved my point of the misconception of homeless people because they are people who were just in the hard times in life, some got beaten down by life, and others picked themselves up.

There is homeless people that are in the street because of mental illnesses. These are the people that need a lot of support, about 25% of the homeless population suffer from mental illnesses. You may be asking yourself, why didn’t they just get support when they were with their friends and families? The reason is that they lose their communication with friends and family because of their delusional thinking. When this happens they are left all alone and unable to take good care of themselves because they lack sustainability of employment. Many others have mental illnesses after they become homeless, that is because the fact that they are in the situation that they are in stresses them, encourages anxiety, causes fear, depression, causes them to sleep less, and this eventually leads up to drug abuse. It’s sad but the truth is that people with mental illnesses experience homelessness for a longer time when compared with someone who doesn’t suffer from mental illnesses. Domestic violence is the reason 75% of women experiencing homeless have mental illnesses. Hospitals and prisons have a big role of why there’s people with mental illnesses in the streets because they release them into the streets knowing their situation and that many of these people don’t have family to go to.

There’s many homeless people in the streets and many of us just wonder to ourselves, why don’t they just go to a homeless shelter? The truth is there’s reasons why many homeless people don’t go to shelters and one of them is that many homeless people can’t bring their best pals around with them, meaning there is no pets allowed in the homeless shelters because of the lack of resources. Many homeless people don’t want to give away their best friend who has been loyal to them.


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Another reason is because homeless shelters deny the entry to people who suffer from mental illnesses because they can be a threat to others. I believe that they should be allowed in because all they need is somebody to talk to and what better people than the people who are experiencing the same problem these people with mental illnesses are experiencing. Many people also don’t go to homeless shelters because they don’t let people with parasites, lice, and bedbugs because they can spread and ruin the shelter. Others don’t go at the fear that they could be raped or assaulted.


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Some people know that they have a disease that can easily spread and they decide to stay away from shelters to not spread it and they can’t even get in the shelters because they deny entry to people with diseases. A very high reason why people don’t go to shelters because they can’t be helped with their drug abuse. The main reason why people don’t go to shelters is because of the lack of available beds. There is many more reasons why people don’t go to shelters but you can check more out at this site (where I got my information). Many of the homeless people are in shelters and the people with mental illnesses and drug addictions are left in the streets and this is what caused the stereotypes of homeless people because that’s all we get to see.

Now that I have done some research I can give my opinion on how I truly see the homeless. I believe that the homeless are people who were beaten down by life and that does who stay homeless haven’t necessarily given up but they don't feel motivated because they are alone. But, for the people that picked themselves up, they were motivated at the fact that they wanted to help their family, prove people wrong about them, or both. There’s many things I still wonder about, I wonder If with the help of others, we will be able to end poverty? For Slate Post #3 for change, I am thinking about going out to the streets and telling all the homeless people I see that they aren’t alone and that me, others, and god support them. I will give them food and money so that they can start their life again. They don’t need much support, they just need a boost. One only cannot make change but one and others can.

Bibliography


The Effect of Sexual Objectification on Women’s Mental Health//2

   The Effect of Sexual Objectification on Women’s Mental Health

Moriah Lahr

3/14/18

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lJ6B8PTnw_vgVb6aBkCLC_DRJA1BjmPpT_-KwdDTSdg/edit

I want to focus on the topic of the effect of sexual objectification on women’s mental health. I experience sexual objectification daily. Whether it’s seeing a music video of half naked girls dancing around a guy or getting cat called on my own block. Both which can make me feel bad about myself. A goal I have in researching this topic is to be educated on the different types of sexual objectification and the different health issues it can cause. I want to help make a change by getting women’s different point of views and stories of being objectified and getting the word out there to people who can’t see that it’s a problem.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3673099/Man-confesses-checking-mediocre-women-Reddit-good-deed.html

This woman is shown walking past a man while he looks back at her curves. What this photo actually came from was a website that had a married man saying he checks out mediocre women to “compliment them” as if we enjoy being gaped at.



I am interested in this topic because as a woman in this culture, I have been objectified many times in many different ways. This topic matters to me because I have many friends who have been cat called or checked out etc. and I know first hand how scary it feels to me and my friends. When I’m out with my friends, we have to talk about what if a guy comes up to us and starts checking us out and saying creepy things to us. We came to a conclusion that if that happens, we’ll just say we’re a couple. I think it’s truly sad that girls at a young age are so scared to just walk outside because we get looked at and taunted. Some men even think checking out girls are a compliment when it really makes us feel worse about ourselves.We are not outside for your benefit. We do not look in the mirror every morning hoping this outfit will get a guy to silently follow us down the street for five minutes after saying, “God bless you mami… Damn.”


http://www.eatthedamncake.com/2010/06/14/getting-checked-out-by-guys-with-wives/

This woman is being showed in the camera view in an angle that only shows her body and shows two guys looking at her body. This shows how much women’s bodies are sexualized and lusted over. It’s showing her body as if she doesn’t have a face or a personality.


In the research I found, I learned that sexual objectification comes in many forms such as catcalling, getting checked out, sexual assault, rape, pornography, television, etc. These things can cause not only men to look at women as objects but cause women to look at themselves as objects and make them want to look a certain way to fit into the cultures view of a “perfect body”. This causes mental health issues such as body dysmorphia, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, etc. It is important for people to know about this and be aware of it because some men are raised to think it’s okay to objectify and they just don’t know any better. Knowing the research behind it might really change the way we are looked at and the way we look at ourselves. The details in my research that can educate readers is what the different types of objectification there are because some people might not even be able to realize it when they see it or do it.

http://websterjournal.com/2014/12/01/catcalls-arent-compliments/

This photo shows a woman that is covering up and looking insecure as people are cat-calling her all around. This happens on a daily basis to women. Mens calls make us feel insecure like all we are is a body.

My research so far has impacted my understanding of sexual objectification because I never really focused on looking at the mental health side of things and how it affects people. Now I can see better why me and some of my friends have the self image issues that we have. I’m objectified on a daily basis so I feel like this is a personal topic that I have actual experience to backup my claims with.






effects on well-being


“The present research suggests that stranger harassment (i.e., experiencing unwanted sexual attention from strangers in public) is a frequent experience for young adult women, and that it has negative implications for their well-being. First, stranger harassment was positively related to self-objectification. This was true for women who coped with stranger harassment using common strategies (passive, self-blame, or benign), but not for women who used an uncommon, active coping strategy (e.g., confronting the harasser). Second, stranger harassment experiences and self-objectification were positively related to women's fear of and perceived risk of rape. Further, women who feared rape were more likely to restrict their freedom of movement. In concert, the findings suggest that stranger harassment may have both direct and indirect negative effects on women's lives, and that it is a phenomenon worthy of future research. “






Women perceive themselves as objects



“girls and women are typically acculturated to internalize an observer's perspective as a primary view of their physical selves. This perspective on self can lead to habitual body monitoring, which, in turn, can increase women's opportunities for shame and anxiety, reduce opportunities for peak motivational states, and diminish awareness of internal bodily states.”


This says that women see themselves the way other people view them and if they are viewed like objects that’s how we’ll see ourselves as.











Graph of psychological consequences  




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This image shows what sexual objectification can lead to. It’s like a domino affect where once one thing happens there’s a trail of bad things happening after it.









I gathered surveys from 3 different female SLA students. Some new information i found is that ⅔ of them were around my age and ⅓ was an older teen. I learned that people experience similar things such as getting cat called and feeling extremely uncomfortable. One girl said that being cat called is one of the most terrifying experiences she has, I can relate to  his because for me it also sparks a lot of anxiety when I’m being sexually objectified.



Also, 100% of the people who answered the survey say that they deal w mental health issues. This proves my point that sexual objectification affects the mental health of females. I asked them what they think we can do to end this issue, and the main response was to just bring awareness and show people this is what’s happening to you and how it makes you feel as a woman.


Heart Disease: The Big Bad Wolf

​ In my previous post, I talked about heart disease and the causes of the different types of heart conditions. How heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, how strokes and cardiovascular disease are linked together, having high cholesterol, blood sugar, or diabetes can increase your risk for getting heart disease. I also talked about how heart disease is can be cause by birth conditions or the types of things that you do such as consuming a lot of junk foods or lack of physical exercise. 
This is an image of what a normally functioning heart should look like
This is an image of what a normally functioning heart should look like
According to heart.org, In 2008, heart diseases represented 30 percents of all diseases. About 2,150 Americans die each day from cardiovascular, that's about one every 40 seconds. Strokes and cardiovascular diseases cost man than $320.1 billion, in health expenditures and lost productivity. Nearly half of all African Americans adults have some form of cardiovascular disease, 48 percent of African American women and 46 African American men. Heart disease accounts for 1 in 7 deaths in U.S. Over 159 million U.S. adults are overweight or obese, most adults of the age of 20 are obese. It's estimated that about 1.46 billion adults globally were overweight or obese. High Blood Pressure puts people at risk for diseases, so it was no surprise to me when I had seen that 80 million U.S. adults have it. According to nydailynews.com, Noise pollution is linked to heart disease, people and animals that are exposed to constant loud noise have higher risks for heart disease. Researchers in Germany have found in a study that, noises from traffic, construction, and loud workplaces affects the bodies stress responses on a cellular level that lead to cardiovascular break down over time. Those who are exposed to less loud noise have less chances of heart disease than those who are constantly exposed to loud noises.
This is an image talking about Diabetes and how diabetes is gradually starting to rise all over the globe
This is an image talking about Diabetes and how diabetes is gradually starting to rise all over the globe
For my original research I need someone who had some experience with heart diseases or a bit of knowledge about the topic, so I went to my trustworthy and one of my closest friends, Rene Hart, she had told me that she had pre-diabetes when she was younger, because she was obese, lacked physical activity, and liked to eat foods with lots of sugar. She talked about the changes she had to make in her life so that she could get back on track and start to live a healthier lifestyle. Rene was also generous enough to talk about her family members that were also affected by heart conditions. Rene helped me learn more about a topic that I was unsure of which is childhood diabetes. I was still left wondering if heart disease ran in her family which led her to a higher risk for it. For my Agent of Change, I want to try to starting to help out kids my age so that they have a lower risk of gaining heart disease, and I think that starts with changing the foods that are being served during lunch, to something a bit healthier.

Advanced Essay #3 [Isolation in Humanity]

Introduction: 
My goals for this paper was to properly identify what isolation does to isolated/lonely people and integrate social media into one of the reasons for it. My intent was not to bash social media to say that it shouldn't be allowed, just so that the audience could see how it can affect others. 

Essay:

Isolation and separation will cause the human race to go extinct. To elaborate, very little social interaction between people can be detrimental to one's health both mentally and physically. One New York Times article states that, “Individuals with less social connection have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones.” This isn’t all, one of the reasons that we isolate ourselves is because we live in a modernized era, and social media doesn't do enough to help us when it comes to socializing. It only pushes a divide. With social media, we are only connected with people through their online presence and our perceptions of them.

In the Merriam webster dictionary, isolation is defined as, “the state of being alone or kept apart from others.” The given definition of isolation implies that there are multiple types of isolation and that within these types of isolation, there is one where people are forcefully set or casted away from other people, as well as one where people are set into a condition where they feel the need to be alone. Although these two different types of isolation may have different causes, they often have the same effects on a person. Humans are a social species, we have evolved to be dependant on each other in order to live our everyday lives, if something were to get in the way of human interaction it would be detrimental to our entire social ecosystem. It has been known that people who are isolated are at a greater risk to suffering from multiple illnesses, but it was soon discovered by a psychologist, Steve Cole alongside UCLA students, that in response to isolation, the human body can disrupt the activity of genes that make antibodies to fight infections of all types, as well as increasing the amount of genes that are responsible for inflammation. Humans need physical interaction with other humans in order to survive, without it we begin to deteriorate from the inside out.   

Social media is a new platform that was recently introduced into society and in such a short time it has evolved rather quickly. Social media platforms main goals are to allow people from all across the globe to interact with each other and give people who have never met before the ability to communicate with one another. Although this is the initial intent of social media, it is also quite misleading. An article from CNN links a study that states that, “Young adults with high social media usage seem to feel more socially isolated than their counterparts with lower social media usage.” Being on social media doesn’t always mean that people are being more social, sometimes it means that people are hiding behind it. It’s how they appear online that often blocks their real presence, and unaware with how they actually spend their time, their lives become warped into this reality that isn’t tangible, as it is only lived through screens.

There was once a time where I isolated myself from individuals and barricaded myself from the outside world. As a result of doing this, I spent most of my time on social media, even within the presence of other people. For awhile, I felt perfectly fine being this person that didn’t speak to others. I thought it was okay, but I unknowingly barricaded myself within this mental forretress that I made. This barrier that was built up against everyone in my life began to trap me inside. When I realized that I had been isolating myself, it became even harder for me to interact with other individuals. I had no real social skills and I was awkward to talk to. With my phone as my social crutch it was far too hard to try and communicate with other people. I began to ask myself, “Why do I feel so boring?” What I had once thought was working for me as a barricade began to cage me in like an animal, trapping me until I learned through interaction with other people, how to take down those barriers one by one.

Isolation and separation goes against human needs, with the emergence of social media in our society, we will feel as if we are more isolated from the outside world. This is a societal norm that will need to be continuously challenged by humanity. If this is not properly challenged humans will be at risk for major health illnesses, including heart attacks. Real-life interaction is the only way our modern-day society will be able to survive. Our society isn’t fit to cage ourselves in, because that’s not who we are.

 

 

 

 


Is it Meat or Veggies?


What's really the best for you?

In my previous post I spoke about what people's food actually contains and how it affect their body. In my post I explained how meat can have a negative impact on your body. When I wrote my first post, it was based on the documentary What The Food and it glorified being vegan, but I wanted to personally find if being vegan is as good as it seems to be.     


To find my original research i decided to do interviews to get different perspectives on being vegan. I did three different interviews. The first interview I did was Gabe Sosa he is the father to one of my classmates, Miranda Sosa. He responded to  my question via email. When I did get a response I was shocked because I didn’t think he would say those things. Here are my following questions:

                                                                                    

Q: What was the reasoning behind you becoming vegan?

A:I became a vegan because I was having health issue.

Q: Do you believe that becoming vegan was a drastic change?

A:I think that for some people it can be a drastic change for them, I know how to cook so for me it was just about making good wholesome food. So my instead of eating meat and dairy products I made substitutions. For example, for my cereal in the morning I used Almond milk, (has the same flavor of milk) and for meat products I used beans and made beef patties. For me it was not a drastic change. (for my kids it was, because they don’t like good food)

Q:What is the hardest part of being vegan?

A:The hardest part was taking the time to plan out your meals, For example I work a lot on the road, so I had to makes sure I have food to eat. A lot of food has animal products in it. So I could not eat it. it hard because you can’t just run into McDonalds and get some fires. Because they have beef flavoring on them so a vegan cannot eat there, and just so you know a lot of fast food does not have Vegan options.

Q: How much has being vegan benefited you?

A:I feel that being a vegan has not benefited me as much as it would have any other person. I think that if someone became vegan it would benefit them a lot more than it did me.

Q:·  Have you seen a change in your health after changing your diet?

A:My health has declined even after 3 months of being a vegan, as my issues are not with what goes in my body but what stays in my body. My blood holds on to too much iron in the blood, and you can get a lot of iron from Lentils, spinach and other vegetables (that I have been eating a lot of) along with meat. So I think that eating more of these vegetables might have hurt me as much as eating meat.

 

After reading his answers I was surprised but he had a valid reason why being vegan didn’t work for him. By searching on the internet I believe that Mr. Sosa might have a disease known as Hemochromatosis. This is when you have iron overload causing it to affect your heart, liver, and other organs. To manage with this disease doctors advise you to stay away from high contents of iron or vitamin C and vegetables are full of those.  When Mr. Sosa became vegan his body continued to absorb an excess amount of iron. He said that he consumed a lot of green leafy foods such as spinach, but spinach contains more iron than red meat.

Which one is really good for you?


My next two interviews they were completely different from Mr. Sosa. I got in touch with my friend Nile Shareef-Trudeau because her and her family are vegan. I sent her my questions and she interviewed herself and her mother because this was the only way the questions could be answered at the time. This is the interview for Nile’s mom and this is Nile’s. Nile and her mother believe that being vegan is the epitome of being healthy, unlike Mr. Sosa because of his condition.


By doing both interviews I get different perspectives of being a vegan. I learned that being vegan isn’t meant for everyone. I also learned this by changing my food habits for six weeks. For the last part of my project I decided to not to eat meat for six weeks. I broke the six weeks into three sections. For the first two weeks I was a pescatarian which means that the only meat I could eat was seafood. Then the next two weeks, I was a vegetarian, and the last two weeks I was a vegan. During the six weeks I gained 10 pounds because I wasn’t eating properly. The hardest part wasn’t the fact that I wasn’t eating meat, but that most of the time I was hungry unless I did a meal prep. When I was vegan (which I did not continue for two weeks) I learned in order for me not to starve I would have to carry food with me, everywhere I go because there were never any vegan options. Instead of me being vegan I went back to eating dairy and fish.


My annotated bibliography


Discovering new research about The Dream Act

 Discovering new research about The Dream Act

    

        Like i said in my previous post i talked about how am doing a project about The Dream Act and I did a lot of research about it. Just to recap about what information i found on my first my blog post am list out some things I talked about, so the first thing i talked about was about when was The Dream Act was introduced and it was introduced in 2001 and its 2018 but the bill still didn't go through, but in 2010 the bill almost came law  but then it came five votes short so it couldn't  become law.  Another thing i talked about was the DACA, The DACA are permission papers that allow immigrants to legally remain in the United States for as long as their expiration date states. This changed a  number of young immigrants’ lives until Donald Trump made the decision to make the DACA into a 6 month grace period. Meaning that after 6 months you can no longer get a DACA.


  I did more research and i also found out that when Trump decided to end the DACA, he put an expiration date on the legal protections granted to roughly 800,000 people known as "DREAMers," who entered the country illegally as children, meaning 800,000 children getting punished for something they didn't do, and that's really unfair for the children. After Trump called the congress to act, Barack Obama called the decision "cruel" and "self-defeating” he also said "Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn't threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us.", so he's just basically saying that he should not deport this children and maybe ruined their future, and also they aren't doing anything thats hurting us now or in the future.


On top of all of this new research i decided to go out and do my own research. I decided to do an interview, It was kind of hard to find someone to interview but in the end I found someone, and the person is my soccer coach his name is Sammy. When we did our interview i asked five questions. I decided to interview him because he's the one that told me about the dream act, and also he has family the are apart of the dream act. Let’s take a look at the questions and answers...  

Q-What do you know about The Dream Act?

A-”From what I know about it is a bill that would allow undocumented immigrant who were brought in at a young age with their parents a way to gain legal status in the United States”

Q-How do you feel about it?

A-”I feel that this bill is a great opportunity for both these children and the country itself. These immigrants who have spent the majority of their lives in America deserves a chance to be able to make a life here with a security that they would otherwise not have

access to. These kids are the future of this country and the need a chance to be able to make a better future for themselves and their family”

Q-Why do you think the Congress won't make The Dream Act a law?

A-”With how divided and split congress is with political parties I feel that there isn’t much a chance for The Dream Act to pass. I’ve been hearing about this bill for many years and it is still somehow close to passing. With the president we have in office right now I feel that we’re further away than ever to getting The Dream Act to pass.”

Q-How would you feel if you or your family were apart of the dream act?

A-”I do have some family members that are affected by The Dream Act. It really saddens me that there are so many children and young adults in this country that aren’t able to live their lives comfortably in this country through the actions of their parents. They didn't have much of a choice in coming to this country at such a young age yet they are being punished for it. I feel that this bill would be able to provide them with what they need in order to be productive members of our society.”


Q-What changes would you make for The Dream Act?

A-”The Dream Act does not do much for the parents of these young immigrants. If I would make any changes to this bill it would be to help the parents get a pathway to legal status in this country. These kids needs their parents together and I have seen firsthand the devastation when a parent is deported from the country and how it affects the kids.”

      One thing that really stood out to me when I did this interview with Coach Sammy is when he started talking about how parents should be involved in the dream act, and I totally agree with him because if the parents get deported and the kids are not, then that's just going to hurt the kids, because I’m sure that there isn't any kid in this world that wants to live with their parents far apart from them.

    After speaking to Coach Sammy I got a better understanding about what should be added to the dream act, and why the congress won't pass this bill.


Into The Wilds

In my first blog post about wildlife preservation I talked about all of the places out there that helped endangered animals. So for to further expand my knowledge and research I visited the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. I did a field observation of half of the trail and was able to spot some animals out and about. Since I went in the morning there was not much to see because most animals came out at night but what I did find was enough for what I needed.

The data I gathered was abe to help in my original research because I was able to see how much of an issue wildlife preservation is. While at the refuge I saw birds, swans, and even some horses. The animals themselves aren’t constantly cared for like you would see at a zoo but the ones here just live like they would in the wild but without having to worry about the dangers of being killed. So comparing this to what I heard about all of the endangered animals has really opened my eyes more as to how bad they have it.

Something I still have questions about is how are the rescued endangered animals cared for. Since I know that there are ones out there that find help they need and are going extinct for different reasons, I wonder how they are cared for. Another question I have which is revolved around this is how do the animals in the wildlife get there food. If all animals there are to be protected then how can they at least surrive food wise. For example if there was an eagle that ate squirrels in the wildlife, but that squirrel was also there for protection then how does it work out so that both can survive?


While at the wildlife center there are some things that I observed and noticed. One of those things were that the other people there were mostly adults and more importantly with there own pets. There were a few kids I noticed there but they were also with parents. But one of the adults I noticed there was actually there to take pictures just like me, except he seemed a lot more professional. He had an actual camera and possible a notepad with him. If I could have stayed longer i would have asked him if he came to this place daily or what other places he went to. Looking back on what I did there only made me realize what more I could have done.

To end it all off I think that my field observation went well. In the future I would have liked to find more animals since was a little bit harder to do during the morning and also maybe ask around from other people on what they have seen here.


Is Crumb Rubber Okay?

In my last you and the world blog post, I wrote about the affects the crumb rubber has on the human body and why the topic interests and connects to me. I stated it's important to me in the world and in the sports industry. The last post included  the negative perspectives on the crumb rubber in astroturf. I interviewed Ms. Samantha from Star Finder to find out her perspective on the crumb rubbers on astroturf and her own personal experiences with it.


From my own perspective, crumb rubber in astroturf is a extremely hazardous and bad idea but for some people and places, the crumb rubber in astroturf is a smart and productive idea. The positives for having crumb rubber in astroturf are; it saves water, it can reduce some injuries because of mud and uneven grass spots, increases playability and allows more sports to be able to play on the field, lower maintenance costs, and it is way easier to maintain then grass.  All astroturf fields are the same size as a soccer field or bigger which allows more sports and activities to be held on the fields.


From my original research, I learned the benefits of having astroturf and the crumb rubber. Rubber is extremely hard to get rid of and different people and organizations have tried to find different ways of getting rid of these tires. The crumb rubber can be less harmful if it is cleaned well and in the places where people have got diseases from these tires, the tires were not cleaned well. When astro turf is in a inside place, it traps the heat from hitting the turf which makes the astroturf stay room temperature. When the astroturf and crumb rubber is outside, it captures heat which makes the whole field extremely hot which makes it more likely for an injury to occur.


My opinion on crumb rubber has changed in a small way. I believe that putting crumb rubber in the astroturf helps our environment by reducing these tires that are not biodegradable. The tires have to be cleaned extremely carefully so they are clean. I still believe that crumb rubber is dangerous though and when it is outside, it absorbs heat which makes it hotter which puts people's health in danger. When it is too hot, people can get dehydrated and are more likely to get injured. I wonder what other solutions could substitute crumb rubber and what will fields look like in the future.


For my agent of change, I am thinking about spreading awareness about the concerns of crumb rubber and try to find a solution to the problem.


Image result for star finder soccer

Here is a picture of the organization Ms. Samantha works for


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jFkm10hpG_LrnTc7P7ys44l6ixd0LrPOnJrl-Y__u6c/edit


Looking Into Philly's Infrastructure

My first blog post addressed some issues with grey infrastructure and stormwater management in the city as well as briefly explaining the problems in the system. Now I gathered some more information around the situation with the help of my mother and some field observations.

Mz. Julie Snell (my mom) worked at PHS for a number of years before starting her own business in landscape architecture along with two other women from PHS. Now seeing as Mz. Snell worked in her field as long as she has as well as teaching a class about green infrastructure at Temple University, I consider Mz. Snell an expert in green infrastructure. So I chose to interview her. In the interview I asked a few questions that relate to stormwater management and green infrastructure in our city.

Is stormwater management a problem in this city and if so how? Was my first question for Mz. Snell. The response explained how that yes it is a problem because of Philadelphia's very old combined sewer system which when is overflowed will cause backups that’ll get your basement flooded.

My second question asked how quickly the city was changing to green infrastructure. Mz. Snell explained Green City Clean Waters, which is a 25 year, 2.5 billion dollar  project that started in 2011. The main goal is to get rid of the combined sewer overflows(CSOs) and the push behind the project is that Philly as well as other cities is mandated by the EPA to eliminate CSOs by 2026.

Knowing that Mz. Snell played a role in getting the Peco green roof all set back in 2009 I asked her about the process and specifically how long it took. I was surprised to hear that it was a very short project. It went from planning the concept of the green roof  in November to putting in the sedums only a month later. As Mz. Snell explained the timeline she also focused heavily on the fact that with green infrastructure the cost of installation is much less and will start working right away. Unlike grey infrastructure such as huge pipes and expanding sewer systems. So hopefully it won’t take that long for the city to reach their goal of getting rid of CSOs

In my fourth question I asked about what people around the city can do to help out. I wanted a better idea of what people could do to involve themselves some more. Mz. Snell explained how there are plenty of volunteering opportunities all over the city. You can choose to volunteer with PHS and join a tree tender group, you can help out with Parks and Rec friend groups, or you can even get a tree right out front of your house for free. The Tree City program can take a look at your space outside your house and see if you can qualify for a tree out there. Other than that you can do your best to keep the city a clean and healthy place by recycling and making sure your trash gets to a trash can.

My final question was simply if there was anything else Mz. Snell thinks people should know about green infrastructure in Philly. In response I got a message about how people who live in this city should be proud of the progress we’ve made with green infrastructure. I was kind of surprised to hear that at first but then I thought to myself that I should be proud of my city and it’s long plan for a cleaner environment.


  • This is me an my mother shorty after I conducted the interview with her. I have her to thank for most of my information so thank you, Mom.



Other than an interview with my very own mother I also wanted a location in the city for field observations. Lucky for me there are plenty, the closet on eto SLA would be the Peco green roof. So going up there for my field observations was my original plan. Although it was harder than I thought to get up there seeing as it is not simply open to the public so I had to go with a backup plan which was Cira Green. Development for the green roof finished back in 2015 and if you don’t know the place I’m talking about it’s a green roof on top of the parking building next to the big FMC tower. Greenroofs.com provides the background information of the building such as the building type, the size, and the system. Other than when you go up there you can see how everything is put in place so when it rains it holds a good amount of water in the beds up there.



The coolest part about these projects is that they are usually public places like cira green so when the weather is nice they are really great places to hang out with friends. While at the same time time it’s a powerhouse of stormwater management. Why wouldn’t you want you city filled with places like Cira Green all over. Maybe they will be one day because in the last few years Philly’s green infrastructure has only gotten better and better so I know the only way is forward in this journey of making our city a better place.


Life is a Drug

Life is a Drug


In my first blog post, I did my background research about Teenage Drug Use. In this post I obtained information about teen drug use via databases, websites, charts, and diagrams. While conducting my research I focused on 3 of the most mainstream drugs used amongst teen which included cannabis, cigarettes/juuls, and alcoholic beverages. I conducted several things from my research including susceptibility to addiction, dependency, intrusion on personal life, emotional problems, and a slur of other psychologic.al and physical problems. You can read more in depth about my findings here.

For my original research I interviewed my Uncle’s friend who works at The Juvenile Justice Center who used lots of the drugs I mentioned earlier, and more including pills. This interview opened my eyes and introduced me to some factors of using drugs that I did not think of or imagine. The person’s I interviewed name was David, and he started smoking weed at the age of 12 and shortly after started drinking and smoking cigarettes freshman year. David impregnated his girlfriend he met in high school and became the father to 5 kids, 3 girls and 2 boys by the age of 25. David spent his early days of adulthood in taking pills (xanax) and other opioids such as OxyContin. He continued to smoke weed and cigarette and drink in the midst of the other drugs as well. David spent his life in and out of rehab centers and shelters trying to seek and commit to recovery. David’s girlfriend had cheated on him and this heartbreak is what pushed David to continue using drugs, even while he was in and out of Rehab Centers.


Everytime David found himself finding a better opportunity and bettering himself, he was easily stressed and the drugs were an escape for him, almost his top priority. He would use money for support he received (i.e. food stamps) and sell them for money to purchase drugs. David also suffered from minor depression from struggling to see his kids, lack of happiness, and little support from his family. In his case, drugs were his antidepressants, and it was his only way of keeping sane. Along the way of using and selling drugs, continuing to be in and out of rehab centers and shelters, he was able to find an plumbing job, which was extraordinary considering David was unemployed without a high school diploma. David found this job to be his passion and was very good at it. The only problem that was still present seemed to be his emotional problems and his drug addiction. David was provided and house, helped pay for by the shelter he resided at and started his own plumbing business after 20 years of being a drug addict and practically homeless.


With the acquired knowledge I gained from Mr.David as well as extended research, I still have a few lingering questions, but I have gained a stronger understanding of teenage drug use. What I can infer based on my research is drug use in teenagers is not strictly just to look “cool” of to fit in or to “fit in”, but can be used to help escape reality or as a downtime. For example smoking marijuana and videogames are very similar conceptually.They both release the chemical dopamine, which is the reward hormone in your brain. In addition both of these things are mentally addictive, but is possible to get addicted to both of these things due to the individual. The problem with Teenage Substance Abuse is not just the intake of the drugs some teens may use, but the lack of information they don’t know until later when it’s too late. Drugs also pose a more potent threat when used in the teenage years due to the brain developing in its most critical state and drugs can not only stunt the brain from developing by destroying brain cells, but may pose long term negative effects on the brain depending on how much of a drug you intake. In conclusion what I have conducted from this research is that Teenage Drug Abuse while on the rise of marijuana and nicotine use, the only way to combat this issue is by informing adolescents and children around us not only the danger these drugs can pose, but the all around truth about these drugs, and how to stay safe even if they do try or experiment with varied substances.


Link to my bibliography here.

Link to screenshots here

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"The Move"

As you know in my last blog post, I talked about two different schools, Ben Franklin High School and Science Leadership Academy. These two schools will be colocating together in the year 2020, my goal is to prevent any conflict that might happen before the move. I have continued to do research on this topic, I interviewed some pretty amazing people including Mr. Lehmann who is the principal of Science Leadership Academy. Dr. Christine Borelli who is the principal of Ben Franklin High School, and Christina Grant who is assistant superintendent of the Innovation Network and Opportunity Network.

Along with these interviews I have done some extra research. This is a new site that just came out about the move. The site talks about a variety of different things that have to do with this particular situation, such as the project overview with a schedule/timeline. This website also shows pictures of both Ben Franklin  and SLA students collaborating to generate ideas about renovating Ben Franklin’s building for the move. Along with all of this, I learned some new things. For example, construction starts in June 2018 and goes until July 2019. Also that Stantech is in charge of the architectural side of the project, they are designing and planning for the new building. This website was a great resource to get information about the building and planning of the move.

Timeline of the project

Another site that I found, helped me a little bit in understanding the financials of the move. As of right now it costs about $1 million to rent out SLA’s building, which is very expensive. The school district is putting $20 million into renovating the new building. Something else I learned was that Ben Franklin High School can hold a little over 1000 kids.  In the school year 2016-17, they only had 546 students while SLA has about 500. So this move makes a lot of sense because Ben Franklin has the space and it’s cheaper financially.

In my first blog post I talked a lot about each school individually and a lot about how they are both different academically and culturally. When I interviewed people about this move none of them brought up academics, which to me was surprising. Although, it made me realize that that’s not what this move is about. One of the people that I interviewed was Dr. Borelli who is the new Principal of Ben Franklin. Dr. Borelli stated “I really want people to know that BFHS and SLA are very different schools but that doesn't make one school better than the other. This is an opportunity to build one school campus by collaborating and celebrating our diverse cultures, not a competition between two separate schools.” I believe that a lot of people are worried about this move because of how different the schools are, and what Dr. Borelli says really ensures people that us being different schools won’t affect how we act towards one another. Dr. Borelli goes on to say that, It is important that BFHS students understand the shifts that will occur during the upcoming year (changing the morning admission location, eliminating access to some stairwells, etc.).” This is something that caught my eye because I hadn’t really thought about how the construction would affect the Ben Franklin community. They are going to have a major change in their learning environment and the SLA community needs to be mindful about what they are giving up for a year.

Dr. Christina Borelli

I also had an interview with the principal of SLA, Chris Lehmann. Mr. Lehmann talked a lot about making sure students, parents, and teachers are taking opportunities given to them during this move. For example Mr. Lehmann said “ When we have these opportunities for students to interact with one another, to come in with an open mind, to come in excited, to come in and share our energy, ideas, and our excitement for the project with Ben Franklin.” This is something everyone should keep in mind because we are co-locating and there will be a lot of chances to get together and talk with each school as a whole. There are so many factors that are going into this move, Mr. Lehmann brought up a good point about Ben Franklin. He said “Recognizing that it’s hard for Ben Franklin to share resources and a facility as much as it for us to now move.”  SLA is moving into a new building, not the other way around. We need to be mindful about how Ben Franklin and how SLA are feeling. This is going to be new for everyone, and these two schools will have to adjust to make everything work and go smoothly. Mr. Lehmann concluded the interview by saying “What we share is far greater than what is different about us.” This statement is very true and although this will be a huge adjustment on some people we are all going to be a new family because of the move.

Chris Lehmann (Principal of Science Leadership Academy)

The last interview I am going to tell you about was with Christina Grant, she is superintendent of the Innovation Network and Opportunity Network, which means she supervises 35 different schools in Philadelphia. She has worked a lot in New York with co-located schools for some time of her life. During our interview she gave me some valuable information, like how Ben Franklin has a CTE program and what she hopes to happen with this move. While we were talking she said “ My biggest goal is to make sure you all both walk into a school and you’re like this is our new home and we’re going to figure it out.” This really shows how passionate she is about making this go well. A question I asked was “How do you think this move will impact the two distinct cultures of the two schools?” Her response was “ I think that you guys will both shape the culture of each other schools.” This really got me thinking about how each school is different but we are going to learn from each other in many ways. Christina then went on to say something that really ensured me and got me very excited about the new building, “ I don’t think you all will appreciate how amazing your school is going to look and the privilege it’s going to be to be in that school. I think it’s going to change your life at sla and dramatically change the lives of kids at Ben Franklin.” What she says hopefully makes everyone more excited about moving into a new building and also sharing one. This might be challenging at first but in the end it will be better for both schools.

Me interviewing Christina Grant

In conclusion this move is going to be a great thing for everyone! A lot of my concerns/questions were answered now that I have spoken to some people. I feel like the move will have less conflict then I originally thought, but it will still be challenging for both schools. I still don’t know what exactly is going to happen when the day comes when both schools are in the same building, I can only hope for the best. Now that I have gone deeper into this topic I feel a lot more calm and excited about actually moving and I hope that I made other people feel that way too. When we are finished with this project we are supposed to create and agent of change. This means that we have to take action and start something to help fix our problem. In my case there isn’t a problem yet, but to prevent any from happening I think I want to start a club between the two schools. This will students from both schools an opportunity to get to know each other so that when we move we aren’t complete strangers to one another.  

Ben Franklin High School

Annotated Bibliography


Talking to College Administrators About the 1st Amendment

In my first blog post, I outlined the problems and instances of suppression of speech on college campuses. Specifically, I wrote about the misconceptions of our 1st Amendment Rights as citizens of the United States of America and what speech is punishable by law. I also wrote about the Evergreen State College student who tormented Bret Weinstein for opting out of a day without white people on campus.

The New York Times and the Washington Post have similar ideas in their recent articles. The Washington Post article suggests that young people support free speech seemingly contrary to the story at Evergreen, but Evergreen can be used as a measure of the extreme, not the norm. The New York Times article cites a Gallup study for its evidence.  There were several polls that stated/confirmed what we already knew, and some that went against our previous knowledge from the first blog post. First off, college students think that political conservatives are the least able group to openly express their views (69%), the next least able group is Muslims (80%). We already knew that many conservatives are less able to share their views. 10% of students say violence is acceptable to stop people from hearing controversial speakers. Some new information I have gathered is based on who feels “uncomfortable” on campus because they heard something about their race or ethnicity. Black and Jewish students are most likely to feel that way (43% Black) and (38% Jewish).

Since the first blog post I have gathered new research on my own about free speech on college campuses. I had the pleasure of interviewing two advisors at Temple University, Seth Finck and Bradley Pearson. They both clarified their centrist political positions early on in the interview which aligned well with my own beliefs, which I believe was productive for the conversation. Bradley answered my question “What are your thoughts on students right to speech and what should be done on campus?” in an incredible, enlightening way. He said that: “I’ll say that, you know, from my own experience, as well as my own research on it, it is difficult to really have one, university-wide, clear cut policy on what constitutes free speech and what doesn’t.” He then went on to explain and go deep into the “cost of free speech”, which he calls a cliché, but nevertheless, is a real thing. He explains that the security cost of some of the events that are held on campus are astronomically high and are not financially beneficial for the college. I did not mention this perspective in my first post, so I am glad to have captured and recognized this new perspective. The interview added a new viewpoint from which I can look at this topic: the angle of the administrator.

For my Agent of Change, I am thinking about sending out flyers to SLA students, who will one day be college students, about their rights as students now and their rights as adults. I am also thinking about creating a quiz that students will take and will show their 1st Amendment Rights.


Annotated Bibliography



Homeless Shelters: Biased Unsurprisingly, Biased in Ways Unexpected

Earlier in the school year I researched homelessness and the quality of homeless shelters online sources. Although these countless articles, anecdotes, reviews, and more were beyond helpful as a starting point, they yielded only a limited point of view into the life of someone staying in a homeless shelter. The conclusion I came to after conducting this research was that, as one would expect,  shelters are in pretty bad condition. An extremely easy way to see this would be, surprisingly, through Google Reviews. This was great for my research since it showed first hand experiences, both good and bad from a variety of people and locations. With this in mind I decided to set up an online survey for those who have stayed in a homeless shelter to fill out. This would let me see for myself whether the data I had previously collected was true.

One of my main focus points is trying to understand if race or sexual/gender identity played a part in the mistreatment of the people staying in shelters. This was, coincidentally, one of the greyest areas in any of the articles I read. One thing I commonly found while sifting through reviews were claims that white men were commonly being mistreated the most. I found this to be a bit… strange because of, well, literally everywhere else white men have privilege. So to combat the unclarity of this issue I just asked homeless people myself. For my original research I made a survey on google forms about homeless shelters and race/gender dynamics in said shelters.

I posted this survey to three subreddits. r/Philadelphia, the Philadelphia subreddit, r/Homeless whose name is self explanatory, and r/SampleSize, which is a community made for taking surveys and collecting poll data. Although I submitted to all three of these and received a mere 12 responses out of the 377 views I got some pretty grounding data. Among the 12 responses homeless shelters are biased against LGBT+ folks, even going as far as to “out” them to others staying in the shelters. Aside from that, the allegations of biases against white men were true (at least so far as to the responses I collected). Multiple of the survey takers stated that since there were few white men they were often targeted for theft (a common problem in shelters) and were less likely to have their belongings returned in a theft. I have included some of the responses in the picture below. (Here) is a link to the survey and it’s entire responses

shelter results
shelter results

Critical Thinking


On my first Y&TW project SLATE Post which you can find here. I talked about how sweatshop workers, work under horrible conditions, work long tiring hours and get paid very little for their labor. There was a article I read about a little girl named Meem who works at a Bangladesh sweatshop and she got to tell the world her story and how she got to where she is now.  In my last post I also talked about where the word sweatshops come from and where sweatshops originated from. You can also find shops that support sweatshops/child labor that most people today buy items from. Are you shopping for sweatshop?

In my last SLATE Post I added a picture where you get to see how much sweatshop workers around the world make hourly. After seeing how much sweatshop workers  make over the world I started wondering what were people from these countries personal savings? I decided to look at Bangladesh and Vietnam. I picked these two countries because they’re both pay the least amount of money to their workers compared to other countries.  

I used this website to find out the average personal savings for someone who lives in Bangladesh.  Turns out the average personal savings are $52.20, but the sweatshop workers in Bangladesh make $0.13 an hour and don’t really have the opportunity to save their money.  The website I used for Vietnam’s average savings was this one.  The average personal savings in Vietnam is $4.35 and sweatshop workers get paid $0.26 an hour.  Though Vietnam's personal savings is lower than Bangladesh, I would say the both countries sweatshop workers are in the same potion were since they get paid very little they both don’t have the opportunity to save their money.

I wanted to know how my peers felt about sweatshops and where do students from the United States knowledge on sweatshop is. How I went about this is making a survey on google forms and asking the following questions; Which stores do you shop in for clothes? Check all that apply,Look at the tags on the clothing you have on right now write down below the country where each piece of clothing was made, In your own words, how would you define a sweatshop?, Do you think there are sweatshops in the USA?,  Would you buy brand goods if you knew they were made in sweatshops?, If you had the power, would you shut down all the sweatshops in the world?

What I learned about from all my responses is that most people are educated on the subject of sweatshops.  I was actually surprised because when I would bring it up in class or when I learned about it last year in my middle school most to all people didn’t have a clue about sweatshops.  However what really caught my attention was the question responses.  Question; If you had the power, would you shut down all the sweatshops in the world? I thought many people would have just “Yes of course they are awful!” etc. But that wasn’t the case.  These are a few of the responses that caught my eye; “I don't really know what I would do because many people who already can barely support themselves would lose their jobs.”, “I would shut down all the sweatshops but then that would mean that we would have to find another way to make fast clothing with higher pay and better working conditions. Which might seem easy but won't be at all.” and “Ehh... maybe, but the economy as I know it would probably collapse. Ethically it should be done, but it has to be a slow process.” I loved how many of the people in my responses were thinking outside the box.  

I think the point where I am now is what will I do you I can inform other about this topic?  And that brings me to my Agent Of Change. I think what I want to do is have a protest near the liberty place mall area because there are a lot of clothing stores there that have sweatshops and we can help people know what they’re truly supporting. I thought this because from my responses it smells like people have general idea about sweatshops but they know know how to go about the problem and I want to be the one to push the conversion out to the public.

Annotated Bibliography



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interview with a therapist

In my first blog post, I talked about how suicide is the second leading cause of death in teens and adults. I explained how the problem was that people ignore the problem and don’t like to bring attention to it. After I posted that blog, I did an interview with a therapist that specializes in teens and young adults. In this interview I learned more about what may cause these thoughts, why these thoughts may occur, and also some coping mechanisms and ways you can help people who may be considering suicide. Along with an interview with her, I also interviewed a teen who has tried to commit suicide before. With this interview we talked about the thoughts that may have been going through her head and why she might have felt that way. Both of which have helped confirm my beliefs and research from my first post. I have also found new website sources on suicide awareness to make sure all of my information and facts were on point. My first source includes many different ways that you can make a difference in your own neighborhood.  My next source explains how to help someone who is suicidal. This source also shows facts and myths about suicidal people. In my interview with the therapist, it helped me confirm that teens and adults feel alone in the world and don’t feel like their being heard enough. Also, I was able to understand more about what people could od do cope with thoughts of suicide. I also had an  interview with a teen girl  who has tried to commit suicide before. The interview helped me understand the thought process of the people that this affects. My opinion on this topic has stayed the same which is that suicidal people often feel alone and detached from everyone else and it's a subject that needs to have more recognition instead of ignoring it. I still have some questions on this subject in particular. My first question is why some parents will brush off their kids problems so easily. I have had friends talk about how commiting suicide is selfish and how suicidal kids or kids with depression are selfish. They talk about how kids don’t deserve to have depression or feel that way. My question is why. Why is it that parents and adults will say that a kid can’t feel sad or depressed because there are people who are worse off than them. Even in my two interviews, Especially with the girl, it was mentioned how easily some people would brush off the problems of their kids feelings. I would like to know the reason some people do this and the thought process. In my agent of change project, I am still uncertain of what I would like to do however, I was thinking about starting a social media campaign about suicide awareness to spread information about depression, suicide, and other mental illnesses. In conclusion, I believe that I, along with many other people, can make a difference in the small steps we take now.


Social Decline continued....///Vincent Cammisa

Social Decline Continued



In my previous blog post I gave a brief description of my topic, the negative effects on social media. These effects vary from sleep, depression, and lack of communication skills. We also talked about the percentages of households that contain handheld devices, along with a prediction in the future of what the year 2020 will look like. I will go on into a little more details , listing and informing you, the reader, more negative effects of participating in social media.


So far we have talked about three negative effects caused by social media, Next I have another effect of social media, and it is kind of crazy how many non benefiting affects that I can find form the internet. So, the next one is the addiction aspect, and the time consumption, how it can eat up the time out of your daily life.


Doing some research on the topic I found some repeating patterns. Various ones showed up on different sites, one not loving technology so much, but what they really want to access is done through technology. What is one thing that requires a phone? That thing is communication with friends, and how they need to keep up with the “latest news”. One thing to notice is that with the addiction, it ties into the communication situation we discussed as said in a washington post “teens spend so much interacting with each other on social networks and phones that they are growing less comfortable with in-person interactions and not developing essential social skills.”  and this just proves my previous claims.


Adults are usually on there phones frequently, but they have a farther variety of reasons why to be on their phones as much as they are. Teens however are getting to the point where there phone time consumption is fit for an adult.


Observe image below


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In this image they are showing how withing the four year span of 2004-2008 that the time teens are on there phones now imagine 10 years later in 2018 and see who is on their phones more.


The next thing on the list that I am going to mention is something more generally about female teenagers. How social media has a huge influence on their self-image. Girls are constantly are self conscious even if they do not admit, I can say that guys are also affected by it, but I think that girls go to the father extreme of finding the level of satisfaction, or just to satisfy other individuals.


Being a student that attended three different school, each one consisting of both genders. During those years consistently, I’ve observed and would say 75% of the students are drained and focused into there self image, and social media just boost it to another level. A short passage from cnn states… it's not a law that you have to post a selfie before, during, and after every activity. But for kids, it's pretty much mandatory.  The resulting likes, thumbs-ups, and other ratings all get tallied, both in the stark arithmetic of the Internet and in kids' own minds. For some -- especially girls -- what starts as a fun way to document and share experiences can turn into an obsession about approval that can wreak havoc on self-image.”. Imagine a world without social media? Would you be better and healthier human being? Maybe you would get a more healthy amount of Sleep, are you obsessed? Those questions that I just asked were put to the test.


For the past month I have been thinking about what do do for my original research I figured why don’t ask our generation, the teens. So it started as interviewing teens, in person, for a quick five minutes. The process was smooth but I wasn't getting the information that I needed and I needed some insight where the person answering wasn't feeling invaded and was comfortable answering. So that is when i decided that I was going to conduct a survey. Answers varying from exactly proving my points to not so much. Considering both I cae to a conclusion, but first let's look at the results to  my survey.


Screenshot 2018-03-17 at 8.48.21 PM
Screenshot 2018-03-17 at 8.48.21 PM

Looking at this chart and with the results I can confidently say that the majority of the people who answered to the survey would be a better or a more improved version of themselves without social media. I can not say if they would be happier though.


In the first post we talked about the effects social media has one an individuals and one of those is the mass amounts of sleep lost to social media.


Screenshot 2018-03-17 at 8.55.58 PM
Screenshot 2018-03-17 at 8.55.58 PM

Going into this question I knew that sleep was something that was being taken over by social media or even Netflix( let's not get off topic) but at this point I think you get the point for this one Let us look at one last one.


The last one I will be looking at with you is how much time is put into your social media/cyber life. From how much I participate and noticing with my friends with how much they use it I can say that we are pretty consumed. One answer states ”I've become less attentive. Sometimes I go on it in the middle of class or something” Some though say that social media doesn't really bother them.. Let us take a look.


Screenshot 2018-03-17 at 9.22.37 PM
Screenshot 2018-03-17 at 9.22.37 PM

Some mixed opinions  but, with these varied answers it helps me come to a conclusion.

So my conclusion is a little bit of opinion and facts because I believe a lot of people can, and do experience negative affect, but there are some people who either can ignore the decent amount of bad or they just are lying. Anyways. This is a successful experience and I think myself have learned a lot. I am still curious about why people are so engaged into social media I’m into it a lot but I somewhat still don't have an idea why I am involved with it  so much. After all of the work I have done on this I still am not 100% sure about my Agent of Change but I wanna start small. People need to be aware before anything can be preached.



Anne Otated  and Biblee Ography