Vegetarian Antipasto (Serves 6 entree salads)

Ingredients for Salad:

1 bag romaine lettuce

1 bag spring mix

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1½ cups cucumber, peeled and chopped

1 cup red onions, chopped

1 red pepper, seeded and chopped

12 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

½ cup artichoke hearts, packed in water, drained, rinsed and quartered

Dressing:

½ cup Light Balsamic Vinaigrette (optional)

Topping:

6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese -1 tbsp. per salad (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, add the lettuces.  Next, add all the remaining salad ingredients. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

2. When ready to serve, add the dressing and toss well.  Divide salad on each plate.  Top each salad with 1 tablespoon cheese.

This vegetarian antipasto is the healthiest meal that you can find in an Italian and Irish family that likes their meats, cheeses, and breads. Normally, my mom will make this as a side salad for a meal but she told me that it can be served as an entree for dinner. For its nutritional content, the meal totals to about 236 calories per serving (including the cheese and dressing) and each serving consists of about to cups of the salad which is very filling. There is about 10 grams of fat which is not a lot of fat from a dinner meal since you are supposed to have 44 to 78 grams of fat per day in your diet. However if you eat too many salads, you will most likely become constipated since leafy green vegetables like lettuce are high in insoluble fiber.

Most of the ingredients in this recipe are not processed or could be found in a not processed form. For example, the recipe calls for bagged romaine lettuce and spring mix which means that there was a small amount of processing that the food went through. The person making this dish could always use normal lettuce instead of bagged lettuce. Other than these items that could be found non-processed the only processed ingredients are the cheese, vinaigrette, and the canned garbanzo beans. Most of the ingredients for this recipe are not processed foods.

Depending on whether you buy these items organic or nonorganic is a factor for the price of this meal. Also this dish includes many ingredients, especially vegetables when bought out of season can be expensive. Depending on the time of year and the preference of the customer, this meal could be more expensive than some dinners. Changes can be made to this recipe to make it more affordable for all incomes and it is still less expensive than buying fast food for dinner.

​My overall goal for each piece of artwork was to challenge my ideas by not using the first the thought that comes to mind. Instead of my normal black, grey, and white color scheme, I wanted to use much more color and vibrancy in my pieces. I also wanted to include a feminist and peaceful mood for my pieces.

My first piece was my collage that is made with colored pencils, sharpies, and magazine clippings of flowers. I chose to draw a woman with flowers for hair, because I wanted to represent a woman's thoughts that bloom from her mind to create something beautiful and full of life.

For my fabric drawing, I chose to sketch a dress with a shaw in pencil. I wanted to include many folds and focus on shading to make the drawing have a three dimensional and realistic look. I used a dress to include a feminine element instead of just drawing a random piece of fabric.

As for my edited photo, I took a picture of my favorite ornament on my Christmas tree. I thought that it would make a nice photo, because of the glass, the shape of the ornament, the designs on the ornament, and the lights under the ornament. I wanted to use a black and white filter to try to accentuate the light, highlight the birds and flower, and make the picture look peaceful and elegant.

But call her Shell.

She is from the red brick row home

On the top of the hill

In Roxborough,

The town of generations.

Her sanctuary from harsh reality.

She is from the accounting department

Where she does her boss’ job

And he takes all of the credit.

But she perseveres to take care me

And show me how hard being a working woman can be.

She is from the amalgamation of unheard voices

Who are silent for the sake of themselves

And their families.

Who see the injustice

But do not have the means to fight it.

Negative space is everything in a picture except the subject. It defines the subject so that it is the main focus of the design.

I found negative space in my cut out picture and in my stool drawing within the spaces in and around the subject. For the cut out piece I focused on the black and grey in the picture we were given. First, I cut out all of the parts of the picture of the house and traced them on one of the pieces of construction paper. Then I arrange the pieces that matched the black parts of the picture onto one half of my other piece of paper. Then, I arranged the remaining pieces that matched the grey parts on the second half of the full sheet of paper. The finished product was a picture of a house with the negative and positive space colors reversed on each side. Also, my technique for my stool drawing was that I shaded the entire paper and then erased the shapes of the subjects which were the table, stools, plant, and wire.  

It helps an artist to see in negative space so that it is simple for them to notice and portray the subject. When they recognize negative space, either they can sketch everything around it so that then they have a guide to make their subject. From that point the artist can pay attention to the details of the subject in order to finish the piece. They can also alter the proportions between negative and positive space to make the design look good. From there the artist can easily focus on details inside of the outline and finish the piece.

Negative space is useful in creating art, because it brings balance to the composition. When negative and positive space are unproportional in a picture, it looks wrong and unpleasing. Also, negative space is used to define a subject. Therefore, when there is not the right amount of negative space there is either too much of the subject or the subject becomes lost.

Hi everyone! My name is Gabrielle Cromley and you may have read my past two blog posts about Finding a Cure for Cancer if not, take a look! (Blog #1 & Blog #2) This is my final blog post for my You and the World project and it includes my Agent of Change portion. The Agent of Change part is how I tried to make a difference for my cause which is finding a cure for cancer.

There was recently an article on Liberty Voice titled “Cancer Cure on the Horizon?” that described a possible new treatment called CART treatment (chimeric antigen receptor T-cells)  that has been extremely successful in patients who were not responding to chemotherapy like Emma Whitehead and Doug Olson who said, “As far as I’m concerned, I’m cured. I don’t ever think about relapse. I don’t. It’s like all of a sudden you can breathe.” The treatment involves stripping white blood cells from the blood then using a modified version of the HIV virus to reset the white blood cells in order to make the white blood cells attack the cancer when they return to the bloodstream. CART treatment basically “genetically re-engineers a person’s immune system”. One of the major downfalls to this treatment is that it makes the patient’s immune system even more vulnerable for a while and they could possibly die in that span of time. It has a while to go, but the treatment is currently undergoing tests and development in order to make it safer and possibly compatible for more types of cancer.

Although the treatment has had a large success rate in its patients, I think that there is still a lot more that has to be done to improve the treatment so it is less harmful. Before it can be used on the market, it has to be a less risky procedure so that it can be as effective as possible. The treatment has also been successful in mostly forms of leukemia. It should also be tested and altered if needed so that it can be utilized for other forms of cancer. I also believe that the researchers working on CART should attempt to use a different virus than HIV just in case something goes wrong with the virus. Though CART treatment needs to be advanced more, this could possibly be another treatment option for cancer patients that could be more successful for them.                                                                                                        

In order to try to make a difference in the fight to conquer cancer, I participated in and donated to Yoga on the Steps with my classmate, Talya Laver. I took part by doing yoga for about an hour and a half with many breast cancer survivors and supporters. We also sang and ate breakfast together and talked about other events going on to support cancer and ways that we can all help. Yoga on the Steps is an event that was created by Living Beyond Breast Cancer which has been doing this activity on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum for 13 years. So far, Philadelphia has raised about $276,000 out of it’s $310,000 goal, and donations are still being made until June 30, 2014. If you would like to help find a cure for cancer by donating to Yoga on the Steps, click here.

Yoga on the Steps wristband

Yoga participants filling the art museum steps

Talya Laver and I in a yoga pose feeling victorious over cancer.

Participants filling the steps and sidewalk in poses

I may not have made a colossal change by myself, but when thousands or sometimes millions of people donate to an organization to aid in eradicating cancer, it makes a huge difference. If you think that your contribution doesn't make a change, you’re wrong because it takes as many people as possible to fight against varieties of a worldwide, destructive diseases like cancer. One donation can give a patient treatment or pay for needed supplies and testing for research. I have made a change by being part of this difficult battle instead of dismissing it. This project has made me realize that with passion, generosity, and perseverance this is a fight that we can win, but there needs to be support from as many people as possible. During my Agent of Change, I was witness to so many people that were similar to me in that this was such an emotional cause for them. So many people care about this fight and strive to win, we just need more dedication like this to put a stop to cancer.

Although I am proud of the work that I have accomplished for this project there were things I did not have a chance to do. I wish I had raised more money for the Yoga on the Steps by creating a team or having some type of fundraiser. I also wanted to be able to participate in other events that I was not able to like the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure and the Light the Night walk for Lymphoma and Leukemia. The You and the World project has made me realize that with passion, generosity, and perseverance this is a fight that we can win, but there needs to be support from as many people as possible. Also, there are many events that happen in spring that fund cancer research, and many people can only participate in about one or two of these activities since they do not have a lot money to spend at once. So, I think that more of these fundraisers should happen during other seasons in order to generate maximum support. Donations, participating in walks and other events, volunteering, and helping cancer patients are all simple things that we can do in order to fight cancer.

Cancer does not stand a chance against an entire country or even an entire world fighting as one. Why would anyone not want to witness the pain that cancer causes come to an end? Everyone who knows someone who has been diagnosed with, died from, or is a survivor of cancer needs to dedicate their efforts to these people, because they are the ones who truly know how brutal and degrading cancer is to a person and to society. We all owe it to those people to gain vengeance against the horrid cancers that infest this world. With that being said, we must stand up together and battle cancer in anyway possible and never give up until its end. Thank you for reading my blog posts!

Hi again! As you may have read in my first blog post, my name is Gabrielle Cromley and I am doing a project called You and the World for my English class at Science Leadership Academy. I chose to write about finding a cure for cancer and how the lack of government funding is preventing researchers from saving lives. Since my last post, I have looked into the emotional and financial burden that cancer brings upon people.

Cancer brings just as much if not more emotional pain than physical. It causes depression, anxiety, distress, and fear in the patients and their loved ones. Below is an excerpt from a pamphlet about how cancer affects your emotional health by the American Cancer Society. Click here to read more.

“In people with cancer, these feelings may be caused by many things, including changes in how they are able to fill family or work roles. A person with cancer might feel the loss of control over life events, and have to deal with changes in body image. They might feel grief at the losses and changes in their lives that cancer brings. They might fear death, suffering, pain, or all the unknown things that lie ahead. Family members and caregivers may have these feelings, too. They are often afraid of losing their loved one. They may also feel angry because someone they love has cancer, frustrated that they “can’t do enough,” or stressed because they have to do more at home.”

As for the financial effects of cancer, it does not only have an impact on patients and their families but on our entire nation”s economy. For patients, their medical bills depend on their method of treatment and the severity of their illness. Cancer is a very expensive illness to treat and research. Research is so expensive since there are so many types of cancer and there is a lot of needed equipment and supplies that go into it. This is also a global issue since, “More people (in the world) die from cancer every year around the world than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined,” as stated in The Global Burden of Cancer by the Livestrong Foundation. If we could globally fight cancer, we would probably be on the edge of finding a cure. This is not currently possible, because world peace does not seem to be achievable yet. Till then, we should fight against cancer as much as we can internationally by researching with other countries that we are at peace with.

As part of my own research, I created a survey which I sent throughout my school and posted all over my social networks. The point of my survey was to learn how much people are informed on this subject and what their opinions are about this issue. Also, adults and kids my age responded to this survey. The results of my survey revealed that people are not informed on how much the government funds to cancer research, the effects of medical malpractice, and that they only had pretty vague understandings of what cancer is. Most of the responses to the question, “What is your understanding of cancer?”, said that it is a deadly and terrible disease that is caused by abnormal cell growth and reproduction. They did not state the emotional, mental, physical, and financial toll that it has on its victims, their families, and our world as a whole. Also, 83% of the people who filled out the survey know someone who has been affected by cancer. The results from the question, “Do you think there is enough federal funding for cancer research,” were that 53% of the people did not know how much the government funds cancer research, 37% said that there should be more funding towards finding a cure, and only 3 people answered that there is enough funding. To view the rest of the results of my survey, click here.

Part of Survey Results

The outcome of my research supports my claim that people are uneducated on funding and the repercussions that cancer has on people. I also learned that people know little about infections within cancer patients, but that they are somewhat familiar of what medical malpractice is. The results indicate that many people care about this cause and they want to make a change, but the negligence of the government to fund toward this issue is restraining our potential. I learned that my topic is important to many people and that cancer is more common than it is thought to be. People are willing to support, but they are going to begin to give up if there isn’t a change in the governments priorities. Not even just cancer, scientific research itself should be more of a priority to United States and to the world, because science and technology is the gateway to the future.

There is already a lot of awareness about finding a cure for cancer, but there is not a lot of pressure on the government to put the people’s ideas into action. In order to bring the government’s attention to this subject there needs to be an effort by people everywhere to contact their representatives, join groups that support cancer/scientific research to take part in their activities, and stand up to make a difference instead of sitting back and waiting for others to take charge. There should also be more awareness to aiding cancer patients and their loved ones with the effects of cancer that I spoke about previously. Anybody can help by volunteering, donating to families suffering from the financial struggle or to hospitals that do not charge families for their medical needs like St. Jude’s Childrens Hospital. There needs to be a lot of people to fight to make these changes which is why we all must take a stand.

Even after my research, I still wonder about other people’s points of view. I want to know what doctors who are affected by funding and people who work for the government or are in Congress think. This would allow me to hear arguments that oppose and support this problem. I would also like to learn more about how research funding is spent.

For our You and the World project, each student must put their ideas into action so that they can make a change for their cause. This part of the project is called the Agent of Change. To make a change in cancer research, I am planning on creating my own team for the Race for the Cure Walk in Philadelphia. I will set a goal for my fundraising, get sponsors, and donate to finding a cure. This will also allow me to meet cancer survivors and interact with people who are also fighting for this cause. I hope to be able to fulfill this goal, but setting up a team requires a lot of support and hard work which I am willing to put forth.

Hello. My name is Gabrielle Cromley and I am a student at Science Leadership Academy. For my English class, we were asked to do a project called You and the World in which we were to write three blog posts about a subject that was important to us. We have to make a change in the world or the community to help benefit our cause.

I chose to write about finding a cure for cancer and how medical malpractice and lack of government funding is preventing researchers from reaching their full potential. This issue is meaningful to me because I lost my cousin to lymphoma cancer. He received a sepsis infection from the hospital and was never able to recover. Watching him suffer and holding his hand as he took his last dying breath made me realize that no one should ever have to go what he went through or die from the negligence of others. He was also my godfather and he has a special place in my heart so I want to do all I can to make sure that he receives vengeance against this illness. This is also an important issue to me because I want to become an oncologist one day and medical malpractice and cancer research would directly relate to this career.

Cancer is a disease that is caused by abnormal cell growth and reproduction rapidly. The cell’s DNA is damaged which causes the cell to not perform actions normally. There are many types of cancer that can attack parts of the body and spread throughout it. Cancer causes physical, mental, emotional, and financial suffering for patients and their loved ones. As stated by the World Health Organization, “It is the main cause of death worldwide. Deaths from cancer worldwide are expected to continually rise to an estimated 13.1 million deaths by 2030.” In the United States alone, cancer still causes a substantial amount of death, most of which should have never happened.

Amounts of new cancer cases and death

You may think a hospital is always the safest place for the sick, but this is not always true. Many hospital patients’ lives are prematurely ended due to infection which is caused by negligence, medical malpractice, and just plain carelessness. “More than 45,000 cancer patients die from hospital caused infections which also wastes $8.1 billion,” states Miriam Falco in “Hospital-acquired Infections Lead to Substantial Loss in Life and Wastes Billions” Since cancer patients have immune systems that are susceptible to disease and infection, more precautions and care needs to be taken in order for the patient to be safe. As described below by The National Center for Biotechnology information, patients who are unknowingly not responding to treatment are likely to receive an infection depending on their type of cancer.

The frequency of infection is related to the type of underlying neoplastic disease, and most   infections occur in patients who are no longer responding to the therapy of their neoplasm. About 80% of patients with acute leukemia, 75% of patients with lymphoma, and 50% of patients with multiple myeloma develop infection during the course of their disease, and infection is the proximate cause of death in a substantial fraction of these patients.

If doctors are unknowledgable to the fact that a patient is unresponsive, it could cost the patient his or her life. To learn more in depth data about infections in cancer patients click here.

A patient can also die or get worse due to chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Chemotherapy and radiation are harsh treatments that greatly affect the body, and for some people the effects can be deadly. Click here to read more about these therapies and their effects in “Death by Doctoring”.  We should not limit ourselves to to only two main types of treatment. Through research, we can possibly find a more efficient treatment and maybe a cure.

The last obstacle that has to be faced before a cure can be found is government funding towards cancer research and for that matter all types of scientific research. According to  The United States government only gives 2% of their budget to all scientific research. Chief medical officer, Richard L. Schilsky said, “This trend could potentially devastate future cancer research, just when we are on the verge of achieving major progress against cancer and identifying the next generation of effective cancer therapies.” Science is the door to the future that holds advancements and new opportunities that can help our world and we are going to disregard findings that could save lives. Also, cancer research is very expensive along with other forms of scientific research. Research cannot be conducted if there is no money to pay for what is needed. You cannot put a price on a life, which is why we as a country should do everything we can to help cancer patients out of their pain and suffering.

Graph of the United states budget

Bibliography