This is the last of the three blogs you can find the other  two here and here. When I start first started this project it was a suggestion from ms. Smith because she knew that i was an athlete and she thought that it  something with college was a thing I would be interesting. At first I didn’t want to do it, it wasn’t a topic that I found interesting but because my other topic was picked I did it. From this project I learned a lot from this it was something that was meaningful to me without me knowing it. From researching  about college athletes I learned about how  what a college athletes have to go through in order to pursue and education and do what they love.

When I started thinking about what I want to for  my agent of change I originally wanted to go  make an instagram account and interview college athletes and let them tell their story but because of complications with getting in contact with athletes this wasn’t going to work. Then the idea came to  me to have people wear college gear like hoodies, shirts, hats, etc. which was easy to do and post the hashtag #fortheathletes sadly the hashtag didn’t catch on but luckily I had people bring in college gear which was very helpful. This was very helpful because people that didn’t know about compensation for college athletes started to ask me about it and people started to be aware of it.  I started to notice my message was able to get out and reach more people. I notice more people wearing gear and knowing about the problem with college athletes.

For me compensation for college athletes was a real problem maybe not as big as homelessness or female rights but nevertheless it is a problem. For a college student money is something extremely important that is essential to live comfortable. Having to deal with the playing sports with is mentally and physically exhausting to do. To me someone that goes through all this just for education should not be worried about being able to perform with no energy  even though they earn money for their school.  I believe that NCAA should think more able there athletes just because this isn’t on the pro level doesn’t mean the athletes aren’t giving it their hearts, they deserve not to worry about Money.

When I gave out the survey I thought  people would  go more towards the popular opinion that  students athletes should not be payed. But from what I got from my survey I was wrong. Most people thought college athletes should be compensated for the money they earn for the NCAA and colleges. I think this happened because for students taking the survey they can understand why for the athletes with no steady source of income and still putting in the same work as professional athletes why compensation would be needed. Something I found surprising is the people that took the survey didn’t realized how big the NCAA is and and how much of the income comes from just the athletes.  Another thing I found interesting is that people though the athlete got at least 10% of what they make for the NCAA back in but this isn’t true the college student athletes that make 12 billion dollars for the NCAA make 0% back. To clarify the NCAA isn’t an evil organization that is hates the college athletes, the money goes to an assortment of other things but still for a major source of income to not get anything in return is not fair in any form.

As a student athlete myself people that don’t play sports may think that it is just you running around on a field for an hour  but it is something that is hard and takes lots of time and effort to get good at the sport. So for college athletes the work they do is triple what normal student athletes put in so I can understand what they have to go though and the importance of them getting something for all the blood, sweat, and tears they give to their schools. I want to get more people to take my survey so I can get more detailed responses but from what I read I think that the topic of student athletes getting compensated is a fight worth fighting and is something that needs to happen.

When I started brainstorming the cut out stamp I wanted it to focus on something related to the sport of track and field. I decided on a simple design of track shoes but these design did not work because I could not draw the shoes properly. After the different spikes and track shoes designs did not work, I decided to move on from the shoe idea and draw an actual track. This stamp symbolizes me because since track and field is a major part of my life I find that most people know me for running track. My current events are 100m, 200m, 400 x 100 and long jump so I spend hours every day practicing or competing.

My first design of the track field was originally an entire track field with the word "determination" in the center but due t how long the word is I also had to scrap that idea. Finally I simplified it to a singular ring with the word "track" arranged into a peak formation. The orange negative space serves as a contrast to the purple positive space. The lack of negative space in the letter "A" it what helps create the peak formation. My biggest challenge was cutting out the letters for the circular track. The razors that I used kept ripping the paper and was terrible at cutting the curves.

With a steady hand, I glued all of my pieces together. The ridges formed along the field represent my challenges and progressions in life. In summary the important aspects of my life are summed up in a simplistic stamp design.TRACK is life!