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Kankoue Folly Public Feed

Kankoue Folly Capstone

Posted by Kankoue Folly in CTE Senior Capstone · Kamal/Ugworji · Wed on Monday, May 10, 2021 at 8:28 pm

To be an engineer is to be committed to expressing yourself unapologetically. That is what I believe. Last year, I was worried about what I wanted my capstone to focus on. I was thinking everything engineering, traditional engineering. However, after some meaningful class discussions with Mr. Ugworji, I concluded the best capstone would be something I would do in my own free time.

So I decided to focus my capstone around Fashion. Something I knew very little about when it comes to production and its direct relation to engineering.

After intensive research, I came across Virgil Abloh, a Mechanical Engineer, Founder of Off-White, and Creative Director of Louis Vuitton. Virgil helped me understand how I can use engineering concepts to aid my clothing designs.

I quickly realized that Virgil specializes in Deconstruction, an aesthetic that sheds more spotlight on the materials that make up the final product. Deconstruction is very similar to reconstruction, the aesthetic I emulate, directly influenced by my favorite designer house Sacai.

So why?

Well, we need more engineers in Fashion. Clothes production is one of the leading causes of the climate crisis. To produce one T-Shirt, it takes 40 gallons of water. So during the early stages of my capstone, I decided to work with second-hand clothing. I, alongside my brother, started a collective that focuses on using old materials and creating something new. This leads to a reconstruction aesthetic and a less polluted environment. Although I faced many difficulties while finishing this capstone(such as breaking my sewing machine three times and deciding to just hand stitch), I persevered, and I am glad to say I made something I am proud of.

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KFolly + Capstone Annotatated Bibliograhy
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Tags: Siswick, west, #, Kay
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Advanced Essay #2: Immigrants and Modern Times

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 3 · Block · Y Band on Monday, January 13, 2020 at 11:34 am

Introduction: In this essay, I focused on the importance of understanding the connection between immigrants and the modern world. Throughout the process of writing this essay, I tried to make it engaging and informational to the reader so that they can leave knowing something new. This essay is a bit more heartly written because it personally relates to me and I thought that the bais aspect makes it more entertaining.

The idea that the story of immigrants is the story of modern times is often used in debates as a rebuttal when arguing against someone anti-immigration. The argument usually brings up the fact that the U.S was founded by immigrants who were seeking a better tomorrow. Despite this knowledge being present in our everyday society, our culture refuses to fully accept that the story of the immigrant is very similar to the story of the modern world. To understand how both stories relate to each other at all, we must first acknowledge that modern society has come a long way from what it was, even if we are not living in the best version of society, it is considerably better than what it used to be 50 or 100 years ago.

The immigrant person, just like society, is on a similar path. Immigrants seek a better future for themselves, however, this hopefulness for a better future is cut short by a misunderstanding on what a citizen believes the immigrant is truly seeking. In the U.S, many people believe that the agenda of immigrant people is to take jobs or live off the taxes of U.S citizens, this belief along with the assistance of others led to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Immigrants, much like the rest of the world, look forward to progress and prospering even if that means enduring temporary hardships and accepting a society that is in need of many improvements. While conducting some research on the refugee crisis I came across a picture. The picture was of a beach at dawn, the beach was clear and on the sand of the beach laid the body of a little boy, unconscious and slightly blue. Over the dead body of the boy stood an officer with a red vest looking longly at the washed-up body of the little boy. Situations like these are not uncommon in history.

Throughout history, we can see how people of different cultures are treated when they first arrive at a new home. When the Italians, Irish, Jews, and Polish first came to the U.S they faced prejudice and discrimination, however, a century and a half later these groups have somewhat become the backbone of this country. The 116th class of congress, according to the Pew Research Center, is 13 percent composed of immigrants or children of immigrants parents. Given the basic understanding of immigration and how it relates to history and current systems, it must be concluded that the immigration story and the story of modern times are the same. Both stories are fixated on progress; the hope of a better tomorrow. The refugee crisis due to conflict in the middle east is the latest great form of history repeating itself. When the holocaust was happening the U.S among other nations refused to take in refugees, the same celebration of isolationism is occurring only this time it’s meant for the Muslim refugees. In our time in class we read a magical realism novel, Exit West, that focuses on the refugee crisis and the effect it has on those enduring it, I gathered a couple of quotes that somewhat further help us understand the possible emotional and mental headspace of an immigrant or refugee person. The first quote is a short excerpt from Exit West:

“ It was an easy promise to make because she had at that time no thoughts of leaving Saeed, but it was also a difficult one because in making it she felt she was abandoning the old man, and even if he did have his siblings and his cousins, and might now go live with them or have them come live with him, they could not protect him as Saeed and Nadia could, and so by making the promise he demanded she make, she was in a sense killing him, but that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind.”

This quote gives us an understanding as to what is happening in the mind of a migrant who is seeking a better future for themself. Filled with the deep-aching feeling of neglecting something dear to you, a close companion of guilt. When Nadia and Saeed flee from their home, they leave behind everything they knew, loved and owned. The author does a great job of illustrating this by making Nadia and Saeed frightened hopefuls as they arrive in a new home filled with trials of great magnitude. This is an example of the mental state of a migrant individual, messy and hopeful. As a world filled with democratic institutions, we must start to be more empathetic towards people of different backgrounds. With empathy comes understanding and with understanding comes results. We are trained in this modern society to look for issues and criticize, and rarely ever create change. To stop history from repeating itself and to fulfill our duty as humans we must first learn to be empathetic for those who are not like us. To accept and create change and the first step would be to accept that progress is the greatest connection between the story of the immigrant and the modern world. The will to never stop improving.

Work Cited:

Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Penguin Random House, 2017.

Smith, Helena. “Shocking Images of Drowned Syrian Boy Show Tragic Plight of Refugees.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Sept. 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/shocking-image-of-drowned-syrian-boy-shows-tragic-plight-of-refugees.

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Coming to America is NOT a movie

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 3 · Block · Y Band on Friday, September 20, 2019 at 12:12 pm

Introduction:

When I first started writing this essay, I had to evaluate certain portions of my life and see how they affect me in the present because I had a goal to write about something that I believe affect me in the present. So at first that I would write about music and how it comforts me, however, I decided to write briefly about my life as an African immigrant because this is something that is in my being, something that I will always have. When I finished my essay, I was really proud about my ability to emulate heavy emotions by only using words. Looking ahead into the future I hope that I am able to be more descriptive and egaging in my essays.

Essay:

Coming to America isn’t a movie, it’s a dream. For as long as I could remember all I ever wanted to do was to come to America, meet my parents, go to school, and become rich. Most of these dreams became a reality at the age of six. I was born in Lome, Togo, so when I was three months old, my parents, hoping for a better life, moved to America, leaving my sister and me to be raised by my grandmother until they settled down. My sister, five years my superior, vowed to protect me as my parents boarded a plane to the U.S.

So while I was growing up in Togo, I was always told stories about how one day I would come to America and finally meet my parents and become rich, due to my opportunity. After six years of living with my grandmother and cousins, one night my mother finally came to bring us to the U.S. I was sleeping alongside my sister and cousin when we woke in a panic to the frightening sounds of screaming and jumping. Benighted of the situation, I quickly concluded that the noises were coming from a witch, when in reality, it was my eager mother, ready to greet her children. Everything from that point on moved so fast and before I knew it, I was in America.

The days leading up to my first day of school in the U.S were exciting and filled with restlessness. I would go to my room and try to practice the English I had learned from my younger brother and Nick Jr. I would every so often open up my ‘Cars’ backpack to make sure I had everything I needed for the first day.

Soon enough it was the first day of school and there I was in a room filled with one hundred other kids, sitting on the gym floor waiting for my name to be called. I sat on the cool gym floor just like every other kid, I looked like every other kid in my uniform, I waited like every other kid, but I was unable to comprehend anything that was going on. I tried my best to recall the English that Nick Jr and my younger brother had taught me. The only thing that could come into mind was ‘Good Morning.’ I was sitting on the cool gym floor with a blank look on my face and decided that as soon as I hear “KANKOUE FOLLY,” I would jump up and will enjoy the perfect first day of school.

I sat there a little longer, the gym was getting quieter as parents and students left after exchanging final goodbyes. The gym lost its fire. It became a vacuum of distress and nervousness. A vacuum filled with fidgeting six-year-olds and irritated adults, suddenly I hear ‘Is there a Keekaw Folly in here?’ followed by ‘Keekoe, or is it Koukoon?’ I slowly got up, disappointed that pronouncing my name in an American school sounded like the mating calls of an exotic bird, I dragged my feet as I followed the name butchering woman to my classroom. Over a few years, I had learned English and tried to destroy all evidence of my cultural differences. I was now attending middle school and every so often someone would ask me about my accent, to which I would respond with a story about how I was born in Africa, in a small west African country named Togo. This would usually lead to the person, asking me some unwelcomed questions. “Have you seen a giraffe?” or “Did you live in a tribe?”

The drastic change in culture from when I moved from Africa to America was hard at first because I was unsure as to how I was going to fit in with the other students, despite looking like most of them. Deciding that the best way for me to fit in was to strip myself of my culture, I attempted to do so. I blamed the ignorance of my peers as the cause as to why I was concealing a portion of my identity, when in actuality hiding my culture allowed ignorance to persist, thus isolating me as the most ignorant person in the room. Culture and identity make people who they are, and everyone influences each other, so, your identity should be a reflection of who you are, not who the world says you have to be. In short, normality should never be favored ahead of uniqueness, the world will always have an impact on you as a person, and you will always have an impact on the world by just being you.

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Progression Is Made By The Working Class

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Monday, March 25, 2019 at 10:27 pm

Kankoue Folly

Ms. Pahomov

English 2

26 March 2019

“ Progression Due To Workers”


In the Lord Of The Flies, written by William Golding, the author explores the development of individuals when placed in a society without any laws to govern them. In the novel, the stranded individuals are a group of boys after their plane crashes. After Golding introduces the first two characters, Ralph and Piggy, Ralph finds a conch, and Piggy advises him that it can be used like a trumpet and explains how. Once Ralph blows the conch, the sound calls the rest of the boys scattered around the island to gather. From this moment the conch was established as an item that gave an individual power. Soon enough, the boys established a society, only for it to collapse in a short time. The society, as we would soon learn, was only sustained by a few working individuals, whom everyone benefited from. This relates to the general situation of our current society, in which, the individuals who make progress from labor are ignored by those who benefit from it.


   

   The idea that progress is only sustained by workers who in turn are ignored by the individuals who benefit from the incentives of progress goes beyond the novel. This could even be applied to the United States where there is a billionaire president and most of the Supreme Court Justices and Governors are millionaires in their own rights, as stated by Vox. Given the duty to represent all Americans and their values, these government officials actually only represent 6 percent of Americans. 6 percent of Americans who are millionaires or more. With the nation’s population consisting of 52 percent of people who are workers, this raises forth the question: why does the minority rule the majority? When investigated through a modern lens, it becomes clear that the minority elite prioritizes their needs over the needs of the community as a whole, as suggested by the economist. This creates the social imbalance in which the progressors work for the minority, without any consequence for both parties.



   In the novel, the idea that society’s progressors are ignored by the elite is metaphorically represented when Piggy, the established progressive, is stripped away of his right to use the conch as a medium for his voice and ideas to be heard. “I’ve got the conch Piggy said in a hurt voice, I’ve got the right to speak,”(44). Piggy’s freedom to speak and express ideas has been stripped away by those who are on top of society, notably Jack and Ralph. Despite Piggy’s assistance in creating a society and his knowledge and understanding their current circumstances, he is stripped of his voice, because it benefits the elite of Golding’s society to rule from the fear and work of their peers. This is much like how the rich elite of our society benefits from the work of the working class.



   As continued in the novel by Golding, a social imbalance begins to occur, in which tension starts to take place between the working class and the nonpareil class. Ralph, the newly established working class, has a disagreement with Jack, leader of the hunters, the established elite class, Golding starts: “ The rest of the hunters came back hours ago and. They’ve been swimming” Golding continues to write: “ we want meat ” (51). This moment of disagreement and tension further exposes the idea of how the established elite, will prioritize their needs over the necessities of the majority, even if it is deemed less important. 


    The nonpareil prioritizing their wants over the necessities of the working majority is still prevalent in today’s society, notably when it comes down to taxation. Over the course of many years, the working class has been asking for tax cuts, however, these wishes were never granted for the working class. Now under the Trump administration, these cuts were made possible for the upper class and mega-corporations. Trump, a billionaire in his seventies, argues that these tax cuts will “bring jobs back to America”. These jobs coming back to America is seen as the necessity of the working class, when in fact this reform, will only serve as another source of income for the upper class. Yet another example of the elite prioritize their wants over the needs of the working people.


The exploitation of the working class to form a source of income for the upper class is a large issue in society, however, the problem goes beyond this point. The elite also exploits the working class to further stabilize their position in society, this, as stated by Stuart Jeffries of The Guardian: “The bourgeoisie has learned to make the exploited pay for its crisis and to use them to disarm its adversaries.”  When applied to today’s society, a clear example of this would be mega-corporations such as Apple and Nike using the labor of underpaid workers to make quality products to compete or distance themselves from their competitors. As suggested by the Huffington Post.


The bourgeoisie exploiting for their own betterment can also be applied to the Lord of The Flies, in which Jack uses the notion of bravery to exploit the mind of the boys to help him get into a position of power. With this newly established control over the boys, Jack uses it to bring havoc upon his adversaries, Ralph and Piggy. “ We’ll hunt, I’m going to be chief…..I say this. We aren’t going to bother about the beast… We’re going to forget about the beast !” (Golding, 133). This act of bravery made by Jack gets establishes him as the leader of the boys, Jack distances himself from his adversaries as fearless.


The exploitation of the working class for the betterment of the social elites, is nothing surprising,  especially when analyzed and explored through Golding’s Lord of The Flies and further examined through modern eyes. Ideally, we can see how the social elite and mega corporations use working people as a means to augment their social impact or financial status, as exemplified by Nike, Apple, and the president himself. The imbalance of social power and status that braces civilization today is a topic of concern. It is imperative that we create a society in which the social elite do not rule and benefit from the progression made by the working class because a society ruled by the elite, is for the elite.







  Sources Cited


Carnes, Nicholas. “Working-Class People Are Underrepresented in Politics. The Problem Isn't Voters.” Vox, Vox, 24 Oct. 2018,    

www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/24/18009856/working-class-income-inequality-randy-bryce-alexandria-ocasio-cortez.

Gibson, C. Robert. “How the iPhone Helps Perpetuate Modern-Day Slavery.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 10 Nov. 2014,

www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-gibson/how-the-iphone_b_5800262.html.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin Books, 2006

“Government of the Rich, by the Rich, for the Rich.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 17 Feb. 2011,

www.economist.com/free-exchange/2011/02/17/government-of-the-rich-by-the-rich-for-the-rich

Jeffries, Stuart. “Why Marxism Is on the Rise Again.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media,                                                                                                                4 July 2012,

www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/04/the-return-of-marxism.


Seabrook, Jeremy. “The New Class Struggle.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 7 July 2006,

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jul/07/themakingofthenewbritish.

Vigo, Julian. “Modern Times And The Crisis Of Labor.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 Dec. 2018,

www.forbes.com/sites/julianvigo/2018/12/19/modern-times-and-the-crisis-of-labor/#5f61f21b50ca.


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Failure Is Not An Option

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Friday, November 9, 2018 at 12:04 am
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Failure was never an option, and it never will be, that is something that my parents have taught me from such a young age. I was lectured daily about any mistake that I made, I was always the best at school, no-one was smarter than me, I was the best in all my classes, I’m not being arrogant, no, its really true, I’m just better than most people, my intellect exceeds those of my peers. This is something that I will always fall back on when anything gets difficult, I can always count on my brain to get me out of whatever situation I was in. That is until I got this letter. I opened it so rapidly thinking ‘another success’ just like all the other successes that so frequently occurred in my life. Now here I am in my living room, standing with this letter of denial to my dream school, surrounded by this dreadful feeling, surrounded by failure. What is happening? I can’t believe it, I failed, I could feel the paper crumbling under my hand. Tears of shame and failure now roll down my cheeks so rapidly, rolling down a face that embodied disappointment. What am I going to do? The application deadline already passed, I need another school, I need to find something quick! This is all my counselor's fault, she probably forgot to send the letter of recommendation, I hate her so much! All she does is sit in that office all day and talk to the kids with no future! I have a future, why can’t she help me succeed, why ?!! Y’know maybe it wasn’t her, I think it was my goddamn Chem teacher, if she had given me an A first quarter freshman year, my GPA would be higher, I hate her so much, they all want to see me fail just because they’re failing at life. It wasn’t her, she didn’t cause this, it was my family, they taught me failure is never an option but they couldn’t stand to see me winning they couldn’t embrace the idea that I am better and will always be better than them, always sending me to do some damn chores, how are chores going to help me in life? Am I growing up to becoming a goddamn dishwasher? No, it’s none of their faults, they have no effect on what occurs at the end of the day, at the end of the day it's me who decides what happens in my life. They didn’t do this to me, I did it to myself, I am the reason why I can’t go to my dream school, I’m the one who decided to apply to only one school, I’m the one who’s too arrogant, too dim-witted to see that he was only negatively affecting himself, I failed myself, no-one else. What am I going to do? What will my friends think of me, not getting into the top school? what will parents say? How will they react, how am I going to explain to them that I… failed, how am I going to tell them that this was my only choice, what will I do? Y’know, I don’t even care anymore, whatever happens, happens, all I can do is wait to apply to community college, I guess I have to go there for some time before I can do anything, I need to learn that not everything is about me, I need to make a difference in myself before I can truly move on, so from now on I’ll be humble. I need to clean this up before the dimwits arrive.


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Author Emulation: Kankoue Folly

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 9:29 pm
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The Pain Microaggressions Cause

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 2 · Pahomov/Rhymer · E Band on Friday, September 21, 2018 at 3:01 pm

Kankoue D. Folly

Ms.Pahomov

English 2

18 September 2018

                                                  The Pain Microaggressions Cause

It really started two summer ago, racial profiling that is. It began once I started to grow taller and taller. First, it was the unintentional staring and the pulling back of purses that occured on the bus and public areas. At first I didn’t care, however things start to get annoying over the course of time. I thought it would go away, I thought I would soon be safe from the stereotypes that come with the color of my skin, this never happened it never got better if anything it worsened. I eventually got used to this daily mockery is what I considered it.

“Goodbye.” I said to my parents before I exit the house.

“Have a good day.” My mother answered back with a heavy accent.

It was a chilly morning so I put on my hood as soon as I got out of the house, put on my headphones and started walking to the bus stop. When I  finally reached the bus stop there was no one there except for a lady with a handbag and cigarette between her fingers. I walked past her and stood behind the bus stop, mostly to avoid the smell of the burning cigarette.  As soon as she saw me I could see the fear she had instilled in her, she held her bag closer to her, I ignored this.

“She’s just worried about her belongings, it's normal” I thought to myself. I took out my phone in an attempt to make things less awkward. Then,I started to get anxious,

“Whats taking the bus so long?” I started thinking to myself. The bus seemed to be nowhere near us so there I stood with this lady that would look back at me every fifteen seconds to make sure I wasn’t going to rob her. The bus eventually came and when I got on I sat all the way in the back, to avoid making any more people second guess their safety because of my color and size. The bus picked up more and more people at every stop, then we eventually reached the transportation center. I walked down the stairs and went into the terminal and there I waited for the broad street line southbound express to arrive. The terminal was pretty packed I could tell that the train would be packed as soon as it arrived, I shook my head in discontent.

“Doors are opening ” Said the robotic voice as when the train arrived and started opening its doors. I entered the train and unsurprisingly it was packed. I made my way over to the closest empty seat and unfortunately for  me it was an older civilian. This resulted in the usual response of gripping the bag and facing the window to avoid eye contact. I sat there and pretended not to care or notice, but the longer this went on, and the harder I tried, the  angrier I got. It wasn’t normal anger, rather it consisted mostly of confusion, I was angry about how I was being treated and I had no idea as to why I was being treated so.

“Why do you clench your bag?” I thought to myself. As the train stopped in Race-Vine, I thought about asking the lady the question, however I decided it was not worth my time. I got  off at the next stop and took off my hoodie. I took off my hoodie as if it was going to make any difference. As I was walking it came to the conclusion that people will always judge me based on the color of my skin, no matter how hard they try. This made me understand what I was going to have to endure everyday for possibly the rest of my life. Something not only unique to me but to every other black male out there. It made me think about how I was a lucky one, the fact that I haven’t been shot, or killed like some black males my age. I was lucky that I was alive.  Now that I look back on certain incidents, I do not blame people for what they do, rather, I blame their surroundings, for people are a product of their surroundings. People do not just act towards me the way they do because I am black rather it is because of the things I, a black male, is portrayed as in society. To this day, I still undergo racial profiling on a day to day basis. Everytime I see that my presence causes the squeezing of belongings, I too squeeze my eyes shut, and I think of a better tomorrow.


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Printing Press (kfolly)

Posted by Kankoue Folly in Art - Freshman · Hull · e1 Band on Thursday, May 31, 2018 at 1:54 pm

My element is Bromine and the atomic number is 87. Bromine is known as one of the useful elements for fires. Bromine is liquid but is a strong retardant which makes it so useful.It is toxic. Bromine is used in many areas such as agricultural chemicals, dyestuffs, insecticides, pharmaceuticals and chemical intermediates. Some uses are being phased out for environmental reasons, but new uses continue to be found.Bromine compounds can be used as flame retardants.


Over the course of this project, I lost the foam paper two times and the third one I was kind of messed up from the scrubing thus resulting in the color distress in the print. I originally got the idea of fire for bromine because when I was researching Bromine I saw fire and learned it was a flame retardant. Overall I enjoyed the painting part of this project the most because it was fun and I interacted with some of my peers.


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Solving The Issue with Tuition

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 1 · Giknis · D Band on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 4:55 pm

Annotated Bibliography


In my first SLATE post, I addressed the importance of student loans and overwhelming debt and how this can be solved and how it affected students in the past, present and how it will affect their future. I also mentioned the importance of scholarships for students who come from families who struggle financially. In my second SLATE post, I went into more profundity about the information I got from MIT after my series of interviews that I conducted with Rachel. E Kay of MIT’s admission office. I mentioned in my post how MIT and many other schools were participating in this program called questbridge where they recruit students who want to pursue higher education. Then I talked about what role the U.S can play to help fix the issue of college tuition. Over the course of this third checkpoint, I recently found out about many organizations and groups that work with students in providing them a scholarship for their higher education and one of the most famous and most known organizations that I found out about is called the Gates Millinuim Scholars and it provides the amount of money needed for your education it pays for your fees and everything down to your dorm but it is highly selective and only 1000 students are chosen every year, this organization is funded by Bill and Milenda Gates with a 1.6 billion dollar donation. Another program I came across as I was doing research was an organization called the MDRC they work with young adults and help them pay for their higher education. On their website, they state: “The federal government provided over $33 billion in Pell Grants to nearly 9.5 million low- and middle-income students. Yet too many of these students do not succeed academically. More than a third of students who enroll in college do not earn a degree and are not enrolled in any postsecondary institution six years later; at community colleges, the fraction is close to half. Many factors hinder students from completing college, and financial concerns are a major component. Even if they receive federal and state financial aid, often it is not sufficient to meet their needs. Financial burdens often drive students to work too many hours while in school, forcing them to cut back on study time or drop classes; some students drop out altogether.” Overall I believe the efforts of these organizations/groups to help students with their college fees is great, however, there could be many more groups/organizations that can help young adults with the college/university process. I truly believe that these organizations should be and are examples of what we can do to help future generations succeed.

Talking about the Gates Millennium Scholars

Talking about the Gates Scholarships.



After all this research I had the idea that for my agent of change I would inform students on how to be eligible for scholarships and what programs they can apply for and take part in to increase their chances at getting a scholarship if their family is struggling fianically, I also mentioned in my Agent of change proposal that I would be interested in a letter campaign that will bet targeted at state and federal leaders and I also suggested that I was planning on writing a heart-felt letter to both Betsy DeVos and President Trump, but after some time I came along to accept the idea that this Agent of change would be kind of far-fetched so I will do this as a secondary Agent of change. I first came upon the idea of doing a presentation when I was trying to figure out how I could somehow directly affect the lives of students who might struggle financially and then I decided that there is a diverse group of students in this school so I could just inform them on this topic. During the course of this project I admit I struggled a little in the beginning because I didn’t really know what to choose as my Agent of Change until I decided to persue both of the ideas I had for my agent of change and after this I had an even harder time trying schedule a time to present and I didn’t get one until the last week and my presentation would be on the very day before the project was due, I also worked really hard on the presentation during my waiting time for a confermation as to when I could present my Agent of Change, but when I started presenting I could hear some members of the audience start talking and laughing not really paying attention, however, I feel as if I was effective in making a change because since I did inform students on the programs and ways that can/make them eligible for scholarships, I have basically reached the purpose of my project to inform students so they too, can have the same education as someone is able to pay full price for their’s. As I look back at my progress through this project I find it fascinating how not only did I learn about how organizations/groups are helping students who are struggling financially succeed, but I am also fascinated by how much I can help the world, over the course of my Agent of Change and the You and The World Project, in general, I learned that I can contribute to solving many of society’s issues even if all I do is inform a group of students. Despite struggling on the Agent of Change

Presenting to peers

Presenting to peers.



an aspect of this project I am content with knowing that I tried my best and I am more knowledgeable from the lessons I learned over the course of this course of this project. Even as this project comes to a disheartening conclusion. I want to inform anyone that may be reading this, that presenting to a group of 20 kids isn’t going to solve the problem with college tuition, but rather it will be all of working together and consistently with one goal and that is to make higher education affordable for everyone, that is when we truly have and will succeed in terminating an issue in our society.


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Solving The Issue With College Tuition

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 1 · Giknis · D Band on Friday, May 18, 2018 at 4:47 pm

Annotated Bibliography


In my first SLATE post, I addressed the importance of student loans and overwhelming debt and how this can be solved and how it affected students in the past, present and how it will affect their future. I also mentioned the importance of scholarships for students who come from families who struggle financially. In my second SLATE post, I went into more profundity about the information I got from MIT after my series of interviews that I conducted with Rachel. E Kay of MIT’s admission office. I mentioned in my post how MIT and many other schools were participating in this program called questbridge where they recruit students who want to pursue higher education. Then I talked about what role the U.S can play to help fix the issue of college tuition. Over the course of this third checkpoint, I recently found out about many organizations and groups that work with students in providing them a scholarship for their higher education and one of the most famous and most known organizations that I found out about is called the Gates Millinuim Scholars and it provides the amount of money needed for your education it pays for your fees and everything down to your dorm but it is highly selective and only 1000 students are chosen every year, this organization is funded by Bill and Milenda Gates with a 1.6 billion dollar donation. Another program I came across as I was doing research was an organization called the MDRC they work with young adults and help them pay for their higher education. On their website, they state: “The federal government provided over $33 billion in Pell Grants to nearly 9.5 million low- and middle-income students. Yet too many of these students do not succeed academically. More than a third of students who enroll in college do not earn a degree and are not enrolled in any postsecondary institution six years later; at community colleges, the fraction is close to half. Many factors hinder students from completing college, and financial concerns are a major component. Even if they receive federal and state financial aid, often it is not sufficient to meet their needs. Financial burdens often drive students to work too many hours while in school, forcing them to cut back on study time or drop classes; some students drop out altogether.” Overall I believe the efforts of these organizations/groups to help students with their college fees is great, however, there could be many more groups/organizations that can help young adults with the college/university process. I truly believe that these organizations should be and are examples of what we can do to help future generations succeed.

Talking about the Gates Millennium Scholars

Talking about the Gates Scholarships.



After all this research I had the idea that for my agent of change I would inform students on how to be eligible for scholarships and what programs they can apply for and take part in to increase their chances at getting a scholarship if their family is struggling fianically, I also mentioned in my Agent of change proposal that I would be interested in a letter campaign that will bet targeted at state and federal leaders and I also suggested that I was planning on writing a heart-felt letter to both Betsy DeVos and President Trump, but after some time I came along to accept the idea that this Agent of change would be kind of far-fetched so I will do this as a secondary Agent of change. I first came upon the idea of doing a presentation when I was trying to figure out how I could somehow directly affect the lives of students who might struggle financially and then I decided that there is a diverse group of students in this school so I could just inform them on this topic. During the course of this project I admit I struggled a little in the beginning because I didn’t really know what to choose as my Agent of Change until I decided to persue both of the ideas I had for my agent of change and after this I had an even harder time trying schedule a time to present and I didn’t get one until the last week and my presentation would be on the very day before the project was due, I also worked really hard on the presentation during my waiting time for a confermation as to when I could present my Agent of Change, but when I started presenting I could hear some members of the audience start talking and laughing not really paying attention, however, I feel as if I was effective in making a change because since I did inform students on the programs and ways that can/make them eligible for scholarships, I have basically reached the purpose of my project to inform students so they too, can have the same education as someone is able to pay full price for their’s. As I look back at my progress through this project I find it fascinating how not only did I learn about how organizations/groups are helping students who are struggling financially succeed, but I am also fascinated by how much I can help the world, over the course of my Agent of Change and the You and The World Project, in general, I learned that I can contribute to solving many of society’s issues even if all I do is inform a group of students. Despite struggling on the Agent of Change

Presenting to peers

Presenting to peers.



an aspect of this project I am content with knowing that I tried my best and I am more knowledgeable from the lessons I learned over the course of this course of this project. Even as this project comes to a disheartening conclusion. I want to inform anyone that may be reading this, that presenting to a group of 20 kids isn’t going to solve the problem with college tuition, but rather it will be all of working together and consistently with one goal and that is to make higher education affordable for everyone, that is when we truly have and will succeed in terminating an issue in our society.


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Negative Space-kfolly

Posted by Kankoue Folly in Art - Freshman · Hull · e1 Band on Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 1:41 pm
Screenshot 2018-04-26 at 13.31.00
Screenshot 2018-04-26 at 13.31.00
​A. What is negative space? (explain this concept to a fourth grader that has never heard of it)

Negative space is the space around the object in the drawing. An example of this would be when you cut a piece of paper and you put it on a different piece of paper the color that went from the role of the foreground to the background would be negative space.

B. I was able to find negative space because when I was younger I used to do drawings and I learned not to color outside the drawing and this is very similar so it helps me understand how to flip the two colors so it creates negative space and a whole picture while it contradicts itself.

C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?
It helps an artist to see in negative space because it controls the borders of positive and negative space. It also gives the artist more to work with when it comes to the foreground

D. Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why not?

Seeing in negative space does enhance drawings because it already introduces the background however it makes you focus on the foreground.
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Education vs Tuition

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 1 · Giknis · D Band on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 12:04 am

You can check out my first post HERE. In my first post, I talked about the role the price of higher education plays when students are in the application process. In my first post, I also talked hypothetically about how this could go on to affect the individual's life and any future careers. However, since my last post, I have done some further research mostly from interviewing. During the early stages of my original research, I conducted a questionnaire with the MIT admissions office and they provided me some informational and interesting answers to some of my questions. When I was conducting the questionnaire with MIT’s director of admission research and analysis, Rachel E. Kay, she gave me a set of links to various sources with information on my topic. One of the links I ascertained from Rachel led me to a page dedicated to MIT admissions there I learned that students from the class of 2021 who applied for aid in family income that was up to 90,000 dollars annually typically paid nothing when it came to terms of tuition. Rachel’s link also informed me of the percentage of students who graduate debt-free which is 72% of MIT entire student body and 91% of MIT’s student body receives financial aid. Over the course of my research, I learned that MIT participates in a program called questbridge in which the predominant idea is to recruit students who want to pursue higher education, I was also informed about how MIT awarded 97.1 million dollars in scholarships to undergraduates in the previous year alone. I was also provided a demographic of the 2021 class (HERE)  (HERE{for exact numbers}).

This directly relates to the issue I brought up in my previous post about the cost of tuition scaring graduating twelfth graders from applying to certain colleges/universities. MIT tries to challenge this issue by not accepting their applications based on what classes the individual took in high school but rather they accept their students based on what they know. So in my previous post, that student with the straight A’s and 3.9 GPA would be able to go to MIT without having to pay tuition if he gets into MIT. Besides my interview with MIT, I also interviewed my sister who is currently enrolled in a private university. I asked her a various amount of different questions such as did you ever think of studying abroad to if you had the option would you cut military spending to increase the U.S investment in education. Overall one thing that kept reoccuring in both of my interviews was that both the institution and the student believe that there are opportunities for those who cannot afford higher education. These interviews really added to my understanding of my issue because I now know that the issue isn’t there just waiting to be solved but rather it is being recognized and is on the process of being solved by institutions and individuals such as MIT and my sister. After this research, my opinions have differed from my original opinions for I thought that the colleges/universities didn’t really care and the individuals didn’t really either too. However, when you see different institutions going through the process of trying to revamp their tuition to make it more affordable for poorer students. It gives hope when you see major schools such as MIT awarding students with over 97 million dollars in aid so students can further their education without worrying about debt. One question still leaves me wondering and that is when will the U.S department of education effectively try to make the issue of the pricing of higher education a priority or will they ever try to do so? Not only does this question resonate in my head “what can the U.S do?” but also what can I do to change this issue? The answer to this question is fairly simple and that’s why for my agent of change I’m going to be contacting heads of government from Pat Toomey to Donald Trump I will try to solve this issue as best as I can.

To read original doc Essay with footnotes click here

Annotated Bibliography

Audio Interview

Question and Answers (MIT)
Tags: benchmark, You and the World
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Seeking Education Not Debt

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 1 · Giknis · D Band on Friday, February 23, 2018 at 10:05 pm

The topic that I chose is college tuition. This particular topic interests me because recently I grew an interest in economics and then I wanted to see how education affected the economy and both neighborhood and ethnicity-based communities.When I was in 6th grade my sister was getting her college acceptance letters and due to insufficient funds, my sister couldn’t go to a college if she didn’t receive a scholarship. My sister being a medical major wanted to attend some of the nations top schools but due to the pricing of higher education, her options were limited.My sister eventually got into a private university for a full scholarship, however, if she didn’t get a scholarship she would graduate with 673,390 dollars worth of student loans. this is the cost of school excluding textbooks and overlooking medical school cost. Sometimes when I’m on the train I think about my future, I want to be an engineer that changes the face of technology and I want to attend MIT. I being an overachiever I also want to attend to Harvard for a law or business degree and thinking about these difficult goals I tell myself that if I ever want to see at least one of them come true I would have to work day and night and with a large amount of luck is the only way I can achieve one of my goals and with rising tuition cost and a fragile economy I can only wish for the best. We can try to change the problem as much as we possibly can by contacting our local politicians. During this research, I learned that the idea of free college was first really paid attention to when the Obama administration said Community College should be free if you have a GPA of at least 2.5 and parents who make less than $200,000 a year.



The problem with colleges is not that they are only expensive even though that is a part of the problem. The cause of the issue of tuition all starts with the name of the school for example when people hear the name Harvard they don’t usually tend to think about a lower middle class or working class individual , rather they think about the white male who wants to get a degree in law or business and this is a problem. According to the crimson Harvard is one of the leaders of colleges when it comes to accepting students who parents are making more than 630,000 a year at 15.1%.When we look at colleges we see the spectrum from best to worst. We all learn that the cream of the crop gets into the Ivy Leagues followed by the world-renowned schools such as Stanford, MIT, and CalTech. Then we hear about state schools and state schools and finally community colleges. To argue my point of why college tuition should be drastically lowered or be free to certain colleges is the numbers behind the scenes. The New York Times suggests that when the number of people graduating college increases the economy grows and expands. This eventually creates jobs and those two reasons are good enough reasons to start on lowering tuition. One of the main problems with college tuition is that it scares graduating 12th graders and this can be a problem not only to those students but to our society/economy as a whole. When one in four teens look at the cost of college they would give up on aspirations of becoming a doctor, engineer or lawyer. However, if we look at that student’s record we see that he gets straight A’s and has a solid GPA of 3.9 then we start wondering why is this student giving up an achievable dream of becoming a doctor.The tells us that even if he could get a full ride to college at UPenn he won’t be able to afford medical school so he decided it’s better to start working than hoping. Okay that’s perfectly okay a student with a GPA of 3.9 would find his/her way around the workforce and get a decent job. However, that’s a problem in itself . A majority of jobs offered to people with high school diplomas are factory jobs this would be a problem because if there is an ever decreasing number of factory jobs in the United States and lets say 4 million other students look at the price of college and one fourths of them decide to not attend college that will be another million people looking for the same job as our first student, a factory job, and that means that more workers, higher cost for hiring companies and when left with no options they would move to different countries for lower cost. Then, when we go back to the U.S where those 1 million with dreams of college lose their job, and now it would be harder to get accepted to any other jobs without a college degree and when this happens the economy loses money and the unemployment rate increases.


In contrary let's say that the full 4 million students can afford to go to college and when they graduate looking for jobs as highly qualified individuals they would attract incorporations from other countries and when this happens the economy goes up and the unemployment rate decreases because people are now able to go back to college for their degree since it’s cheaper and even if the individual is still not qualified for the job they want, they have more job options to choose from because of the new companies coming to the United States. Sometimes the largest issues in today’s society can be solved by one proposed bill and when that happens maybe somewhere out there a 5-year-old boy with dreams of being an engineer, who can’t afford it today might be able to look at his acceptance letter and think of his dream that still awaits him rather than think of the debt of chasing his dream.

     

Annotated Bibliography: here

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Welcome to Mcbeth's

Posted by Kankoue Folly in English 1 · Giknis · D Band on Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 6:38 pm


Click here to view project


The project Ethan and I made is based of the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare and we put our own twist to this project by making our very own fast food restaurant. With a diverse menu and many choices to choose from our restaurant tells the story of Macbeth from "he killed me mother" to "thane of cawdor". When we first started on the project we were going to do a card playing game but then we decided to make our own thing. When the time came for us to start working on the restaurant we decided to base it of not on Macbeth but a restaurant everyone would know which is Mcdonalds so we took their iconic golden M and turned it into our own sign. The menu was the hardest part of this project because we needed to make up our own edibles so we made up foods based on lines from the play. 
Here are some of the foods:
  1. Fly chicken Fly is a vegetarian option that is supposed to represent the role of fleance running chickening away from danger

  2. What My Egg (this is a throwback option where we at Mcbeth’s take a fresh farm bought egg and make it so delicious that it will make you say mother he has awoken me

  3. Extra large Birnam wood fries

  4. Thane of Glamis(this is a fairly normal sandwich with everything that you will find in a normal burger and it comes with small birnam wood fries )

  5.     Thane of cawdor special a quarter pounder with medium birnam wood fries and some of that Mcbeth’s special witch juice

  6. Our limited time special King Hereafter specail is a full 3 pound burger  and it comes with a side of bologna just like Macbeth and 3 medium birnam wood fries with some eye of newt and toe of frog finish in 10 minutes or less and get a free Macbeth action figure.

  7. Extra large Birnam wood fries

Besides the difficulties we faced on the menu the project was not that difficult and it was an enjoyable experience to work with Ethan.
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My Life -Kankoue Folly

Posted by Kankoue Folly on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 11:26 am
Life of me

Script



My slide is really bland and it has a soccer ball on a field as the background if I’m being honest all I did was try to make my slide as similar to the ikea sign and works with the idea that the fonts should be large and the picture should be the words which creates less words.



Reflection

After my presentation I got some critique from my classmates. For the most part they talked about how to make my slide better by making the fonts a different color. Then they said to try make them into one line.  Ms.Hull told me to try to make my font color match those of the ball so I tried to do all these things in my new slide. At first I didn't really want to make the changes to the slide but then I did what my classmates suggested. When I compared it to my old one and I decided that the edited version is better.  The updated version might not reach simplicity but it got closer to reaching it in my opinion. The research is the main benefactor to this project. Without the research I think my project would be worse than it was before. The research made me rethink many things I did ,for example writing less and letting the picture be my words.My main source for creating this slide is the ikea sign that is what I focused on the most because I saw it dragged the viewers attention without having too much in it. This project thought me many things and that is something I appreciate about this project.
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Home Network-Kankoue Folly

Posted by Kankoue Folly in Technology - Freshman · Hull · e2 Band on Friday, October 13, 2017 at 2:36 pm
My L.A.N is a good and decent network there aren't really too many things connected to it so it works fine sometimes it buffers while I'm further away from the router.


What I learned about networks were that they are more complex than I thought I thought it was more simple but when i figured out that there were many different ways to use it and why countries used it. I was suprised that was an OMG moment for me .
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