Hello, My name is Niah Lombo and I am a ninth grader at Science Leadership Academy. I am doing a project for my English class about an issue that concerns me, and I have to write three blogs about it, I am back for my third and final blog post.  For my YATW (You And The World) project I choose to raise awareness for the shortage of donors for Hispanic, African american, and mixed people.  If you would like to read more about my issue in my past blog posts please click here for blog post 1 and click here for blog post 2. After learning more about my issue it was time for me to take action and get my hands dirty (literally) and step up to help my cause.

I knew that for my agent of change I wanted to do more than just bring in stuff because people will most likely forget. That was too much of a hassle to do, I wanted to do something that will get a lot of teenagers excited and for them to learn something. Then I had an idea! What better way to draw in a crowd then Food! So on May 15, 2014 I sold food at lunch to raise money and donate it a charity that helps support my cause. My main goal was to draw people in with the food so I could inform them about my cause and collect money for the donation. My lunch periods are longer than usual schools lunch periods are (1 hour and 5 minutes) so that gave me a lot of time to get to talk to everyone about my cause and how I am trying to take action. What shocked me the most is that 95% of the people that had asked what I was selling food for (Hispanic rice, baked chicken, and salad) was not aware of the shortage of donors for Hispanics, African Americans. After I told them what I was doing they wanted to learn more about what I was doing, so I showed them to my blog post 1 and 2.

I felt good to know that I was already making a change and that was getting the people aware of what is happening that you wouldn't see on the news or in the newspaper. I wish I could have done more for my agent of change , but I did raise a lot of money for the foundation I am planing on doing it again.  My hopes were to raise money and inform/aware people of the shortage of donors for African Americans, Hispanics, and mixed people; and I am glad to say that I did exactly that. I had raised $76 and I plan on holding on to that Intel I do my second agent of change and donate everything all together.

There are a few things I wish I could have done better. I wish I would have started my agent of change earlier so I could have done more. I also wish I would have done a little gathering that would inform/aware more people on what my issue is. Now all I need to do is give donate the money and I will have completed my YATW project (not exactly). Even though school is almost over and I will be going into the next grade this issue is important to me and my family and I plan on continuing my effort to aware people. Overall, I am so glad that this project was given to my class and if I got the chance to do it again I would. It was a fantastic experience and I felt like I learned more about me and others doing this project. Thank you for reading and I hope you all learned something even if it was from my blog or my classmates blog.

Hello again.  If you do not remember me my name is Jason Greene.  I am a 9th grader at Science Leadership Academy.  In English class we are finishing a 6 month project called You and The World.  During this project we have to find a issue we are passionate about then go into the world and try to make a change in it.  My topic is public education in the city of Philadelphia.  I am passionate about this issue because I grew up in this city and went to public school in the city for all of my life.  In my first blog post I introduced the issue.  Link for that blog is here. In my second blog post I talked about the original research I did on the subject.  Link for that blog is here.This is my third and final blog called the post for change.

During the last part of this part of this project was a part called Agent of Change.  This is when I go out into the world and try to make a change.  I went to my elementary and middle school, J.S Jenks in Chestnut Hill and volunteered for half of a day.  I got to volunteer in Mrs.Croak’s classroom.  She is the 6th and 7th grade English teacher.  While there I helped out in the classroom, stapled papers together and answered some questions about high school the 7th graders had for me.  While it was fun to see lots of old friends and teachers it was hard to see how the budget crisis affected the school.  This last year some teachers were laid off.  Because of this the remaining teachers either had to teach a new grade or teach more students.  Mrs. Croak also said the school only gave her limited supplies like one case of paper to last her the whole year. Only about 10 to 12 laptops work on a daily basis. The students also had to buy the three books that they were going to read during the course of the year. I left the school around noon to head back to school.  No teacher should have to go through that. Budget cuts hurt and we need to find a solution.

Sign outside the school

The three books students had to buy for school

The advance group reading ahead

How can only one box of copy paper last a whole year?

I am not the only wants a solution to this problem.  The School District of Philadelphia is facing another shortfall for the 2014-2015 school year.  If they do not get the funding from the city and state they will have to make more cuts. There have been protests to stop the cuts and get more funding for the schools.  So far there has been no solution.  I think protesting is a great way to get your voice heard but at the end of the day we need to get results. According to superintendent William Hite the district needs almost 210 millions dollars. Most of the money would come by extending the one percent city sales tax hike and a two dollar per pack tax on cigarettes.  Without more funding up to 1000 more layoffs could happen and class sizes could go up to 41.  To make a change we need funding.

Public education is this city is a very important topic and it is not going anywhere anytime soon.  We can not expect the students of this city to be the best they that they can be if they don’t have the resources. Recently, a seven year old boy passed out while at school in South Philadelphia.  Because of the budget cuts there was no nurse at the school that day.  The counselor ran to the boy and called 911.  He died later that day at a hospital.  Maybe if there was a full-time nurse on duty that day he might have lived. We can not let this happen again.

This whole project has been a great experience.  I never did a project like this before I am glad that I got to this. The whole process, from the first to the last blog the project went very smooth.  One thing that I feel like I could have done better was when I was volunteering at Jenks.  I wish I could have volunteered there for the whole day but I couldn’t.  I feel like if I stayed there the whole day I would have done better.  I would like to thank Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Lucy,  Mrs. Croak, Mrs. Lynskey and everyone that filled out my survey earlier in the year.  Thank you.

As you probably already know from either common sense or experience, hurricanes and other severe storms are some of the most destructive things nature can throw at us. As you already know if you've been following my blogs, it can be difficult to find out how to prepare for storms beforehand, and a lot more emphasis is placed on storms while they're happening as opposed to during the beginning of the season, when it's relatively easy to prepare.

I recently interviewed Hurricane Sandy victim Mrs. Parks, proud owner of a house in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. Her tales of how “you could see through the house because the walls were gone” provide a caution for how damaging storms can be even with the proper precautions. It's very difficult to rebuild when you have “to gut the entire house,” while “still waiting for our insurance, we haven't gotten a cent yet.”

Of course, hurricanes aren't the only type of storm that can necessitate gutting a house. A recent blizzard caused a pipe to freeze over burst in my family's house, also in Sea Isle. The resulting damage destroyed all of our appliances and flooring, and most of the walls in the front of the house had to be removed.

The interior of the shorehouse on Pleasure Ave. in Sea Isle, NJ

Now that I've personally experienced storm damage, I can see that sometimes it's not possible to take all necessary precautions. However, that only means it's more important to be aware of the threats faced by storms. The fact that storms that may not be considered “natural disasters” can cause catastrophic damage just as easily as those that are only makes it more important to be ready for storms of all kinds at all points in the year.

One of the easiest parts of preparing for storms of all kinds is to have a disaster supplies kit. However, it can be difficult to keep one ready and organized at all times. For my Agent of Change project, I plan to put together basic supply kits to distribute to residents of a shore town in anticipation of the next storm. Wish me luck!

Annotated bibliography

Hello again.  My name is Jason Greene and I am 9th grader at Science Leadership Academy.  In English class we are doing a project called You And The World.  During this project we have to find a issue we are passionate about then go into the world and try to fix it.  My issue is Public Education in the city of Philadelphia.  This is my second blog post.  To read my first blog post click here.  In my first blog post I introduced my issue and how it is one of the biggest problems facing the city today.  I also talked about how there was a lack of funding for public schools.

   

For my original research I decided to do make a online survey.  I wanted to find out if the people taking the survey had special classes while in middle-school.  I also wanted to find out if there were cuts while they were attending the school.  I got lots of good responses back.  Almost all the people who responded said that they went to middle-school in Philadelphia in the past few years.  Most if not all of them said while they were there that the school made cuts that hurt their learning and safety. Some of these positions were Teachers, Counselors, Secretaries and Lunchtime aids.  All of these positions are very important.  If you don't have enough teachers than you have to put more students in each class.  If you don't have any lunchtime aids there will be no one to watch the kids while at lunch.  The results I got really informed me on my issue because now I knew that the budget cuts of the school district just did not affect me but also my friends.

While most of the people who filled out my survey did have special classes like art and music…

Does/Did your middle-school offer...

Art               6  22%

Music/Band  5  19%

Computers   6   22%

Gym            5   19%

Health          5   19%

Over the past few years there have been lots of layoffs.

Over the past few years did your middle-school cut any of these positions?

Guidance counselor	2	15%
Secretary	1	8%
Dean	2	15%
Teachers	5	38%
Lunchtime Aids	3	23%

Now that I got my results I believe even more that this has to change.  The change has to happen now.  It is not fair for kids not to be able to get the best education they can get.  They can not get that without simple things like teachers and counselors.  As I was doing my research I started to wonder how many schools in Philadelphia were shut down and how many students had to be relocated because of that?

The next part of this project is called Agent of Change.  This is when go out into the real world and I go volunteer somewhere and try to have an impact on my issue.  As I said in my last blog post I will be going to my old school, J.S Jenks.  J.S Jenks have been badly hurt by the recent budget cuts.  My sister still goes there and she told me that they don't even have an art teacher anymore, that a dad that used to be an artist now comes in 2 times a week and teacher classes.  When I volunteer at the school I want to help out in a 6th, or 8th grade classroom.  I think I will have a big impact when I come because I the school needs as much as it can get. When I am at the school volunteering I hope to help the teachers in anyway I can if that means making copies or help teach the lesson I will try my best.

     

Seal of J.S Jenks

Stay tuned for part 3!

My bibliography.

Hello it’s me again, Niah Lombo and I am back for round two of my YATW issue. In my blog post #1 , I talked about my issue which was the shortage of donors for African American, Hispanics, and mixed people. Since then I have found more stories of people with cancer looking for donors with one and a million chance of finding one. Lewis Dyche was diagnosed with leukaemia  and after a global search he finds his one in a million bone marrow donor. To read more about his story click here.  

Now it’s my turn to do my own original research and I wanted to learn more about Donors, and then I thought who would know more about donors? Doctors! So I schedule an interview with Dr.Carmen Febo. Dr. Carmen Febo is a primary care physician and even though she does not deal directly with Donors, etc. she was a great help with the questions and being able to let me interview her with with the short notice. The interview helped me have a better understanding of the importance of finding a donor, being a donor, and the effects of being a donor.

Interview:

Me: What is your chance of living if you find a match donor?  

Dr. Carmen Febo: If you have deadly disease, like kidney failure, heart failure, or liver failure, your life would depend on finding a donor.  The chances of survival have many determinants that include weather this is a living donor, or a dead donor, how close a match it is, how many other conditions you have, how good a surgical candidate you are, etc.  Many of the conditions are better understood now and we have better medicines to combat infection for example, or rejection.  But, what is true is that without the transplant the patient do not have a chance.

That was one of my questions for Dr. Carmen Febo. This hit me hard as it made me realize that a persons life is in the hands of a stranger, and that stranger has no idea how important they are. Its not their fault if they didn't know but only if they could have gotten tested to see if they could save a life.

Margot was 17-months old when she was diagnosed with two of the rarest cancers. But since her parents are mixed she is having trouble finding a match donor. Click here to read her story.

Robin Roberts (left) is a breast cancer survivor and find her match from her sister.  She was aware that because of her race she would have a hard time finding a match donor. Read more about her story here.

That is it for now, the next time you guys will hear from me is when I do my agent of change. What can I do to make change happened? My plan is to host an event to help raise awareness for my issue and will be hosting fundraisers that will be donated to find the cure for cancer. Also I will be writing a letter to Robin Roberts about my cause and because ABC news is having opportunities for people who wants to make a difference to be featured on the show. I will submit my story and how I want to make a difference, and if anything does happened before my blog post #3 I will let you guys know on here.

Hello, my name is Tomas Arango. For this year’s You and The World project I decided to focus on U.S media bias. To me this is a very important topic because it’s something that always stands out to me when I read and watch the news. I also feel that it’s an issue many people don’t know about, especially younger audiences like me.

U.S media shows bias in many different ways, but some very repetitive ones I have noticed are only showing one side of the story and sometimes completely telling the story incorrectly. But what bothers me most is that these bias opinions are mostly present when news stations talk about the Middle East. They try to make them look bad and deliver a strong stereotype whenever the topic is brought up.

I started researching and expanding more on my idea for YATW and found many articles focusing on Western Media Bias. I also found examples on media bias towards the middle east and Islam. Many studies showed that most of this started after the 9/11 bombings in 2001. Media began to blame killings and random attacks on Islam and Muslims. Many times news can tend to focus on the bad side of the story like only on the extremist when it comes to Islam.

A great example would be the shooting in Norway  in 2011, killing 85 people according to police. When this massacre happened there was little information on the background the perpetuator. Giving the opportunity to the media, especially conservatives an opportunity to make assumptions and blame it on Islam.  

This picture shows the meaning of Islam and how it’s a symbol of support, love, and peace.

My goal is to inform readers about these bias opinions that news stations make and educate them on how to avoid falling into to medias traps. I plan making an activity for my advisory where they have to identify what type of bias a news article contain. I want to make an interactive experience so my peers can learn about this issue. I really enjoyed writing this and be sure to watch out for my next blog post!

Another picture displaying Islam is not an icon of terrorism and violence

These are some type of media bias I want people to be able to identify through my blog posts:

• Omission

• Selection of Sources

• Story Selection

• Placement

• Labeling

• Spin

For definitions of words, click here!

You can view my bibliography here!