In my previous slate post, I talked about my research on abusive relationships. I mentioned things like statistics, warning signs, effects, and ways to get help. There are many other organizations and websites that are trying to help with my issue. There is a National Domestic Violence Hotline as well as websites that talk about resources to use when trying to get out of the relationship. I think a lot of the information that these websites and organizations provide is very helpful especially since most victims of abusive relationships do not have someone close to them to talk to. These resources are widely available which makes it easier for someone to find the help they need.

For my Agent of Change, I decided to create an Instagram account that talked about all the information I learned about. I wanted to create something that many people had access to and that would always be available to them. Most people have access to the internet and social media accounts so making an account sounded like a great way to spread awareness on my topic. The name of my account is @l.t.h_abusive relationships and there I talked about all the information I thought would be helpful to people that are either in an abusive relationship or know someone that is in an abusive relationship.

Agent of Change Instagram Account

The account is still very new as of the time I am writing this post so I’m not surprised to see that there hasn’t been much interaction with it yet but I do hope in the future that more people will find my account. I hope this account is actually able to make a change in someone’s life.

This project sounded very difficult at first. I didn’t have any topic I wanted to talk about and didn’t think I’d be able to contribute much to any cause. But after finding an issue that I was passionate about, this project became a lot more fun and interesting to do. It took quite a lot of work and time to be able to research and find all the information I needed to be able to talk about this topic but it was still very interesting. I learned a lot more than what I originally knew about this issue and I think that is a great thing. This is a very common issue, I know people personally that have been affected by being in an abusive relationship and I feel like I can finally understand them more. I feel like I could have put more work into the research and the account itself. I really like what I created but I just think it could have been better. The creation of the account and the posts ended up being done in a bit of a rush so I believe that if I had more time to work on this project, it would have come out better. I still very much like the account that I created though, even if it’s not perfect. I just hope that it can help others that are being affected by my issue.

Annotated Bibliography

In my previous slate post, I described my issues and concerns for public health. I spoke about my interest in travelling, wanting to see people, and I urged people to continue wearing their masks. Since that post, I have conducted more research, finding fundraisers that will help with the production of masks/distributing masks to the homeless. On Thursday (5/20/21) during my advisory period, I gave a presentation on the issue I wanted to address. In the presentation, I included a link to a GoFundMe, which will help to provide more masks to homeless individuals. I decided to do this because ever since quarantine began, we haven’t been able to go many places. There are a few things that inspired me, making me passionate about public health, and those are: helping others and travelling. During my research, I learned how many people are having a difficult time during this pandemic. I’ve learned how many different things have been affected by it, such as overcrowding in prisons and mask distribution for homeless people. Although I could not act on the bigger issues like overcrowding in prisons, I could at least speak out about something we’ve all been affected by: masks.

To take action, to be an agent of change, I decided to present to my advisory class. My presentation was 6 slides, including links to GoFundMe’s & other informational articles.

This is a screenshot of my screen-share during my advisory presentation.

Overall, I enjoyed creating and taking action for this project. I haven’t experienced making an actual change before in projects like these. It was very interesting to make a whole presentation and promote my ideas. Hopefully my presentation will have taken an effect and persuaded people to continue wearing their masks and staying safe. Thankfully, a vaccine has been created and maybe people both teenagers and adults, can get the vaccine. This will also help keep public health in check! Something I could have done better for this project is improving my slideshow presentation. I think I could have added a lot more information on the matter. I had lots of links to articles, and I think I should have added more information from them.

My initial ideas for this project were to create posters to hang up around a park I have gone to since I was younger or to create and donate to fundraisers to help mask production. I have a few designs that I created for the posters, because at first I was committing to that idea. If I were to do this project again, I would test that idea and see if posters would have had more of an effect than a presentation!

Initial design ideas for posters.

Something I’ve learned about myself is that I really do want to help others, and I feel much stronger about this idea than I thought I did. Something I’ve learned about other people is how many people are willing to create organizations and donate If anyone would like to help make this change, you can create your own fundraiser at https://www.gofundme.com/c/blog/mask-for-coronavirus, or donate to Carpenter’s Place, an organization working to create and distribute more masks.

Here is my annotated bibliography.

In my previous Slate Post, I talked about how eating plant based is better for animals, our human health, and reduces climate change. Consuming less meat or avoiding meat altogether could change our lives, other’s lives, and the world we live in. I promoted vegetarianism and I understood how hard the change could be, to go from eating everything to eating fully plant based. Before coming up with my idea for my Agent of Change, I came across a list of organizations and resources that you can donate or share with other people to raise awareness for eating plant based. I think supporting vegan/vegetarian organizations is another great way to educate yourself and others. It’s for a good cause and unlike my vegetarian challenge, it’s not limited to only SLA students, anyone can sign or donate.

For my Agent of Change, I decided to create a Vegetarian Challenge where I encourage students at SLA to eat all plant based or attempt to eat all plant based for a week, in hopes of introducing the vegetarian lifestyle and bringing awareness to the harmful things eating meat can do. This idea first came to be when I questioned, how can I get people to physically change their diet and what they eat, without forcing them to go full vegetarian. That’s when the idea of a challenge popped into my head. A low pressure, vegetarian challenge that could help people arrive at the first and hardest base of vegetarianism; actually eating all plant based. The rules were to try to eat all plant based for five days while keeping a food log of all the things you ate during the week. At the end of the week, participants will receive a google form they have to fill out and turn in their work logs.

I know how hard it is to have enough commitment to eat all plant based and resist meat, so I thought, maybe participating in a challenge will help motivate others to stick to that diet for a week and see how they feel physically and emotionally. It was really nerve wrecking organizing a challenge but in the end, everything fell into place. It was my first time being the creator of any type of event, and I would say it has been very interesting being on the other end of something. From the responses I got back, I think my Agent of Change has been really effective. Most of the participants felt physically and mentally better. I decided to do more research on how eating plant-based food can affect your mental health and according to this article, certain foods can either increase or decrease anxiety and depression. The foods you eat play an important role in your mental health and well being. Eating plant based releases serotonin, making you feel more positive because plant foods are high in antioxidants. Meat and animal products are high in arachidonic acid, which will create a chemical reaction in our bodies that can increase anxiety, stress, and depression. I also felt like it was a success because most of them said they would consider being a vegetarian after the challenge. Even if they didn’t want to go vegetarian after, I think it’s great that they are now aware of the situation.

I’m really happy with how my project turned out. My project wouldn’t be this successful if the students of SLA didn’t step up and volunteer to participate so I really appreciate everyone who participated in this challenge! I was so lucky to have people who were vegetarian see my challenge in the advisory memo and request to spread the word of my challenge to their friends.

Something I learned about myself while working on this project was that I could handle the pressure of organizing a challenge or a program. I learned to not doubt myself and to believe that I am capable of making a change, no matter how small or big my actions are. I think something I could’ve done better was reach out to the participants more. I kind of felt disconnected after I introduced the challenge. If I could do this project again, I would have a mid week check up on the participants or maybe send encouraging words, just something to show that I want them to do good. There is still a lot of change we need to promote in order to convince everyone to eat plant based, but overall, I think my project was a successful way to reach out to the SLA community.

Annotated Bibliography

In my previous writing, I talked about why I chose sexual assault. I also talked about ways to fight back against rapists and my own experiences. Sexual assault is a serious topic that should be talked about more. Which is one of the reasons why I picked it as my topic [(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T0u44GPI2UcW2braunOC5nnbnWIyhx6xiPo0bmS8onQ/edit?usp=sharing)]. To raise awareness, I’ve made a instagram account called no_means_no.21 (no underscore means underscore no.21) where I will be posting ways to protect yourself from rape or/and sexual assault, what to do if you have been raped, how to comfort someone if they have been sexually assaulted or raped, and promoting skits and videos by other people. I will of course give credit to the people of the videos in the captions. My goal is to educate the people who already follow me, but to also educate their followers. That is why I have told my sisters and friends to re-post my account. That way, a lot more people would see it and hopefully read my posts.

For me to be posting information on my new page, I will have to do a lot more research before posting so I know that I’m not posting anything that isn’t true or actually helpful. A source that I find really helpful and reliable is Rainn.org [(https://www.rainn.org/after-sexual-assault)]. This site has a lot of useful information. One thing that was useful for me is the “After Sexual Assault” section. There are a lot of ways we could change the amount of sexual assault. Boys are usually taught at a young age that it’s ok for them to hit a girl’s butt if you like them and girls are often told that “boys will be boys” after they tell someone that they were touched inappropriately. We could start a change by raising sons right and telling them that it’s not ok to touch people without their permission. Also that touching someone inappropriately is not funny or a joke. There also needs to be long sentences for rapists who are caught. Both women and male rapists get let off too easy too often. It’s always “What were you wearing?” and victim blaming. Then male rape survivors are told “You should’ve enjoyed it” simply because they are men. That is something else that really needs to change.

But for men and women, rape takes away their sense of power, confidence, love for themselves. For men, it can take away their manliness. (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/16/male-rape-victims-sexual-abuse-support) The purpose of Agent of Change is to bring attention to rape and sexual assault. How normalized boys touching girls without consent is and how normalized it is that male rape survivors need to just “suck it up”. I want to educate the people I know on this issue, that way they could know how to protect themselves and to understand how horrible this issue is. I chose this topic because it felt like something that could come to me easily. I myself have had experiences of sexual assault, which is one of the main reasons why I picked this topic, to show myself ways I could protect myself and to always be careful.

I want my followers and people I know to be able to protect themselves just in case anything happens. Rape and sexual assault could happen anywhere, which is why it is important to know these things. I learned a lot of things which is what I wanted. This was a very important and educational experience for me, yet sad to know that this is the world we live in. Even if my instagram account doesn’t get a big following, I know that I am contributing to changing the world. This was a very deep project for me, since I had to look into my experiences that I had in order to write this. Although I already knew that some things I went through stuck with me, while doing this project I realized how many times I’ve been sexually assaulted. At such a young age too. I don’t want other people to go through these types of things. I want people to know as much as possible so they can protect themselves and others. I’m actually proud of the outcome of this project. I don’t know what I would want to change. Even if this project is over, I want to at least have 10 posts on my account before stopping, so I will continue to post on it. I have a bit of followers right now, but hopefully, it grows, and hopefully my account does help people.

In my last post, “What Do We Owe To Education”, I researched some questions I had about education and funding in general, and learned a lot about the Federal Budget, funding gaps, and the affect the lack of funding had on schools.

Since then, I have focused on the issue of the lack of funding for schools. I did some more research based on this more focused view, using these sites:

Once I had finished my research, I decided to make a Public Service Announcement (PSA) with the information I had gathered. It was difficult to decide which information to use because I had to decide what was most important. That was why at the end of the PSA, I put a link to my bibliography so if someone was really interested, they could look more into it.

In order to get this PSA out to people, I decided to share it on social media and reach out to some members of staff who could help me. I reached out to Jeremy, who said that he would put my PSA into our advisory memo, and to Ms. Jonas, who said that I could present about my topic to my advisory. I thought this would be most effective because technology can really get around to many people. If things were back to normal, I probably would have adapted my PSA to be printed and placed around the school. Since so many people are online, I decided to make a more in depth PSA with all the information needed.

Below are some screenshots of putting my PSA in action:

Overall, I am not sure I was really making a change. A Public Service Announcement can help to get information out and make people aware of an issue, but I would really like to talk to more people to actually go from informing to making a change. If I did this project over again, I think I would interview more students, teachers, and staff about their experiences with the system and get more involved in my community. I became less interested in my topic as I continued, but was happy with the result. All that is left is to send the PSA to Jeremy for the advisory memo and present in my advisory on Monday. I think at the very least, I made a change in myself because I know a lot more about this topic and issue and can understand a little more of the education world as I go through it.

My favorite thing that I wrote was:

Because while there are people in power, there is also the power of the people, giving each and every one of us the opportunity to make a difference.

The importance of knowing oneself is most commonly known as a really good thing and is associated with giving a person clarity and a feeling like taking a deep breath of fresh air. Something people don’t really realize while striving for this achievement, is that the journey comes with contemplation of your mental health. Mental health has been pretty overly stigmatized in the media (media suasion) to the point where it is commonly known for being a dangerous or scary thing. On my previous SLATE post, I covered a few examples of how and what the media has stigmatized. Because of this research I thought it would be good to start off with a smaller action to raise awareness as a sort of way to get comfortable with this form of activism. My main idea for this poster was to try and push and move the normalization of people with any kind of mental health issues. More specifically, the conversations of mental health. Since a lot of the time people with these different issues get clumped into a category with other people with different symptoms and clumping people together isn’t known for being great at all, I believe normalizing the conversation of people being different and with many kinds of mental illnesses or not helps make the misconceptions of mental illnesses lessened. “We’re Basically All Struggling With Mental Health Right Now—Let’s Normalize It” by Jessica A Gold explains the importance of these conversations and also gives a few tips on some simple things that you can do to help out as well.

It’s hard to tell when you are making a difference, at least in the beginning, but there are other ways I also try to help this cause in day to day life that I believe does something. I try to have meaningful conversations with people about the states of mental health when it comes up, unless they are really uncomfortable. If they do feel uncomfortable I usually drop the conversation but also bring it up later if I feel like its important. This could feel really bad or really rewarding depending on what kind of person I’m talking to, and a lot of other components also contribute to this as well. It feels good to know that you made a difference in the world, or at least put it out there that you tried and succeeding is kind of a bonus. A big bonus, but a bonus nonetheless. I realized that the idea is primarily to make a change, but trying to do that, and also the intentions and ambition behind it make a difference as well.

The project is never really done for me. I don’t think it’s something that can really be “fixed” but it can definitely be better. Looking back on this project I think I could have and maybe should have chosen a project that was a little more ambitious and less “easy” in a way. I feel like even though this was probably a good first step, this project could’ve had more components to it that made it stand out more or something that made it different. It feels a little like I took the easy way out, but really I think I would have done more if it were a little less time crunched. Overall I think this was a good experience that I can rely on for sources and information to back up the main idea mostly.

(side note) - The watermark was very much unintentional and I couldn’t get rid of it so sorry if it’s a little bit more difficult to read because of that.

So my project was a little different. It wasn’t a problem I could really change but I still feel it was important. I did mental health changes during quarantine. For my previous post, I did research on mental health changes in quarantine.I discussed multiple sources that I researched to see percentages and rates. It was surprising but at the same time expected to see the percentage of good mental health go down. I decided to do an instagram page where people could talk about their experiences.I got a lot of people to send me messages about how they changed or didn’t change with consent to post. I posted them on instagram and I thought they all looked good. I related to almost all of them and it was very interesting to see a lot of the answers. I followed some mental health pages but I sadly didn’t do much to promote my page. I really only posted whatever piece of writing I was given. I made 6 posts total and they all were meaningful.

[This website] (https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/) has some more info on mental health percentages during the pandemic.

The reason I have decided to do this is because my mental state had actually gotten better in quarantine. It was the most free I had ever felt and I was surrounded by things I loved. I know others didn’t feel that way so I was curious to see how. That was basically my whole motivation for this. I learned mostly new information through this which I am very proud of. I made actual progress with this project and learned a lot. I am very thankful for people helping me as well.

I have been reflecting on my project and these are my thoughts: I feel very good about this project for the most part. People cooperating with me felt very nice and I also learned a lot about the people around me. It was also a great experience to see what other people had done in quarantine and how they changed. Without saying names, I learned that one friend had worked on themselves in quarantine and that it was a great time to do so. This person should be proud of themselves for their work.

I learned that I wasn’t alone about some of my thoughts. Some other people also didn’t change too much and thought it was a good reflection time to work on themselves. I also learned that there were other people who struggled with quarantine and didn’t have that good of a time during it. So I found some information about other people and compared it to myself to see the differences or similarities. I definitely learned new things about myself and others.

The only things that I regret are not having good time management and not promoting my page. I didn’t ask anyone to repost or shout out my page. I also only followed a couple of people. I definitely would have managed time better as well. I would probably have more post if I didn’t wait as long to start as I did.

[Annotated bibliography] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wGSNZbk9LJ9G478gjohRBqlmtA-TvlFW1ECYdrPpGdQ/edit?usp=sharing

These are a couple examples of the writing pieces I posted. If you want to see the rest then please check out Quarantinehealth24 on instagram. If you want you can also follow the account.

Amjed Washaha Mrs. Giknis English 1 5/20/2021 Social Media Impact On Sexually Based Cybercrimes In my last two posts, I covered social media’s negligence towards sexually based crimes. These crimes were anything from the distribution and sale of child pornography and the posting of unsolicited nudes from all genders and ages. We also provide photo evidence of online criminals interacting and advertising their illicit goods. We discuss statistics such as “child pornography of images had increased 1500% since 1988! Also, there was a 375% increase in the amount of child pornography websites between February of 2001 and July 2001. You can find the previous post here. The #megalink problem isn’t a secret nor is it located in a dark and inconspicuous alley somewhere on the internet. No, it’s right out there in the open for the world to see sometimes even appearing on the front page of Twitter. Twitter users are now trying to combat #megalinks by flooding the hashtag with photos and tweets unrelated to #megalink’s content. Many YouTubers are on our side as well. For example Youtuber “SomeOrdinaryGamers” made a 9 minute video explaining the situation. Feedback suggests that the video was rather successful gaining 968,421 views and 44,000 likes as of publication.
The attempts made by Twitter users against #megalinks are an easy and effective way anyone can help. It keeps the innocent distracted but may one day also move the #megalink community to other platforms. I also think the attempts made by Twitter users are quite humorous. You can often find memes and jokes when investigating. Here we see a user flooding the #megalink thread with something a little more friendly. Link from the Legend of Zelda series. Source: Twitter

YouTubers the likes of SomeOrdinaryGamers may also bring a lot of press to the situation. I mean 968,000 people is a lot of people, if they all shared the video once we could have millions of people that didn’t know about these disgusting acts of sexual assault, harassmet, grooming, etc… Sadly all these attempts aren’t nearly enough to put even a dent in the plans of the #megalink criminals. My agent of change mission was to stop this problem before it even happens. In my research, I’ve concluded that most of these criminals have suffered early childhood trauma or mental health trauma such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, etc… My idea is to implement a Peer Mediation program in SLA that will help students combat issues such as trauma or mental health issues. In order to make this happen, I’ll need the support of fellow SLA staff and students. I will assign trustable and reliable students hand picked by fellow advisors and staff. From there we plan on creating a safe environment for students to openly converse and socialize with fellow students. If this program goes as planned, students should leave the program knowing that they have added at least one more person to their lives that will always be there for them. I’ve worked as a mediator of other programs in the past and they went well in most cases. Getting in touch with the school counselor Ms.Siswick was rather easy and she was very cooperative and seemed genuinely interested in improving the wellbeing of SLA students and our community and for that, I am greatly appreciative. I have yet been able to complete my goals as of yet and the preparation and implementation of this program will begin in the 2021-2022 school year. I do believe that I have a solid plan and I can’t wait to put it into action. I really enjoyed this project even though I haven’t fully completed it as of yet. It pushed me hard and made me come to a realization of how bad the world can be sometimes. I learned a lot, statistics for these acts really shocked me. The number of child porngraphy can compare with the amount of legal porn out there which is absolutely disgusting and is a realization that I am constantly reminded of. I definitely could have made this program happen within this year but with the barriers, online schooling has imposed I didn’t feel comfortable having students talk about what could be serious problems over a screen, the fear of recorded conversations was a huge concern for me. For you, the people help us by contacting Twitter advertisers which you’ll find on the next page, and continue to flood #megalinks with appropriate content. Thank you to all of those trying to make a difference!

Twitter support→ support@twitter.com List of top 5 investors and emails: .The Vanguard Group, Inc. (Email): institutional@vanguard.com .Morgan Stanley. (Email): prospectus@morganstanley.com .BlackRock Fund Advisors Inc. (Email): complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk .SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (Email): geam_web@ssga.com. .ClearBridge Investments LLC. (Email): info@clearbridge.com

In my last slate post I shared my knowledge about the topic colorism. Its a hard thing to go through, it can happen with your friends even your family. I wanted to let people know they are not alone when they face colorsim. Colorism is prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group: Only darker skin people experience this type of treatment because they are the ones that are oppressed by it, lighter skin people benefit from it.

This is what I did to spread awareness about the issue. I made a instagram post about it, it was a three part post and all my friends were so supportive. I want to have a interesting but straight to the point tile and I think this was good. I think this is the first time I felt like I’m doing a good thing (when I post about important topics and issues on my instagram stories). It’s like I’m actually telling the story and people are my listens and learners.

Some More Slides of it And how other people Help Out Too!!

As you can see My friends helped me repost and spread awareness too about the topic. I tried my best to reach out to so many people and I think I did a good job because if I see other people liking it then it must be good for people to realize it’s that important. I think I have the privilege to share about what I know about my topic and how it effects people with darker skin tone. I know it can be hard seeing yourself if you are dark in the media or just being in life because some people can not going to except you but If you are a dark skin person, just know you matter. Everything you do and say matters and you are a beautiful person, don’t like your skin color take over you… embrace yourself and own your skin.

In my first post on animal cruelty in factory farms, I had learned about many issues of inhumane treatment in the factory farming industry. Majority of the animals raised for us to eat live painful and unnatural lives, packed together in uncomfortable spaces, stripped of natural behaviors and forced to grow extremely fast so that they can be slaughtered quicker. The livestock raised in this industry are not treated like the sentient beings that they are.

While many are unaware of the mistreatment that goes on in factory farms, there are still people and organizations working to battle this issue. Take Temple Grandin, for example; Grandin is known for her work towards the humane treatment of livestock, particularly cattle, and is one of the most respected experts on animal behavior. Organizations like Animal Equality launch corporate campaigns, educational programs, and undercover investigations to help document and end animal abuse in places like factory farms and slaughterhouses. There are also groups working to spread awareness about factory farming and similar issues, like the Organic Consumers Association. I would say that any and all work being done to advocate and act against animal cruelty in the industrial farming industry is beneficial to this issue.

It took me a while to decide on what to do for my agent of change. During my research, the ideal solution to change industrial farming that kept coming up was to influence it at a systematic level. There are lots of organizations working towards this goal, so I thought that maybe I could somehow donate to them. But the more I talked to family, friends, and peers about the issues in the factory farming industry, the more I realized how little people really know about it. So I changed my approach for the agent of change portion of this project. I wanted to educate members of my community about both the inhumane conditions that industrial livestock lives in, as well as what people can do about it. This second part was very important to me; a lot of times, after learning about an issue or injustice in our world, I’m left wondering what to do to actually create a change. And when it comes to factory farming, there are many ways to create a positive impact without giving up meat completely, like many people assume. I plan on putting my project in the advisory memo next week, as well as spreading it through other communities I am a part of.

Overall, I feel pretty good about my project. I think it is informative, and includes a lot of information on this topic. My presentation also encourages people to make changes when it comes to the animal products they eat in whatever ways they are able to. I just hope it is able to reach as many people as possible. If I could do this project again, I would want to add an extra part where I raised money to donate to one of the organizations I researched, like Animal Equality. Unfortunately, my time management skills this quarter were subpar, but think that I was still able to create a meaningful project.

When I first started my research on the issue of factory farming, I was flooded with information on how animals are mistreated, abused, and killed in this industry. On the surface, all I saw was the bad. But as I dove farther into this topic, I realized that there are a lot of people and organizations working towards a positive change. I think that bringing awareness to the atrocity that is the industrial farming system is a crucial step forward at this point. Whether that is through the media or even just through conversations, more people need to learn about where the food they eat comes from.

Annotated Bibliography