Category: Katharine Mehta

Katharine’s Reflection

I really think overall my workshop went significantly better than how I expected it to. I really think that I did a great job on reading the power point which my group and I worked very hard on. The other thing I thought went really well was how in to the workshop all the kids were. I feel like the way that we presented the activity was really impressive. We were all very in to helping out all the kids with any of the problems that they were having with the felt or the problems that they were having. I think that everyone had a good time even though I realize that we didn’t make chocolate or we weren’t playing games on the computer it was still fun.

As a group I think that we really learned about how a teacher feels on a normal day. It was hard for us to realize that our attitudes mean so much like if we act up, it really puts a damper on our day. It makes  us feel like we all need to work together to just get over it because some kids are just like that. They like to act up because they feel like that’s the only way that they can get attention. The way that we overcame this was just coming over to each other and discussing how we should approach this problem.

The way that I would have perfected this workshop was by changing up the seating arrangements so not everyone was with their friends. That way they could get more work done, because I could tell that they had a lot of potential but they were just getting distracted. As well as paying attention better, they could also meet people from different grades.

I really learned a lot about HIV/AIDS during my time working with the two workshops I did. I learned a lot about protection and how I can help out even as a teenager. I also realized that their are so many opportunities out there for teenagers to help out with so many different issues.

I thought that as a group in the set up groups it was really tough for me because one or two people just took charge. But it was a really tough thing to overcome but I did my best to help out with the small things they would let me do. The assemblies to be honest were a bit boring but that is expected because to me, all assemblies are boring. But I think that the end song was a really great end to the day. I think that it was really good.

I think that the process of the whole Teach-In and Volunteering was stressful but it was a very good thing at the end of the day because I learned how to work together with other people and see how other people work and their strategies. It was helpful because it showed me how too absorb different ways of learning.

I just really wanted to say thank you so much to all of my teachers and how much they helped all of my group with just all around working together and the ideas they gave us, they were all very helpful and striking.

Katharine Extra

This weekend a few friends and I went to ‘New York’s Children’s Film Festival.’  The movies at NYCFF are mostly indie movies, which means they are movies, which are made by independent filmmakers. These filmmakers often are from other places than the USA. The one I watched was about a king and a bird, after doing this I got to volunteer with the children who attended this festival. I got to teach them how to create jewelry out of used film and teach them how to express them selves in special new ways they hadn’t thought of before. I thought this was awesome because I got to teach children how to create something beautiful instead of just letting them go around and spray some random wall. I got to teach these kids something, which in some schools is being taken away, art. Most art classes are being taken away from schools, so kids can’t experiment with art! But just by teaching kids how to make jewelry out of film or make a castle out of packing peanuts, I am sure they were grateful!  I was very fulfilled by my completed work because I realized that by doing this I was inspiring other kids to get out in to the world and teach other kids what they are passionate about. And expanding other kids interests and broadening their horizons and ideas about other cultures and feelings and people.

Katharine Gay Mens Health Crisis #3 visit

Today I went to cocktail hour at GMHC. The GMHC is a safe haven for gay men as well as lesbian women to come, learn and express who they really are. GMHC is the owner of ‘The AIDS Walk’, at this cocktail hour we learned a lot about how to interview someone professionally. I learned how to write a list of questions and read them out in a fashion in which the person I was interviewing would not feel overwhelmed. The person I interviewed name was Jenny. Jenny was a young dark haired woman who had a very thoughtful and easily understandable way of speaking. Jenny began working at the GMHC in 2007. She started out learning about women’s health and branched in to AIDS awareness. Jenny was a very enthusiastic woman who seemed very happy that young people came in to help out work with the GMHC. I was talking to her about how in the three years she has been working at the GMHC, how AIDS and the awareness of AIDS has changed.  She told me that the way in which AIDS and the awareness of it has changed was that, with tons of campaigns which help show the risks of AIDS many people have become more interested in trying to educate themselves as well as others about AIDS and the awareness of it. I started branching out my questions about AIDS and asked her if she knew about any of the funding and how much of the money being donated is actually being given to the people who they help. I got to help out as well as asking all of these questions. I got to help Jenny and the rest of the volunteers box flyers as well as lift boxes. Even though it was not the most interesting job in the world, talking to Jenny while doing this about her job seemed to make her very happy. I felt like this visit went well and I was very happy about how my interview went.

Social Justice#2 by Katharine Mehta

Dear Blog,

Today I went to ‘Aid for AIDS’ with Lenny, Jasper and Adam. We were picked up in a car and driven over to 110 Wall St. The same place we went to last time! What we did this time was similar to what we did last time, though I realized a few things when I was there. When I was there, it didn’t matter if I actually was getting down, dirty and working with the patients. As long as we could help out some way, more work could get done by the actual employees!  I figured we probably couldn’t really work with the patients because of our age, if I could work with them I definitely would I just think it might be tough to do because I am not sure what big of a difference I could make personally.  I started thinking after I left Aid for AIDS about education about AIDS awareness. I started thinking a lot about this because the only way to really prevent AIDS, is by education. I then decided to look up AIDS awareness organizations.  I then found this one organization called ‘Nine and a half minutes.’ When I first saw the name I was kind of scared because it sounds like kind of a creepy horror movie.  But it turns out this organization is really involved in teaching about AIDS awareness, It is a very informative website because they showed the simple ways that one can protect themselves from AIDS. I think that an awesome slogan is ‘ABC.’ This seems odd because it’s just letters but, ABC stands for Abstain, Be faithful and Condoms. To clarify they are saying abstain as abstaining from sex, being faithful to one partner and condoms are just a good thing to use to prevent many diseases! Why this organization is called nine and a half minutes is because of a very interesting fact. Every nine and a half minutes someone in the USA is infected with HIV. This is shocking, because that would mean 1,400 people are infected with HIV daily!  I started thinking about that I really didn’t know how HIV is transmitted from one person to another. I decided to research it and I found a link, which looks pretty reliable. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_is_HIV_transmitted.  The main ways of getting HIV include: having sex with an infected partner, Intravenous drugs and a few other ways.

My goals for next time include asking the following questions: Do you educate children and adults about AIDS? Do you give out free condoms? How do you suggest our generation prepare for stopping the spread of AIDS? Is AIDS more common in adults?  What is the life expectancy of someone with AIDS? How do you feel the spread of AIDS affects the youth of America? Can you transfer AIDS by making out with someone? Can lesbians get AIDS?  Is it more common for gay men to have AIDS?

I found a few other random links

http://www.avert.org/

http://www.pepla.org/faq.html

P.S  I went shopping after and I was very happy.

Katharine Mehta Feburary 5th 2010 Aid For Aids 1

Dear Blog,

Today I went to Aid For Aids with my group: Alma, Lenny, Adam, Olivia and  Jasper, Sarah tagged along this time to say hi to her friend Eduardo. Eduardo is her Mom’s helper for her Aids Clinic in Nigeria, I think. We took the train down to a big building on Wall Street. We took the elevator up to the 22nd floor.  The elevator doors opened and we were greeted by a woman with a nose ring who brought us in to an office. She then explained what their mission was at Aid for AIDS was.  She explained how Aid for AIDS tried to get condoms and AIDS information to people who need it some of these places include: Venezuela, South Africa, and South Asia. Aid for AIDS also gives medication to people who need it and can not afford it. These people are usually from the listed places above, They just sign up for a program where they can get the medication. She gave us a tour of the office, she showed us the place where they empty pill bottles to repackage the other pills in to new bottles. She also showed us a closet which was filled with wheel chairs and crutches. I asked why it was filled with these items, because it did not make sense to me why they would have wheel chairs and crutches at an Aid for AIDS office. She said they where to donate to Haiti. I didn’t get why this related to AIDS but it is still important.  I started thinking about the medication and how they got it, I decided to ask the lady why it was there. She said that it was part of the Medicine Recycling Program you can check out the link here: http://www.aidforaids.org/index.php/site/programs_services/category/recycling/.  This program was one where medication was being recycled from other people which they did not use.  She then gave us our jobs:  Lenny,Matan and I where put on pamphlet folding duty, while Olivia, Jasper and Adam where put on some other job.  The pamphlets held facts about AIDS and HIV. I learned that AIDS can be transferred through oral sex though there is a very low risk. I really learned a lot from this visit.  I really learned a lot about my people skills and how to improve them, I started to ask questions and help out with little things that I thought would not help, but they did.  Next time I go I want to find out how the organization gets their funding because it seemed like a lot of money would go in to the upkeep and day to day operations of a foundation like this.