1. What do you think went well during your workshop? Name at least two things.

I think our game went well.  The kids seemed to enjoy it and be focused and excited.  During our first workshop I think we hadn’t explained the game so well but during our second workshop we new what to say and it went smoother then the first.  I also think that our power point went well because we were prepared and new what we were all going to say.  At some points we commented on each other’s and added to what others were saying.

2.What did you think about being a “teacher” for two hours?  What was exciting/challenging? How did you manage, as a team, to address what came up?

It was challenging.  I think that it was challenging to keep them focused for a long time.  Our power point was long and a few kids asked questions about it.  After it was over I think we all felt good.  It was a relief.  All of our hard work was over and we were happy with our workshop.  As a team I think that during the presentation we all contributed equal but during the process of making our workshop others did more than some.

 

3. What would you have done differently in your workshop, if you could?

I think we should have made another activity.  It was a little short so we had to expand a lot on other points.  But in the next workshop we made our game longer, which took up more time so we finished at the right moment. 

4. What lasting learning do you leave with about your topic and/or social justice activism?

It opened my mind to photography.  That someone who loved it so much could do something great with it like Rick Guidotti has done.  He has made it into something that can help people.

5. What went well with your set up groups? What are your thoughts about the assemblies?

I think that our set up group had a hard time at first.  We didn’t have many ideas.  Many people decided to do posters that informed people about our Social Justice Teach-In.  The decoration group could have definitely made more posters.  Many people help post the PSA’s in the lobby and on the walls outside of our classrooms.  Violet and I were assigned to make the puzzle for our 8^th grade activity after all the workshops.  It was confusing to make but we finally figured it out with the help of Sarah.  After everyone had decorated his or her puzzle unfortunately we were missing one piece.  Other than that I think we did a great job on the puzzle and it looks great.  I thought that the assemblies were good.  The band did a great job.  I thought that everything was set up well.  During the first slide show a couple of the PSA’s were cut off.

6. Comment on the process that led up to the Teach-In? What did you like? What suggestions do you have for next year?

I learnt a lot.  I was very inspired with Positive Exposure.  It is a fantastic organization that used art and photography to help a greater cause and teach many people about genetic conditions.  I think that next year the decoration group should have more people and the teachers could help with setting the decorations up.  We weren’t very organized and had a little difficulty.

 

 

Our last and final visit.  The most exciting too.  Rick Guidotti hosted a benefit for his organization Positive Exposure.  Cheyenne, Violet, Ruby and I were coat check and door men for a night.  It was fun.  Sarah came and so did Cheyenne’s dad Maurice Tobias.  Miche Violets mom was a big part in organizing the night.  It was fantastic.

When we got there weren’t so many people.  The floor was covered in this weird plastic that was slippery.  There were lots of waiters walking around with food.  Cheyenne’s dad called it gerbil food but Ruby loved it.  It was in this really big room.  The walls were lined with Rick’s pictures.  We saw many people that were in the pictures. 

Violet and I both got coat check and Cheyenne and Ruby got the door down stairs.  Every hour we would switch.  It was kind of fun then 2 hours passed and it got boring.  We decided to stop and look around the silent bidding.  There was a sheet where you wrote your name phone and email address down and then the amount they would bid.  There were lots of things to bid on.  Paintings, clothing, a couple of scarf’s, dinners and so much more.  We stayed until about 10 and then we all left and went to get rice pudding.

I think that it was a very successful night.

The last day of school did not felt like a half day.  After school Violet, Ruby T, Naomi and went to Ricks studio.  Rick was still away.  Naomi isn’t part of our group but just decided to come with us.  Cheyenne was in Costarica.  we arrived at the studio and wrote a few more adresses on invitation envopes.  after we were told by miche if we go wiat in line and post the last few letters when we come back there would be pizza wating for us when we got back.  it was our shortest visit yet which was refreshing after visits that were way to long.  after ruby, Naomi and i walked towards school from there we went all different ways home.

6th!  Today I went with Ruby T, Cheyenne and Violet to Positive Exposure to finish the work we didn’t complete yesterday.  But we finally finished putting addresses on them and taking to them to the post office after 4 hours of work.  We counted them and it was about 800 invitations.

We also saw Trishka who was helping us with the envolopes.  It was her birthday today too!

5^th visit completed.  Like the gift bags we packaged we were told to package 1000 invitations for a big benefit for positive exposure.  I went with Violet and Cheyenne because Ruby was unable to come.  We met a woman named Karin she was also doing the same packaging the envelopes but left early.

We did this for 2 hours and it felt like we hadn’t gotten anywhere.  Violet licked about 50 of them closed and then cut her lip.  Her tongue also turned numb.  We started to use a sponge and the sponge turned yellow after a few.  I wonder if someone can get poisoning from it.

We have completed about 300 invites and tomorrow we have to write the addresses on them and continue to do this until we are finished.  We will be attending this event sometime in April.

 

My fourth visit!  Today we went to the Waldorf Astoria to package gift bags for people who will be at event we are also going to tomorrow.  We met a woman named Amanda Mercep.  She works with Lynne Holden for the Go Red for Women Campaigned. There were many medical students volunteering for this too. We also got also got a flash drive that I used and found that it was uploaded with a document on cardiovascular.  If you look up it will be on my post  along with the pictures(If you can’t read or see the pictures click on it and after another page loads click on it again).

So we spent about 3 hours packaging 1,000 gift backs.  They had their logo on pins that we put in the bags.  There was lipstick and chocolate and face creams.  

The pictures are of the Go Red for Women Logo.  Packing gift bags and walking back in the snow.

Tomorrow we will learn much more about it.

This was our longest visit yet.  It was from 10-3.  I went with Cheyenne, Ruby T and Cheyenne’s mom, Henryne.  We went up to The Harlem Hospital on 135^th street.  It was a long ride on the subway.  We had to take 3 different trains and a taxi to get up there. 

There were a few people sitting at tables and handing out different kinds of flyers and talking to people about heart disease.  We were showed in to this huge auditorium.  We sat and listened to a lot of lectures on heart diseases, also called cardiovascular disease.

We met a doctor called Icilma Fergus.  She is the chief of Cardiology Department of Medicine at the Harlem Hospital.  She had PowerPoint that had a lot of different facts and graphs on it; many of the other presentations were very similar.

Dr. Fergus taught us that one in 2 women die of heart attack and 60% more will die of CVD than from cane.

Cardiovascular Disease.  Cardio means any disease of the heart and vascular means blood vessels.  The public does not understand the current danger of heart disease.

Some facts of CVD

-Caused 40% of deaths in a year

-Expensive medical care

-27% if men, 44% of women will die within a year

-Responsible for 100,00 lives

-It is 80% preventable

-Leading cause of death for African Americans

-Rick Factors

            Overweight/Obesity

            Physical inactivity

            Diabetes

            Smoking (cuts your life by 25%)

-Smoking is a higher risk of CVD or stroke than lung cancer.

            High blood pressure/cholesterol

            Age <Non Preventable

            Family History <Non Preventable

Heart Attack: Symptoms

-Pressure at center chest

-Discomfort in arm, shoulder, neck, jaw, stomach, and back

-Shortness of breath

-Fatigue

-Getting a cold sweat, nausea, weakness

 

What are Signs and Symptoms That Women Have?

-You can present with no symptoms

-Sometimes there are not specific symptoms

-Angena: Chest pain resulting in a heart attack.

 

 

To Prevent Heart Disease/Heart Attack

-Know your blood pressure

-Get tested for Diabetes

-Don’t smoke.

-Get tested for cholesterol.

-Maintain a healthy weight.

-Don’t drink too much alcohol.

-Find ways to cope with stress.

-Exercise.

 

We also heard Olajide A. Williams speak his is the Associate Director of Neurology at the Harlem hospital.  He showed us a video called Hip-Hop Stroke.  It is an organization where they teach kids about what to prevent having a stroke, to be healthy and exercise.  It uses children for first responders and teaches them about health.  A stroke is a shortage of oxygen traveling to the brain.  It’s like a brain attack.  Its causes are mainly unhealthy food and lack of exercise.  Something they taught was called FAST, it stands for Face, Arms, Speech and Time.  Face and Arms is when they can control their face and arms.  Their speech becomes slurred and time stands for time to call 911.  From this experience many kids have saved lives. http://hiphoppublichealth.org

 

From Reba Williams, Adrea Card and Vickie Powell we learnt about Hypertension, Diabetes, and Cholesterol.

 

Hypertension is when someone has really high blood pressure. When it is over 140/90.  50-65 million people in the US have high blood pressure.  High blood pressure is bad because it is the number one cause of CVD. When having high blood pressure damages arteries causing them to become stiff and narrow. Then it can’t get blood to work right can cause a heart attack.

 

How to Lower Blood Pressure

-Loose weight if overweight

-Exercise

-1 drink per day

-Reduce stress

-Diet to heart healthy

 

 

 

Diabetes is a progressive disease in which your body doesn’t make or respond properly to insulin.  In other words your body doesn’t let sugar turn into energy.  Diabetes doubles the risk of second heart attack in women but not in men.  65% of diabetes will die of a heart disease or stroke.

 

Cholesterol builds up on the walls of arteries and causes blood clots.  It stops the heart from getting the blood it needs so this causes a heart attack.

 

We then had lunch and after went back to the auditorium.  We chose to go to a workshop called Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyles by Joan Culpepper-Morgan, who is the Chief of Gastroenterology at the Harlem Hospital.  She taught us about high fructose corn syrup and about food in general.

Dr. Culpepper-Morgan describes High Fructose Corn Syrup as the great Satan of our diet.  She taught us about obesity and its fast growing rate.  She told us that when James Watt made High fructose corn syrup in the 70’s it was also the time when the obesity rate was increasing rapidly.  Now one 1/3 of women in America is obese.  It can reduce your life by 2-10 years.

Almost everyone has eaten its because its in almost everything its in all sodas, in ketchup.  The reason why companies use it so much is because its in the form of liquid so its easy to mix, its cheap and it also increases the shelf life of an object, which already tells you its bad.  Anything that doesn’t go off for years means its bad.  If something doesn’t rot or get moldy its because bacteria and mold don’t want to grow on it because its bad food.  Unlike sugar it isn’t ok in moderation it shouldn’t be consumed at all.  It produces bad fat.  There are two different types of fat good and bad.  Bad fat it’s created by high fructose corn syrup it surrounds the organs and is creating less space for them.  The good fat is on the outside of your organs and is created by regular sugar.

After our workshop it was time for us to go.  We had an extremely informative day.  And it had many connections to Fast Food Nation and the growing obesity of America.  It also related to science and learned a lot about the circulatory system. 

 

 

These are some pictures of people who have albinism.  Photographed by Rick Guidotti.

The first one is of Lauren from Austrailia.  The second pictures is of Gladismira from Panama.  The last one is Ceara from New Zealand.  Rick and Miche told us about Ceara.  She wanted to become a dancer but because of her albinism everyone said no you can’t your so different but Ceara went against everyones judgement and became a dancer.

February 3^rd

Our second Visit to Positive Exposure

Yesterday Violet, Cheyenne, Ruby and I visited Positive Exposure for the second time.  This time Rick Guidotti was not there, he is working in Italy. 

We met Trishka.  Trishka and Violets mom, Miche told us what to do.  So we sorted thank you letters from people all over the country.  The letters dated back 10 years.  From when he had first begun his organization.  There were thank you letters from people who he had helped and photographed.  We sorted through a huge pile that seemed never ending, we were told to put each one card in a plastic sleeve and but the date and the return address.  It was a simple task, which took hours.

When we were sorting we read some of them.   There was one letter from a woman named Kathryn Arnoldi.  Last time I found her quote on the Positive Exposure but I got to read the letter she wrote to Rick Guidotti.  I remembered that I read her quote but she also talked about how she felt different after he had taken the pictures of her. This made me realize how Rick Guidotti is helping people feel so much better about themselves.

I am anxious to complete our next few visits.

Yesterday Violet, Cheyenne, Ruby and I visited Positive Exposure. We learned a lot of things about albinism and we wrote letters to people.  We started to write letters to people who had a big influence, like the governor of New York.

Rick Guidotti runs this organization.  Rick Guidotti works with people who have genetic conditions.  He works with a lot of people who have albinism.

Albinism comes from the Latin word Albus, “white”.  It is a hypopigmentary congenital disorder characterized by the lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin and hair.  it is an inherited gene defect and not a disease.

People who have it usually have no pigment in them, so they are very pale.  Albinism.  Their skin lack dark pigment melanin which means they are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and they can get sunburnt very easily.  Many of them because of their pale eyes can have vision problems. We asked how a person has albinism.  Rick said that a child would have albinism if both of their parents have to carry it in their genes.  He explained to us that this did not mean that the parents have to have albinism they just have to be a carrier.

People all over the world have this genetic condition.  Rick recently took a trip to Tanzania.  A country with one of the highest population of people with albinism.  We learned that people with albinism are treated like outcasts in Africa. It is also believed that their limbs, in a potion can be used to bring lots of good fortune and wealth. These people go to their homes in the middle of the night and force them not to scream when the cutting of their limbs.  Many attacked people have died, many are living with arms and amputated arms or legs and  many have lost loved ones.  “Since 2007, 53 children and adults with albinism have been slaughtered by people.”  Positive Exposure has taken two trips to Tanzania providing the ground community education to stop these killings.  Rick Guidotti helps teach people not to kill people with albinism.

“Positive exposure provides new opportunities to see individuals living with genetic difference first and foremost as a human being with their own challenges rather than as a specific diagnosis/disease entity.”

“The men, women and children suffering form genetic diseases live trapped in a particular hell-they face ferocious uncertainty, fear of disability and death, and a segregating difference.  Positive exposure not only introduces to the world the stunning beauty of the ‘affected individual’, but also engages the participant in a process that elevates their self-esteem for life.”  Sharon Terry MA, CEO and President, Genetic Alliance.

“I did not see my disease in the photos that Rick took of me.  I did not see devastation, limitations, or deficiencies.  I saw a human being”-Kathryn Arnoldi, Alpha One

People with albinism are often looked down upon or shunned and targeted, so this organization is to help them to believe that they are not ugly, to help them feel beautiful and talented no matter what others say to them.

Here is the Positive Exposure website: http://www.positiveexposure.org/