2021-2022

Child Labor: What is it Really?

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On Monday, the 9th of February, our group met with Jason Scherr. Jason Scherr is the founder and CEO of Think Coffee. He is also one of our group members’, Arlo, dad. He began his career as a lawyer but after 10 years he decided to switch professions. He moved to Brooklyn which wasn’t the place it is today. In Williamsburg, he decided to open up a coffee shop where its key value was where the coffee came from instead of how it tasted. He still wanted the coffee to appeal to and attract customers but Jason was more enticed with the idea of the coffee beans coming from good people in fair working conditions.

As Think Coffee grew, it was able to reach out to more people in other countries and check out their farms to see if they would choose them as a supplier. Jason and his colleagues traveled out to these farms and talked to the farmers to see if they would be suitable. During his travels, Jason encountered child labour and really bad working conditions. He turned these farms down but he also provided help by building houses. So far Think Coffee has built 74 homes across the world but that isn’t the only way they have helped out. During COVID nobody visited the coffee shops anymore so Think Coffee did not need to buy from the farmers. Instead, they made a deal with the farmers to loan out money until the pandemic ended. This helped these farmers a lot in such a difficult time.

Jason was very great to talk to and brought up many fascinating ideas. Upon first asking him about child labour he responded with a very interesting point, “What does that mean? What makes child labour, child labour? My son who is 15 years old works here and he still worked here when he was 14. Arlo is probably even going to work here soon. He’s a child and he’s working. What truly defines child labour?” In response to this we looked up the definition and here is roughly what we got, child labour is when the work a child is doing is denying their education. Arlo’s brother still goes to school but lots of the kids that we are focussing on don’t. This was only one of the intuitive points that he brought up during the interview.

All in all, it was a great experience to have. We heard from somebody who had seen this first hand and who had helped the same people we were trying to help. He recommended another organization that was in the neighborhood and was overall very helpful. I learned a lot about how these farmers worked and their living conditions. I found it inspiring that he visited a lot of these farms himself and didn’t delegate it to someone else. We will be sure to check out the people he recommended and we thank him for such an informative conversation.

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Conversation with NAC: New Alternatives for Children

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On February 7 2022 I had the pleasure of meeting with Bobbi, Arlene, Carola, Carla, and Paris. These people all have different roles at New Alternatives for Children (NAC). This organization is based in New York City. These people are important to my topic because they specialize in special needs cases like children with autism.NAC was the first child welfare agency in New York State to serve children in family-based care who have dual diagnoses.

I learned a lot from this meeting. I learned how they kept up their communication with families through the covid 19 pandemic. I also learned about how they put their high-needs kids into foster care. and the age range of all the kids that are adopted and fostered. I also learned that NAC has there own staff of doctors to help the kids this was quite an amazing experience

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Interview with Jason Scherr: On a mission to address labor issues in the coffee industry.

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On Monday, February 8th our group met with Jason Scherr. Jason Scherr is the founder and CEO of Think Coffee, he was originally a corporate attorney. But after many years on the job, he realized the lack of human connection he encountered in his job and was faced with a difficult decision. Should he quit his job and risk making less money, or should he stay in a job he didn´t enjoy? He chose the first option and in 1996 he started a small coffee shop as a hobby, called Think Coffee. Eventually, his little shop turned into a coffee shop chain, with 11 locations in NYC and a franchised location in Korea.

Jason talked to us about the background checks he runs on coffee farmers, and the contracts he makes with them that sometimes force them to treat their workers better. Think Coffee actively goes to countries where their coffee is sourced and inspects the farms, to make sure the farmers and the children in the neighborhood have access to stable living conditions and are treated fairly on the farm. Oftentimes Jason will make deals with coffee farmers, build homes for farmworkers, and supply library books for children. He currently has two employees working in Nicaragua and meeting with farmers. One of his biggest issues is spreading the word of his sourcing practices to his customers, he told us that ¨Seeing a Fair-Trade certification is very straightforward, but telling our story to customers who really just want a caffeine buzz in the morning is very difficult.¨

He mentioned that he has not seen any forced labor firsthand on any coffee farms, but he has seen workers being mistreated and neglected. But he says the main problem is the harsh living conditions and lack of education children are given. We asked him about any child labor that goes on the coffee farms, and he said ¨It depends on your definition of child labor.¨ In the United States does my 15-year-old son working at my coffee shop count as child labor, I don´t know¨ Some kids on the coffee farms help out their parents during the harvest in Nicaragua, but it is not usually all year, and it doesn´t usually ruin their education. I learned a lot from our visit and I am looking forward to doing more fieldwork in the future.

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Taking Big Steps With NAC

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Our Group Met with The New Alternatives For Children (NAC). We interviewed 4 people: Arlene Goldsmith (Executive Director), Carla Riccobono (Director of Foster care and Adoption), Bobbi Nathanson (Director of Volunteers, Student Internships & Community Relations), and Paris Robbins (Foster Parent Recruitment Supervisor). This organization is partnered with ACS and is working incredibly hard to be there for every child in need throughout the boroughs. Their organization was started over 40 years ago by Arlene herself after spending 25 years in social work, to focus on children living in hospitals for longer than they needed to because of disabilities they had. their parents were unprepared to take care of them themselves or didn’t know what needed to be done. We learned a lot of interesting facts, for example, we know that children cannot be removed from their family’s household until taking the case to family court. Removal must be deemed necessary by a judge. We also learned that the children that are hardest to place are teens. the program mostly focuses on kids with disabilities, and they noted that it is definitely a challenge to get children with more challenging disabilities with more special needs and attention adopted. because of this, it is also harder to keep siblings all together if there is a big family, or multiple or all of the kids have special needs. Housing can also affect this because it can be hard to find people who own a big enough space to take in many kids.
NAC works extremely hard to get children back with their birth parents as soon as possible, preferring to put foster children with Kinship parents. It is shown that children staying with relatives makes visiting their parents easier, and they generally have a better time with someone who is related. of course, not all children have relatives available to foster them. Non-kinship foster parents go through an extensive training process. Many of them already have pre-existing experience with medical or mental care.
I definitely learned a lot through this interview. there was one quote that I left with that really stuck with me: “statistically parents who pertain optimism succeed the most when fostering.” They don’t succeed because they think it is the right thing to do, or if it has anything to do with their religion. The foster parents that usually succeed are the ones that truly believe they can make a difference in their foster child’s life, and are willing to put in time and effort for their success and well-being.

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“A Child’s History Does Not Define their Destiny” -An Interview with Staff from New Alternatives for Children

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On Monday, February 7th, 2022, our Social Justice group was honored to meet with staff at New Alternatives for Children (NAC). We interviewed Arlene Goldsmith (Executive Director), Bobbi Nathanson (Director of Volunteers, Student Internships, & Community Relations), Carola Haberly (Senior Director of Prevention Services), Carla Riccobono (Senior Director of Foster Care & Adoption Services), and Paris Robins (Foster Parent Recruitment Supervisor). NAC is an incredible organization that helps children who are in foster care, supports foster children with special needs, trains foster parents to become good caretakers for their children, helps children when going through the adoption process, helps to reunite families who have been spilt apart, and overall, helps all children find safe and loving homes. NAC continues to have a positive impact on many foster kids’ lives. NAC’s primary goal is unification, reuniting all foster kids with their biological families.

The NAC staff had many interesting things to say. Arlene has worked at NAC for 40 years and started the organization in 1981, when she saw that children were growing up in hospitals because they had special needs that their parents weren’t addressing. She thought that this was wrong so she started NAC as a way to help all foster children experience a great childhood despite their past traumas. One thing that Arlene said that really stuck out to us was, “a child’s history does not define their destiny.” This statement means that even though many children go through hardships as they are involved in the foster care system, nothing prevents them from reaching the goal of finding a permanent, safe home.

The other staff: Bobbi, Carola, Carla, and Paris, gave insight about how the foster care system works, how children’s special needs are addressed at NAC, and the complicated process of finding all children homes. They explained that NAC has many separate clinics and activities that help foster children to experience the best childhood possible.

All of this information helped us to reflect on our own childhoods and understand how much we take for granted as kids who are lucky enough to attend school and live in safe home environments with parents and siblings. We loved hearing from NAC and they have inspired us to organize our own school drive collecting school supplies for foster children. This was a wonderful interview!

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Interview With Dan Karslake – Religion Based Conversion Therapy and How We Can Help.

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On Thursday, November 3rd, my fellow group mate Ayelet and I interviewed a director and producer of many original documentaries, Dan Karslake. He has directed and produced the more well known documentaries “For The Bible Tells Me So” and “For They Know Not What They Do.” The interview consisted of us bringing up questions mostly related to religious based homophobia. Ayelet and I both know that some, if not most, conversion therapy sites are religiously motivated and come from the ideology that god hates homosexuals, and that people need to “correct” themselves to be worthy in God’s presence once again.

One question that we conducted which I found interesting was “What are some ways you’ve seen people helping to stop more people from getting hurt by conversion therapy?” Karslake proceeded to refer to the people he interviewed in 2003-2007 for “For The Bible Tells Me So.” He said that “all the people who participated in the interviews could be seen as activists.” He recalled examples of past interviewees who have gone far in their lives and careers since the release of the documentary. An example was a trans woman who had been part of the 2019 documentary “For They Know Not What They Do.” Now, she is in one of the highest powers of government that a trans person has ever been in. I thought it was amazing how even all these years later, Karslake still remembers these people. I am extremely grateful that we got to meet with this amazing man and learn so many things from him.

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Interview with Kate Foley From the Food Trust

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We met with Kate Foley from the Food Trust. Kate Foley is the Project Director of The Access to Healthy foods branch at the food trust. The Food Trust’s mission is to make sure that everyone has access to healthy and nutritious foods in areas that usually dont get it. They focus mostly in Phillidelphia, although they do a lot of work in other states.

Access to healthy foods is very important for many reasons. A lot of people who live in food deserts are often more prone to diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. As you know, those can be very bad and maybe even deadly in some cases. Not only is it important because its needed to survive. But its also very important especially for kids in school. This is because without enough nutrients and energy, it can affect the way they work and how they do in school. The Food Trust is working with countless other orgonizations to fix this issue and we look forward to making our own change.

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Ceres Community Project Interview

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We met Deborah Ramelli, the director of communitions at the Ceres Community Project. The Ceres Community project is important to our project for many reasons. One of the things the Ceres Community Project does is provide medically tailored meals to those in need. A lot of the time, people who are sick in hospitals generally dont get the food they need, and if they can, it might not be medically tailored to their needs. This means that they are providing access to healthy foods.

I think this makes a big difference because especially with the amount of people in hospitals because of covid. This means that the Ceres project was been able to help a lot more people recentlly. There are many orgonizations such as Gods Love we deliver. There are many things that we as students can do to help. One of these things is volenteer at places such as gods love we deliver and deliver food to those who cant access it.

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Interview with Jason Scherr

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On Monday the 7th of February our group was lucky enough to meet with Jason Scherr the founder of Think Coffee. Jason has worked for a long time to make sure that the supply chains for his companies coffee are forced and child labor free.

Jason told us that executive people in the company including himself will personally visit the farmers who grow the coffee. They look through all of their supply chains and where their ingredients are made and try to stop as many labor issues as possible. They have done many projects in different countries like building housing for farmers in Santa Teresa Nicaragua and making sure that farmers have clean water.

Jason also informed us that one big major problem for workers on farms is housing. Many farmers don’t have a roof over their heads when they work. Many people are often forced to live in subpar housing with many people. This is a major problem and Think Coffee tries to build many homes for farmers to combat this. Jason told us that big coffee corporations have the resources to look into their supply chains if they want to.

It was great to get to meet with Jason and learn about labor in supply chains, and how a company can be successful and profitable without having major labor issues.

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Interview with Deborah Remelli

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On Jan 26, Atticus, Bayo and I met with Deborah Remelli from the Ceres Community Project over google meet. Deborah works as a the Director of Development and Community Affairs at the Ceres Community Project. The Ceres Community Project’s goal is to “advocate for local, state and federal policies that increase access to healthy food for all people. ” This is really important to our project because she told us how there are a lot of people without access to healthy and sustainable food and it is becoming a big problem across America.

My personal reaction to this interview was that it had lots of information. We learned about how a lot of people needed support when it came to healthy and nutritious food. The Ceres Community Project is doing a really good job to help with that and I think that this can really help America with this issue.

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Sexual Harassment Case In The Workplace

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My group and I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Kevin Samuelson who is the CEO of Infor and his Executive Assistant Laurie Forbes. We interviewed them on this topic because Infor recently had a sexual harassment case inside of their office. Kevin Samuelson and Laurie Forbes were very helpful because they helped us get not only a better understanding of sexual harassment in the workplace but why it happens.

During our interview we found out that in most cases of sexual harassment in the workplace it is a higher/more superior member harassing a new or a lower member. While we couldn’t ask very many questions about the case that took place at their office, we asked what we could. For me personally, I learned so much more and it was so much fun going into an office were we got to interview people about our topic. It was super interesting to get two people in the workplace’s opinions as well as new information. I am forever grateful to Kevin Samuelson and Laurie Forbes for allowing my group and I to interview them on this subject.

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Interview with Law Fellow, Sophia Henager

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On Friday, February 4, our group had the amazing opportunity to talk to Sophia Henager who is a Law Fellow for the Equal Justice Initiative. EJI is an incredible organization that challenges racial and economic injustice in America, helps educate people on mass incarceration, and supports people with unjust punishments. Sophia was generous to accept a 45 minute, unrecorded interview over Google meet where she answered many of our concerning questions relating to our topic. A few things we learned about were, how mass incarceration started in America, the racial targeting and injustice people of color deal with in America, under budgeting of U.S. prisons, and the issues of misdiagnosing mental health. We are very lucky that we got the chance to meet Sophia and are grateful for the opportunity.

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Racism = Food Injustice?

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On Wednesday, Feb 2, me and my group members (Atticus Barocas and Theo Cornick) met with Katherine (Kate) Foley from the Food Trust Organization. We talked about access to healthful and nutritious foods around the country. The Food Trusts’ goal is to put more access to healthy and nutritious food in areas that don’t have much food. We learned a lot about how they are achieving this goal of making access to healthy and nutritious food around America. She spoke on the systemic relation to food injustices and how it needs to be more shown in the media. She stated that there are a lot of stats within the government that don’t show the full story and she and her team are working on helping this. The main areas they work are in Philadelphia and Camden (a little suburb in New Jersey not far from Philadelphia). They have goals for different states and different approaches to those certain states. This is very crucial to our project because it gives us an idea one what is truly happening when it comes to access to healthful and nutritious food. The Food Trust was founded in 1992 and is still making things till this day.

My personal reaction to this interview was how in-depth and thought out these organizations have to be. There are so many layered issues to be solved it’s hard to attack everything. Kate had a wonderful interview and she was very resourceful. My knowledge feels further. In review to the first interview this was much more on the topic we thought it would be on (food injustices for places with poverty). Overall this was great.

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Da Homeless Hero

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On Wednesday February 2nd, my group and I interview Shams DaBaron, also known as Da Homeless Hero. He had experienced homelessness on and off for many years. Through his life he has continued to read for hours on end which has given him lots of opportunity to learn and grow. during the first outbreak of Covid Shams ended up contracting it, after that near death experience he got the inspiration to start helping and trying to make a change.

We got to take a deep dive into Shams DaBaron’s past. We learned about how he was in a group home and eventually got kicked out and had to sleep at his friend homes until he could find somewhere to go, and plenty of other events that caused Shams DaBarn to become Da Homeless Hero. Now he works in the theater bringing awareness to homelessness.

It was really wonderful hearing about Shams life. It gave me a whole new perspective on homelessness. One things that I has stuck with me since the interview is to not judge someone by their financial status and instead give them that chance to show you who they really are. I am so grateful that we go to have this Interview and will take everything I learned on with me as we work on this project.

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“Food Is A Necessity Not A Want”

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On Thursday morning, February 3rd my group had the pleasure of interviewing Deborah Ramelli. She is the Director of Development and Community Affairs. She works for
Ceres Community Project (Sear-ees-). The Ceres Community Project has a vision and a statement. The vision: A healthy, just, caring and sustainable world. Their mission: We create health for people, communities and the planet through love, healing food and empowering the next generation. The Ceres Community Project was founded in 2007 by Cathryn Couch; JoEllen DeNicola. Deborah has been with the Ceres Community Project practically since they were founded and has helped many people during the process.

Deborah told us about her diverse background which includes working for corporations and not-for-profits in addition to running her own small business. Deborah holds a BA in Political Science, is a yoga teacher, and a Nutrition Educator. She is also an enthusiastic gardener and cook, and loves bringing people together over a table of great, healthy food.

For me listening to Deborah was very informative and interesting to hear. She talked about what the Ceres Community project does and how it’s slightly different than what we believe their values were. Even then it was still very beneficial to our group I believe because it still relates to my group’s topic which was a very broad category at the time. In fact it helped us specify what it is we are truly trying to help. Even with the slight hiccup Deborah’s statements were just so interesting to hear and so beneficial to hear because it showed how much people have had to deal with in the past few years especially with the current pandemic around the world a lot of people had to deal with food insecurities. Overall it was a great experience and I’m excited to continue this research.

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Interview with Nicole McVinua

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On Monday January 31st, my group and I interviewed Nicole Mcvinua. Nicole works with Urban Pathways as the Director of Policies. She. has been working with Urban Pathways for the past three years. Through this time she has seen many successes bringing her closer to the big goal of ending homelessness.

During the interview we covered many topics and got to hear a lot about what Nicole does. One of the thing that I remember her talking about is about is how Urban Pathways can help find homeless people small apartments or hotels within a couple hours. This speeds up the waiting process that other places make people deal with, making it a lot easier for a homeless person to find a place and not have to worry about waiting for long periods of time. She also talked about all the successes she has seen through and even thought there is a long road a head of us before homelessness will truly be over. Everyday were are taking a step closer.

Im so grateful that Nicole took sometime to talk to us about what she does. Everything she said during the interview was very interesting and inspiring. I am very exited about the next steps we have to take.

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Interview with Jennifer Bombardier

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Jennifer Bombardier obtained her M.A. in Environmental Conservation Education from New York University. She has taught educational programs at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She is currently the Education Manager for the Lower East Side Ecology Center.

This interview was very informative. We learned many pieces of valuable information. One thing interesting I learned was that areas that are flooded and more prone to hurricanes are at risk.

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Interview with Linda Escalante

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We had an interview with Linda Escalante. Escalante is a renowned environmental expert in the United States. She promotes strong relationships with state and local elected officials, partner organizations, coalitions, and other stakeholders.

We learned lots of new interesting information during this interview. For one thing, the less water that’s available, the more concentrated the chemicals in the water. We need to find substitutes for certain products that produce an excessive amount of pollution.

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Interview with Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar

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My teammates and I interviewed Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar. She is Program Director for the Sustainable Infrastructure Unit with the New York City Department of Design and Construction. She manages design contracts and ensures the on-time delivery of NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection’s various multi-million-dollar city-wide green infrastructure contracts.

Something interesting that we learned is that when there is a lot of rain, more pollution builds up. Water pollution is not all caused by man-made objects, but also natural occurrences. Also, the more resources you use to combat pollution, the more you’re contributing to climate change, so we need to put more work into both to solve this circle of issues

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Mental Health In adolescents (Interview with Ty Beauchamp)

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On Wednesday, January 19 my group and I had a wonderful interview with Ty Beauchamp. Ty Beauchamp is a school psychologist who works here at LREI. Ty went through four years of undergrad school, studying psychology and public service. Ty did another three years of studying school psychology, then four more years to get his Doctorate in education.

In our interview we talked about how COVID-19 has affected adolescents. Ty talked about how he feels people are socially and developmentally behind. also how elementary kids have suffered a lot due to the pandemic, and that middle school kids are also presenting in a way that is behind. Ty also shared about how anxiety has increased so much, people who were never anxious before are anxious now. Also the same thing is happening with depression but anxiety seems to be higher.

We continued talking about the pandemic and how it’s caused trauma to people.. Ty further talked about how trauma looks different for everybody, and how it’s like a spectrum. People losing family members due to the pandemic can be left with a lot of trauma connected to covid/ the pandemic. Moving into mental health care, people now more than ever are seeking out therapists. He talks about his feelings on how schools should be talking about this more. In our interview Ty says “people need to be more flexible and understand that, whatever you were supposed to look like as a middle schooler you might not necessarily be there and that’s okay.”

We then asked Ty “Do you think that parents try to ignore their child’s signs of mental health issues?”. Ty responds by saying he feels that parents don’t try to ignore the signs but that they don’t know what the signs are. Ty goes on to talk about some of the signs that they talked about in a parent meeting, some were changes in eating habits, changes in sleeping patterns, and changes in mood and behavior. Ty further states how much our sleep can affect our mental health, and how too little sleep will affect your focus in school also affects how much you can handle your emotions. We have learned how sleep is very important for your mental health. He goes on to state that it is just as important to take care of your mental health as it is to take care of your physical health.

My group and I had a great time meeting with Ty and our interview with him was very helpful. We got so much good information from him and are so grateful that he let us interview him.

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Interview with Center for Arms Control and Non Proliferation

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On Thursday, the 3rd of February my group and I got the chance to meet Samuel Hickey and Monica Montgomery for a virtual informational interview on zoom. They work for an organization, called, The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. They told us about current nuclear tensions, as well as how their organization works. We also learned about what people our age can do to help with nuclear disarmament. My partner, Edward Turbek, and I earned a lot from the interview, and are grateful for the opportunity to interview them.

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Interview with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

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On Thursday, the 3rd of February my group and I were honored to meet Samuel Hickey and Monica Montgomery for a virtual interview. They told us about current nuclear tensions, the ways their organisation works, what my group could do and people that we should interview. My partner, Bo Gardener and I were very grateful for the opportunity to interview them and how they taught us a lot.

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Interview with Kevin Samuelson and Laurie Forbes

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Me and my group decided to interview Kevin Samuelson and Laurie Forbes. Kevin is the Ceo of a company that had experienced an incident with work harrassmant. We wanted to see how this was handled, and just some details about how this happens, and how the power dynamic is a huge part of it.

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Interview with Sophia Henager

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We interviewed Sophia Henager. She works at EJI (Equal Justice Initiative) as a Law fellow. She has worked on incarceration cases, death row, felonies, and misdemeanor cases. She has taught us a lot about mass incarceration and how it can completely destroy people’s lives, and how political decisions have largely affected incarcerated people.

During the interview we asked questions about how mass incarceration affects communities. She gave us some really great answers. She said that “Today almost half of the people in federal prisons are incarcerated for drug offenses, and ⅔ of that 50 percent are people of color.” This fact was produced in 2017, and she said that this number has most likely risen. She gave us a ton of great new information and was great for our first interview.

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Da Homeless Hero Saves the Day

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On Wednesday, the 2nd of February, we were honored to meet with Shams DaBaron. Many people know Shams today as Da Homeless Hero. The interesting part of this interview was learning his experience. Normally, you’d learn about information on the topic, but because Sham’s experienced homelessness, we got to learn his experience and what he does now to help the issue.

Shams told us how he became Da Homeless Hero. He actually lived in a hotel once and because of the hostility in his neighborhood, he was gonna have to move downtown from the Upper West Side. People downtown worked with an organization called Open Hearts and luckily connected with Shams, and helped him throughout his struggles. Because of this organization and his perseverance, he now fights for people experiencing homelessness.

Something that stood out to me was how he gets his information. He told us that he read books that really inspired him to get his name Da Homeless Hero and ideas to help others experiencing homelessness. I was also struck when he told us our relationship with people experiencing homelessness had to change. We look down at them and do not see them as people, when we really needed to. He told us all they really want is to be seen. Smiling at them can really make a difference.

This interview was really important because it gave us an inside view from someone who has experienced the human rights issue we are learning about. His story was incredible and it was so inspiring.

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Interview with Nicole McVinua

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On January 31st, my group was able to meet with Nicole McVinua. She works with Urban Pathways and is the Director of Policy there. She has been working than for more than 3 years.

Even though there are multiple causes of homelessness, Nicole told us the main reason. The main cause of homelessness really is affordable housing. The cost for living in New York City is extremely expensive. We are so lucky to have a roof over our heads because many others lose their shelter, get robbed, and are living on the street. We are afraid of them, and look down on them but need to help them and see them as people.

Talking to Nicole was an incredible experience for us. We learned so much and we’re really inspired by her. It was so great to talk with someone who has helped to make progress on this social issue and who educated us on the topic we are researching for our Social Justice Project.

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Interview with Kevin Samuelson and Laurie Forbes on Workplace Harassment

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On February 2nd, 2022, we had the honor of interviewing Kevin Samuelson, the CEO of Infor, and Laurie Forbes, his EA (executive assistant) about the topic of sexual harassment in the workplace. We attended an in-person meeting at the head quarters of Infor, where we were sat down in a conference room and recorded the entire interview. During the discussion, we reviewed the company’s zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment and what occurred when a case was reported. We discussed the power dynamic, how the offender was almost always a more senior employee, while the victim was a more junior one.

We are all very grateful towards both Mr. Samuelson and Mrs. Forbes for allowing us to come into their workplace and discuss this topic. It was truly an amazing experience to get yet another perspective on sexual harassment as a whole and to brainstorm even more ways to combat it. It was very important that we talked to someone who has had experience with sexual harassment, both as a bystander and as the person who administered the punishment to the offender. Everything that they explained to us about previous cases of sexual assault left me in shock. The fact that this is an issue in our society today and that countless people have to grapple with it on a daily basis is not okay. Something mush

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Abortion Rights and Access Presentation

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Two weeks ago my group presented a presentation on Abortion Rights and Access. I was very excited to share because it had a ton of important information. I think my whole group was a little nervous presenting but if every other group could do it do could we. I researched and found all the statistics and laws that we were going to put in the presentation. The research process was easy because the internet contains so much information about abortion statistics. When researching all the laws having to do with abortion I got upset because our government is fighting against women and I don’t think that’s fair. Everyone should be entitled to the health care they deserve including abortions.

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Navigating Abortions

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On January 26th our group met with Diane Macias who is the Patient Navigation Director at Planned Parenthood. She is based in Florida so out interview took place over zoom. As a Patient navigator she help patients find a clinic and cover any cost for gas,food, hotel room, and anything else they might need to get to the clinic. This is important because do to restrictions some states might have it can be extremely hard to find an abortion and sometime you might even have to travel out of state.

Texas had a bunch of laws that make it hard for Diane to do her job. She also talked about the Mississippi SB 8 law that says you cant get an abortion after 15 weeks and is trying to overturn Roe v Wade. Laws like this is why Diane’s job is so important. It can be extremely hard for a women to find an abortion and gather the resources she need when her state is working against her.

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The Other Side of Pro-Choice

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On Tuesday, Febuary 1st my group inerviewed Vivian Silva on her views on abortion. Her pro life views are a very important perspective for our topic because to help the pro-choice side we needed to better understand that other point of view. She was our first por-life interview and something she said were a litle frusterating. She told us the reasoning behind her beliefs.

She belives that with action comes consequence and if you make the dissision do have sex you have to deal with the consequnces that can be a baby. She also was walkin about how its a life life isint true medically its just a bunch of cells. When we aked her about what is the female was raped she said that if it was a minor then they should get an abortion but if it was an adult then the female should put the baby up for adoption. She said that putting the baby up for adoption was the best option .

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Spreading the Word With Linda Escalante

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Linda Escalante communicates the needs of the environment to public officials to pass bills such as the Clean Water Act, and other movements to better care for our surroundings. She works for the NRDC. Linda is important to our topic because being able to inform others on critical issues is extremely important in order to work together and get things done.

During the interview, Linda explains how impact water preservation in how most wars are over resources that provide economical power, not just water but other crops and items, as well as as how literally everything we do or create comes with a cost to the environment. Even though dying from unclean water seems like a distant past, many are still falling to contaminated water. This is because of many companies and cooperation dumping toxic waste into water ways, spreading throughout all water via trans-boundary contamination.

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Insight from a School Psychologist

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On Friday, the 28th of January, our group had our very first interview with Ty Beauchamp. Ty is our School Psychologist who recently moved from Los Angeles, California who helps and meets with kids through grade 7 to grade 12. Ty had to go to under grad school for 4 years for psychology and public service which he enjoyed. He also studied for school psychology for 3 years. Finally, he went for his doctor education for another 4 years.

Ty told us that he believes that Covid-19 has impacted adolescents in every way possible and that people have a standard for teens to act a certain way even if they have been deprived of many things in their lives. He told us about how people who have never experienced anxiety or depression experience it now. He says many people are seeking mental health care and there aren’t really that many people to talk to. There are some other issues with that as well.

He says that it is hard to open up to a random person so people should go “therapist shopping” as he says to find someone that you like and are comfortable with opening up to. He suggests meeting with many people and seeing if you like the way they talk, if you find their voice annoying or if you think they are the right fit for you. We were brought to the attention that people never bring up mental health so no one ever talks about it. Ty says that parents don’t try to ignore the signs of their child going through metal health problems but they don’t know what the signs are. Eating/sleeping patterns and behavioral issues are signs that people don’t recognize.

We asked him for resources so we could speak to and ask questions or get more information. He introduced us to the TREVOR project, and he also brought up our peers. He says that everyone in our school building is comfortable with opening up because we are in a safe environment that speaks about mental health on a daily basis. He suggests talking to our classmates for which he thinks would be very useful to our project. He finds that if you dig deep and ask specific questions unlike “how are you” people tend to speak about how they are feeling more easily because they know you are really listening and care. He thinks that we should take more leadership in our project and start things like clubs or put up posters and meet with people which would make a huge difference in his eyes.

It was such an honor to have our first interview with Ty. It was very important that we spoke to him first so we would have some of the best information straight from a psychologist. We learned and heard about so much and because of his words we are going to have a great start to this project.

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Water Pollution Interview with Jennifer Bombardier

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On Thursday, the 3rd of February our group was honored to meet with Jennifer Bombardier. Jennifer Bombardier is an export at LES Ecology Center. She is focused around educating others on the environment around us, “work toward a better future.” We asked many questions like different types of water pollution, how climate change affecting the water cycle, and what are some solutions to water pollution which then helps climate change. She was very nice and informed us with her wisdom about how rain water and waste water in the same sewage system is being dumbed back into the ocean untreated.

Jennifer became passionate about environmental education during her college years at George Mason University in Northern Virginia. She is dedicated to connecting youth with their local environment and instilling stewardship values that last a lifetime. She told use different organization that we can trust, including Billion Oyster Project, Water Act, etc. This issue is really important to her and us and we were so happy to interview her on zoom.

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Water Pollution Interview with Linda Escalante

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On Tuesday, the 1th of February our group was honored to meet with Linda Escalante. Linda Escalante is an export at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). We asked many questions like different types of water pollution, how climate change affecting the water cycle, and what are some solutions to water pollution which then helps climate change. She was very nice and informed us with her wisdom about how water pollution affects industries and the people. She talks about how people who work in industries are also affected by the changing of policies to help benefit water pollution and climate change. If they take away these industries, thousands of people are not going to have jobs.

Linda Escalante goes to elected officials to persuade them into making good decisions for the environment and public health. Escalante is a renowned environmental expert in the U.S-based Spanish language—empowering and mobilizing Latinos to engage in advocacy and activism around environmental and health issues. Escalante, who is also passionate about civil, immigrant, and women’s rights, has served as a board member of a worker wellness and healthcare access organization. This issue is really important to her and us and we were so happy to interview her on zoom.

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Interview with Daniel Karslake

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On Thursday morning, February 3rd our group had the pleasure of interviewing Daniel Karslkae. He is a director and producer of several documentaries, some of which relate to our topic of lgbtq+ conversion therapy such as The Bible Tells Me So (2007), and For They Know Not What They Do (2019). In his films, he interviews many people about their views and we get a look into their lives. He has spread people’s words on a very wide platform and so many are able to learn so much from him.

Daniel told us about how he started his career as a child actor, before transitioning into filmmaking after graduating from Duke University. Once he finished film school, he worked at PDS (public broadcasting service) on a show called In The Life, which was about LGBT+ people and issues they face. He says that he focused a lot on the religious aspect because he feels that’s what is at the root of most homophobia and transphobia. He left this job to start working on his first film.

It was amazing to listen to Daniel and for him to share so much with us. We learned so much about why homophobia and transphobia are such a big problem today, while also hearing about his experiences working with people with such a wide variety of opinions and views. My group and I are now even more encouraged to educate ourselves and others about our topic.

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“Being Da Homeless Hero is a part of me”

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In this fieldwork we interviewed Shams Debaron. Many people know him as Da Homeless Hero. For me, what made the interview so interesting was the fact that he is a former homeless person, meaning that he knows how many homeless people feel. I learned that if it were not for books, he probably would not be where he is today and they had a tremendous effect on his life.

Something that specifically stuck with me was that when he said that him being from the “hood” (as he described it) many people around him did not understand how to turn their lives around and how society has forced the image that people who have grown up in rough neighborhood have to sell drugs or continue to act tough. I was also really surprised that he chose to create a homeless play. I like that idea because he did it to be different from the rest. This interview gave our group a ton load of valuable new information and I thank Shams for taking time out of his day to speak to us.

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Interview with Nicole McVinua

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On Monday, January 31st, our group was honored to meet with Nicole McVinua. Nicole McVinua works with Urban Pathways and is the Director of Policy. She has been working for Urban Pathways for more than 3 years.

Nicole told us about the big cause of homelessness. That really was affordable housing. There are many others, but that is the main cause. Even though this goal to end homelessness is endless, she has done much work to make policies and fight for those in need.

She really opened our eyes and made us aware how long it takes to make one tiny step towards this goal. But she even says every step is worth it. I was really surprised, but impressed with the policies she is working on. She told us from when she started working for Urban Pathways, till now, she got one policy passed and it has helped several. I know right, isn’t it shocking how long it takes for a policy to be passed? It was also shocking that the person we interviewed later; Sham’s DaBaron, was known by Nicole because they talked and worked a bit together when Sham’s got connected with Urban Pathways.

We had such a great time with Nicole and it was incredible talking to someone who fights and works on issues that our group is researching for the Social Justice Project.

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“It’s a life!” Interview with pro-life Vivian Silva

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On Tuesday, February 1st our group had the pleasure of meeting with Vivian Silva, a pro-life woman who is a friend of Cece’s. While the conversation was a bit unprofessional, we did learn a lot about how pro-life people think.
Vivian was very intent on a single point: “it’s a life!” She told us that she was raised with very pro-life opinions in her home country of Mexico. We tried to politely offer some counter points, but Vivian was very stuck on her opinion.

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Interview With Jane Kaufman

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On Monday, January 31st our group interviewed Jane Kaufman. Jane is the Inerim Associate Medical Director of some of the Planned Parenthoods in New York. She does abortions but most of the time she overseas them at multiple locations. She plays a very important role in Planned Parenthood and with poeple seeking to get an abortion. She provids abortion clinics with the resources and certification they need to provide the procedure.

Our main reason for interviewing her was to learn more about the medical aspect. We asked her a lot a different medical questions. She told us that abortions ultimatly have no long term affects or downsides and they are 100% safe unless there are other complications having to do with the patient. Jane told us there are different aspects that determine the type of abortion that the patient gets. The Type of a abortion most of the time has to do with the age of the fetus. She also shared that the texas laws basically give 1-2 weeks for the female to find out if shes pregnat and isint even able to get an abortion after shes missed her first period becuase the time has ran out.

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Interview, Water Conservation During Rain

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Jennifer Bombardier is a part of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, contributing to green infrastructure, and changes for water preservation and cleaning. She claims that water is essential for everything, recreation, drinking, cooking, and many other daily activities. Toxic waste is commonly, illegally, dumped into our waterways, harming both humans and animals. Heating and cooling systems in buildings are major contributors to global warming because of how much fossil fuels they produce.
Rain and waste water are being stored in the same areas, polluting the rain water that could have been cleaned and turned into drinking water. People should try and conserve water as much as possible, especially when it rains.

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Interview, Green Infrastructure

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We met with Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar, architect for the city and green infrastructure. Sofía Zuberbühler-Yafar is Program Director for the Sustainable Infrastructure Unit with the New York City Department of Design and Construction. She is important to our topic because she provided a lot of information regarding sewage problems in NYC and how green infrastructure and sustainability is the future of our society, and how it can save our water, and work toward the slow of Climate Change.
She has over 19 years of experience in Urban Design and was able to inform us of the city’s measures to combat water pollution through water basins, and other ways to save energy during rainstorms and through more Eco-friendly farming.

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Interview with National Eating Disorders Association

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We interviewed Lauren Smolar on her experience working for the National Eating Disorder. She talked to us about how big of an impact the media can have on peoples perception of themselves. She also told us about how social media can help bring people with eating disorders together to share their experience, which are some things the organization is working to do at the end of this month for National Eating Disorders Awarness Week. She talked about how many people struggle with eating disorders, but social media isn’t the only infulence of it.

I really enjoyed this interview because we have the perspective of a professional and we get to learn about what NEDA is working to do next. I also enjoyed this because it showed that social media doesn’t always has to be negitive, and just has to be fixed. My group and I will take this information and incorperate it into further reashearch.

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This is not a simple plastic surgery: An Interview with Dr. Yael Goverover

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On January 27th, our group had the honor of interviewing my mother, Dr. Yael Goverover. Yael is a professor of occupational therapy at NYU. When she was 27, she had an abortion. There is not much I can say about the details of her abortion, because it is private information that she would prefer we didn’t say.
Although we can’t share most details about her abortion, Yael has given us permission to share some things. We learned that after her abortion, she rested at home for one or two days, and then went back to work and her daily life. We also learned that it was kind of difficult for her to schedule an abortion because of the restricting laws in her home country of Israel.

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Water Pollution Interview with Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar

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On Monday, the 31th of January our group was honored to meet with Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar. Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar is an export at NYC Dept of Design and Construction, leading their Green Infrastructure and Sustainable/Resilient Infra Program. We asked many questions like different types of water pollution, how climate change affecting the water cycle, and what are some solutions to water pollution which then helps climate change. She was very nice and informed us with her wisdom about sewage water and storms and was very cooperative.

Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar is a mother of a student in our school. She is a graduate degree in Urban Design and over 19 years of experience architecture. including urban planning with the NYC Department of City Planning and landscape architecture design in the private realm. This issue is really important to her and us and we were so happy to interview her on zoom.

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Interview with National Eating Disorders Association.

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We interviewed Lauren Smolar on her experience being apart of the Nation Eating Disorder Association. She answered our questions about how to deal with the ups and downs of social media and a way to use social media in a healthy way. She explained that social media is a great place for people with similar views to interact with each other but it also can be used negatively when used to make people feel bad about them selves and can trigger and eating disorder or insecurities.

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Interview with Kate Foley

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On Wednesday, Feb 2, we met with Kate Foley from the Food Trust Organization. We talked about access to healthful and nutritious food around America. The Food Trusts’ goal is to put more access to healthy and nutritious food in areas that don’t have much food. We learned a lot about how they are achieving this goal of making access to healthy and nutritious food around America. The main areas they are working in are Philidelphia and Camden. They have goals for different states and different approaches to those certain states. This is important to our project because it gives us an idea one what is happening when it comes to access to healthful and nutritious food. The Food Trust has been a thing since 1992 and is still making lots happen in America.

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Interview with Lauren Smolar

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Today my group and I had an interview with Lauren Smolar. Lauren Smolar is the Senior Director of Programs at the National Eating Disorders Association. She is important to our topic because she knows a lot about eating disorders, and in our case how they are effected by social media. I was actually suprised that giving what she does she said she believes social media is a great way to stay connected, learn more, and a good thing to have. However she thinks social media has a downside that needs to be fixed.

NEDA preparing for national eating disorders awareness week at the end of this month and is sharing peoples stories on their experience with eating disorders. They hope to do more in person events once it’s safe, but is happy with the way people are still coming to them for help during this time. I really enjoyed this interview because it gave us the perspective of a professional and we got to learn about what this organization is working to do next.

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Interview with National Eating Disorder Association.

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We met with Lauren Smolar who works at the national eating disorder association. She told us about how eating disorders can run through families. She said that social media could be an effect of eating disorders. we choose her for our interview because eating disorders are a cause led by social media and it relates to body image. Her company has a hot line where you can call if you are struggling.

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Nuclear Disarmament Presentation 101

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On January 20th, Me and my group mate Edward presented to the grade our social justice project. My group worked well together and we were able to coordinate working hours. Our group learned a lot about our topic because we researched well together. Our research also helped us find organizations, and yesterday we got to interview one!

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Sexual Harassment From a Corporate Perspective

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On Wednesday, February 2nd, our group met with Allie’s father, Kevin Samuelson. As the CEO of Infor, he is aware of any sexual assault that happens in his company. He is very committed to making Infor a safe and productive environment.

Kevin mentioned that sexual assault is all about power, an older and more senior member of the company abusing a younger, more inexperienced one. He also mentioned that this dynamic is only increased when it comes to an older man abusing a younger woman. Although we cannot mention the details of the stories he shared, there have been several cases that he told us about. It seems to happen with one harasser multiple times and then it is (hopefully) found.

This interview was very helpful and gave us a lot of information on sexual harassment in the workplace.

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Interview With Jennifer Bombardier From The LES Ecology Center

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We had an interview with Jennifer Bombardier. Jennifer is the educational manager at the Lower East Side Ecology Center. She told us a lot about the organization and what they do. We learned about the major effects and sources of water pollution and she gave us a list of organizations that we could either schedule and interview with or find an oppurtunity to do fieldwork. I think that this was a very successful interview and now we have other people that we could meet with to learn even more about our topic.

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Interview with Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar

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We had an interview with Sofia Zuberbuhler-Yafar from Green Infrastructure and Sustainable/Resilient Infra Program. We talked with Sofia about the dangers of water pollution and the effects that it has. We learned a lot about storm water and what is being done to ensure that we have clean water that we can drink. This was a very successful interview and I feel like our group learned a lot of helpful information.

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Interview With Linda Escalante

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We had an interview with Linda Escalante from the NRDC and although the interview got cut short, we learned a lot of about where water comes from, how it is used, and what pollutes it the most. Linda told us about what she does at the NRDC and how the NRDC takes action in helping decontaminate the water around us.

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My Body is Not a Political Playground

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We met with Jane Kaufman. She works in the medical field of Planned Parenthood. She oversees abortions at multiple clinics, as well as performing them sometimes too. She plays a really important role in abortions. Jane is the one that provides the tools and certifications for clinics to be able to perform abortions and other critical procedures.

During the interview we got to ask her some important medical questions. She provided some really interesting information. She said that abortions, regardless of which type you get, doesn’t have a permanent medical effect on patients. Jane also told us about what determines a patient for one type of abortion instead of another. The recommended type of abortion has to do with the gestational age (the age of the pregnancy). This was only some of the insightful information that Jane provided.

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The Personal Perspective

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We met with Yael Goverover. We had a really interesting conversation about the experience of an abortion. Yael has requested that the contents of this intimate conversation not be repeated. We talked about the statistics of how women feel after having an abortion.

Many people, especially pro-lifers, think that women feel heavy remorse and regret after an abortion. But statistically, this is not the case. Abortions are keys to continuing their lives for many women. Having a child before you are ready can derail someone’s life. Stopping it will help them prepare for the rest of their lives. This can help someone be ready to have a child later, when they are ready.

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Sham’s DaBaron becomes Da Homeless Hero

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On Wednesday, the 2nd of February, our group met with Shams DaBaron. Or as many know him today as Da Homeless Hero. Since he himself experienced homelessness, we got to understand his life story and how he eventually became Da Homeless Hero. We understood even during treacherous years of his life, especially during Covid and being in foster care at a young age, he continued to find ways to read books and really allowed this content to inspire him for his name(Da Homeless Hero) and his work.

We even got to fully understand his work in theater and how he uses that to make people aware of homelessness and teaches them ways they can help. It really inspired our group to do more for our community. That’s why, we might even be able to see his performance in school, try contacting groups to bring care packages to shelters, and find other ways to help our community. It was really important to speak with someone who experienced the human rights issue we are working on and researching about this year. His story was remarkable and really special to be able to hear about.

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Accessing Abortions

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We met with Diane Macias who is works in Patient Navigation at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She is based in Florida. In our meeting we talked about what it means to be a Patient Navigator. Her job is to get patients to an abortion clinic. This might mean lending them money for gas, food, hotel rooms, and anything else they might need.

Something I learned was how Mississippi SB 8 effects women that want abortions. This case was made to directly appose Roe v Wade. At the heart of the Mississippi SB 8 is the 2018 Mississippi law that limits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. She explained this and so much more. This interview was very helpful and informative.

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My Cells are Contracting – Not my Heart: Interview With An Abortion Provider

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On Monday, January 31st our group had the honor to meet with Jane Kaufman. Jane Kaufman is the Associate Medical Director of all Planned Parenthoods of Greater New York. She has worked there for six or seven years.
Jane told us about which type of abortion is more complicated, why people think a fetus has a heartbeat very early on, and many other medical tidbits about abortion.
We were really lucky to interview her and we are very grateful!

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The Pro-Life Perspective

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We met with Vivian Silva to talk about the pro-life point of view of abortions. She is important to our topic because it is very controversial. We had only interviewed pro-choice people before and we wanted to hear someone else’s perspective. We learned some of the reasons for the pro-life perspective.

Vivian thinks that if you become pregnant and don’t want the baby you should deal with the consequences because they were you actions. When she said this we asked her, “What if it is rape?” She said that she thought that in some cases when the mother is a minor then abortion is okay but otherwise you can give the baby up for adoption. She said the same for incest cases.

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Interview With Yael Goverover

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On Thursday, January 27th our group interveiwed Yael Goverover on her experience getting an abortion. This is important to us because she shared information with us that we wouldnt be able to look up or find on wikipedia. There isn’t much I can say becuase I want to respect her privacy.

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Driving Back and Forth for my Constitutional Right: Interview with Diane Macias

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On January 26th, our group had the pleasure of interviewing Diane Macias, the manager of patient navigation at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She has worked in and around Planned Parenthood for 11 years, and really enjoys her job.
Being a mother at the early age of 17, Diane really learned the importance of sex education in school. She lives in Florida and worked at several Planned Parenthood Health Centers in the past.
We learned about what Planned Parenthood will do if Roe v. Wade reverses, we learned more about medical abortions, we learned more about unsafe “DIY abortions”.
Overall it was super informative and interesting, and we had a great time interviewing Diane!

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Body Image and Social Media Presentation

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This week I will present with my social justice group, about our topic Social Media and Body Image. We had a few articals about this critical issue and I am excited to show my classmates all that we learned so far. This issue is really important to me, because so many of us are on social media, we are all greatly affected by the things we scroll past every day. People trying to promote and live up to certain body types as well as shaming those who don’t have that body type is having an extremely negative impact on young girls and women. Since our group members all experience this first hand, we are devoted to learning more about it and coming up with potential solutions.

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Body image and Social media Presentation

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This week I will present with my social justice group, about our topic. We had read a few articals about the affects of body image on social media. Im very interested in my topic so I would love to share what I know with my classmates. I canyt wait to learn more about this topic and issue.

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Gender Pay Gap in Sports Presentation

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Yesterday, I presented with my social justice group, about our topic. We had many articles on the issue of the gender pay gap and how women get treated as athletes. I was very confident while presenting because I worked very hard on the slideshow. My group did a fantastic job collaborating. I believe it’s important to note that the lowest-paid player in the NBA gets paid 925,000 yearly and they don’t even get playing time 90% of the time. However, women who are star players and give it their all every day get paid 100,000-200,000 yearly.

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Child Welfare Systems: Foster Care and Child Abuse/Neglect

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Yesterday I presented with my Social Justice group about our topic. We deeply researched the basics and some of the foundations of the child welfare systems in New York. We found some really interesting facts and statistics about the number of children in foster care or even involved welfare systems. Our group worked really well together and I thought that the presentation went really smoothly.

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Homelessness-Communities of Color and Children Presentation

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Yesterday, my group and I had a presentation about our social justice topic. We read a couple articles on our issue of Homelessness in communities of color and among children. I was shocked by all the information I learned about everything was very interesting but also sad. My group and I did a good job working together to create and present our slide show. This is my personal reaction from our presentation:
Once I had finished reading the articles I was truly surprised. I had previous knowledge of homelessness but I never truly understood or knew about how many people of color and families have to deal with homelessness. Everything I read was very interesting. I also feel motivated to help in anyway I can, I am now hopeful I will be able to help in my own way.

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Conversion Therapy Presentation

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On Thursday, I presented with my social justice group, about our topic. We had read a few articles on the issue of conversion therapy and it’s affects on queer youth. Our presentation had a bumpy start with technical issues and not knowing how loud or close to the mic to talk. Here is my personal reaction from my presentation:
The fact that these things are still happening and are still legal in so many places is absolutely disgusting. Knowing that lgbtq+ people everywhere are treated so inhumanely and the government justifies it because they are queer. As somebody who is part of the community and has a lot of people who are close to me who are as well, it’s really scary knowing what happens.

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Water Pollution Presentation

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On Thursday, the 27th of January, I presented an overview of my social justice project. We presented the issue of water pollution and how it leads to climate change. My group did a great job collaborating. We called, texted, and all worked on the project. This information is important to me because I grew up where there was a high population of poverty and a lack of access to resources. Having a lack of one of the most important resources in the world and also it being dirty and filled with toxic waste is very jeopardizing. Even if I specifically wasn’t “poor,” I still feel sympathy for my people.

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Sexual Harassment and Assault Presentation

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On Thursday, I presented with my social justice group about our topic. We had read a few articles on the issue of sexual harassment and assault. I was excited to share because I was proud of our research. My group did a good job on presenting and showing the severity of the facts we had found.

In the presentation, I shared the following personal reaction, “It’s important to me as someone who has been harassed on the street. I am also in multiple targeted demographics. This is a global issue. These alarming statistics aren’t as alarming when I think about all the stories I’ve heard and all I’ve seen in 14 years living in New York City.”

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Global Warming

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On Jan 21, my group presented about our social justice project to the class. I felt confident because me and my group member did lots of research and learned about a bunch of sources that contribute to global warming. One of the things that I shared in the presentation was the impact of methane from factory farms. I also talked about how over fishing impacts global warming as well. Lucas Supan, my group member talked about green house gasses and renewable and nonrenewable energy sources.

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Global Warming Prevention Presentation

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On Jan 21, my group presented our social justice project about Global Warming to the class. I helped create the slideshow, and I learned a lot while creating the presentation.

One thing that I shared in the presentation was, “I think that a big step towards preventing global warming would be to maximize renewable energy supply, which is also having effort being put into already, and another thing that could happen is using less greenhouse gas emitting transportation, most cars, trucks, etc. There is a lot that can be done or focused on to help prevent global warming.”

My group partner, Hutch, also talked a lot about over-fishing, and factory farming, which are also big causes of global warming.

I am also looking forward to meeting with and interviewing people who are very involved with this topic, and know a lot about it.

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Workers Rights and Labor Issues Presentation

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On Jan 24, my group presented our social justice project to the class. I helped my peers and I also made sure that I worked on each slide. I wasn’t very nervous because I had done a lot of previous research and what I discussed was something that I was enthusiastic and passionate about. One thing that I shared was that, “I was shocked by the Thai fishermen stories and it is definitely something I would like to learn more about. It shocks me that people are getting kidnapped and it’s not stopped yet. There were people interviewed that went through this and they said that they didn’t get to see land for years and had to survive on scraps of fish. The term “Sea slaves” is used to describe them and the whole system is incredibly unethical and illegal.” I hope to interview people working on this topic and find more people so I can learn more and spread the word of these terrible acts.

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International Workers Rights

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On Jan 20 my group presented about our social justice project to the class. I helped provide info and organize the slides, I was very interested in learning about our topic during our initial research. One of the things I shared in the presentation was the following. ” Workers are treated very unfairly on fishing ships in southeast Asia and I was appalled. People are coming to Thailand for jobs then being put on boats and forced to do grueling labor. Some workers don’t see land for years. “

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Immigration-Latin America

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On Jan 20, my group presented about our social justice project to the class. I helped create the slideshow, and wasn’t nervous at all because I learned a lot in our initial research. One of the things I shared in the presentation was how the crime rate in some countries leads to many migrants flocking to the US, only to be turned away.

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Mass Incarceration Presentation

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On Jan 20, my group presented about our social justice project to the class. We created a slide show on mass incarceration in the U.S and told our classmates facts and about how mass incarceration has effected millions of people. One of the things that I shared in the presentation was the following,

“After reading articles and watching educational videos on this topic, I can say that I have learned a lot. And about how serious and how this problem is affecting a large part of the world. Mass incarceration has affected millions of people and communities and needs to be fixed and stopped.”

I hope to interview people who work to defeat mass incarceration.

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International Workers Rights Presentation

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On January 24th, my group presented our social justice project to the class. I helped create slides for our group and researched workers issues around the world. I learned a lot about the abuse of Thai fishermen abroad, and how they are fed with false promises. I was shocked by the conditions that migrant Tomato Farm Workers endure. They are worked long hours and are kept in filthy camps which are sometimes infested with bedbugs and rats. Workers are also illegally withheld pay. And sometimes children and even infants, are forcefully worked in tomato farms, in the blazing sun.

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Immigration-Latin America

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On January 26th, my group presented about our social justice project to the class. We had spent the prior week working on these presentations. I was excited because it was the first time sharing our inital research with our classmates. While researching, I was startled at how latin american immigrants get treated much worse than other immigrants. I feel like due to Donald Trump centralizing immigration on how he thinks Mexicans are bad for the US, that led to latin immigrants, and latin people being treated worse in our society. In summary, when Central American immigrants are trying to escape violence in their own countries, in the US they are met with inequity.

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Social Justice Presentation

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Last week my group presented an overview presentation on our SJ topic. I wasn’t as nervous because I felt very strongly about our presentation. This was our first time talking out loud and informing everyone about the issue of homelessness. I think that everyone worked very well together and everyone in my group contributed. Here is something i shared about my topic after reading the articles, “After reading these articles all I want to do is help. We all walk by it everyday when we are going to school or just casually walking around. New York City is one of the most expensive place to live. When I see family’s, kids, begging on the street for money leaves a hole in my heart. This is an issue that needs to be worked on”.

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Nuclear Disarmament Presentation 101

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Last week my group presented an overview presentation on our SJ topic. I was a little nervous but the slide was fine when we presented it. My group worked very well together and we were able to coordinate working hours. Our group was able to learn a lot about our topic because we researched well together. Our research helped my group find two organisations to contact and we are working on interviewing them now.

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Water Pollution and Climate Change 101

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Last week, on Friday the 21st of January, my group presented the basics and gave an introduction to our topic. I was not there, but I helped make the presentation and if I was there, I would have talked about the organizations we are planning on meeting with and the specific people from those organizations. One of the organizations we are hoping to meet with is the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council).

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Child Welfare Systems: Foster Care and Child Abuse/Neglect

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Last Friday, my group presentated an overview presentation on our Social Justice Topic: Child Welfare Systems: Foster Care and Child Abuse/Neglect. Our group worked together and we all learned a lot. It was really interesting to learn more about how the Covid-19 pandemic had major effects on Child Welfare systems. I really enjoyed presenting and I am excited to learn more. Here is a short summary of what I learned about the Foster Care system:
Foster care is a system in which a child is placed in a home (either a group home or with a private state-certified caregiver) because the child can no longer live with their biological parents, often due to cases of child abuse or neglect. Foster parents are responsible for providing
safe home environments and care for their
children.
I am excited to continue learning and researching about my topic with my group!

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Abortion Rights and Access Presentation 101

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Last week my group presented an overview presentation of our SJ topic. I was a little nervous about public speaking but I knew that the information on my slides was very detailed and correct. I was nervous but excited to share what I had learned with the rest of my class. Here is something I shared about my topic after reading multiple articles, Planned Parenthood Federation of America is a large non-profit organization that has locations all over the country. They provide reproductive health and education for everyone. We included very interesting statistics and data that are accurate in the United states.

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Last week my group presented an overview representation of our SJ topic. I was excited because we worked well together and I learned a lot. Here is something I shared about my topic after reading the articles, “In October of 2021 there were about 48,723 homeless people and about 15,346 were homeless children, sleeping each night in New York Cities shelter system” I was extremely baffled and was determined to make change.

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Social Justice Presentation 101

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This week my group didn’t present yet. We are presenting on the impact social media has on body image. We learned a lot of information throughout the process of making our slides. We worked to learn more about this topic and how it even affects teens. Because so many of us are on social media, we are all greatly affected by the things we scroll past every day. People trying to promote and live up to certain body types as well as shaming those who don’t have that body type is having an extremely negative impact on young girls and women. Since our group members all experience this first hand, we are devoted to learning more about it and coming up with potential solutions. This was such an imporant issue for us to learn about and now we feel like we can teach others about body image. We are excited to keep learning about this and help others understand the impact social media has on body image.

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Social Justice Presentation 101

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This week my group will present an overview on our SJ topic. I am not nervous at all because I have put a lot of effort into my presentation. Our group works great together and i’ve learned a lot. Here is something I shared about my topic after researching about my topic, “Because so many of us are on social media, we are all greatly affected by the things we scroll past every day. People trying to promote and live up to certain body types as well as shaming those who don’t have that body type is having an extremely negative impact on young girls and women. Since our group members all experience this first hand, we are devoted to learning more about it and coming up with potential solutions.”

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Social Justice Presentation 101

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Last week, my group presented an overview presentation on our SJ topic. Even if I may have not done as much work as I would have liked, I wasn’t nervous. THe slides were touched up and looked pretty good. One interesting fact i shared said as many as 2.7 million children have an incarcerated parent. The information we uncovered during our research was plentiful and I loved doing it. I feel this this project is going really well so far.

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Social Justice Presentation 101

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Today, my group presented an overview presentation on our SJ topic. I was very ready because I had done a lot of work in the slideshow and was ready to present it to my class. Our group did really well together and while I was collecting information, I learned a lot. Here is my personal reaction from our presentation.
I believe it’s important to the sports industry that they recognize how women get treated as athletes. As a male athlete I recognize this. It’s a real problem in our society and I am willing to do whatever to make a change.

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Social Justice Presentation 101

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Today, my group presented an overview presentation on our SJ topic. I think we did really well as a group and we worked very hard. We talked a lot about the statistics of the pay gaps and how drastic they are. Something I learned was how “Stephen Curry makes 262,000 for every 2 quarters he plays in a NBA game while the highest paid WNBA player Taurasi Diana gets paid 222,000.” This really shocked me and a lot of others in the class. Something else that shocked me was how WNBA auto corrects to NBA.

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International Workers Rights & Labor Issues – Presentation

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This week, in school, our group presented our Social Justice Presentation 101. This was our first attempt at presenting our research to classmates, and explain the basics of our topic. We had so many facts, leaving me confident going into our presentation. Each of us worked together and shared what we felt strongly about. We formally emailed experts on our topic who work for organizations that stand for similar things as us. We have not received emails back from any experts as of now, but this is only the beginning.

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Homelessness in Communities of Color and Children

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Last week, in school, my group presented their social justice presentation 101. This was our first attempt at sharing initial research with our peers. I am a bit nervous since our team hasn’t gotten an email back, but I am prepared to talk to my group this week and try getting an email back from NAACP or Coalition for the Homeless. Reading these articles really opened my eyes and I was shocked to learn how many people in New York and globally experience homelessness. I can’t wait to go deeper in fieldwork and work with my peers more.

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Child Welfare Systems: Foster Care and Child Abuse/Neglect

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Last week in school, my group presented our social justice presentation 101. this was our first attempt at sharing initial research with our peers. I was a little nervous because our slideshow was so long, and we did not want the other students to get annoyed because it was so long. I have a great team, nonetheless, and we put in a lot of work. I think child welfare is a problem that isn’t talked about enough, especially the discrimination in the system. More people need to speak out about this problem. I feel like researching this has been a challenge because all I have found are statistics and not individual experiences. Our group has recently received an email from the organization: New Alternatives for Children. I am very excited and we are able to speak to the executive director!

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Street and Sexual Harassment

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Last week in school my group presented their social justice project presentation 101. This was our first attempt at sharing initial research with our peers. I wasn’t very nervous at all because I did my reading and had worked on the slides. This was my personal reaction in our slideshow, “The statistics that were shown don’t shock or surprise me because I have been catcalled numerous times, was groped in front of my mom, and etc. I have never been more excited to work on project and my group is amazing.”

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Access to Healthful Foods

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Last week in school my group presented their Social Justice project presentation 101. This was our first attempt at sharing initial research with our piers. I was a little nervous to present but after I was done with my first bit of reading I got the hang of it. It was a great success. This was my reaction. “I thought it was very interesting to learn about this, It is a very complex topic. This Topic reminds me of the Part-Time Indian Book because in the book it says that the parents had to drive very far to get food and this shows how hard it is for people in food deserts to access food.”

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Presenting Water Pollution and Climate Change

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Last week in school my group presented their social justice project 101. This was our first attempt at sharing initial research with our peers. I wasn’t very nervous at all because I did my reading and had worked on the slides. Personally, this was my major reaction to the articles I read, “In the US, more than 7 people die from violence per hour. That’s about 61,000 violence-related deaths yearly. The fact that more people globally die yearly from using bad water is shocking and horrible.”

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Water Pollution And Climate Change

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Last week in school my group presented their social justice project presentation 101. This was our first attempt at sharing initially research with our peers. I wasn’t very nervous because I did my reading and had worked on the slides. Personally this was my major reaction to what we read, “It is important because at this rate, we’ll all die of drought or climate change, both having to deal with human footprint, waste, and terrible decision making. – TG”. My group has not yet received any emails back but we are going to be reaching out to different organizations and individuals in the near future.

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