What I'll Endured

Endurance is my last humanities course I will taking at GCE. So the following is my last first action project of the term. So far in Endurance, we've explored what endurance looks like mentally and physically. We also had assignments based on self awareness. For this AP, I wrote the first chapter of my autobiography. I wrote about how my adolescence shape me into my future self.

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My name is Moriah, I’m more inquisitive than not. Naturally, growing up I had a lot of different interests, ranging from fashion to mathematics; I always had time for a new hobby. There were a lot of art programs that I got into like classical music, band, printmaking, animation, and sewing. This helped me learn how to express myself in ways that made more sense to me. I do remember my favorite pastime though. This was taking photos. Going through them and putting them into photo albums. I loved it, sneaking around the house with my very own camera. I got my first camera when I was a kid as it was a gift from my parents. About a month before I received that gift, I was a patient in the hospital for the first time since my birth. I remember it clearly… I was doing my own thing whilst being watched by my older brothers at home. At the time, I was already embarking to be as independent as I could so I thought that I could make my own tea. No seven year old should really make their own tea without supervision. I did so and just as I was finished, piping hot water spills over my torso, melting my skin off. I had to be rushed to hospital via ambulance after that. Although it could’ve been worse, this is one of my first memories that I probably won't forget. 

Getting burnt wasn’t painful. I didn't feel anything due to the fact that my nerves were completely damaged. The following months after that were extremely brutal, having to recover from surgery and heal all my wounds. That experience taught me a lot about patience and endurance. Even now, I’m never sloppy while making tea. Although I had to take a break from school, once I was back, I hit the floor running. During school, I often got bored a lot. I didn’t have many friends growing up and never felt seen by the people around me. I spent most of my time around family members, especially my grandparents and cousins. I have a lot of family in the south so we were always traveling to either Mississippi or Florida. I always loved to see all the nature while spending time on my family's farms. The way the culture was different from in Chicago intrigued me. I already knew as a kid that I wanted to see what else the world had to offer (often returning home with a preoccupied mind); I wanted to explore other environments. I resorted to writing and reading and that’s how I spent the majority of my pre teen years. A passion for poetry grew which I would later be able to showcase during my late years of high school.

Community service and volunteering was a significant part of growing up. For the majority of my pre-teen years, I was in the Girl Scouts. This organization helped me build strong relationships while learning many valuable skills today. My mother dedicated most of her time helping families and partnering with organizations to give what she can. As a default, I spent my time in those spaces too, learning to look out for people. S made sure I knew that it could always be worse, to remain humble and devout. This did and still does inspire me. I developed rage seeing the injustices and lack of resources that our community faced. This work continued into my time as a high school student, volunteering mostly on the south and west side of Chicago. I even was able to work alongside my mother during the pandemic of 2020. I believe these experiences shaped me into who I am now.

I always had a compass during my teen years. The problem was I was never really content as to where it was pointing. One day during my sophomore year, I came across this film called Drylongso. This film was the first time I felt what it feels like to be represented- A young black woman who explores racial injustices using film photography although the older adults in her life didn't believe in what she did, which is something I too felt throughout my teen years. I related to the main character perfectly and she inspired me to do what I want. For the rest of my High School career, I went to a private school on the north side of Chicago. This environment allowed me to develop a completely different perspective on what my city really was, I was able to make art and explore a lot of creative paths. Towards the end of my time there I realized I was unsatisfied with what I was doing. Yes I did want to continue to grow in creative areas, but I really wanted to explore more STEM concepts and I didn’t really do that for my 11th and 12th grade years.

For college, I went to school in Michigan, not too far from Chicago where I grew up. This experience is something that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I started to be more passionate about my education again which made me happy. The anxiety of doing what I love and not what people expected me to do was a mental struggle for me that I endured all my life and I decided not to let this feeling dictate my undergraduate career. I realized that I didn’t have to be Maya Angelou to write or Albert Einstein to want to experiment. I studied here with a concentration of Community and Global Health. I was able to complete the goal of studying abroad and finally leave the US for the first time. My summers making up of journalism projects, photographing and volunteering. Every time I wanted to give up I just thought of my mom and how I needed to become successful for not only myself but her too.

Now I’m a successful professional while still doing what I love. I graduated as a first generation college student. I’m a healthcare worker while still a writer and photographer. I have a few books out there somewhere from my work throughout my undergraduate experience. My life isn’t what I expected it to be when I was younger. I spent a few years working with Médecins Sans Frontières, which was a goal of mine since I was younger. Life is way more calm now and I’m okay with that. Making my own schedule and dedicating a lot of that time to research. I use what I know and the connections that I've built to offer the help that white America hasn’t, never forgetting where and how I grew up.


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I'm taking this class online with the rest of my classmates due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It's interesting to see how my work plays out during this time. Doing this AP was difficult because although I like to write, I hate writing about myself and then having to display it. So this AP was something to endure within itself. I must say it was satisfying having a finished product.

How can I use computer science to make music? :D

         I've been learning coding since the beginning of my senior year in a computer science workshop. In the workshop, we've learned different functions using the Python computer language. This workshop has been consistently challenging my intellect and curiosity since September. Glad to say, for this past winter term, there's been a rise in my engagement to computer science. The assignments have become more and more enjoyable, although still onerous.

         For my final presentation, I wanted to commit a little bit more time to an assignment that I completed this term...

 I used a software package, called Earsketch. With this software package, I was able to write music using Python. Here you can see two different screenshots where you can compare when I just started assembling together the different codes and instruments versus when all of the code was put together.

AFTER, MW, 2020

What is typed -

init()

setTempo(120)

fitMedia(RD_RNB_JUPITERPAD_3, 1, 2,7)

fitMedia(RD_TRAP_BASSDROPS_2, 2, 5, 11)

fitMedia (YG_NEW_FUNK_KEYS_1, 4, 10, 24)

for i in range (3):

  fitMedia (HOUSE_ACOUSTIC_PIANO_003, 3, 1, 18

  )

for i in range (3):

  fitMedia (RD_RNB_JUPITERPAD_3, 1, 10, 31

  )

fitMedia (HOUSE_ACOUSTIC_PIANO_003, 5, 23, 25)

fitMedia(HOUSE_DEEP_CHORD_001, 2, 25, 30)

finish()

This was really fun to do. I found myself getting even more familiar with doing the codes as I went on. I wanted to add a part of my voice in it, which I did towards the end but Soundcloud cut it short. Honestly, I do see myself doing this again for a longer track just for fun. It felt as if I was learning a language, which I was, Python! Taking this course and continuing on with this assignment helped me realize how essential computer science is to our daily functioning. 

The Limon, The New Genetically Modified Species

For the winter term, I just completed my humanities course: Equality. In this last unit, we focused on social constructs such as race, gender, and class. For our last project of Equality, I made a hypothetical newspaper article based on the future or the human race. For the topic, I chose to do it on transgenic life because it's been developing more and more in the science community.

 

Clothsed: A Social Shop

This unit of Social Entrepreneurship and You was all about business. We learned about what you have to do in order to have a legal business. One of the most interesting parts of the unit was learning about marketing tactics. We also learned about demographics, legal structures, psychographics, organizational flow, and many other aspects of a business. For this unit's action project, my classmates and I each made a business plan.

Legalize it! The Eleventh State

     For the winter term, I'm taking a class called Equality. In the course, we learn about the history behind societal dynamics and how they affect people within their groups or personal identity through race, class, and gender. I saw many different cases of inequality and individual perspectives on the topic. My classmates and I read Case for Reparations by Ta Nehisi Coates, this was something that I've never looked into before or even had the opportunity to learn about. With looking at different historical events and impacts, as an Action Project I had to follow the guiding question of “How can you retell history?”.
     In recent news, marijuana has been becoming more regulated and decriminalized in the media as well as medical spaces. As of January 1st 2020, recreational use of marijuana became legal in Illinois. I think that it's interesting being able to witness something that was once banned on a federal level slowly become legalized for recreational use. Through this Action Project, I used historical research and perspectives of affected people to make a textbook entry of the legalization of cannabis in the united states but more specifically Illinois.

Curriculum SWOT Analysis

For the winter term, I’m taking a STEAM course called Social Entrepreneurship and you. So far, we’ve completed the majority of our first unit: "Organize", which was focused on behavior through individuals and groups. During this first unit, we had a very rich internal investigation. I was introduced to a number of different concepts like I-O Psychology (Industrial and Organizational Psychology) and I learned how to solve equations with complex numbers.

In class, my classmates and I took a few personality tests: the Myers-Briggs test, TKI Conflict, and the Big Five. I’ve completed the Meyers-Briggs test before and according to my results, I am an INFP (which surprisingly was the same as when I took it years ago). With the results of these tests, I saw a common theme between them all, being that I am more of an empathetic, creative, and introverted person. Reflecting on my results from all tests, they weren’t that surprising and as a senior, I’ve seen these work for and against me throughout my high school experience. At GCE, I’m not only able to, but encouraged to integrate creativity into my learning experience. One of the biggest ways that I’ve done that is through action projects and independent studies. From my experience here, our curriculum helps me with using all of my strengths and weaknesses to get the most of what I need out of the classes. The teachers are a great help with that and it'c commonly encouraged to do so "It's you're curriculum, not just a curriculum in a perfect world" says my STEAM teacher, AMD. In addition to being able to grow in that area, I’ve also been able to grow in a social aspect as well, although I am introverted, at GCE I've learned to be more comfortable with expressing myself and actively being apart of a close community like we have here.

For the external investigation of this unit, we prepared for our Action project by compiling a SWOT chart (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) as well as interviewing different members of GCE’s community. For the Action Project, the guiding question was “How can we improve our school?”. To answer this question, I completed a SWOT analysis of GCE’s curriculum as well as a proposal of how we could improve the individual student experience at our school.

 

After completing a SWOT analysis of the curriculum at GCE and assessing how the curriculum covers Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I talked with a couple of students and staff members and collected some additional information. With this information, I mostly took away that students desire to get more out of their classes based on where they’re at. I spoke with two students about the curriculum at the school and both of them had something to say about the pace of the classroom. One of my classmates, being at GCE for all 4 years had things to say about the rigor and coverage of what we’re learning. “I think that it isn’t rigorous enough. I think that there are a lot of good things about it (the curriculum), it teaches you to think differently, it teaches you to question why you’re learning it but it definitely misses on the key aspects ... it’s scary to me to know that my high school education isn’t as good as it could’ve been.” -CM. Another one of my classmates had related opinions on the curriculum, “Sometimes I feel like we could spend more time on certain subjects to get more familiar with some of the traditional subjects so that I feel more secure with the transition between high school and college” -TM.

I wasn’t surprised to hear things like that, as it has come up before in classroom discussions. With this information, I came to the conclusion that although we are all exposed to the same coursework, students should be able to feel comfortable about what they're learning as well as how it's going to benefit them. There were a number of improvements that I thought would be beneficial to the curriculum design like an Individualized Student plan, a better way to collect student experiences and feedback, college and or post-graduation prep classes, more test prep classes, and alternative assignment opportunities. 

A SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-based) goal is a system that helps make sure goals are practical and digestible. As a senior, I’ve finally completed all my college applications and seen my peers go through the process as well. I feel like I had a very good support system through my family, GCE counseling, and an extracurricular program. With knowing all that I do now, the best improvement plan that I would say is to have it required that students take two workshops focused on post-graduation exploration and preparedness. This year I took a workshop “Personal Branding 101” which focused on us presenting ourselves the right way to prospective employers and college counselors. Towards the end of the class, we focused mostly on college applications. This class was helpful and I’m glad I had the time to do those things during my school days, however it would be more beneficial to have classes based solely on college prep as well as alternative options. Here is my improvement plan based on the SMART acronym as well as my experience.

Proposal: Provide 2 required workshops for students to educate and prepare for life after graduation. The first course being towards the end of junior year and the second being at the beginning of senior year.

Specific- Facilitate 2 workshops for upper class students, that exposes students to the opportunities that could rise after graduation and helps guide the students through college prep/planning.

Measurable- This would be required for each student and treated as an actual course. 

Achievable- We have the resources and connections to provide to students, Staff is already a big support for students, it would be more beneficial if provided structurally. 

Relevant- GCE actively wants students to be prepared for “the real world” and having these workshops, it would add more college prep that students need and desire during this process. It’s important to stress that these would not ONLY be for college prep but as well as a place where students can learn about alternative paths and ultimately be aware of what’s best for them after graduation.

Time-Based- I think that this is something that could start next year, given the fact that this year we have already started exploring more options for college prep classes through the Personal Branding workshop.

As far as my role in this plan goes, I plan on giving more feedback on this subject and getting more opinions from other seniors in my class so that the seniors and juniors next year would have more support from GCE than we got. I believe that this plan could help so many students be more confident in what they want to do and how to go about it. I’m glad that I was able to use a lot of my personal experience while coming up with this goal. For me, my process has been pretty smooth compared to some of my other peers only for the fact that I’m apart of a college-prep/development program. Not everyone has accessibility to that and as a school, we could do better with providing that support in a more foundational way. I’m also glad that this could potentially help students in the
future.

Citations: 

SL interview  MW. January 30, 2020.

“INFP in depth”, Truity, https://www.truity.com/personality-type/INFP

AMD talks. MW. January 31, 2020.

“Our Values”, Global Citizenship Experience Lab School, https://gcelabschool.org/about/

TEM: on curriculum. MW. January 30, 2020.

CM Interview. MW.. January 30, 2020.

Professional immersion with LightThink

At my professional immersion experience, the mission of what I’m doing with LightThink is to make meaningful design. At the beginning we started somewhere completely different to where we are now and where we plan on going. We’re creating new ways to look at GCE and Chicago as a whole. Along with my coworker and host, we come up with different ways to look at a problem and how we can solve not only that problem alone but other problems connected as well. I usually don’t like history but through this experience, I’m learning that what I educate myself on can spark new ideas and help me in the long run, this has made me more patient. 

In this P.I.E, I’m also learning valuable business, entrepreneurial skills which I think would 100 percent help me in the future. My biggest takeaways would have to be paying attention to detail and focusing in on things, even if it isn’t completely engaging. A lot of times, I found out that what we’re learning is easily applicable to a widespread audience, and not just what I’m doing. I will use these skills to be bold with what I do and make it into something big and limitless.Innovation and thoughtfulness has been something that has been the backbone of our process.