Final Reflection over Volunteering at Fortis

   This year, I had the opportunity to volunteer in a 4th grade classroom during my release days for Senior Capstone. I have been able to work with students that are not quite up to their grade level academically or have learning disabilities. Through working with them, I learned more about myself. I learned that I want to help kids either by teaching or working in Special Education. By using what I have learned in Senior Capstone, Psychology, and Connecting, I was able to better work with students in the classroom. Some of the many things which I did while volunteering were helping teach subjects to the students who are behind, read to students who are not at the grade level reading level, make copies for the teacher, teach math to some students, help with spelling and writing, and I helped out in the library at times.
   Some of the things I learned are that students all learn at different levels, how to organize book orders, put together boards for displaying work, copy pages from textbooks, and how to put together assignments for students.
    I have really enjoyed working with the students and each time I went, I looked forward to being able to work with them another day. I discovered that helping kids learn and working with them is something that is rewarding for them, and also rewarding for me.

World Population

   I feel that there is a current population in many countries. For example, if you go to the country of China where there is a limitation on the number of children, you will notice a) there are more males than females and b) the number of children in orphanages, mainly girls, have greatly increased. If there is a limitation on the number of children, then there will eventually be a large decrease in the population. If there are more males than females, then that means there are not enough women to marry and have a family. This hurts the population, because once  the older generation begins to die off, it becomes harder to repopulate if there is not a close ratio of males to females. On the other hand, if you look at countries with high fertility rates such as Uganda or Niger, there are about 6.65-7.52 babies born per women. These countries are those with low literacy rates as well as low economic opportunity whereas China has much higher literacy rates and better economic opportunities. I feel that the population problem can be somewhat resolved if countries with poor literacy rates have opportunities to increase the literacy rates, economic opportunities, and environment while decreasing the number of children being born to women.

Students Responsibilities

Today, students have many different responsibilities. Some of them for themselves, then there is responsibilities for others around them. Students today are responsible for their learning and seeing that they make choices which may or may not change an aspect of what they have to do.
For example, after graduating high school, we are to decide what we would like to do and where we want to go to college of we so chose. But it is not us being responsible for ourselves, but in a way we are responsible for helping others. Many people chose to show responsibility for helping others who are not able to help themselves properly, others are responsible for making sure that their family has money and good on the table, some are responsible for taking care of younger siblings and having a job, others are responsible for defending our country in the line of duty. There are many different roles and responsibilities people have, but these roles that seem quite small are in fact quite large.

I have seen this in senior capstone while I help out in a classroom.when I first began my service, I didn't think that helping kids would change anything. After working with students I see that by helping them learn in different ways and showing them that serving in a nearby community is good. Some of the students I work with don't have educational support from home so they are struggling in the classroom. One thing I have noticed is how students there manage responsibility and how some seem to have a little amount of it. Also I see how teachers have a responsibility to help students understand the material and that they would learn more.
Teachers are important because they are the people who have an impact on a child besides the parent. If the teachers are wanting to help the students learn, then the students will want to learn. If some teachers don't care about teaching students, then that may impact how much work they put into education. Senior Capstone has helped me see what it is like for people who have jobs such as teaching and see how large the responsibility of a teacher as well as a student is.

Senior Capstone Service Video

Media Day Reflection

Media Day went quite well in my opinion. I spoke with several perople who were quite interested in what we as students thought of the class, what we would change, and what we think about the technology. I feel that through sharing our thoughts and experiences with important members of the community, we were able to learn more about how our service has helped us. I was able to reflect upon how my service has helped me see things in a different way by seeing how kids learn things differently and teaching things such as matter to students so that they are able to understand it in a different way.

Service

There are many different types of service. From volunteering in classrooms to serving in a third world country. Service is something that can be defined several ways. To me, service means helping others for no international benefit or gain. Although community service is required for this class, I don't serve because of the requirement. I serve because I want to help kids who are in a lower socioeconomic range than those in Saline. For my service, I have chosen to volunteer at Fortis Academy which is a charter school in Ypsilanti. I help out in a forth grade classroom by working with the students, helping grade papers, helping students with lower reading levels read, giving verbal quizzes, or helping the librarian sort books for students to read by reading level. To me, this is a rewarding experience, because the students I work with help me appreciate certain things and they enjoy having me help with the class.

Food Log Reults

                After researching the ingredients in food that I ate over a twenty-four hour time period, I realized that organic food is not necessarily organic. Also, I learned that there are some ingredients in food that cause sleepiness. For example, after looking up the ingredients in turkey, I found that there are different types of cold cut meat products. First there are whole cuts, which are the more expensive because the meat is cooked and then seasoned with spices or sugars then sliced. Secondly, there are sectioned and formed meat products which are made from different pieces of meat and then bonded together to make one single piece.
Finally, there are processed meats which are made through emulsion or non emulsion. Emulsion is where the meat is finely chopped, then hydrophobic proteins react with fat, and hydrophillic protein reacts with water to hold in the fat solution. Non emulsion is in a way the same process; however, no massaging or grinding of the meat is needed. Another thing that shocked me about the meat was that there are enzymes as well as nitrates and compounds which are known to cause cancer. The reason this shocks me is because the FDA does not seem to interveigne on this, nor do other organizations. The companies that produce meat and meat like products seem to be backed by some organization in order to continue the production of their meat.
                  When I was looking up information for a bag of Sun Chips, I found some of the ingredients such as pork enzymes quite interesting. Due to the use of pork, it is not kosher or vegetarian. There are chips made that ay do not contain pig enzymes, but to me, the fact that chips have a meat product in them is quite interesting. I feel that if there are meat products in chips and they are labeled so people could actually read the ingredients, then people would not eat sun chips as much.
                  After looking for the ingredients I ate within the twenty-four hours, I realized that not only have I consumed a large amount of calories, but I also consumed many different acids, enzymes, and oils that I would not think are in certain foods.