Extra Blog : February

Interview #3

On February 24, 2015, I interviewed a high school out reach specialist at Mt.SAC named Elmer Rodriguez. I decided to film the interview because I didn't know what to expect. I found that he had a lot of information on the local schools and inside intel on the way our school system has pockets of holes and losing students right through the chasm. I thought he brought up many important points about the path from high school to college and that in life, it's not about where you start, it's about where you finish.

Here's the link: 

He was insightful and a pleasure to interview. He brings up many great points and provides a different type of perspective on how underprivileged youth can be helped and what kids today really need and want from school. 

Blog 17: Answer 3

• My Essential Question is: What is the most effective support for underprivileged youth to break the poverty cycle?

•  My first answer is: One of the most efficient support system for underprivileged youth to break the poverty cycle is the Social Development Strategy as given by the Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan.

• A second answer as an efficient support system for underprivileged youth to break the poverty cycle is when a child has intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation to achieve for something greater than what their current circumstance offers them.

• My third answer is that schools must prepare students with the proper skills of college preparedness and have embedded the goal of college to all underprivileged students so that - with college- they can have the best opportunity to break the poverty cycle.

• Real-life examples:

1. When I interviewed Elmer Rodriguez, a high school outreach specialist at Mt.SAC, he explained to me that not all high schools are the same. Some counselors don't give all the effort in their power to do whatever they can to benefit their students ; whether it is 1) money, 2) grades, or 3) any disadvantage that students from low-income backgrounds face. 

• A printed sources that helped me most with my examples was: 

• To ensure that underprivileged students break the poverty cycle there must relentless support. Support from parents to expose their kids to the possibility of college. Schools to support that dream of college, letting kids know from a young age that college is a possible option, and that there is financial assistance to make this all possible. Teachers must be relentless and not give up on students that have a hard time with reading and writing. Teachers need to know that underprivileged students are less likely to 

Blog 16 : Answer 2

Presentation

1)  My Essential Question is: What is the most effective support for underprivileged youth to break the poverty cycle?

2)  My first answer is: One of the most efficient support system for underprivileged youth to break the poverty cycle is the Social Development Strategy as given by the Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan.

3)  A second answer as an efficient support system for underprivileged youth to break the poverty cycle is when a child has intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation to achieve for something greater than what their current circumstance offers them.

4)  a.) A child that lives in an impoverished situation growing up with constant struggling does not want live the life his parents lived.  As a result, his motivation for having a better life is intrinsic. b.) A child has an underprivileged life, and his/her parents do not want their child to have the life that they had. As a result the child is given extrinsic motivation from a parental source to achieve greater. c.)If a child is poor and has extrinsic motivation but no intrinsic motivation, there is no guarantee of success.

5) A teaching guide taken from the Vanderbilt University, Center of Teaching website. (http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students/ & (http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2012/05/dopamine-impacts-your-willingness-to-work/)

6)  For each of my independent components, I am working on a documentary interviewing people from different backgrounds, most underprivileged, that are high school students, high school dropouts, college students, college dropouts, and college graduates. Everyone has unique circumstances, but the one's that are successful have a clear view of their goal and how to get there.

7)  For an underprivileged youth to succeed, their needs to be some sort of inner motivation and vantage point despite personal setbacks and unfortunate events.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Independent Component

Content:

1. For my second Independent Component I would like to continue my documentary. It was approved by the Senior Team/Teachers that I would complete my first Independent Component by February 20. I had a discussion with Mr.Rivas and Mrs.Ortega about splitting my first Independent Component(IC) in  half. Since I am attempting to create a documentary, the first  IC would be interviewing and filming people. The second IC would consist of actually editing the interviews, shooting filler shots, watching documentaries to notice their methods of editing and storyline and reading books about how to create an actually documentary. To ensure that my documentary is the best that it can be, I can show a rough draft of my full documentary to the class, my peers, professionals, etc. and have them fill out a survey accommodations and recommendations of my film.
2. Because the second IC is only editing film, shooting transition shots, and reading books on documentaries I believe that I can, a) give little snippets of completely edited scenes of my documentary, b) I can make a month's extra blog post about a book I read on how to create a documentary or actually watch a documentary and use the extra blog post of the month to explain their methods of storyline and editing, c) I can present actual tangible evidence of the surveys that the class, my peers, professionals, etc have filled out with accommodations and recommendations. 
3. With this component, I am able to have a clear and concise representation of my second answer for my EQ. My EQ is : What is the most effective support for underprivileged youth to break the poverty cycle? This Independent Component will be a finished product of the hours of research it took to find my second answer. This IC, focuses on finding the driving force between youth who have intrinsic or extrinsic motivation to succeed or look towards success in life. Success is relative, but for my IC, success is being able to break the poverty cycle. 

Blog 14 : Independent Component

Independent Component 1

• Literal

(a) I, Natali Valle, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 9 hours of work.

(b) An source that was extremely useful to me was a government publication called the Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan.

(d)What I have done is interviewed/filmed high school students, high school drop outs, college students, college dropouts, and college graduates. I wanted to see if there was a significant factor that was apparent in those who are successful and those who are not. 

• Interpretive

What I have as of now are unedited videos of people I have interviewed. The videos represent some hours of work. Other hours include transportation to locations such as Mid-Town Los Angeles and the University of Riverside to be able to interview some people. I have only dedicated a few hours to editing the videos.[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFakdfg-Igk] These interviews were a crucial part into understanding what motivates people from similar background to want to succeed, or to realize for others that situations in life come-up unexpectedly and prevent oneself from achievement. I needed to do these interviews because I wanted to see if I could find a common personality trait among those who had motivation, regardless of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, despite difficult situations.

• Applied

This component allowed me to peer inside people's lives and see their endeavor and their "ganas".

The phrase "tener ganas" is a spanish phrase that does not really have an english translation, but it means a person's desire or strong want but much more extreme to where they will do anything to reach their goal. I realized that those who had a difficult up bringing were more likely to be self-motivated to want a  better life. Those who were underprivileged and were not able to continue school all explained how they felt as if there was no one in their life to help them want to do better or even expect better.