Blog 24: Last Presentation Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?
I am most proud of the fact that I didn't mess up a lot. I was worried this entire week that my anxiety would get the best of me and I would make to many mistakes. I am also proud that I was able to calm down throughout my presentation. Again I thought the pressure would be to much for me to handle for a whole hour.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?  Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

I would give myself a P, I hit every point in my presentation and I was able to hook my audience throughout my presentation. I did forget a few things like a prop, and mentioning my EQ in the very begining, but it was my first presentation (at least one that lasted an hour long) and I didn't have references like everyone else did from last year. 

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project? Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

AE, Because I have worked very long and hard with my mentor. I have completed all of my assignments to the best of my ability. I have also done research that wasn't included in my working bibliography and I feel and portray the passion I have for this topic through the past three presentations i have had.


(3) What worked for you in your senior project? 
Having Carol as my mentor was the best part of my senior project. I was comfortable around her and I was able to ask questions i normally wouldn't be able to ask other people. Carol was my main source for interviews and first hand experience when it came to working with foster children.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project? 
Answering my EQ was the hardest thing for me because there is no set in stone program that prepares children in the foster care system to age out. I probably would have reworded the question, but kept the same idea of it.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors? 
I don't know what I want to do when I grow up, but I know one day I want to provide a home for a foster child and I know for a fact that I will volunteer with bridge of faith for the rest of my life. I have made friends and gotten to know so many good people through the organization. I have learned the importance of having people there for me and around me by hearing these stories about children who don't have anyone to lean on when facing difficult obstacles. 

Blog 22: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) I, Kristen Gutierrez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b) Organization: Bridge of Faith 

• Annual fashion event
• http://www.bridgeoffaith.org/

(c) Update your Independent Component 2 Log (which should be under your Senior Project Hours link)
(d) Every year bridge of faith holds a fashion show and auction to raise money for the girls and get their organization known to those who haven't had the chance to visit. I volunteered as a model and helped organize the auction. I also helped set up and get ready for the event.    
(e) For four weeks my mentor, carol, had been setting up for the event. I helped make baskets we would auction off and helped pick out clothes the other models would wear. I helped her organize the store when we were done creating baskets and picking clothes. I also helped with the entire event and cleanup, it lasted 7 hours.
(f) Because my EQ is based off of what happens after foster care the event helped me understand how non profit organization raise money for the girls. I also got to know many of the girls, who aged out of foster care, that live with carol. 

Blog 23: Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

My EQ is How are foster children being prepared for the real world, and what steps are being taken to prevent them from becoming homeless? My answers are government programs and organizations, foster parents, and healthy relationships and transitional housing. My best answer is Healthy relationships and transitional housing.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

Much my research contributed to my answers  but the main impact on my answer was my interview with a social worker who told me many foster children don't have support from friends or family because of their lack of friendships or stability.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

I faced multiple obstacles, my main one was not being able to see my mentor because she had surgery recently, but i worked around it by helping her overtime she needed it and trying to reach out to others for help.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

A Ted talk called a child of the state and my interview with a social worker helped me understand personal account of being in foster care and helped me realize who and what are actually making a difference in the foster system.

Blog 17-Interview 4 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

The important thing I learned was that every foster child or child in general deserves love and a sense of support and the government is not fit to be that source of support, and we also need better foster homes to give children a sense of family.2.  How will what I learned affect my final lesson?

It will give me more information and more personal accounts/ proof that my argument is valid. It will also help me to portray my information to others.

https://soundcloud.com/kristen353/carol-final-interview

Fourth Interview Question

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

I am going to interview Carol, my mentor, and this will be my second time interviewing her. She created the organization that has funded girls who have aged out of the foster system, aka Bridge of Faith.

2.  Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. 

- How has working with the girls affected your personal life?

- Do you have anythings you would want to change about the organizations?

- What would you tell other foster kids who have become unmotivated?

- Why do you think foster kids occasionally give up on their hopes and dreams?

- What is flawed about the foster system?

- What should be changed?

- What other programs are out there for foster kids?

- How do you think they are being prepared?

- How did the Foster system change your life?

- Was it hard to adopt you son?

- What advice do you have for another person who wants to adopt?

- Do you think there are any differences in adopting teens over younger children?

- Do you have an thoughts on out of country adoptions or orphanages? 

- Why do you think teens are so hard to adopt?

- Why do foster kids occasionally end up in prostitutions?

- What is the government doing to protect these children?

- What do you think every foster child needs?

- Do you think foster kids are more insecure then most kids, if so why?

- How are foster kids being prepared to live on their own or age out of the system?

- If you had the opportunity to tell the world about the foster system and orphans in general, what would you say?

Blog 19: Third Answer

• EQ: How are foster kids being prepared for the real world and what steps are being taken to prevent them from becoming homeless?
• Answer #3: Although there are few foster parents and organizations that teach foster children how to live on their own, ultimately the research I have found says the best way for foster kids to be prepared is by keeping connections with those who have played a large role in the lives of the child itself. 
• 3 details to support the answer: 
• An interview I had with a woman who worked with foster care taught me that relationships play a key role in every child's life, especially the ones who have no one to go to for advice.
• A TED talk on a child welfare in Baltimore showed that children were being negatively affected after being taken away from their family, even if it was an abusive home. The video also explained how keeping children with other family members is the most important step before foster care.
• Lastly, my mentor is proof that keeping positive relationships affects a foster child's future because they have motivation and support to do the things they would otherwise think impossible.
• The research source(s) to support your details and answer: 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c15hy8dXSps
• http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/education/edlife/extra-support-can-make-all-the-difference-for-foster-youth.html?_r=0
• Concluding Sentence: Motivation is hard to come by, especially if you have no friends or family to support your decisions or tell you when your wrong. Every foster child deserves to be loved and worried about by someone who truly cares, and the foster system has made it very difficult for children to build relationships. I believe keeping them with family members is the most important thing for a foster child and it should be taken more seriously because it will reduce the amount of children in foster care so that the ones who truly do not have family can be taken care of properly.

Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?
How are foster kids being prepared for the real world and what steps are being taken to prevent them from becoming homeless after the age out of the system?

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
There are few programs set out to help foster kids prepare to live on their own, but the few that are out there mainly help with paying for college and finding transitional homes. Also foster parents play a huge role in preparing foster kids to age out of the system.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
Foster kids have few programs, but what I have found helps them the most is evaluating who is close to you and keeping those relationships because in the end the people who care about you are the ones that will help you build a brighter future.

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.
Form all the articles I have read, keeping your relationships with people close to you is the most important because when you go through a problem its vital for you mental health to have someone to rely on and to have your back. A woman that works with child services told me when a foster child ages out and they are all alone they wind up lonely and making decisions that hurt their future.

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?
My interview 3 is my best source because it was a personal account from a woman who works with foster children everyday.

6.  What other source supports your answer?
The articles "Breaking the vicious cycle of foster care" and "Thousand of Foster Teens are in danger and society doesn't care" were very helpful in developing my answer number too. Also TED talks on the foster system have helped.

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.
After all the research I have done I believe the most important impact on any child is learning how to build relationships because without them a child will fill alone and will eventually make a life changing decision that could ruin their future.