Embedded Files
My Genuis Project
My Genuis Project
History and English
History and English
My Genuis Project was the hallmark of my Freshman year with JAGS. It was a nearly two-month long passion project where we had to identify and issue with the world that we care about and take action in order to resolve. I decided to do mine about history and the lack of historical literacy among young people. I determined that due to the lack of interactivity in historical material, a proper solution would be to develop a website that would serve history in an interactive way. I called it Alexandria, named after the great library in Egypt. Unfortunetly, the website no longer exists because I never renewed my domain subscription by my slideshow presenting it does!
English
English
Take action
Take action
History
History
Investigating the World
Investigating the World
In order to complete the Genuis Project, which was mostly done in my English class, I had to shift throw copious amounts of written information and extract the key points needed to get a clear and concise message across, not only greatly developing my critcal reading and writing skills, but allowing me to use them to support a good cause, expanding history literacy.
Since the project was inherently history related, I learned a great deal off history from my project. I decided to focus on ancient history, which I was not too familiar with. After this project, I had a profound understanding of ancient Mesopotamian, Iranian, and Egyptian history that I did not posses before hand.
El Paso and Spanish
El Paso and Spanish
Foreign Language
Foreign Language
I transferred to Jackson High School during my second semester of my Freshman year, coming from El Paso, Texas. El Paso was right across the border from Cd. Juárez in Mexico, and had a strong Mexican community. When you would walk the hallways, you were Spanish more often than not and traditional Mexican tortillerías and tienditas would be on every neighborhood. In 8th grade, I fell in love with the language and, due to the strong Mexican culture of El Paso, was able to speak and practice with many of my Spanish speaking friends. This meant I came to Ohio already knowing a lot Spanish, and while that was not particularly impressive in El Paso, it was much more unusual in Ohio, which has a much smaller bilingual community. At Jackson, they gave my the opportunity to skip Spanish II and enter advanced Spanish at Jackson's extremely developed Spanish program, that helped me grow my Spanish into what it is today.
Recognizing Perspectives
Recognizing Perspectives
Although it is quite cliche, learning languages really do open doors. It's the key to a whole different world, you get to meet new people, who have ideas and traditions that are so different to yours. And its not like reading about culture in a textbook either, it's deep, personal connection. Learning to speak Spanish has been one of the best things that have every happened to me, and it is due to the people in my life, such as Sr. Fradl, who I am taking a photo with in the left, and Sra. Muñoz who haven given me this gift and the opportunity to understand this beautiful culture.
Frog Dissection
Frog Dissection
Science
Science
Our premier science project freshman year was the frog dissection, where we were tasked to dissect a bull frog with a partner and be able to identify all its internal and external organs. The task evaluates your ability to put what we learned in our biology textbooks into practice and offer valuable insights into the world of natural science.
The freshman frog dissection was a right of passage for anyone who wishes to pursue not only a biology related career, but for any career in a science field. It really demonstrated how our science knowledge is not just some busy work or idea that needs to be memorized for a test, but real world wisdom that could be put into practice everyday.
Heifer '23
Heifer '23
Extracurricular
Extracurricular
At the end of a ninth grade JAGS student's year, they go to a camp know as Heifer, where the students would participate in a simulation of life in a developing country. Often students would be forced to make, trade, or even labor for the food of themselves and their community. It is set up in a way that required all the participants to work together to feed each other. Once they do that, they realize that there is more than enough food to feed all the participants, and with cooperation, everyone could be fed. This mirrors the real world, where there is a great abundance of food, and with international cooperation, there should be no hunger.
Recognize Perspectives
Recognize Perspectives
There is no way to truly understand the struggles of others without being in their shoes, living their experience. And while Heifer certainly was not an exact replica of living in regions filled with conflict and food shortages, it allowed you to recognize what the experience was like; it made it more real. At multiple points during the simulation, the thought entered my mind that people actually experience this on a daily basis, it is not a simulation for them.
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