10th Grade: 2021-2022

Recognize Perspectives– Explains the perspectives of other people, groups, or individuals as distinct from one’s own perspective.

For this artifact, I was tasked to create a website surrounding my Spanish family in Spanish III. For some background information about this project, in Spanish III, each group of people had a family that they created projects around. It was like a fake Spanish family when you would move to another Spanish-speaking country and act out like you were an actual family. We had presentations like talent shows, house tours, and restaurants. The country my family was within was El Salvador. So we had to do research on El Salvadoran culture and customs, and kind of assimilated my group into the culture. I was the father of the group, and owned multiple McDonald's businesses and capital in the country–while my sons worked at the restaurant. It was kind of a cheesy project but also was fascinating to learn about the El Salvadoran culture. 

As the year went on, we continued to learn more about Spanish culture and more about the language as the projects progressed in difficulty. The ultimate goal was to create the best website that demonstrated our new knowledge of El Salvador. I was the ¨website wizard¨ and created the website. I learned about the mass crime problems within San Salvador and the unique geography like beautiful mountains and volcanoes in El Salvador. I also learned about how people operate in El Salvador–they are much more communal and less individualistic than western cultures. This is probably due to socialist ideas that spread in South America in previous years. Overall, learning about El Salvador was fascinating and expanded my knowledge about El Salvador and the Spanish language as a whole. It also challenged me to not speak and write English as much and focus my studies on actually using and speaking Spanish.

Recognize Perspectives– Explains various perspectives or interpretations of a situation, event, issue, or phenomenon, and reflects an understanding of different contexts, such as access to knowledge, technology, or resources.

For this artifact, my group and I for Summit Night were tasked to create a documentary with an emphasis on a global factor across multiple countries. Our documentary topic was around the pandemic of AIDS, both in the 1980s in the US and in current day with less-affluent countries like Nigeria and Ethiopia. My role within my group was to research HIV/AIDS in those three countries and to edit portions of the documentary surrounding Nigeria and Ethiopia. The documentary was a rigorous process, especially the research aspect. Finding valid and reliable sources for developing countries was difficult, but necessary in order to craft a comprehensive overview of AIDS in these countries. I learned that AIDS is not merely a pandemic that happened in the past, but is an existing factor still in the world. While in our echo chamber in the US we have shut out AIDS, other countries simply do not have nor retain the resources needed to combat this virus, resulting in more deaths. Another aspect of AIDS I researched was the stigma associated with this virus. Homosexual people were disproportionately discriminated against simply for being homosexual and being associated with the virus, resulting in people who have never had the ability to transmit the disease being labeled by ignorant people as having AIDS. Or, in other examples when there were blood transfusions which resulted in the virus spreading, young children were considered as sexually active because they gained the disease. All of this stigma around homosexuals and the ways that the disease was transmitted were simply false and we were able to demonstrate that fact very well in our documentary. 

This documentary process through research helped me to realize that the US isn't the only country in the world that has problems and challenges. Many countries were impacted by AIDS, not just the US, and are still being affected to this day. It is wrong and ignorant to assume that problems are simply solved as soon as they are discovered and eradicated in the US. It is important to remember that considering the US is the most wealthy country in the world, it is much easier for the US to accomplish things fast–while other countries simply do not have the luxury to move this rapid-paced. Often in the US we look at past issues, such as slavery, as eradicated across the globe simply because it was eradicated in the US. But today, slavery is maybe even more prevalent than the Antebellum period. This documentary research made me look at issues instead of a US-centric perspective to a global perspective. 

Communicate Ideas– Demonstrates an understanding of a specific audience by communicating and collaborating using verbal and non-verbal behavior, languages, and strategies that are appropriate to the specific audience.

For this artifact, I was tasked to present a historical event/factor on Mr. Taray´s history show that occurred during the Westward Expansion of the United States. I sincerely enjoyed AP United States History because I have always loved history and especially developments within the United States–and being able to share that affinity with my peers was very fun. First, I had to research and create slides surrounding the pioneers of westward expansion. I found out about Mark Twain, Scotts Bluff, and the first pioneers. Their lives were so interesting and terrifying at the same time. People could have the same change to be eaten by a cougar or die of dysentery or to actually make it out west. Life was subject to chance, and my research and presentation was designed to reflect that. 

For the presentation, I was really surprised by my confidence and my expertise to be able to present something that I truly find fascinating. I barely stuttered throughout the speech, and I think I communicated well with my slides, images, and actual words that I spoke. Learning about history is one thing, being able to communicate with an audience and demonstrate a thorough understanding of a historical concept is another. I showed that I didn't just have mindless archives of crystallized intelligence and instead recognized multiple perspectives and spoke well about the concept for my audience to understand and learn the concept.

Take Action- Reflects on the effectiveness and appropriateness of own actions and advocacy for improvement; describes outcomes of actions and makes note of implications for future action and advocacy.

For this artifact, it required me working my hardest in regards to sportsmanship. Throughout most of my freshman year playing basketball, I received little playing time and sat on the bench for the majority of my tenure. But I knew if I gained some confidence to play my own game and to be an individual instead of floundering, I could show my skill and make junior varsity the next year. So I worked over the summer. I arrived early to every lifting session at the warehouse, every open gym, every shooting, every team meeting, every summer tournament, every track day–I was there. I created the expectation of my coaches witnessing my presence there, and I had a pattern of hard work and dedication that I was proud of. I honestly think that's the only reason why I made the team. I was willing to go out to the track in the sweltering heat at 100 degrees to run. From personal experience, that repetition of the same task that you dislike can break a man like a pencil–but I approached the situation as my duty and I outlasted the people around me fighting for the final spot. Gradually, at the actual day of reckoning (tryouts), my contemporaries began to be snatched up by coaches around me, taken to their judgment. The intense fear of a coach lurking behind me to bring me to my doom shook my brain–but eventually, Coach Debevic called us in and we continued on with practice. I was one of the survivors, and the season went on. It wasn´t the giant octagon ring that I expected.

Although I did not receive much playing time throughout the year, I sincerely enjoyed my time with Jackson Basketball. The coaches pushed us but made me able to withstand the hardships that could eventually occur. I guess I just became conditioned to the yelling and pushing that made me able to go through criticism pretty easily, which created a shift in my mind when I received a poor grade on an essay or a test. Look at the test from a different perspective. Don't view it as someone else's fault, view it as yours. Take ownership for what you want to do and your goals. Blaming it on other people will only make yourself weaker and prevent yourself from correcting your wrongdoing. Jackson Basketball made me realize that the only way to reach something you want is to correct the mistakes you made and approach the mistake in a different way than you did before–and to run harder than everyone else.

Take Action- Assesses options and plans actions based on evidence, and the perceived potential for impact.

For this artifact, I had to create a lab report for JAGS Chemistry. This assignment was rigorous and very detailed, and required appropriate procedures, observations, calculations, and conclusions. I´ve never been the best at following an algorithm; I´m more of a creative and autonomous person so this assignment kind of forced me to follow a method in a meticulous way instead of an open way. So, naturally, this assignment was quite challenging for me. But I was up for the challenge because I would not accept a poor grade. The experiment involved salt, and the relative percentage of salt after the transformation from water to water vapor via heat. The experiment itself was easy, following the directions in the post lab was not. It was a set plan, and I usually find myself going against the curve for that. However, I realized that for an assignment like this, I would need to follow the plan to ultimately be successful, so I abided by Ms. Arter´s rules. 

This assignment taught me that I´m not the artist or trailblazer sometimes. Sometimes I have to ask for help and go by a set schema instead of my ego ruling things and ultimately messing up the assignment. If the assignment allows creativity and independence, do it! If it doesn't, suck it up and be obedient to authority. This practice and skill is necessary for success in life and in JAGS, and taught me to go by the master's authority instead of my authority. Obviously creativity is important, but preparation for a set algorithm is required to reach a desired goal–especially with future careers and bosses.