Decisions
Junior year was defined by decisions for me. At this point in my schooling career, I had to start thinking more about my future than ever before. Instead of being forced to take a majority of my classes, my schedule was far more open this year, which allowed to me to start experimenting with career paths I had found interesting.
Nick Beoglos
Global Challenge: Cuarentena en Medellín
4th Quarter 2021
Señora Munoz
Junior Year - Spanish IV - Investigate the World: Develops a clear position based on evidence from sources that considers multiple perspectives, and draws defensible conclusions in response to a global question.
This artifact is a Spanish assignment given to students who didn’t partake in the National Spanish Exam that year (NSE). The assignment was to read an article (in Spanish) over how the Spanish town of Medellin in Colombia used libraries and anonymous letters to upkeep communications amongst its town people. The people of the sent letters to each other anonymously, almost like pen partners that would lift each other's spirits. The assignment was relatively simple, but gave me a lot of insight and information on the sense of community in towns in Colombia. This artifact matches the domain or investigating the world because I had to read an article in a foreign language about a foreign country, and then had to formulate a response to a specific global question at the end of the assignment. More specifically, my response had evidence from my own experiences in the USA, and evidence from the article from the assignment and the information provided through the assignment itself. The artifact demonstrates my proficiency in investigating the world because it displays my ability to not only use my own experiences to answer questions, but evidence and experiences of others through second hand sources. Moreover, it demonstrates proficiency in foreign languages, as I was able to decipher and use the article to formulate my response to the final question more accurately. I had to take information I learned from the assignment to answer questions like “How would you improve some of these [Library communication] services in your community?” and identifying and comparing one story from my community to that of Medellin’s.
My creative process for this assignment was relatively simple: learn as much information from the information pieces from the assignment, and decipher as much information as I could from the article. I am in my fourth year of Spanish, but I’m still learning and can’t fluently read, so some sentences of information flew over my head, but I made sure to use reliable translators like wordreference.com to translate unknown words. I made sure to analyse the content of the article, like how the anonymous letters relieved stress/anxiety from a young couple who were about to have their first child in the midst of a pandemic. The artifact changed my perspective because it opened my eyes to the better sense of community in countries like Colombia. I couldn’t even think about sending anonymous letters to people in my community during a pandemic to stay sane, but it opened my eyes as to how that could be something that could benefit people. One way specifically it could benefit people is their mental health, as communication has deteriorated throughout the pandemic, it's important to talk to new people to keep others sane. The artifact developed my skill to effectively digest information from different cultures.
The artifact shows me becoming a more globally competent citizen because I’m beginning to recognize people’s daily lifestyles more, and what specific needs they require in different situations. For instance, communication in a community is far more important for the people of Medellin than it is for the people of Jackson, as our community didn’t have nearly the same drive for a project like this. The artifact showcases my growth as a JAGS student as it shows my ability to comprehend a foreign language, and use information I’ve learned from foreign articles to better formulate my own responses.
Nick Beoglos
Statistical Analysis Project
3rd Quarter 2021
Mrs. Harp
Junior Year - Algebra II - Recognize Perspectives: Explains the perspectives of other people, groups, or scholars and distinguishes it from one’s own perspective.
The artifact I chose for my Junior math class was a statistical analysis project for my Algebra II class. The stat analysis project involved me and my partner making a survey, sending out our surveys, and then making graphs and writing statistical general statistical analysis of our data, like range, standard deviation, etc.) The survey question was “How many video games do you actively play in your life”. This was the survey question because it was something both me and my partner were passionate about, and could give us more insight into how other people feel about the medium in general. The artifact matches the domain of recognizing perspectives because through our survey, my partner and I were able to get better representations of how our classmates feel about the growing medium of video games, and virtual entertainment which is becoming more prominent and important in society everyday. The artifact demonstrates my proficiency in my ability to recognize perspectives because it showed that I am willing and able to gather information about my peers to learn more about their interests and hobbies, and learn what is actually important to them. Through this, I can better understand their perspectives, and distinguish it from my own.
My creative process for this assignment was making something a question that was fun, interesting, and or enlightening for the person taking the survey to think about. The question needed to be something that interested the people invested in video games, while also making those who thought they didn’t care about video games think if the medium has any impact on their lives. My partner and I also wanted to represent our data in a fun way, so it was important to us to have a colorful, overall nice to look at graph for our final product. The artifact changed my perception of surveys and data analysis because even through something seemingly trivial as “How many video games do you play?” gave me a decent amount of insight into my classmates. For instance, those who answered 2-3 were considered “normal” in terms of their investment in the medium, while someone like me who answered 6 where much farther invested, only being .15% of responses. The survey also allowed me to distinguish my perspective between others, as I realized I was more invested in the medium than I thought I was. Because of this artifact, I developed the skill to not only collect, but analyze data more clearly, efficiently, and effectively. I’m now able to get more perspectives from populations by myself instead of relying on outside sources for future projects.
Surveying my classmates for my Algebra II class increased my global competency significantly. This project was the first time I had to do all parts of research with only myself and a partner. Thinking of a question, survey making, data collection, and data analysis were all tested in this project, and it increased my global competency because I am now capable of creating surveys to better gauge an audience or population’s opinion on a certain topic for future projects. I’m now willing and able to create impactful data collection and analysis.
Nick Beoglos
International Friends Group Communication
3rd Quarter
Ms. Stone
Junior Year - Model UN - Communicate Ideas: Selects and applies appropriate resources, such as technology and media, to communicate and collaborate effectively with diverse individuals and groups.
I decided to choose my various communications via Instagram text and email with my International Friends (IFCPP) work group from our Kent State research paper project. My IFCPP research group consisted of me, two students from another school district in Ohio, and one person from Rwanda. Our group was tasked with creating a research paper on a topic of our choosing, but this artifact represents my communications with them to be able to complete our research paper proposal specifically. In addition to this, google docs needed to be our primary work platform so anyone could work on the project whenever they could. The proposal was due January 30th, and required a great deal of communication and teamwork to complete the project outlining our plans for research. The artifact matches the domain of communicating ideas because to complete our research proposal, I took charge in my group and not only communicated, but facilitated different ways to communicate amongst each other. Initially, my group was communicating solely through email, and was simply not working. To change this, I took charge and with my group decided that another communication method would be greatly appreciated, so we switched to Instagram text messages, where my group saw much more frequent communications. The artifact matches the domain because I displayed my ability to use appropriate resources (Instagram) to effectively collaborate with a diverse group of group members.
My creative process for this artifact was simple, creating effective and easy ways to communicate with my group members. Communication had been a struggle for us before our research proposal, so I knew that easier and faster forms of communication were necessary. My group and I wanted to take advantage of the technology at our disposal, and realizing we all had access to Instagram, we decided on the platform to be our main form of communication. The content of the artifact simply displays effective group communication and collaboration to complete the research proposal, which was very important to the future success of our group in the research paper project. My communications with my IFCPP group changed my perception of group projects because I had never worked with an entire group. I didn’t have the opportunity to see face to face in real life. It made me realize how important constant and consistent communication is in a group project, and made me realize how nice it is to have the ability to see your group mates face-to-face in person in other class projects. To combat our groups inability to see each other, a line of constant communication needed to be held to be able to effectively work on the project. I developed the skill of being able to communicate with groups more efficiently, and will make future group projects much easier and efficient now that I know how important communication is.
The artifact shows that I am becoming a more globally competent citizen. Through increased and more efficient communication with my group members, I was able to display my ability to work as a group with people living far away from me, even on different continents. Being able to work around time zones with ¼ of my group displays my ability to work with people, not against them. In addition to this, google docs allowed our group to collaborate, even with different time zones. The artifact showcases my growth as a JAGS student because it represents my first time working on a project internationally.
Nick Beoglos
Presenting the Conversation Essay
3rd Quarter
Mrs. Koladin
Junior Year - Composition II - Investigate the World: Poses a specific researchable question on a local, regional, and/or global issue, and explains its significance to the global community
The artifact I chose to represent my investigation of the world as a Junior was my second essay for my composition II class. Prior to writing the essay, each student in our class chose a global issue to research for the semester, and I chose the issue of hunger. I chose the second essay I wrote on the topic of hunger, which relates to presenting the conversation. For this essay, we were tasked with exploring the topic of our global issue, finding both sides of the argument on the topic, and then presenting both sides equally in our second essay on the subject. The artifact matches the domain of investigating the world because I was tasked with researching and writing about my research in an unbiased manner on one of the world’s most pressing issues today. Specifically, my essay was about how issues of hunger should be solved, with two main sides arising in argumentation. In my paper, one side argued that more food production is necessary, while the other side argued that facilitation of food we already have is far more important. My essay represents a specific, researchable question that has an impact on a local, regional, and global level. Throughout the essay, I explained hunger’s global significance to the global population, how it affects people, and why it needs to be solved. The artifact demonstrates my proficiency in the domain of investigating the world because it shows my ability to conduct unbiased research on two sides of an argument/issue.
My creative process for this artifact was to learn as much information for both sides of the hunger debate that I could before even beginning to write my essay. I didn’t want to begin writing an essay thinking that there was an argument someone had made for one side of the debate, and then later finding out that the argument I had in mind didn’t exist. I had a general idea of the arguments I had in mind for both sides of the debate, looked up both sides with broad terms, then read most of the articles I found, even the ones I didn’t use to get a better grasp of the situation at hand. The content of the artifact was simple, being able to find as many articles, argumentative papers, etc.) to pick from for my paper so I had the quotes/evidence I needed to write a well thought out essay on both sides of the debate. The artifact changed how I think about essays because in prior essays, I would begin writing before I had collected evidence sometimes, hoping that the evidence I needed existed. This Artifact changed how I think about essay writing because I will always find evidence first, and then begin putting my thoughts to words in the essay. I developed the skill of analyzing and researching both sides of an argument from this paper. I can apply this skill to future essays even in this class, as hunger is my focus topic for the semester.
This artifact, and the work I did with it shows my growth as a globally competent citizen. Through this artifact, I am able to demonstrate my proficiency in analyzing both sides of a debate, and not simply jumping to conclusions. Jumping to simple assertions and assuming things without good evidence is a rampant issue in today’s society, and showing my ability to not do those things displays my growth as a global citizen. The essay also demonstrates my growth as a JAGS student because it not only displays more experience with essay writing, but more experience with international research as hunger is an international issue today.
Nick Beoglos
Friday Night Football Game Performance
1st Quarter 2021
Mrs. Monigold
Junior Year - Band - Take Action: Identifies and creates opportunities for personal or collaborative actions to address a situation, event, issue, or phenomenon in a way that is likely to improve conditions.
The artifact I selected for my Junior extra curricular activity is me attending and performing at one of my school’s Friday night football games. To be able to participate in the performance, our entire band had to be present about an hour before performance, and stay at the school from around 6-10pm, representing a significant time commitment that Friday. The artifact not only represents this specific performance, but the month or two leading up to it practicing throughout the summer months. The artifact domain I chose for this was taking action, being able to create opportunities for collaborative actions to address a situation to improve its conditions. Me and my band were able to identify that many people in our community were struggling with the pandemic, and were struggling being able to find outside entertainment. Through band performances in football games, we were able to provide fresh, exciting entertainment to take the stress off of some people’s lives for at least a little bit of time on a Friday night. The artifact demonstrates my proficiency in taking action because I was able to commit to band performances on more than one occasion, and showing commitment throughout the summer months to learn the process and be able to perform.
My creative process for this artifact was simply doing what I was supposed to, and trying to bring some energy to my friends and squad mates. In reality, for the entire band season, my creative process was really just following the creative process that my band directors had in mind. Being able to do what they expected me to do, especially being an upperclassmen was very important to me. The actual content of this specific artifact was the specific performance on Friday night during the season, but the artifact also represents much more. The artifact represents the many days and hours spent learning new music and drill for the band. The artifact changed how my perception of taking action because it showed me that things that I do on a daily basis can be seen as taking action, even if I don’t realize it. Before writing this document, I didn’t realize that marching band could provide at least some entertainment to people, but now I realize that even the smallest actions can help someone through something like a pandemic, and make a positive impact. I improved on memorization skills memorizing music, and improved on cooperating with others in somewhat more synchronized settings
This artifact made me a much more globally competent citizen. Being able to entertain and make positive contributions to an audience is very important, especially as mental health becomes a far bigger issue in today’s America. Even seemingly simple performances like friday night band shows can provide entertainment to potentially hundreds, if not thousands through live streams. Outside performances like these greatly help with mental health. Being able to recognize opportunities to do good like this and being able to cooperate with my peers shows my growth as a JAGS student, and a global citizen.
