WH GCE Portfolio

One of Chicago’s largest and longest-operating food pantries, Lakeview Pantry’s mission is to eliminate hunger and poverty in their community by providing food to fill the basic need of hungry people; empowering their clients to gain independence through innovative social service programs; and raising awareness of hunger and poverty and working towards solutions to eliminate them. When I was volunteering at Lakeview Pantry, my task was to help the other volunteers present (since it's an almost entirely volunteer-run program) pack and organize food items into bags, as a little care package or grocery bag of food, and then load it into trucks to be shipped off to another of Lakeview pantry's locations.   (pictures go here)

The Greater Chicago Food Depository is part of a united community effort working to bring food, dignity and hope to their Cook County neighbors. They act as the hub for a network of more than 700 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs. These programs provide food where it’s most needed. They also address the root causes of hunger. Public benefits outreach and job training programs offer support for their neighbors to overcome poverty. By taking hunger off the table, they enable families to focus on other priorities, like education, growth and security. They enable communities to face their challenges with confidence. Today and in the long term, providing nutritious food is an investment in health and hope for their neighbors and their community.  When I volunteered there, I assisted them in sorting and packaging various food items depending on what they needed that day. One day it was bell peppers, another it was potatoes, that sort of thing. I thought it was hon...

For this final unit of our Humanities class, Equality, we learned about the history of inequalities and people's efforts to change them. Specifically, we focused on learning about the various inequalities present in 3 categories; class, gender, and race. For our final Action Project for the class, we had to think about a future 100 years from now, and choose one of those 3 main concepts (gender, class, and race) to focus on. Then we had to write an article, an op-ed, and a piece of legislature for that future, as well as design a toy or product from that future, and then put them in a time capsule. I chose race, and created a future where the first generation of Martian colonists are being discriminated against by people born on Earth. Below is me explaining the contents of my time capsule and the documents contained within it. In conclusion, I thought that this project was a pretty difficult project, at first. It was very hard to brainstorm for it, since there were just so many po...

For this unit of Social Entrepreneurship, we learned a lot about how social businesses are managed, how they get investors and funding, and how they impact the communities that they cater to. To learn more about business in the real world, we spoke with Chicago business owner James Bateman, who owns and operates the restaurant Gadabout in Andersonville, Chicago. To learn more about funding, investors, and networking, we spoke to Matthew Nicklin, who works as a managing director at First Analysis. For this Action Project, we were tasked with coming up with our own social business prospect, and outlining and explaining our plan for it. Below is my business proposal for my social business, Jump Step. In conclusion, I though that this Action Project was very challenging to complete. The whole process of creating a business from scratch is frankly pretty extensive and exhausting, even for a relatively simple online business like this. It was fun to explore what cool ideas I could turn into ...

For this unit in Computer Science, we continued our work on Python, this time learning how to make things move as if they were animated. We also had a couple of guests come in to talk to us about computer science and their perspectives on it. For this Action Project, we were tasked with making our own little animation, using Python code and techniques we'd learned earlier in class. Here is my code in motion. In conclusion, I thought that this Action Project was quite fun to figure out, despite its difficulty. 

For this unit of our Humanities class, Equality, we learned about the racial and social disparity between black people and white people, reading several texts by black authors on the subject of their mistreatment and outrage. For this Action Project, we had to create a textbook chapter on a recent historical event. I chose the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980's, and below is my chapter. In conclusion, I found this project to be the most challenging yet. I really, really hit a roadblock with this one, mentally. I think I probably could've done better on managing my time with the project, and the prep work as well, but it was just a struggle to complete. Citations: Emergence of the aids crisis (article). (n.d.). Retrieved March 13, 2021, from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/modern-us/1980s-america/a/emergence-of-the-aids-crisis Halloran, R. (1981, January 16). CARTER seeks $180 billion for 1982 military budget. Retrieved March 13, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/1...