Pitch

This is the only Action Project for my Social Entrepreneurship course. This is the third STEAM course in the senior series. Unit one was titled the clearing and investigated what our passions and skills are. Unit two was titled the entrepreneur and focused on transferring ones passion into a business venture. We examined hedgehog concepts which help to organize integral elements of a business. Unit three was titled the business case and analyze how everything comes together to form a business. This unit allowed students to learn about necessary business steps, skills, and practices. The final unit, pitch, focussed on taking everything we learned and combing it to make a business pitch. The unit was about taking action on our plan. The action project asked students to conceptualize a social venture and then pitch it to investors. This entire course was filled with great guest speakers who greatly impacted the flow of the course. We learned so much from them along with other great online resources. I was able to learn about my field and all the logistical elements it contains. The action project was very rewarding for me as it allowed me to go back and reflect on earlier work in the course. I loved the overall freedom in both the course and the AP. I utilized my love for the arts to push myself through this course and project. I am very happy with my work ethic and final product!

Survival Manual

This is the unit 3 Action Project for my Endurance course. This is the third humanities course in the senior Global Vision series. Unit 3 was titled Apotheosis, which means becoming divine, and focused on investigating the endurance of survivors. We utilized their experiences as inspiration for our personal missions. The unit was guided by the survivors stories. We examined how survival changes ones mind and heart. After clearly determining my mission in unit one and working on it in unit two, I needed to figure out how my mission is going to survive. The action project for the unit called upon students to create a survival manual for their mission with the hope of guiding themselves in addition to inspiring others. I really enjoyed this unit as it exposed a lot of the challenges in a mission. This unit emphasized the reality that life is hard and in order to succeed you need to have a clear vision and work towards it. This course has helped further develop my perception of self. The action project allowed me to dive deeper into my mission and think about how it'll unfold in time. I really appreciated the individuality and practically of this project. I think that this was a wonderful way to conclude the unit and move into the next stage of my life!

Service Hours

Every GCE student is required to complete one hundred hours of service work before graduating. In order to complete my hours I worked in the backroom of tasty works, a brokerage firm, in the Fulton Market area of the city. I worked alongside the customer team and did a variety of filing jobs. My biggest and most consistent task was taking piles of customer information and scanning them to an internal database. I needed to learn their scanning and sending systems in order to increase my efficiency. It took me a few times to get settled into my role and feel comfortable. I began my internship just after the company launched in January. My schedule was Tuesday's and Thursday's after school. I would work shifts between four and five hours. These longer time periods allowed me to emulate what the real life workforce feels like. There were times when screams were tossed across the room, phones constantly ringing and then there were times where it was very still. These fluctuations needed to be dealt with. I had a task and I needed to stay on track in order for other people to do their job. There was little room for error or play, It was business all the time. One of the biggest difficulties for me came after I thought I had completed scanning a huge stack of sheets before being told by one of the team members that I had missed a significant section. It was wake up calls like those that kept me on my toes the whole time. I felt integrated into their business and felt like a vital member of the team. The empowered me by giving me a task with real implications. I worked as apart of the customer team from January to May. The experience was tremendously empowering and taught me a lot about the professional world. I was happy to learn a lot of new skills while being helpful to those who needed it. Overall it was a wonderful endeavor accumulating my service hours.

MS, Printer/Scanner, 2017

MS, Office View, 2017

Health + Wellness

Every GCE student is required to complete one hundred hours of health and wellness. In order to complete my hours and earn my credit I practiced yoga. I knew from the get go that if I was going to be spending a significant portion of time earning my credit I might as well do something I enjoy. Yoga was an activity that I had tried a few times in my younger years. Life creates a lot of internal chaos and yoga acts as a release. I began practicing yoga with a personal instructor in my home at the end of the summer. It was a nice way to regain a sense of being before heading into senior year. I began to really benefit from my sessions so I attempted to do two, one and a half hour sessions, a week. My mind was flowing freely and life was becoming much more enjoyable. The mat would unroll across the wooden floor and I would get into child's pose. This starting point became familiar and comfortable for me. Each session allowed me to move in new ways. I worked hard on continuously stretching myself out in order to be as fluid as possible. I wanted to reduce both the mental and physical rigidity in my life. A major difficulty would often come in the middle of sessions. A wave a sleepiness or a feeling of disengagement would come over me and impact my will to continue. I had to actively work with my mind and body to push through those moments and finish off the sessions. I began my yoga in August and continued in some manner until the end of may. It was one of the most impactful aids for my senior year. Yoga taught me how to be more patient and calm. It allowed me to gain new perspectives on myself as well as the world around me. This health and wellness journey was intense but very worth while.

MS, Home Workout Room, 2017

VLOG : Mission In Action

This is the unit 2 Action Project for my Endurance course. This is the third humanities course in the senior Global Vision series. Unit 2 was titled Katabasis and focused on how to dive into your mission. The first unit was about identification and this unit was focused on action. Katabasis means diving into the strange underworld with dangers all around. We utilized Dante's Inferno as a key resource throughout the unit. It was extraordinarily moving for me and allowed me to further understand the heroes journey. Parallels were drawn between Dante's journey and my own. I began to take the story and relate it to my life. It was one of the most influential texts I've encountered during my schooling. The unit also investigated the the journey of remarkable individuals who endured seemingly crazy missions. David Blaine is a remarkable example of someone we learned and talked about. Seeing his feats and then hearing him talk about his mindset and the process behind them made me very excited. The things he accomplished were mind-blowing to me and he explained that through practice, handwork, patience, and a will almost anything can be done. For the AP, students were asked to work on their mission for at least 12 hours and document it. I decided to paint my largest canvas ever. My mission was to provide people with the keys to unlock their own doors of perception and I determined the best way to do so was with a large painting. I really enjoyed this project as it allowed me to work on something I truly love. In addition to the painting, I really liked making the video. It allowed me to utilize a different side of my creativity. The project was definitely challenging at times but my passion kept me engaged and moving forward. I adored this unit and believe this is one of my best AP's ever!

Autobiography

This is the unit 1 Action Project for my Endurance course. This course is the third and final humanities course in the senior Global Vision series. The course focussed on how to find your journey in life and live it. We examined historical examples of people who refused to lose or give up. We pushed ourselves in the course physically and mentally through a variety of exercises. We learned endurance through enduring. Unit 1 of was titled Morpheus and focused on the dream or mission one will pursue in life. This unit allowed me to further understand and explore where I want to be in life. A variety of readings, class discussions, and FE's made this unit run wonderfully. The action project asked students to put themselves in the future and write an autobiography about their life. I really enjoyed the creative aspect of this project and believed it wrapped up the unit very nicely. After completing my autobiography chapter, I reconfirmed my life's aspirations as well as paid homage to how I got there. Overall, I really enjoyed this unit and it's AP.

Chapter 1

A life Being Lived

MS, Warp of Life, 2017

It all began on Tuesday, August 18th, 1998 when a newly married couple decided to go for breakfast. The restaurant of choice was the original Mitchell’s on Clybourn Ave, which was a favorite spot of theirs but has been closed for many years now. Their food as well as the space was consistent but there was a unique vibe present in the atmosphere. It was a warm summer morning and the two lovers were eagerly awaiting their entrance into parenthood. Following breakfast, the couple continued to enjoy the beautiful day by going for a walk. What started as simple stroll soon shifted into a life changing moment. Intense and consistent contractions signalled to the couple that I, their first creation, was finally ready to come out into the world. While at Prentice Women’s Hospital, I continued to internally notify my mother that It was time for me to be free. At 9:02 PM, I made my entrance into the world. The cutting of the umbilical cord, the physical connector between my mother and me, left me as an individual for the first time. My first solo breathe signalled the start to a never ending personal journey.

My early years were spent bonding with my parents as well as learning about myself and the world through my experiences. My connection to my parents, particularly my mother, was very strong. Our similarities as well her unconditional love for me made it difficult for us to split. I remember hysterically crying when she left me at two hour daycare and not stopping until she picked me up. This deeply rooted connection as well as the emotions it produced evolved over time. When I was around five years old my mother went on a short getaway with her friend. At that point in my life, I was able to leave her with ease for short periods of time but hadn’t experienced prolonged separation. Her departure produced a feeling I’d never felt before. The mental sadness that often came with our separation wasn’t present. A physical sensation reminiscent of not being able to breathe took over my mind and body. The uncertainty of the situation landed me in the emergency room at Children’s Memorial hospital. The intensity of my emotions kept me from fully processing the situation. My father arrived and spoke with various staff members. What was initially believed to be a breathing problem turned out to be my separation anxiety manifesting physically. My father was pleased to hear it was an emotional issue as it allowed him to bring me home and have a plan for combating it. When my mother came back, my parents took me into the front of the house and sat me down to chat. They told me I was going to start seeing a feelings doctor who I could play and talk with. Their salesmanship was stellar, I instantly bought into it. The next week I went to meet him and have our first appointment. I played with toys, screamed, swore and even cried. Unknowingly at the time, I was beginning to embark on my life’s mission of consistent self progression.

I became fully immersed in the psychoanalytic process, attending sessions four days a week. Each session produced new answers along with new questions. The process brought a plethora of my internal issues to the surface. I thought I entered psychoanalysis for one reason but it turned out to be for several. Coming to this understanding was initially very discouraging as It left me believing I had moved backwards. It took me a lot of time to realize that uncovering and working through the issues was a necessary step in effectively moving forward. Once I wholeheartedly embraced the process of problem solving, psychoanalysis became my favorite thing in life. It allowed me to explore myself and my ideas in ways I never imagined possible. I gained tremendous confidence and excitement which directly translated to my creative business ventures. Learning how to problem solve and plan on a personal level was extremely beneficial in the creation of several businesses throughout my life. Seeing the impact of psychoanalysis in my life allowed me to become consciously aware of it being my central mission. I was seeing it, therefore I was believing it.

Psychoanalysis helped engrain my mission of self progression into my mind, body, and soul. The years of my engagement in the process gave me the ability to recognize that traditional schooling wasn’t my fit. I was able to speak up and change my situation for the better. Being able to recognize where you fit in is key but it must be followed by action. Knowing that I wanted to endlessly work on bettering myself, I explored for the best outlet to do so. For my whole life I had been a creative spirit who enjoyed to doodle and make a mess. Out of pure curiosity and spontaneity, I began to make doodles again. These doodles quickly turned into paintings and each painting became progressively larger. I was slowly working my way towards the mirror to my soul. The large scale artwork provided me with a type of emotional outlet I’d never experienced. I was able to translate every emotion, energy, desire, thought into something permanent. I started using the canvas as a mental playground with no rules or expectations. Painting has taught me to be in the moment. The pieces I created were direct translations of my inner world. I was finally finding the gratification and contentment I was after.

The paintings got bigger and the vision progressed. I utilized my increasing self awareness to recognize the current moment and react to it artistically. Just like life, my art became a compilation of my emotions and energies. I admitted my ignorance along with my desire to grow and set off for NYC. I left all that I had known but that was alright because I was going towards what I believed I wanted. I was responding to the ebb and flow of life. Preparation was essential, but nothing could effectively prepare me for the transition. It was scary because it was brand new. There were no expectations, only possibilities. My life long vision was coming into fruition. Things were occurring as I imagined them in my head. The focuss became centered and the purpose was clear. I was to make as much honest artwork as possible in order to be happy. I had found my key to the now, my access to myself.

Sitting all alone in a spacious and well lit room, I think of my past. I know the past is gone forever and the future is just out of reach. My breathe allows me to feel everything, my entire universe, while only being present in the here and now. How and why did I get to where I am? How did my journey unfold? I continuously question myself, but often never find the answers. All I can do is pay tribute to those who’ve undeniably played a role in my life. My grandpa, my father's father, was born in NYC during the great depression. His entire life was defined by overcoming adversity and making the most of every situation. His experiences in life have been super important in instilling ideas of patients, respect, and awareness in me. His subtle way of speaking inspired me to become a better communicator. Such a large part of why I create is to communicate. I want to work in a medium that has no boundaries. I want my artwork to cross all walks of life and the earth. I’ve seen the direct impact of working on myself and want to share the experience being in touch with one's inner self through art. My goal in life has and will continue to be providing people with the keys to unlock their own doors of perception.

My Big Audacious Goal

This is the only Action Project for my elective course M.A.G.I.C. which stands for mentoring achievement of goals and inspiring champions. The purpose of the course was for students to identify a guiding light and analyze their life in order to better understand themselves and live out their dreams. The course allowed students to get inspired, state a goal, create a plan, and put it all into action. Success and failure was a common theme in the course. Quantitative and qualitative data was used throughout the course. A variety of guest speakers came into class to inspire us and answer our questions. M.A.G.I.C. utilized significant figures from throughout history as the educational foundation for teaching students about their life. This class was constantly exciting and deeply impactful. Overall, I was very pleased with the entirety of the course as well as my AP.