MN GCE Portfolio

This is my third and final action project for my Humanities class, Endurance. Throughout this class, each of us had to ask ourselves what our mission in life is, how we can work towards our mission and what are we willing to endure to reach it. The mission that I have decided on for myself is to become a better artist. For me, the next big step after I graduate is to start art school. This project is a survival guide, breaking down what it takes to pursue my mission. As this is one of the last action projects I will ever do, it feels fitting for it to be a plan for my future. The previous project for Endurance was a video documenting 12 hours of work on our mission. That project was more rigorous and work intensive than this one but reflecting on it helped me better understand what the work I will be doing next year will be like. Knowing that made it easier to create my survival guide. If you would like to watch my video click here . Bellow is the final product and culmination of this...

In every person's life, each person is presented with a challenge. When faced with that challenge they must surrender or endure. For my class Endurance, we discussed and studied how others have endured challenges great and small. For our first project, each of us decided upon a mission for ourselves. The mission I set for myself was to become a better artist. For this project, we had to dedicate 12 hours to our mission and document the process. I spent my time working on one painting and it was both easier and harder than I expected it to be. I have worked on a number of paintings in my life and going into this I was already aware of the mental blocks that come with creating art.  The greatest challenge of this painting was the size and scope I set out with. With a 4x7ft canvas and 6 figures in the composition, I started to regret my ambitious planning. I am also unhappy that I was unable to finish the painting in 12 hours, though it was not a surprise. I am planning on finishing i...

This is my first action project for my humanities course, Equality. In this class, we discussed different kinds of oppression and privilege. We started by studying racism, specifically in United States history and how the way racial discrimination has evolved over time. Starting from the first slave to arrive in America in 1619 to the structural racism of today's prison system. We also talked about race bias and white privilege. In this part of the unit, we watched the Oscar-winning movie BlacKkKlansman, a well done, honest and timely film. Watching it as a part of this class was fitting for the curriculum, but it was also something that was important for us to watch even if it hadn't been in for a class. From there we shifted to the topic of sexism, gender roles, and fragile masculinity. As a class, we generally discuss these heavier topics rather well in our own way and throughout this class that was a constant pattern. However, this part of the unit on gender and sexism is w...

This is my second action project for my humanities course, Global Peace. For this project we were tasked with picking an issue to act on through a form of peaceful protest. The paper and presentation below is the summation of my research, my action and my purpose. Pride Flag, Wikicommons (2005) In today's world, young LGBT people feel alone. The lack of representation and recognition in the media and minimal at best protections from discrimination. A few small steps have been made towards addressing systematic oppression, but not much has been done to address what is known as cultural violence. Cultural violence is the unspoken stigma of a community or society that can establish, normalize and justify oppression. It is part of the bedrock that sparks direct violence, a specific incidence or an act harming a person or group of people. Direct violence targeting the LGBT community is a norm hardly ever addressed by the traditional mainstream news outlets. This complete disregar...

In today's world, we are facing so many seemingly insurmountable conflicts. On a daily basis, there is a new story about another injustice. Rife with war, corruption, and hate, it is hard to imagine that there could ever be an end to it. While there is no one quick fix or cure-all way to solve all problems, there are a number of ways to view these issues, better understand their causes and how to address them. In my Humanities class, Global Peace, we studied different forms of non-violent protest. Before understanding how to be non-violent it is important to establish what is violence. When simplified, there are 3 kinds of violence, cultural, social and direct. Cultural violence is the unspoken stigmas of a community or society that can establish, normalize and justify violence and oppression. Cultural violence is part of the bedrock that creates structural violence. Structural violence is harm from a formal institution, government or any other body of power that targets and oppre...

Sound, whether it be in the form of music, a podcast or radio, is a powerful media. Without the distractions of visuals video has, or the ambiguity of solid text or photography, sound can perfectly summarize the intention, emotion, aesthetic and voice of any story. For my Journalism class, a humanities course, we each selected an influential voice that has made an impact on our own lives, the people around us and others around the world and create a podcast about them. The voice I chose was John Oliver, a British writer, comedian, and host of the HBO show Last Week Tonight . For each episode of his show, he focuses on a single topic to dive deep into. Rather than only picking the most obvious headline to talk about he picks more underlying issues that are arguably more important to learn about than the surface level play by play of a series of current events. His show and how he covers stories has had an impact on a multitude of levels, from how people get their news to w...

This is my first action project for my Humanities course called Journalism. In this class we studied and discussed what journalism is, what goes into the job and how journalism is the most dangerous profession here in the US and around the world. In the current political climate where the validity of journalists and reporting is being questioned by those in power one of the most essential and fundamental elements of our nation, the free press is on the chopping block. For this project we chose an issue in our own neighborhood that we wanted to look into and write an article about it. The building company MAC Properties is currently contracting a new 27 story luxury complex in the Chicago, Hyde Park area. The new apartment complex at at 1600 E. 53rd St has been met with a good deal of public outcry from the local residents. During a public meeting on April 13, 2017 more than 40 people showed up to voice their concerns on a number of topics. The first major being how the building might...

This is my second action project for my Humanities class called Policy.  Policy is the course following up our other Junior humanities classes.We started with Rhetoric, where we studied methods of appealing to an audience. Next we moved to Argument where learned how to make a sound argument using premises and conclusions and the dialectic form. In this class we studied the policies of the US government, what those mean and how they are formulated. This unit was called Judicial, in which as the name suggests we studied the judicial branch of the US government. As a class we made a time line of past supreme court cases and rulings, then discussed how they connected and what precedents they set. For this action project we had to chose one of those cases to study and determine for ourselves whether the case and decision was constitutional or not. The case I chose was Hammer v Dagenhart of 1918 on child labor to determine if it infringes on the commerce clause. 

This is my second action project for my Humanities class called Policy.  Policy is the course following up our other Junior humanities classes.We started with Rhetoric, where we studied methods of appealing to an audience. Next we moved to Argument where learned how to make a sound argument using premises and conclusions and the dialectic form. In this class we studied the policies of the US government, what those mean and how they are formulated. This Unit was called Executive, we covered the executive branch of the US government learning about their power and actions. We started covering declarations of war and although the president doesn't have that power they have and can actually do so. An example of this that we discussed in great detail was the Vietnam war. We watched the movie The Post, about the Washington Post covering the pentagon papers and defending the freedom of the press. For this action project we had to choose a war to research and through the lens of the ex...

This is my second action project for my humanities class called A Nations Argument . In this class we learned about what an argument is, different way forming one and defining an arguments soundness. In this unit, called 1857, we learned about the Dread Scott cases while discussing logical fallacies. Logical fallacies are contradictory or false premises that make an argument unsound. For this action project we looked through our schools code of conduct and find a policy that we believed should be amended. I chose to amend the part called "Appeal To Process". Handshake Icon (2015) Wikicommons  Policy  Any student or family has the right to appeal any decision made by the Disciplinary Council or Head of School. Appeals need to be in writing and received in a timely manner. The Disciplinary Council will consider all appeals and the Head of School will communicate final decision. Current Syllogism   The Disciplinary Council and head of school aren’t always ma...

This is my first and only action project for my STEAM class called Rocket Science. In the class we covered the history of space exploration, calculating and graphic launches and designing and building aircrafts. Rather than having 3 separate units we had a bunch of what we called mini-missions. In the begin of the class we mainly focused on past space missions and the advancement that came with it, one of the most interesting parts of this was the presentations we did on the race to space. One of the mini-missions that we had in this part of the class was a research paper about a past space mission that we found particularly interesting or inspiring. After we completed that portion of the class we went on to look at calculating flight and launching. We learned a number of equations, one of them being how to calculate the hight of a throw just based off of the time in the air and distance traveled. Another concept we learned about was binary and ASCII code, a code consisting of only 1...

This is my third and final action project for my humanities class called Rhetoric. In this class we learned and discussed different way of presenting arguments, ideas and truths. We talked about how rhetoric plays into not just campaigns and in politics, but how everything is a form or rhetoric. In this unit we focused mainly on the rhetoric and meaning of art. We talked about outside artists, who are people who are not part of the mainstream or the art world elite nor conform to the confines of the typical art form. For this action project we had to create a piece of art that related to a social issue of our choice that we felt that we had something to say about. After creating it we had to explain why we created what we did and what we were trying to express and start a discussion about. In the images you can see images of the two pieces of art that I created for this project. MN ("I Will Not Be Silenced" Art #1) 2017 MN ("BE YOUR OWN F**KIN HERO" Art #2...

This is my third and final action project for my humanities class called Drama. In this class we read plays and look at the historical context and what we can learn from them. In this unit we read A Raisin In The Sun. While reading it we learned about the different forms of racial inequality that were going on at the time, specifically the housing crisis.For this action project we had to write a prologue addressing a scene in the play and give our opinion on the story as well as the opinions of the people that we interviewed in the external part of the unit. I chose to address the scene between the character Beneatha Younger and Asagai. Asagai is an exchange student from Nigeria who goes to school with Beneatha. In the scene Beneatha is trying to talk to Asagai about his culture and learn about it from his perspective. Instead of answering her questions he dismisses her as an appropriator. I disagree with his opinion so that is why I chose to write about that. We also had to take a p...

Student Showcase (2017) Over the course of this school year I took a class called Health and Wellness. In this class we learned about self-awareness, community building and goal setting. For the culminating event for this class we volunteered at a student showcase that demonstrated the forms of dance that the schools that participating learned. My role was mostly working on sound, although I did help out with a few other minor jobs as well. Before working on this event I didn't know much about the intricacy's of working in a sound booth so it was quite a new experience. I also had to use communication skills to get all of the information needed to run sound. If I were to do this again I would have sent out requests for all of the songs prior to the event so I would not have been as stressed out the day of.

This is my second action project for my Humanities class called drama. This is was about reading different plays throughout history and looking at the context of the story and what we can learn from that. In this unit we read a play called A Doll's House set in Norway in the late 1800s, it is a story about a woman named Nora and a part of her marriage. For this action project we got into groups of three and write a script and then make a video acting it out. For this video I worked with MDS and KM . The video that we made had to have three characters, the first being Nora from A Doll's House, the second character had to be a historically significant person and the third and final person had to be a person acting as themselves with there own beliefs. In the video we had to have a discussion about the question "Should men & women have different roles in society?". My role in this scene was myself, MDS played the famous Carrie Fisher and KM played Nora. A Q...

This is my first action project for my Humanities class called class called Drama. In this Class we read different plays and sonnets to learn the meaning behind them and how to interpret them. In this unit we read Shakespeare's play The Taming of The Shrew, about the Lady Katherina and it is set in Victorian Florence. Lady Kate is a strong willed woman who doesn't want to give into the standards that women are held to at the time, and she most diffidently doesn't want to get married. Throughout the story she is beaten down until she can no longer fight back and eventually becomes 'tamed'.  For this action project we had to choose a character from The Taming of The Shrew and write a sonnet giving them advice. I chose to address Lady Kate because I wanted to speak about the strength that she proved the had but still gave up. When writing this sonnet I struggled with trying to use a Shakespearean vocabulary. I was only able to do that by going back through the play a...

This is my second action project for my STEAM class Stage Chem. This project is a follow up to the previous AP, where we chose a space we had access to and turned it into a blueprint for a theater. For this project we turned the blueprint into a scale model, that demonstrates two elements of our choice. The elements I chose were the doors that serve at the curtains and the stage lights. I enjoyed doing this project because it was challenging, but it was still fun. I struggled when measuring out the cardboard because the length of the walls all ended in fractions of inches. MN (Mar 28 2017) Model Stage Birds-Eye View MN (Mar 28 2017) Model Stage Right View MN (Mar 28 2017) Model Stage Left View The first element that I chose to represent was the doors doors that retract into the walls that function as the show's curtains. On of the main reasons I chose this space for my theater is because these doors are already there. They take up 1/3 of the 22 1/2 f...