One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Dead Fish

In my last term for my STEAM class, I took a course called Frontiers. This term was the first ever time that course was introduced to GCE Lab School students, so I am super grateful that I was part of the first class to take the course. We learned about marine biology and why we must take care of our oceans right now. I have become very interested in climate change this year, so this course perfectly fit my interests. Although taking this course felt very self-guided at times, I was able to push through the current pandemic and not being able to see my teacher face-to-face. 
This Action Project was very hard to endure. I was very passionate about it at first, but life kept throwing curveballs at me, making my timeline to complete this AP shift a little bit. I can finally say that I completed my last Action Project at GCE to the best of my capability. I think I would have done better if I was in the actual GCE building, as that building is a safe haven from the outside world for a couple hours of the day. I can't change the past, but I can spark change for the future, as I did with this literature review. 

Curation of my Ambition

Here I am.
I am officially wrapping up my last Humanities course at GCE Lab School. It feels surreal. I have fallen in love with the "Endurance" course since the beginning. I cannot even imagine the possibilities this course has if we weren't all stuck at home. This course is definitely one of the best courses someone can take as a student at GCE Lab School.
The focus of "Endurance" was studying what apotheosis is. Apotheosis is the highest point in the development of something, otherwise known as a climax. We looked at an example of Malala's apotheosis to get a better sense of the feeling of a climax during a mission. After studying Malala, my class and I started our Action Project about our mission in life. I have been worked towards becoming a museum curator for two years now, so it was fun to sit down and make a cute manual on how I think the next few years of my journey will look like.  I loved decorating my slideshow and finding pictures in my camera roll that relate to my mission. I will most likely refer to this document through college as a sweet memory and token of GCE. 
Enjoy! Take care. Now I resume my journey...

Can Activism be Achieved in 12 Hours?

It has finally settled in.

I spent my last day of senior year of high school for the last time without knowing it. A day that I took for granted. A day that I wish I could relive and give my most warmest hugs to everyone that has helped me become a stronger student at GCE. When I heard the news that the rest of the school year is cancelled by the state’s orders, I saw my senior year flash before my eyes. I won’t ever forget when I heard this life-changing news. Thousands of seniors in the City of Chicago mourned about this dreadful loss. We will never be able to live the traditional senior spring term, which consists of yearbook signing, celebrating National Decision Day with our classmates, and sharing our last laughs at the lunch table. Our senior year was robbed from us in one day, in a heartbeat, in a snap of fingers.

Sadly, we can’t turn back the hands of time. The pain is fresh in my soul and my friends’ hearts, and there is nothing else for us to do except deal with the cards that are played.

Or, I could start an art initiative that lets seniors vent their feelings in a safe place.

Yeah, that sounds pretty cool.

I decided to create a journalism street art initiative for my second Action Project in my Endurance course. The point of this Action Project is to spend twelve hours enduring a mission and to document the process. I had a troubled time coming up with an idea at first, because I have been very scatterbrained about COVID-19. Then, I decided that I should use those feelings for a good cause and to bring other seniors some closure too. Some of my senior friends are essential workers also, because they need to help bring in money for their family. This pandemic has been affecting everyone really hard right now.

I am very proud of my work for this Action Project. This is among the best work I have conducted this year. I poured my heart and soul in making sure that the posters, video, and narrative is professional. I filmed and edited the video on my phone, which was an extreme challenge. I pushed through and still published the best video work of my high school career.

I hope you see my passion through this project. Enjoy and stay safe.

The Road Jess Traveled

It is officially my last Humanities term of my career at GCE. It went by really fast, and I truly appreciate the art of writing now as a senior. Since it is the end of senior year, I have been focusing on what comes after high school. National Decision Day is exactly a week away, which has me very hyperfixated even more on what there is to come after college. It is a sad time because I am spending my last term of high school at home. I started off this term with this course named "Endurance", where we are learning about what it takes to endure a tough journey. I used this insight by compiling the first chapter of my autobiography of what I think my mission in life is. I used my current experiences to predict what will happen in the future.




In conclusion, I had such a fun time writing this chapter. I feel like the growth of my writing over the last four years is really prominent in this essay. I hope you enjoy!

Predicting the Future With Language

In my class of Equality, we have been focusing on what equality can look like in the future. In order to understand that idea, we had conversations about what injustice looks like in our day to day lives and what we can do to fix it. We had a conversation with a professor from UIC, a college here in Chicago. I was so excited to be taught by a professor in my senior year, because it prepares me for how a college class will feel like next school year. He was very engaging, as I liked the way he spoke and articulated his thoughts and ideas. He listened to my classmates' ideas and answers to his questions very well and incorporated us into his teaching. Our conversation was about issues that roam around our lives and what solutions we see that current people in power are doing about it. In my last Action Project for Equality, I had to think of a social justice issue that I believe will be relevant in 100 years. I had a lot of trouble thinking of an idea at first, but after having a conversation with my mom about how she feels left out in the world, my writing was sparked. I am very passionate about rights for people of color in America, so I decided to write about the equality of language.

What is the Relationship Between Personal, Local, and Global needs?

Throughout my time in my "Equality" and "Social Entrepreneurship & You" classes at GCE, I have discovered what my place in the world is, a little bit at a time. In my Equality class, we learned about social justice issues that run in the community around us, in our country, and globally.

Through my business, I help the world on a personal, local, and global level.

Personal: Assert my belonging in the Mexican community
Local: Assert belonging for all Mexicans in the community, and fund money for a Mexican empowerment non profit
Global: Through the power of art, Mexican culture will be represented more in the world because of people wearing our products.

Don't Be Self Conchas

I never would have thought that I would want to be a social entrepreneur, ever in my life. I grew up thinking that working for a business only meant that you would have to be stuck in a suit and tie, running from meeting to meeting through downtown's many buildings, on a 9am-5pm schedule. I was very stubborn in my first days of my Social Entrepreneurship & You course because I was not particularly interested about that side of business. However, my perception of business changed when I gave this course a chance. I was surprised to discover through class discussion that...

Business is everywhere.

Business is the tamale lady standing on the corner, hustling to sell more than her competitor across the street.
Business is negotiating the price of a house you want to buy off of a seller.
Business is trading your bag of chips for a classmate's stack of Oreos.

We partake in business everywhere we go, though we don't realize it. Though I was fascinated by that idea, I was more intrigued that business can be used for social good, aka social entrepreneurship. I learned about key concepts of social entrepreneurship, identifying social issues, different types of investors, and how to create a business plan.

I've been in charge of my own jewelry business since last April. I haven't had the chance to sit down and create a detailed business plan about it, so I took advantage of the time given to do this Action Project to focus on my business.

It was very difficult to delve into my business and nitpick something I am very passionate about, and discover why I am so passionate about it. I am beyond proud of my finished work. I hope I am able to find an angel investor soon to take my business to the next level, thanks to taking this class.

Ali, Tanveer. “Hispanics Pass Blacks As Chicago's 2nd Largest Racial, Ethnic Group: Census.” DNAinfo Chicago, DNAinfo Chicago, 15 Sept. 2017, www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20170914/near-west-side/census-white-black-hispanic-majority-minority-race-ethnicity-population-change-2016-2017-decline/.

Bloom, Mina. “City's Latino Neighborhoods: Population Up, Challenges Persist, Report Says.” DNAinfo Chicago, DNAinfo Chicago, 13 Oct. 2017, www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20171011/logan-square/uic-report-latino-neighborhoods-report-latino-population-growth-chicago/.

Duncan, Eric. “Topic: Jewelry Market Worldwide.” Www.statista.com, www.statista.com/topics/5163/jewelry-market-worldwide/.