We Happen (Click for Project Description)
Teacher Reflection: I am constantly thinking about how the world can be a better place. Part of making the world a better place is finding the places where the world needs repair, and seeing where I can make a difference. Last year, in grad school, I identified representation in children's literature as a problem that I could help to solve with my skill set. I found that Filipinos/Filipino-Americans were hardly represented in children's literature in the United States, despite the fact that Filipinos are the second largest Asian population in this country. I identify as a storyteller. I identify as an artist. I also love being with my community and interacting with the beautiful souls that exist in it, so I began putting together Invisible Storybook, a collaborative community based art project focused on increasing the visibility of underrepresented groups in children's literature. Inspired by the movement that this created in my Filipino-American community, I wanted to see what problems my students saw in the world, and what ideas they had to help create change for the better.
Student Reflections
Elizabeth T: In the We Happen project, my favorite part was having a good time working with my group instead of feeling the dreaded stress of the deadlines for the presentations. The reason we chose Food poverty for the issue of our non-profit because my group, consisting of Simon Cross, Sofia Mertz, Noah Godina, Colin Vail, Cole Lampro, and I all had personal connections to the issue, we wanted to help those in the streets who are reduced to begging for help to the people walking along with averted gazes and rushed paces. I learned to grow a bit confident/comfortable almost, as well as keep up with the group, when working in a project through presenting to the class/a panel of experts, working and revising the presentations, and creating a logo.
We were all able to share our ideas, for our nonprofit, as well as information about the issue clearly when presenting with both experts and classmates. We had to do three presentations in total for the project, a Needs Assessment, our Non-profit Presentation Draft, and a Final Presentation, the last one being with the experts. When I started out with the Needs Assessment, I was so nervous, and being extremely self-conscious of the people around me, I barely spoke. I felt frustrated because I knew the information but the distribution of slides made it so that I looked like I didn't do much for the project, but in the second and final presentation I was more prepared and comfortable despite presenting in front of the entire team or the group of experts. I got more slides and it was more easier to talk in the last two presentations when I knew what to say and where to look. It was definitely an improvement from the Need Assessment because of the feedback I got from the teacher/audience changed a little from the lack of speaking to mostly the content of the slides and my group members paid more attention to me/encouraged me to keep going. This helped me learn to be more confident because nothing went wrong when I messed up on a slide and I was able to present equally with my group without slackers or fights. After each presentation, we all made sure that everything should be planned, to practice, learn the information (not just memorize the slides) and that the slides were divided equally, it helped as the audience focused more on our work and it showed that we knew what we were talking about. But presenting in front of the class/experts wasn't the only thing that boosted my confidence or got me to catch up with my group mates, the work and revisions behind the presentations also helped.
We all communicated and worked well with each other to make the presentations better than last time, with copious amounts of researching, practicing, talking, and checking over the information/slides. Simon and Sofia sort of led the group but I pushed myself to join in the conversations and distribution of work. Usually I would have either stay out of the way or did things myself as I've done with other projects but for this one, I didn't just blindly follow their orders or bossed the group. I don't know why I became so sure of myself but this group made me feel comfortable because they would listen and they weren't slackers/people I didn't know. So when working, I became a group member that helped and supported, I helped start with the links to information, slide organization, critique, distributing the work, and doing whatever I could with the presentations/the information/ideas for it. I suggested a lot of critique/commented on a lot of the decisions and they showed in the presentations, I'm certain that my group knows of my constant editing, critique, concerns, and ideas. This new type of teamwork surprised me in a good way so that I learned to be more sure of myself in the least as well as be able to keep up with the others when they decide to do their things versus working to bring the ideas together. It's hard to find a group where everyone fits perfectly with each other, especially one where you can grow to be confident with them, and if you find one, everything becomes easier. Working with many different people can either help or prevent you from doing your best, as I'm learning from the past and the present. While working/revising the presentations helped me keep up in the marathon that is my group, creating the logo was a whole new experience!
I was able to make a logo to represent our nonprofit, it was a very interesting process and the result was great. The final draft of the logo is a heart-like apple shape of the name of our nonprofit, FPSD, and surrounded by a suitcase; it represented the issue we're attempting to solve and how we'd tackle it, which was food poverty and giving people connections/a chance to get back up on their feet. During the presentations, the logo or the drafts gained a lot of attention and people really liked it. I was really uncertain about myself when presenting but the logo really did boost me up. There's just something about creating something for a group that stand outs from just working on just your part of the work. This helped me learn to be more confident/keep up with my group by being able to use my hobby, drawing, to help with the group as well as being able to receive praise on my own work. When I created the drafts, I had a lot to think about, like what it should it have, what needed to be in it, how should it be put together, and will it attract people, the details were extra but I was able to make it look good. It made me feel good to see people enjoy my work.
Creating our logo, presenting in front of experts/classmates, and working and revising with my group all changed my perspective of working with others, I caught up and I stood up. Knowing that nothing bad would happen if I messed up, implanting myself into the group to work and be listened to, and getting compliments for the work I personally did got me to feel better about what I was doing and feel more comfortable to work with others. In projects, the work itself is not the only thing that counts, being able to share it is also mandatory. Learning to be more confident helps in so many ways, if not for the projects, and it shows that you know what you're doing, that you know that you're good, it just gives you a little something to help and support you throughout the process. It's important to me because I lack confidence, I lack basic intelligence, I don't have a lot to offer but feeling better about myself or my situation turns everything around, so that I have the knowledge, I am good, and I've done a lot for this, whatever it is.
Sophia M: “I profoundly believe that the power of food has a primal place in our homes, that binds us to the best bits of life.”- Jamie Oliver
Growing up, I have always felt a close connection with growing and cooking food and have been lucky enough to have the resources to do so. I believe that throughout the past few decades, we as a country have abandoned our importance of food and the culture that surrounds cooking. Ever since the industrial revolution, food in our community has been seen as a source of marketing and business rather than a cultural art and connection that can be understood by all people. I want to give youth right to grow and cook healthy food in a way that is affordable, environmentally healthy, socially impactful, and most importantly hands on and interactive. As a group Leah Maxwell, Matthew Arucan, Oliver Scott, Jeremy Ong, Joseph Guyse, and myself believe that inspiring this generation to care about not only where food comes from but also the impact our agricultural and culinary habits have on the world can make a difference on our world as a whole. Throughout the course of this project, I learned about community outreach by setting up interviews, embarking on fieldwork, and collaborating with my group to find solutions.
During the entire project, community outreach was a theme that we highlighted through the work we completed in regard to our nonprofit. Interviewing was a key component to finding out more about hands on experiences that people had lived through and faced in daily life. My group and I interviewed two people involved in the food justice field, Bianca Bonilla, the head garden specialist at North County Community Garden and Preschool, and Kait Cole, the aquaponics manager at Ecolife Life Conservation. Bianca Bonilla shared with us the impact this exposure to new food at a young age can leave on children’s perspective to food and their overall healthy as well. She says “Before the age of five years old, children have set up the majority of their food preferences, likes, and dislikes, so exposing more kids to healthy food before grade school can make a great impact.” I found it very interesting to hear about how much our food choices today rely so heavily on eating habits we created in the first few years of our lives. Having the opportunity to seek out interviews in our community gave us valuable insight of how these issues really have effect on people’s lives. In addition to interviewing people throughout our local community, we also were able to work hands on and take action in the issue of food injustice with specific focus on youth.
Having the ability to work hands on in the field of food justice gave us the opportunity to make an impact on the issue and see what really entails in working and developing a non profit. We volunteered at North County Community Gardens, a nonprofit that grows organic produce on site to prepare meals for preschoolers who attend the school on the property and in other local schools. During our time at the farm, we learned about the different fruits and vegetables they were growing and also harvested “cow beans” a nitrogen rich legume used to enhance the soil. Throughout the entire project, this experience was one of the most beneficial opportunities that allowed us to see first hand the process of both running a non profit and working in the field of agricultural and culinary science. This really inspired me to develop a solution unique to my community and the resources we have at school. While completing field work, we were not only given the exposure to the many issues that evolve inside of the main problem such as lack of resources, lack of knowledge needed to grow and cook healthy food, food insecurity, food deserts, and even the loss of culture in our communities. Today, we have so many people conquering this issue in their communities such as Jamie Oliver, author of The Food Revolution and global food justice leader and also Laura Miller, chef and author of Raw. Vegan. Not Gross. Using social media to spread her message. Lastly, one of the most important pieces of the We Happen project was collaboration with group members.
Out of all of the different elements to this project, collaboration was most definitely the key component to finding success as a group. My group members and I worked our hardest to contribute our own personal strengths while developing ideas and plans to move forward with in the project. Leah took photos while we were embarking on fieldwork because of her interest in photography while Matthew and Jeremy worked together to edit a video consisting of all of the photos and footage we captured off campus. Joseph helped to write our mission statement and compile slideshows to present, Oliver stayed in to help with interviews and recording data, and I tried my hardest to be a good group leader and find people to interview and places to explore. I believe having a group with many different skill sets and interests helped us to be creative with our ideas and ultimately have a stronger final product. All of the members of the team had great work ethics, kept a positive attitude and had a sincere interest in the issue of food justice. As a group, we were able to compliment each others strengths and weakness, giving us the will to push forward through dilemmas and conflicts occurring in the span of the project. Overall, having a group of empowered young people to work alongside of made the impact so much more meaningful.
Having the skills to make connections with my community has pushed my understanding of the power that interviewing, participating in hands on opportunities, and working cohesively as a team can have on our lives. The issue of food injustice is a problem that all people can relate to at some time in their life whether it is because of food insecurity, lack of knowledge regarding growing and cooking healthy food, or battling the food industry and food choices. This is a modern day issue that is severely caused by solely our youth’s lack of interest in learning about where their food comes from but more importantly the true beauty fresh fruit and vegetable withhold. I am empowered by so many revolutionists that are tackling this issue such as Bianca Bonilla, Jamie Oliver, Kait Cole, and Laura Miller from creative perspectives like using social media, artistic representation, teaching, and hands on opportunities.
Matthew M: The oceans are dying. Those four words are what inspired me to learn about our oceans and make a change, as cheesy as that might sound. Adrian Canseco, Andrew Dafnis, and I came together got educated about the issue and what we can do to help. During this period of time I learned a lot about teamwork through volunteer work, group collaboration, and peer critique.
We decided that volunteer work would be a great place to start our efforts in helping ocean pollution, so we volunteered and Surfrider. We quickly found out that this was the place to be, there was 100+ people cleaning up trash on the beach. After we finished cleaning up the beach we got a chance to talk people leading the activity. We asked them about Surfrider and how much trash they pick up when they host an event like this. They said they get about 1000+ cigarette buds, it’s one of the major pollutants that has a chance to harm the environment. After participating in this event it really showed me how much group efforts can complete task when working collaborating.
In this project group collaboration was the most important thing you needed to have. In our group we it was really easy for us to collaborate and share ideas because of working together in the past. I think our collaboration really shined in our final presentation because of the amount of preparation and practice we had together. Other groups lacked proper collaboration which led to them failing their presentation which was unfortunate. I think not only friends, but peers can contribute a lot of helpful feedback which you can grow from.
Peer critique was a small factor that played a major role in the development of our presentation and fieldwork. Past presentation allowed us to show work to our classmates and allowed them to give us feedback. We took this feedback and took them into our future presentation which continued to make it grow. Without our peers I don’t think our presentation would’ve been as appealing as it was.
These three things: volunteer work, collaboration, and peer critique really developed our work can continue to do so. And from executing them so properly we were able to contribute into saving the ocean which was the most impactful thing that came out of the process. I learned that without the ocean we wouldn’t be able to do so much so it our duty to give back.
We were all able to share our ideas, for our nonprofit, as well as information about the issue clearly when presenting with both experts and classmates. We had to do three presentations in total for the project, a Needs Assessment, our Non-profit Presentation Draft, and a Final Presentation, the last one being with the experts. When I started out with the Needs Assessment, I was so nervous, and being extremely self-conscious of the people around me, I barely spoke. I felt frustrated because I knew the information but the distribution of slides made it so that I looked like I didn't do much for the project, but in the second and final presentation I was more prepared and comfortable despite presenting in front of the entire team or the group of experts. I got more slides and it was more easier to talk in the last two presentations when I knew what to say and where to look. It was definitely an improvement from the Need Assessment because of the feedback I got from the teacher/audience changed a little from the lack of speaking to mostly the content of the slides and my group members paid more attention to me/encouraged me to keep going. This helped me learn to be more confident because nothing went wrong when I messed up on a slide and I was able to present equally with my group without slackers or fights. After each presentation, we all made sure that everything should be planned, to practice, learn the information (not just memorize the slides) and that the slides were divided equally, it helped as the audience focused more on our work and it showed that we knew what we were talking about. But presenting in front of the class/experts wasn't the only thing that boosted my confidence or got me to catch up with my group mates, the work and revisions behind the presentations also helped.
We all communicated and worked well with each other to make the presentations better than last time, with copious amounts of researching, practicing, talking, and checking over the information/slides. Simon and Sofia sort of led the group but I pushed myself to join in the conversations and distribution of work. Usually I would have either stay out of the way or did things myself as I've done with other projects but for this one, I didn't just blindly follow their orders or bossed the group. I don't know why I became so sure of myself but this group made me feel comfortable because they would listen and they weren't slackers/people I didn't know. So when working, I became a group member that helped and supported, I helped start with the links to information, slide organization, critique, distributing the work, and doing whatever I could with the presentations/the information/ideas for it. I suggested a lot of critique/commented on a lot of the decisions and they showed in the presentations, I'm certain that my group knows of my constant editing, critique, concerns, and ideas. This new type of teamwork surprised me in a good way so that I learned to be more sure of myself in the least as well as be able to keep up with the others when they decide to do their things versus working to bring the ideas together. It's hard to find a group where everyone fits perfectly with each other, especially one where you can grow to be confident with them, and if you find one, everything becomes easier. Working with many different people can either help or prevent you from doing your best, as I'm learning from the past and the present. While working/revising the presentations helped me keep up in the marathon that is my group, creating the logo was a whole new experience!
I was able to make a logo to represent our nonprofit, it was a very interesting process and the result was great. The final draft of the logo is a heart-like apple shape of the name of our nonprofit, FPSD, and surrounded by a suitcase; it represented the issue we're attempting to solve and how we'd tackle it, which was food poverty and giving people connections/a chance to get back up on their feet. During the presentations, the logo or the drafts gained a lot of attention and people really liked it. I was really uncertain about myself when presenting but the logo really did boost me up. There's just something about creating something for a group that stand outs from just working on just your part of the work. This helped me learn to be more confident/keep up with my group by being able to use my hobby, drawing, to help with the group as well as being able to receive praise on my own work. When I created the drafts, I had a lot to think about, like what it should it have, what needed to be in it, how should it be put together, and will it attract people, the details were extra but I was able to make it look good. It made me feel good to see people enjoy my work.
Creating our logo, presenting in front of experts/classmates, and working and revising with my group all changed my perspective of working with others, I caught up and I stood up. Knowing that nothing bad would happen if I messed up, implanting myself into the group to work and be listened to, and getting compliments for the work I personally did got me to feel better about what I was doing and feel more comfortable to work with others. In projects, the work itself is not the only thing that counts, being able to share it is also mandatory. Learning to be more confident helps in so many ways, if not for the projects, and it shows that you know what you're doing, that you know that you're good, it just gives you a little something to help and support you throughout the process. It's important to me because I lack confidence, I lack basic intelligence, I don't have a lot to offer but feeling better about myself or my situation turns everything around, so that I have the knowledge, I am good, and I've done a lot for this, whatever it is.
Sophia M: “I profoundly believe that the power of food has a primal place in our homes, that binds us to the best bits of life.”- Jamie Oliver
Growing up, I have always felt a close connection with growing and cooking food and have been lucky enough to have the resources to do so. I believe that throughout the past few decades, we as a country have abandoned our importance of food and the culture that surrounds cooking. Ever since the industrial revolution, food in our community has been seen as a source of marketing and business rather than a cultural art and connection that can be understood by all people. I want to give youth right to grow and cook healthy food in a way that is affordable, environmentally healthy, socially impactful, and most importantly hands on and interactive. As a group Leah Maxwell, Matthew Arucan, Oliver Scott, Jeremy Ong, Joseph Guyse, and myself believe that inspiring this generation to care about not only where food comes from but also the impact our agricultural and culinary habits have on the world can make a difference on our world as a whole. Throughout the course of this project, I learned about community outreach by setting up interviews, embarking on fieldwork, and collaborating with my group to find solutions.
During the entire project, community outreach was a theme that we highlighted through the work we completed in regard to our nonprofit. Interviewing was a key component to finding out more about hands on experiences that people had lived through and faced in daily life. My group and I interviewed two people involved in the food justice field, Bianca Bonilla, the head garden specialist at North County Community Garden and Preschool, and Kait Cole, the aquaponics manager at Ecolife Life Conservation. Bianca Bonilla shared with us the impact this exposure to new food at a young age can leave on children’s perspective to food and their overall healthy as well. She says “Before the age of five years old, children have set up the majority of their food preferences, likes, and dislikes, so exposing more kids to healthy food before grade school can make a great impact.” I found it very interesting to hear about how much our food choices today rely so heavily on eating habits we created in the first few years of our lives. Having the opportunity to seek out interviews in our community gave us valuable insight of how these issues really have effect on people’s lives. In addition to interviewing people throughout our local community, we also were able to work hands on and take action in the issue of food injustice with specific focus on youth.
Having the ability to work hands on in the field of food justice gave us the opportunity to make an impact on the issue and see what really entails in working and developing a non profit. We volunteered at North County Community Gardens, a nonprofit that grows organic produce on site to prepare meals for preschoolers who attend the school on the property and in other local schools. During our time at the farm, we learned about the different fruits and vegetables they were growing and also harvested “cow beans” a nitrogen rich legume used to enhance the soil. Throughout the entire project, this experience was one of the most beneficial opportunities that allowed us to see first hand the process of both running a non profit and working in the field of agricultural and culinary science. This really inspired me to develop a solution unique to my community and the resources we have at school. While completing field work, we were not only given the exposure to the many issues that evolve inside of the main problem such as lack of resources, lack of knowledge needed to grow and cook healthy food, food insecurity, food deserts, and even the loss of culture in our communities. Today, we have so many people conquering this issue in their communities such as Jamie Oliver, author of The Food Revolution and global food justice leader and also Laura Miller, chef and author of Raw. Vegan. Not Gross. Using social media to spread her message. Lastly, one of the most important pieces of the We Happen project was collaboration with group members.
Out of all of the different elements to this project, collaboration was most definitely the key component to finding success as a group. My group members and I worked our hardest to contribute our own personal strengths while developing ideas and plans to move forward with in the project. Leah took photos while we were embarking on fieldwork because of her interest in photography while Matthew and Jeremy worked together to edit a video consisting of all of the photos and footage we captured off campus. Joseph helped to write our mission statement and compile slideshows to present, Oliver stayed in to help with interviews and recording data, and I tried my hardest to be a good group leader and find people to interview and places to explore. I believe having a group with many different skill sets and interests helped us to be creative with our ideas and ultimately have a stronger final product. All of the members of the team had great work ethics, kept a positive attitude and had a sincere interest in the issue of food justice. As a group, we were able to compliment each others strengths and weakness, giving us the will to push forward through dilemmas and conflicts occurring in the span of the project. Overall, having a group of empowered young people to work alongside of made the impact so much more meaningful.
Having the skills to make connections with my community has pushed my understanding of the power that interviewing, participating in hands on opportunities, and working cohesively as a team can have on our lives. The issue of food injustice is a problem that all people can relate to at some time in their life whether it is because of food insecurity, lack of knowledge regarding growing and cooking healthy food, or battling the food industry and food choices. This is a modern day issue that is severely caused by solely our youth’s lack of interest in learning about where their food comes from but more importantly the true beauty fresh fruit and vegetable withhold. I am empowered by so many revolutionists that are tackling this issue such as Bianca Bonilla, Jamie Oliver, Kait Cole, and Laura Miller from creative perspectives like using social media, artistic representation, teaching, and hands on opportunities.
Matthew M: The oceans are dying. Those four words are what inspired me to learn about our oceans and make a change, as cheesy as that might sound. Adrian Canseco, Andrew Dafnis, and I came together got educated about the issue and what we can do to help. During this period of time I learned a lot about teamwork through volunteer work, group collaboration, and peer critique.
We decided that volunteer work would be a great place to start our efforts in helping ocean pollution, so we volunteered and Surfrider. We quickly found out that this was the place to be, there was 100+ people cleaning up trash on the beach. After we finished cleaning up the beach we got a chance to talk people leading the activity. We asked them about Surfrider and how much trash they pick up when they host an event like this. They said they get about 1000+ cigarette buds, it’s one of the major pollutants that has a chance to harm the environment. After participating in this event it really showed me how much group efforts can complete task when working collaborating.
In this project group collaboration was the most important thing you needed to have. In our group we it was really easy for us to collaborate and share ideas because of working together in the past. I think our collaboration really shined in our final presentation because of the amount of preparation and practice we had together. Other groups lacked proper collaboration which led to them failing their presentation which was unfortunate. I think not only friends, but peers can contribute a lot of helpful feedback which you can grow from.
Peer critique was a small factor that played a major role in the development of our presentation and fieldwork. Past presentation allowed us to show work to our classmates and allowed them to give us feedback. We took this feedback and took them into our future presentation which continued to make it grow. Without our peers I don’t think our presentation would’ve been as appealing as it was.
These three things: volunteer work, collaboration, and peer critique really developed our work can continue to do so. And from executing them so properly we were able to contribute into saving the ocean which was the most impactful thing that came out of the process. I learned that without the ocean we wouldn’t be able to do so much so it our duty to give back.