The Teen Reporter

Neighborhood: The Real You?

In Chicago, neighborhoods are a way to categorize a person. If you live in a bad neighborhood, you are automatically considered to be a bad person; if you live in a good neighborhood, you must be a  good person.

But here's one problem: I reside in Pilsen, and I’m not a bad person.

Most of the time when I’m asked where I live, people look at me astonished and are quick to hide their valuables. Not everyone that lives in a bad neighborhood is bad. A person's environment, especially a teen, shouldn’t be his or her nametag.

I live in Pilsen, and because I live here, I'm expected to be a dropout, a gang member, and a father at a young age. Ironically, I'm nothing close to being a stereotype: I'm on track to graduate and have no intentions to be a father or a gang member. I was mostly raised by my sister; she's the reason why I am the way I am. She taught me right from wrong. My friend, Terrance Rogers, was also categorized by where he lives - Austin. Some think that he's a violent individual that has no manners because he's tall and dark skinned. Yet, he is a very relaxed and amiable person. That's the way he was taught to behave by his mother. Because of her, Terrance has made many connections with many alumni from prestigious schools and very influential catalysts in his neighborhood. Both of us are different than the stereotype of where we come from because of who raised us.

As a person that has faced this prejudice, I have learned to talk about it. As you may have seen on TV, there’s a huge rise in violence at Uptown. Most of us don’t know why, but we haven’t lost hope for our neighborhood. Even though I don’t live there, I’m a student at Uplift Community High School and have a role to play in this neighborhood. In the social justice club at my school, we write letters, talk to officials and brainstorm ideas about how to make a difference in our school's neighborhood, Uptown. Our efforts are slow, but, eventually, they will make a difference.

Just like neighborhoods speak for those that reside there, schools have a similar impact on their students. If you think of Uplift, maybe your first thought will be a scary image of teens fighting and constant flashing of lights sirens. Again, just because the environment of an individual isn’t great doesn’t mean that the person will be evil too. Yes, there is handful of “bad” kids at Uplift. Ironically, most of the kids at Uplift are good kids during class; anything after might be a different story. It's not their environment that causes their actions. Usually, there’s some kind of peer pressure involved. You could say that if it wasn’t for teen drama and peer pressure, Uplift will be a great school,  but there's no such thing as a high school without peer pressure and drama.

                Did I make you think twice about judging a person by their environment? I hope so. Our world has a lot of problems - don't make it worse by judging people before you know them. Speak out, and take action in your neighborhood to change what you think could be better.

Protests are the new term papers!

    Students at local high schools are making some serious noise by studying a new subject: social justice. From civil disobedience to peaceful protests, students have been speaking out against unfairness and oppression in our society.  From racial discrimination to ageism, youth around the city of Chicago have begun to fight valiantly in their communities, against large corporations and even the government.

    My high school has made it its mission to teach students to challenge what their society presents to them. Uplift Community High School in Uptown has incorporated the idea of social justice in their daily school lessons. Uplift itself is a story of social justice. Before 2003, the only high school in the Uptown area was Senn High School. Three noble teachers wanted to change that, so that local kids and kids from other areas in Chicago would have a safer and better alternative. Thus, Uplift Community High School was born. 

    In the past few years, students have held protests on controversial subjects like Christopher Columbus Day and the proposed CPS budget cuts. Just last year, my class and I were assigned to take on the challenge of exposing one of the biggest corporations in the world. We informed our families, local community officials, and residents of Uptown about the unfair wages of employees at Wal-Mart. With the help from some help from our social science teachers, we developed a YouTube video telling shoppers to avoid Wal-Mart on their busiest day of the year: Black Friday.

 

    We knew that the idea of a simple YouTube video wouldn’t stop  the millions of Americans who shop at Wal-Mart on a daily basis; they just wanted to bring awareness to Wal-Mart’s injustice. Participating in this video project made me feel as if my voice is being heard. Many of the comments on the video were positive. They said encouraging things that made me feel that we have done right by bringing this injustice to the light. Amanda, one of the “stars” of the video, said, “I never would have thought about protesting my family’s favorite store… but it just made me so angry how Wal-Mart has been getting away with this. Enough is enough!”

    This year, Uplift teamed up with the community to form a peace march with CeaseFire, an organization that’s trying to put an end to violence. We marched all over the Uptown community to take a strong stance on the number of teen deaths in the year of 2011 alone. Many speakers and organizers repeated the line that still inspires students to this day: “A change is gonna’ come.” 

    Uplift is just one of many schools that are beginning to challenge what they see in their community. Schools such as Whitney Young, Little Village, and Michelle Clark are all in this idea of social justice. Some educators would call teaching social justice unethical, but a former teacher from Uplift, Mr. Haines, once said, “Don’t let the ignorance of other’s deter you from your goals. We have a messed up world to fix, and it starts here, today, right now!” Currently, Mr. Haines is in Ethiopia creating a children’s foster home to ensure the wellbeing of homeless children. He is a living representation of what it means to be socially just - to help out anyway we can. He has inspired me and my many other students to do what we can for others. Now there’s a subject in school that sends a powerful message - without needing a textbook!

High school burdens: dealing with the stress of getting into college

Even though I had been preparing for months, the day before taking the ACT, I was studying all night long. I was so worried about studying that I didn’t eat or make sure I had everything ready the next morning, which led to horrible day. Not resting enough made me sleepy. Not eating breakfast made me lose focus because I was focused on my hunger. I studied super hard before the ACT, thinking I was going to get a high score, yet everything I tried to learn didn’t help because I couldn’t remember anything. But preparing for standardized tests or applying to college doesn’t have to be that hard. Keep it simple, stupid, and you’ll be fine.

Before worrying about the test, don't forger to register for the ACT or SAT, which you can do online. Prepare yourself for testing by bringing with you supplies: pencils, a calculator, snacks and, most importantly, the admission ticket, which is easy to forget. My best friend, Terrance Rogers, and I  both forgot our admission ticket at home. We asked administrators if we could just use our smart phones, which had saved our admission tickets, and luckily, they were nice enough to let us use them. If you are not familiar with the testing place, don’t forget to research the location. I thought I was too smart that I would get there on time. Well, let’s just say luck wasn't on my side. You want to be as early as possible. Try to be in the front of the line, so you can test at a corner, the best seat in the world. Time will fly out of the window, so keep track of the clock. Hard questions can take away about five or so minutes. As soon as the break starts, you should try to relax and eat. Don’t try to remember what you did wrong; think of the test as a whole. Try to be as optimistic as possible. At the end of testing, you should congratulate yourself for taking a very annoying yet - some may say - useful test.

And what about your college applications? Most colleges require you to submit a personal statement. Think of an interesting experience to tell the admission office. The humble stories are the most compelling ones, but don’t make one up. Your personal statement helps the admissions office to get to know you in a way that statistics fail to do. Also, don’t forget to get someone to proofread your essay. You should have a great teacher that asks lots of questions about your writing, knows you well and has seen you overcome challenges. Your teacher will be your guide to success for this step. I didn't know this and went to any teacher – one who always has too much to do and always tells you your paper is “excellent.” There are times where she hands back papers without a single comment. II used that personal statement for a scholarship, and I was rejected from it. I don't know if it was the personal statement, but I didn't use any other type of writing.. Try to avoid this type of teacher when making a crucial essay. You really don’t want to have an “excellent” essay.

One of my friends did something really dumb: he failed to submit his application. Why? He thought it was supposed to be submitted at 11:59 p.m., and he thought he had missed the deadline. But it was supposed to be submitted at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. His recommender was angry when she heard that her efforts were used for no reason. Her reaction was a quick slap to the back of his head. I think he has learned his lesson.

All of these things can be an obstacle, but they’re easy to overcome. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Just concentrate on the simple things you can do to get it right. Did I miss something that you went through? Leave a comment and share other ways to make getting into college less of a headache. Right now, I’m waiting to hear from two of my top choices, University of Illinois and Notre Dame. I am so excited to hear from them, but scared to hear that I was declined. Wish me luck!