Semester Reflection Part Two

• What is the greatest challenge facing your generation? What will be necessary to address it?

  I think that one of the greatest challenges facing my generation is the state of the country, and the world. Not only is our climate temperature rising, we’re in a recession, BP has spilled over 125 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and my generation cannot get jobs. You need a previous job to get a current job. How could we do so when everyone denies you? There’s a surplus of people working their 50^th year instead of their 40^th year. Aside from jobs, the plastic consumption of America’s buyers has gotten too far out of hand. Water bottles have cut down on their cap sizes to save plastic, but so far those are just small steps. We need more promotions of BYOBag and getting reusable water bottles. We all have one thing in common, we all live on Earth, so why has everyone been treating it like dirt? “An Inconvenient Truth” helped, but that seemed to have brushed past everyone’s shoulders. People need to understand that how we’re living is only making it worse.

  Describe your vision for yourself in pursuing higher education.

  Pursuing a higher education beyond high school has always been the only option for me. My mother’s side of her family didn’t go to college. My mom got her GED in 2003 when she was 31 years old and I was in elementary school. Seeing that amount of dedication made me not want to give up. I want to create a new tradition in my family. Not dropping out, but going to a University and graduating, something that I hope will continue on after me. I imagine going to San Francisco and starting my life from scratch there. I imagine myself growing up and understanding from a 17 year old’s perspective how it is to live on your own. Not only will I continue my passion for Fine Arts and Art History, but I will grow up. I will grow up to become someone I have always dreamed of becoming, doing something that I love and can support myself off of.

  
  

  What in the world do you care about and what are you doing about it?

  I care mostly about the environment and our wastefulness. My Media Saves the Beach final product and my Ampersand final product both were on how we can all save the environment together. So far I have made a video about Bringing Your Own Bag to the supermarket, and how plastic can stay in your body. It’s a video that entices people to stop being so wasteful with plastic because it ends up hurting you in the end. My Ampersand piece was 5 steps you can do to “think locally and act globally.” It offers facts about reducing your carbon footprint and things like taking the bus places instead of driving and emitting more greenhouse gases.

  What four-year college/s are you interested in and why?

  Currently, I am interested in colleges in Northern California. More so like Berkeley, The Academy of Art University and San Francisco State University. Out of state I’ve been considering Cornish College up in Seattle, and I’ve been looking up traveling to British Columbia. I’ve always wanted to pursue some form of art because both of my parents are artists. My mom is a hairdresser and my dad is an interior/exterior designer, and I want to be a Photographer or an Art Teacher. Something like how Joshua Krause has his class. I’d love to immerse myself in my work, that’s mostly why I’m so excited for college.