Power Privilege and the Purse (Math)
In this project, the entire 11th grade looked at inequities in America, and, after a lot of reading, writing, and research, we put on a symposium at the Vista Community Clinic, titled "Mind the Gap: Bringing Mindfulness to the Equity Divide in America". In math, we focused on two things: Personal finance, and statistics. In the personal finance part, we looked to the future, planning out our college experiences (looking at everything from intended major, to cost and financial aid), jobs (and minimum wage), and saving for retirement. In the statistics part, we researched statistics on the topics we wrote our position papers on, then made graphs, and later, infographics with our interpretation of the data.
Personal Finances:
The personal finances portion of the project revolved around creating a financial plan. An estimated monthly budget based on our job's average starting salary, college loans, monthly savings accounts, and other expenses. We learned how savings accounts work, with both simple, and compound interest formulas, how to calculate college loans, and what a lot of economic/personal finance terms meant. A challenge that I ran into was compiling all of the money and expenses into the monthly budget (financial plan). I had to do a lot of extra research at the last minute to find out about things like insurance, and water/electric bill amounts. I didn't really expect that those would be expenses until I actually looked at the financial plan's template and saw sections for all of those.
The personal finances portion of the project revolved around creating a financial plan. An estimated monthly budget based on our job's average starting salary, college loans, monthly savings accounts, and other expenses. We learned how savings accounts work, with both simple, and compound interest formulas, how to calculate college loans, and what a lot of economic/personal finance terms meant. A challenge that I ran into was compiling all of the money and expenses into the monthly budget (financial plan). I had to do a lot of extra research at the last minute to find out about things like insurance, and water/electric bill amounts. I didn't really expect that those would be expenses until I actually looked at the financial plan's template and saw sections for all of those.
My role for the symposium was being an Event Organizer, so I was one of the behind the scenes workers, making sure the event went smoothly (both before the night of, and during). My role was also in charge of contacting guest panelists, coordinating between all of the students, and other things.
After doing this project, I now know more about personal finance, and how important personal finance is to a good future. I also know a lot more about the economy, and some of the political issues surrounding it (as well as some other political issues surrounding the economy). This all led up to our discussion of widespread inequality in the USA. I never knew that, first of all, we as a country were so much less equal than everyone else. and also, that our 1% was SO much wealthier than out middle class, and even our upper-middle class. I also learned about a lot of the social issues in the USA today. Mostly, we covered gender and race prejudices/privileges, which was interesting, especially hearing from those with different racial/gender backgrounds than me.
The most memorable moment from the symposium for me was seeing the audience's reaction after all of the incredible spoken pieces (including the opening and closing keynote speeches, and all of the performance artists). I introduced both keynote speakers, and some of the performing artists, so I got a front row seat to all of those performances. I absolutely loved seeing the audience react in real time to these amazing pieces. It gave me the feeling that our symposium, while not over yet, had already made people stop and think, which, I think, was one of the main goals of the event.
After doing this project, I now know more about personal finance, and how important personal finance is to a good future. I also know a lot more about the economy, and some of the political issues surrounding it (as well as some other political issues surrounding the economy). This all led up to our discussion of widespread inequality in the USA. I never knew that, first of all, we as a country were so much less equal than everyone else. and also, that our 1% was SO much wealthier than out middle class, and even our upper-middle class. I also learned about a lot of the social issues in the USA today. Mostly, we covered gender and race prejudices/privileges, which was interesting, especially hearing from those with different racial/gender backgrounds than me.
The most memorable moment from the symposium for me was seeing the audience's reaction after all of the incredible spoken pieces (including the opening and closing keynote speeches, and all of the performance artists). I introduced both keynote speakers, and some of the performing artists, so I got a front row seat to all of those performances. I absolutely loved seeing the audience react in real time to these amazing pieces. It gave me the feeling that our symposium, while not over yet, had already made people stop and think, which, I think, was one of the main goals of the event.
Some other work I did in this project:
Humanities Symposium
Humanities Symposium