20 Year Action Plan
Modern World History: Unresolved Problems of the Modern World Essay
Privileged but Pressured? Teen Suicide in Palo Alto
Erika Badalyan
Alameda Community Learning Center
Modern World History
Period 4
Abstract
This paper explores how putting too much pressure on high-achieving Silicon Valley teenagers affects their mental health and well-being. The paper’s exposition section focuses on the root causes of the problem -- competitiveness and lack of support from absent parents -- and its respective effects and impacts, which include errant behavior and suicide. The paper’s Analysis section focuses on the features of the Silicon Valley suicides problem, as well as its attempted solutions, while the paper’s Reflection section focuses on the reason for the choosing of this topic as well as the responsibilities that different groups in society hold for this problem.
Privileged but Pressured? Teen Suicide in Palo Alto
A perfect GPA, high SAT scores, and stellar extracurriculars are day to day expectations for teenagers in America. Every day, teens struggle to attain expectations of excellence in all aspects of their lives. These set of expectations are difficult to upkeep in today’s increasingly competitive society that places an emphasis on high-paying jobs and top-tier universities. But what is the effect? Over time, this aggregate of responsibilities pushes teens over the edge, and leaves them brooding and suicidal. In Silicon Valley, the competitiveness and lack of support from overbearing parents leads to high-achieving teenagers feeling alone and misunderstood and turning to errant behavior, thus sometimes leaving them with no other solution for their misery but to end their life.
Cause
Psychologists' research has pointed to multiple potential culprits for the cause of the suicides. Silicon Valley is a region that has interested many psychologists, and Dr. Suniya Luthar is no exception. Through a set of experimental studies targeting Silicon Valley schools, Luthar was able to determine two major causes of distress. One of the two major causes of distress, Luthar found, was the “pressure to excel at multiple academic and extracurricular pursuits”, as stated in an interview with Atlantic magazine (Rosin, 2015). Nationwide, teens are clamoring to oust their competitors. One need only look at data from College Board: the organization that administers the AP, SAT, and PSAT. In the last 10 years, the number of high schoolers taking Advanced Placement (AP) exams has nearly doubled. 18.9 percent of graduates in the class of 2003 took an AP exam, in comparison to 33.2 percent of public high school graduates in the class of 2013 (College Board, 2013). These numbers show a trend of high achievement in America. But there is one area that suffers in particular: Silicon Valley. Here, as reported by the New York Times, the average SAT scores are so high that a student who finishes in the 75th percentile in the district has a 2,200, the 99th percentile in general for college-bound seniors (Richtel, 2015). The second major cause of distress that Luthar identified was perhaps more surprising: “affluent kids felt remarkably isolated from their parents” (Rosin, 2015). Children knew that their parents were deeply interested in their academic progress and how they chose to spend their time, yet that did not translate into a closer relationship. This feeling of parental isolation is reflective of the trend in wealthy parents to overpush their children in their never-ending venture for effortless perfectionism (Independent School Health Association, 2016). Of course, the pressure to “get kids into elite colleges” (Bogaev, 2015) is something that teens across America share. But as Dr. Suniya Luther writes in Psychology Today, maintaining the mantle of success is especially important for people who are well-off, because their expectations are especially high. Adolescents of affluence are pressured by their parents, and thereby place pressure on themselves, that it is critical to meet (and even exceed) the standard of living they are used to (Luthar, 2013).
Effect
It would seem that upper-middle class youth have it easy, as they 8 times more likely to graduate college than youth from low-income families (Cahalan & Perna, 2015). But in fact, the opposite holds true. Through a set of experimental studies, psychologist Dr. Suniya Luthar was able to determine that “elite American adolescents” tie their self-worth “to their achievements and...see themselves as catastrophically flawed if they don’t meet the highest standards of success” (Simmons III, 2017). Additionally, Luthar found that children from wealthy families actually experience serious levels of depression and anxiety at twice the national rates (Wang, 2016). Additionally, privileged youth are actually more likely to be “more troubled than their middle-class counterparts” (Luthar et al., 2013) and experience many types of “errant behavior” (Luthar & Ansary, 2005), including the “use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and hard drugs” (Luthar & D’Avanzo, 1999).
Impact
But what is the impact of all this stress, the enormous pressure placed upon the fragile backs of teenagers? The main impact is suicide. As defined by the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide is defined as death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with intent to die as a result of the behavior (NIH, 2017). It is also the 11th leading cause of death in California, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (2015). One would think that suicide affects people on an individual level, but that is actually not the case. A continually occurring phenomenon has been occurring in Palo Alto: suicide clusters. Suicide clusters are defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as “three or more suicides in close proximity in regards to time and space.” There are usually about five youth clusters a year in the United States (Rosin, 2015). Yet between May 2009 and January 2010, five Palo Alto teenagers ended their lives by stepping in front of trains. Between October of 2014 and April of 2015, another three Palo Alto killed themselves in a similar manner, prompting longer hours by more sentries along the tracks (Bruni, 2015). The Palo Alto Weekly refers to the deaths as a “suicide contagion” (Kadvani, 2017). One suicide cluster could be anomalous. But if in the past seven years, according to Caroline Kimmel (2016) of the Stanford Daily, “Palo Alto has experienced two suicide clusters”, then there is obviously a pattern. Thus, the effects of witnessing a classmates’ suicide are influential on the psyche of another classmate. Suicides of others serve as a trigger for other distressed youth in close proximity.
Analysis
The external forces impounding upon the problem of the Silicon Valley suicides are the biggest reason for the actual suicides. The insurmountable expectations that Silicon Valley parents are placing on their children cause incredible stress and an eventual downward spiral into suicide. There are some factors, however, that aren’t as evident because they are looming under the surface. One of these problems is that parents who are making more money are not home. In order to support themselves, parents are working long hours and giving a big time commitment to all of their job responsibilities. Teenagers aren’t able to effectively develop close, tight-knit bonds with their high-achieving parents. They feel that their only job is to simply deliver success to their parents and that is how far their relationship goes. The relationships between parent and teenager are strained. Parents just want their kids to do well, but as time goes on the teenager starts to wear out and underperform. This only makes the parents push harder because they are dissatisfied with the results of their children’s performance. Additionally, teachers and counselors are part of the situation, but they themselves are not really sure what they are supposed to do. It is uncomfortable for one of these people to approach a parent and/or teenager and talk to them about their life choices and how that is affecting their level of stress.
If the problem of competition goes away in society, the world will be radically different. If the world decides to say goodbye to Harvard and winning first place, it’s honestly not going to benefit everybody. A world without competition would be pointless, if not downright absurd. Nobody would be productive, and there would be no reason to try and further inventions along more quickly because there are no potential competitors. Perhaps the solution lies within allowing children to fail, and also understanding, acknowledging, and respecting the limits of individual teenagers. The solution does not lie within abolishing competition. It lies within allocating greater mental health services for students who are feeling overwhelmed. It lies within having parents learn how to better raise intelligent children that become successful without becoming too overwhelmed in school. But admittedly, this is easier said than done. Though it is ideal for parents to be able to sit at the table with their children for dinner, if a parent is working late nights, then this is absolutely impossible.
Reflection
When looking outside of the small enclosure of Silicon Valley, an eerily similar pattern can be evidenced in affluent areas all over the world. Really, competition and expectations are a universal concept. Human beings are taught to expect things and expect that those things are going to be done in a certain way. In order to survive, humans must compete. That is how in life there are winners and losers. As much as I would like to believe that you can succeed in life without competition or confrontation, this is simply not true. Even if somebody hates the stress that competition puts on them, they must power through it in order to rise up to the top. I chose to write about this problem for this exact reason. I hate competition. I find it positively nerve-racking. I wish that sometimes life could be a little more easy-going. Yet at the same time I want to succeed and be remembered. I chose this problem because I think that people overestimate the resiliency of teenagers. We are fragile beings, and can easily be shattered by demanding situations. That is why I think that society as a whole is at fault for the over demanding nature relating to high achieving youth. The parents have to learn from somebody. And so they derive their knowledge base from the media and other forms of popular culture. That is how people have to come to know Harvard as a household name. That is why society has placed such a high value in brand names. That is all this really comes down to. I honestly am not really sure if there is a solution to this problem, though. I believe the first step to reducing the stress on Silicon Valley teenagers is limiting the number of AP classes a student can take, as well as eliminating zero period (classes at 7:00 a.m.) as an option for students. I wanted to address the high suicide rate occurring in Silicon Valley, yet one of the most important things to understand about suicide is that it is inexplicable. Nobody can ever figure out why somebody else killed themselves. We can only wonder.
References
Annual Independent Secondary School Health and Wellness Summit Report Out & Key Recommendations. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2017, from https://issuu.com/independentschoolhealth/docs/annual_independent_school_healthand
Cahalan, M., & Perna, L. (2015). Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States. 45 Year Trend Report. 2015 Revised Edition. Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.pellinstitute.org/publications-Indicators_of_Higher_Education_Equity_in_the_United_States_45_Year_Report.shtml
CDC Recommendations for a Community Plan for the Prevention and Containment of Suicide Clusters. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001755.htm
Gray, B. (2017, March 17). The Silicon Valley Suicides. Retrieved March 27, 2017, from http://thecenterbham.org/2017/03/17/the-silicon-valley-suicides/
Kimmel, C. (n.d.). After suicide clusters, Palo Alto community searches for solutions. Retrieved March 27, 2017, from http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/05/31/after-suicide-clusters-palo-alto-community-searches-for-solutions/
Luthar, S. S., & Ansary, N. S. (2005, 03). Dimensions of adolescent rebellion: Risks for academic failure among high- and low-income youth. Development and Psychopathology, 17(01). doi:10.1017/s0954579405050121
Luthar, S. S., Barkin, S. H., & Crossman, E. J. (2013, 11). “I can, therefore I must”: Fragility in the upper-middle classes. Development and Psychopathology, 25(4pt2), 1529-1549. doi:10.1017/s0954579413000758
Luthar, S. S., & D’Avanzo, K. (1999). Contextual factors in substance use: A study of suburban and inner-city adolescents. Development and Psychopathology, 11, 845–867
The Problem With Rich Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201311/the-problem-rich-kids
National Institute of Health. (2017, March). Suicide. Retrieved on March 27, 2017, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide/index.shtml
Rosin, H. (2015, November 20). The Silicon Valley Suicides. Retrieved March 27, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-silicon-valley-suicides/413140/
Selingo, J. J. (2016, April 05). Our dangerous obsession with Harvard, Stanford and other elite universities. Retrieved March 27, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/04/05/our-dangerous-obsession-with-harvard-stanford-and-other-elite-universities/?utm_term=.1758ed950d03
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Students and the Pressure to Perform. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2017, from http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/to-the-point/students-and-the-pressure-to-perform
10 Years of Advanced Placement Exam Data Show Significant Gains in Access and Success; Areas for Improvement. (2016, September 08). Retrieved April 13, 2017, from https://www.collegeboard.org/releases/2014/class-2013-advanced-placement-results-announced
Erika Badalyan
Molly Fenn
English ¾
13 March 2017
Just My (Arche)type of Novel
In 1964, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Jung proposed the idea that universal characters - archetypes - reside within the the collective unconscious of people the world over. For over 50 years, psychological archetypes have been used as a way to interpret character types and make deeper connections among literary works. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston implements the use of various sophisticated archetypes like the mother figure, father figure, the hero, and rebirth in order to strengthen the plot of the novel and evoke a profound response from the reader.
Nanny is representative of the mother figure in this story. She functions as a caretaker that raises Janie as her own child and teaches her things any mother would. As predicted by Dr. Jung in his book Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Nanny believes she knows what is best for Janie, and so she is “[devoted]” (Jung, 15) and “[protective]” of her child. This can be observed when Janie is married off to a middle-aged man named Logan Killicks. The only reason Janie ends up with Logan is because of Nanny, who wants to secure a husband for Janie so he can “[guide Janie’s] feet from harm and danger” (13). In Logan, Nanny sees her prioritized qualities in a partner: financial stability and security, as well as respectability. Finding Janie a partner that she loves isn’t of the utmost priority to Nanny, who knows that she will not be able to care and protect Janie on her own for much longer. In fact, when Jane cries out that she “wants things sweet wid [her] marriage lak when you sit under a pear tree and think” (24), Nanny tells her that it is better for Janie to “leave things de way dey is” and that “[her] mind will change”.
The father figure also makes itself present in the novel. The father figure is usually stern and controlling, and also counterbalances the more soothing mother. As defined by New World Encyclopedia, the father figure “conveys law, order, discipline, rationality”. Though Janie’s father is never actually introduced in the novel, the father figure is still there. Logan and Jody are representative of the father figure. They both act as enforcers of their own rules, and attempt to control Janie and maintain order. Both men try their best to force Janie into behaving how they want her to behave. Logan tries to get Janie to work. He pampers Janie for a year before he tries to make her help him with farm work. Logan tells her that his “fust wife never bothered [him] ‘bout choppin’ no wood nohow” (26) because she would “grab dat ax and sling chips lak uh man”. Thus, Logan expects Janie to be capable of chopping wood and other manly activities, something that Janie simply does not wish to do. Jody, on a similar note, demands that Janie help him out with the Eatonville town store. He even controls Janie over the smallest things, such as how she chooses to do her hair. He instructs her to wear her hair in a head-rag, an ordeal that “irk[s] her endlessly” (55). Janie is also constantly silenced by Jody. This is true from the very beginning of their marriage. When Jody is made mayor, somebody calls upon Janie to make a speech. But Jody says that his “wife don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin” (43) and that he “never married her for nothin’ lak dat”. This is all fair and right because, according to Jody, Janie is a woman “and her place is in de home”. Consequently, because of these circumstances placed upon her, Janie feels powerless under Logan’s and Jody’s discipline and feels that her freedom has been stifled.
One of the most easily identifiable archetypes in the novel is that of Janie: the hero. In his book Man and His Symbols, Dr. Jung writes that the myth of the hero is “the most common and the best known myth in the world” (Jung, 101). It has been around for hundreds of years. The concept of the hero has come to refer to the character “who in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, [displays] courage and the will for self-sacrifice” (Murphy). Janie effectively demonstrates all of these qualities. One of Janie’s first experiences of being a hero is when she escapes from Logan with her future husband Jody Starks. To Janie, Jody is a godsend from the boring, lame year that she had wasted with her husband Logan Killicks. As Janie escapes from Logan, she describes “the morning road air...like a new dress” (32). To escape from a life filled with security into a new chapter filled with uncertainty is bold and even self-sacrificial, especially for a teenage girl without an education or a dollar to her name.
Throughout the novel, Janie experiences multiple cycles of rebirth - one of the most common archetypes. From the perspective of anthologists Donald Gallo and Sarah Herz, “the pattern of birth, death and rebirth in literature involves a struggle that leads to a new realization of self” (Herz and Gallo, 65). The rebirth archetype first becomes apparent after Janie runs away from her first husband, Logan Killicks. Her marriage to Logan is an unhappy one. Janie constantly finds herself submitting to Logan and quickly realizes that “marriage [does] not make love” (25). Janie feels imprisoned in her monotonous marriage to Logan who in turn tells her that she is “[spoiled] rotten” (26). Janie continues to suffer in her marriage until the death of her Nanny, the only reason Janie is married to Logan anyway. Now freed from the responsibility of keeping her Nanny’s promise, Janie is able “stand around the gate” (25) and “expect things”. One day, while Janie is watching the road beyond the gate, her eye falls on a “citified, stylish dressed man” (27). This is none other than Jody Starks. A smooth talker, he tells Janie of his ambitions and how “he had always wanted to be a big voice” (28). Although Janie is well aware that Jody does “not represent sunup and pollen and blooming trees” (29), his eloquent declarations of building a town charm her and carry her beyond both mules and springtime visions into grander pictures of the “far horizon” and of “change and chance”. Soon after, Janie abandons Logan and his farm and marries Jody at sunset. In this situation, Janie experiences true rebirth. She struggles to gain freedom and find a way out of her situation, but for a while she can’t. It is only when Jody appears that she realizes the solution to conquer her dismal state is to “hurry out the front gate” (32) and “[wait] for” Joe.
The rebirth archetype is also identifiable after the eventual passing of Janie’s second husband, Jody Starks. When Janie ran off with Joe, she could never have imagined what was in store for her. Though she did know that Joe was not the fun type, she didn’t realize how boring and methodical her new life would actually be. Janie’s life becomes a cycle of monotony “as each morning the world [flings] itself over and expose[s] the town to the sun… and every day ha[s] a store in it, except Sundays” (51). After over a decade of yet another boring, listless marriage, Jody finally dies. With his death, Janie experiences “resurrection and life” (88). Though Janie never actually dies, she does experience an internal Renaissance. When Janie attends the funeral, she describes that she “sent her face to Joe’s funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world”. Thus, Janie feels freed from the grip that Jody exerted upon her while he was alive. With Jody dead, Janie is able to do as she please. And Janie does just that, “[burning] up every one of her head rags” (89) and “[going] about the house next morning” (89) with her hair down - something Jody never liked. Janie revels in life without Jody, as she sees “no reason to rush at changing things around” (89). Without Jody, Janie “would have the rest of her life to do as she pleased” (89).
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston demonstrates the concept of psychological archetypes that would later be proposed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Jung in 1964. Psychological archetypes have been used as a way to interpret character types and make deeper connections among literary works for over 50 years. They can be applied to all aspects of the world and aid in the comprehension of themes. In Hurston’s novel, the archetypes of the mother figure, the father figure, the hero, and rebirth all make an appearance for the purpose of creating a richer story and allowing readers to identify with the novel’s characters.
Works Cited
"Archetype." New World Encyclopedia, . 22 Nov 2016, 21:17 UTC. 16 Mar 2017, 02:25 <http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Archetype&oldid=1001623>.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Novel. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. Print.
Jung, C. G., and Marie-Luise Von Franz. Man and His Symbols. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964. Print.
Jung, C. G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969. Print.
Murphy, Orla. Heroes: Text and Hypertext. Introduction to Greek Mythology. Cork, Ireland: University College Cork, 2009. Web.
HP English: Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay
Sociology 101: Proposition 57 Essay
Erika Badalyan
Professor Ingram
Sociology 1
26 November 2016
Proposition 57
From a young age, children have been taught by their parents that good behavior will never go unnoticed. A simple “sorry” and a little time can heal any wound. In 2016, criminals are being taught exactly that. A little less than a month ago, Proposition 57, which called for early release of nonviolent offenders, was passed.
It all started in 2011. The United States Supreme Court had ruled that California's prisons were overcrowded and violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court ordered “the state to reduce its prison population by more than 30,00 inmates”, as reported by Adam Liptak of the New York Times. Prison numbers dropped after voters approved Proposition 47 in 2014, which reduced certain nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors and gave more inmates a higher chance for parole consideration. Proposition 57 was also designed to lower prison population numbers. The announcement of the proposition arrived in January 2016. In an article by John Myers written for Los Angeles Times, Governor Jerry Brown, when announcing his November ballot initiative said, “The effort [behind Proposition 57] is largely in response to the lingering effects of a 2009 federal order for California to reduce its prison population” (Myers).
Yet, you may still be thinking: what exactly is Proposition 57? It claims to increase parole chances for felons convicted of nonviolent crimes and give them more opportunities to earn credits for good behavior. It also will allow judges, not prosecutors, to decide whether to try certain juveniles as adults in court. But will they be able to do it? The question many people seem to be asking themselves is how the inmate releases will work. According to The Associated Press, “Brown's plan would allow non-violent felons to seek parole after they have completed their base sentences, without enhancements for things such as gang involvement or firearms possession that can add years to a prison term. That is expected to make about 7,000 inmates immediately eligible for parole hearings” (Thompson). It also intends to allow inmates to earn credits for good behavior educational or rehabilitative achievements. Governor Jerry Brown maintains that the essence of Proposition 57 is to “provide an incentive”, as stated by Ballotpedia.org. The benefits seem straightforward enough. With incentive, prisoners will be more likely to have good behavior and get out of prisons at higher rates. Prisoners will integrate into society more effectively, and prisons will be less crowded. It seems like a win-win situation.
But what does the other side say? Looking over the arguments made by the opposing side of Proposition 57, the proposition opposers have a valid point. There are many loopholes and undesired effects of this proposition. First of all, Proposition 57 is poorly drafted. It lists crimes along the lines of rape by intoxication and rape of an unconscious person as “non-violent” crimes, as well as lewd acts against a child and human trafficking. Rape is not a “non-violent” crime. It is, in fact, one of the most vile thing a human being can do to another human being. Criminals convicted of crimes like these can released early from prison. The proposition would also allow career criminals, or a person convicted of a new crime who was previously convicted of a crime, to be treated as first offenders. How so? Look no further than the website of the No on 57 initiative. In regards to the career criminals, Proposition 57 will effectively “overturn key provisions of Marsy’s Law, “3-Strikes and You’re Out,” Victims’ Bill of Rights, Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act”, from the perspective of Susan Fisher, who is a Former Chairwoman State Parole Board. These have all been measures enacted by voters that have protected victims and made communities safer.” The “3-Strikes and You’re Out” law began with the death of a 12-year-old girl from Petaluma whose name some older folks may recognize: Polly Klaas. Polly Klaas was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a recidivist violent offender, who, in the words of her father, “had been on the streets for less than six months when he killed Polly”. This tragedy reflects the present state of rape in America. In a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts and the Brown University School of Medicine, “1,882 men were assessed for acts of interpersonal violence... 120 men [had] self-reported acts met legal definitions of rape or attempted rape, but...were never prosecuted by criminal justice authorities.” What is perhaps the most disturbing statistic of them all is that: the majority of these undetected rapists were repeat rapists, and a majority also committed other acts of interpersonal violence. The repeat rapists averaged 5.8 rapes each. The 120 rapists were responsible for 1,225 separate acts of interpersonal violence, including rape, battery, and child physical and sexual abuse (Lisak & Miller, 2002)
What’s more is that Proposition 57 “forces victims trying to put their lives back together to re-live the crimes committed against them over and over again, with every new parole hearing” (stop57.com). The victims have already been subjugated enough with the weight of the crime committed against them; they do not need to face their perpetrator time and time again.
Though Prop 57 was introduced as “The Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016”, the opponents argue that the title of the initiative is a lie. Criminals that will be eligible for early release under this proposition are not “non-violent”. Clearly proponents of Proposition 57 have failed us. In attempting to satisfy the requirement by the Supreme Court to resolve the overpopulation of California state prisons, they have done it at the expense of keeping us all safe.
Works Cited
"Amendment VIII Excessive Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishment." National Constitution Center. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
Liptak, Adam. "Justices, 5-4, Tell California to Cut Prisoner Population." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 May 2011. Web. 26Lisak, David, and Paul M. Miller. "Repeat Rape and Multiple Offending Among Undetected Rapists." Violence and Victims 17.1 (2002): 73-84. Print.
Myers, John. "Gov. Brown to Seek November Ballot Initiative to Relax Mandatory Prison Sentences." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
"NO on 57 Ballot Argument - No on 57 - Stop Early Release of Violent Criminals." No on 57 -- Stop Early Release of Violent Criminals. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
"The Criminal Justice System: Statistics | RAINN." The Criminal Justice System: Statistics | RAINN. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
This paper is something I did for Modern World History in junior year which got me excited about mental health. My interest in psychology has translated itself into related social issues. Living close to the heart of Silicon Valley, I’ve seen firsthand the effects of stress on teenagers. Last year, I completed a 10-page research paper outlining the causes, effects, impacts, and potential solutions for the disproportionately high number of suicides in my area.
For this essay I wrote in junior year for Honors English, I took initiative to engage in my interest in Psychology by writing an essay about important characters within Zora Neale Hurston's literary novel Their Eyes Were Watching God using psychological archetypes based on the research of psychologists like Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.
In junior year I decided to take a Sociology class for personal enrichment and was asked for an assignment to write a paper on a current controversial proposition. I decided to write about the three-strikes-you're-out rule, which had major ramifications for people engaged in petty crime - and also talked about classic cases that had occurred in California like Polly Klass.