Power, Privilege, and the purse Reflection
Introduction
For this project, we had to research into a variety inequalities in America, many due to factors such as class, race, and gender, with all of our work culminating in our Mind The Gap exhibition, an exhibition where we had a variety of panels that covered a variety of inequalities in America, such as the ones mentioned above. This project included both aspects of math and humanities, so a wide variety of topics were covered throughout. In math, we learned about how to create a current financial plan and how to read and create statistics. In humanities, I worked on a panel on immigration and low wage workers, which I chose because I was not that familiar with the topic and wanted to learn more about it. When studying for our panels, we had to eventually compile all of our research into a position paper, which shared with the teacher what we had learned and how we thought to improve an issue we researched. Throughout this project, we also large group discussions, where everybody were able to share what they had learned and we could comfortably discuss controversial topics and
Mathematics
For math, we began with a financial plan assignment, where we first researched the cost of the college we were planning to attend and found out how to save money on college. Afterwards, we researched into a job we were interested, and found out how much we would make with that job, and how much money we should save. We also gathered information about the cost of living, and create a financial organizer on a spreadsheet, to see how we should properly and responsibly spend our hypothetical salaries. I chose UC Santa Barbara as my college, since it provides two majors I'm interested in, Film and Actuarial Sciences, and has a reasonably affordable overall cost, and I chose to be an actuarial as my profession, since it has an high starting salary,
Afterwards, we created infographics based off of information we had gathered from our research. For my infographic, I focused on an odd trend that I discovered: Until 1977, minimum wage had a negative correlation with inflation, but after 1977, it had a positive correlation with inflation. I also included other facts that supported my argument for a higher minimum wage, such as statistic that 57% of small business owners support a $10.10 minimum wage.
Throughout this project I learned much about many important financial concepts, such as budgeting, saving, and debt. When working with a budget, I learned to stay very organized. I also learned that seemingly small costs build up quickly to become very expensive. With saving, I learned that it is best to save with a "three-bucket-system", one bucket for short term spending, one for long term, and one for retirement. I also learned about how debt can have affects on my credit score and to never go to a payday loan to pay off my debt, because it will only lead to more debt. To find out how much I needed to save to make sure I'd be able to retire comfortably, I used mathematical modeling to make projections.
We also learned about the concept of logarithmic functions, which is the inverse of an exponential function, where you try to find the exponent that the base is raised to produce another number,. The types of functions are used in real life for interest rates. So, logarithms can be found in a variety of real life examples, such as debts, credit scores, and investments. Another thing we were taught was exponential growth and decay, which can be used for compounding interest. I was already pretty familiar with exponential growth and decay, so most of what we learned only refreshed my memory on the subject instead of teaching something new. However, it did give me a useful skill of being able to make projections for how much interest I'd earn with my bank savings.
Throughout this project we learned about the Statistical Problem Solving Process, which goes through these four steps:
1. Ask or formulate a question.
2.Collect or produce data.
3. Analyze or interpret data.
4. Interpret results.
I used this process when creating my infographic, collecting data on both minimum wage and inflation over the years, to eventually discover an odd trend.
Throughout this project we were taught about many other important statistical concepts, vocabulary, and measurements. Some of the most important and useful one I learned were standard deviation and z-score, since I was not very familiar with these forms of measurement before. One of the concepts I was most thankful to be taught in this class, were the aforementioned logarithms, which I never quite fully understood until now. I also learned more about how to read graphs and analyze their data, via finding the spread, center, and shape of their distributions.
I used many of these concepts to truly understand our economy today and the current. For example, the organizational skills I learned from the financial plan will surely prove to be invaluable in the future. I also used the concepts of exponential growth to understand how far in debt payday loans will drag you. I also used many of these math concepts simply when researching to help me better understand what is happening in our economy today.
Humanities
For humanities, I worked as a moderator for my panel, "Income Inequality & the American Dream: Do you get paid what you’re worth?", and as a event organizer for the entire panel. My panel focused on the inequalities that low-wage workers, guest workers, and undocumented immigrants face everyday in America. I began this topic by researching into the guest-worker program, then minimum wage, and then undocumented immigrants, since, as a moderator, I needed to be knowledgeable on all of my panel's topics. After all of this research, I compiled all I found into a position paper on the various topics I studied. I then wrote up my opening statement, closing statement, and questions for the panel and went through run-throughs with my panel until we were ready for the exhibition. As an event organizer, working on the schedule and the event program. I also worked on all of the signs, such as the parking signs that guided people here and to find a guest panelist for my panel, which I managed to do in the 11th hour.
In humanities, I learned much about how privilege and power plays a large role in the quality of American life. Many aspects of your life that are out of your control will have great effects on your chance to achieve the American Dream, such as race, gender, economic class, among many others. For example, through my panel, I learned that many who try to immigrate to America have many obstacles. Many of them must immigrate illegally, because they did not meet the immigration criteria of the U.S. Before I thought undocumented immigrants were merely people who had become impatient waiting for the immigration process; now I know that for them, there isn't even anything to wait for. I also learned that while many think that undocumented immigrants are costing the U.S. money, they are actually paying some taxes, and aren't receiving any of the benefits that American taxpayers receive.
I also learned much about how upward mobility is very difficult for those born in lower class families. One of the key factors of this difficulty is the current minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 and much too low for many. Not only does it prevent upward mobility, 66% of those who make $10 or less an hour reported that they have difficulty or were unable to get by on their current salary. I learned through my research that a more acceptable minimum wage would be $10.10, since it would both benefit the workers, but also many businesses, since the more money gained by the low-wage workers would lead to economic growth. I was not very aware of the plight of the low wage worker in this country before my research, and, now I have found a possible solution to the problem that I would support.
Exhibition
For the exhibibition, I began working early by helping to set up the exhibition, mostly helping to move objects and make sure that everything was where it needed to be. Then, when the exhibition began, I assumed my role as the moderator of my panel. I made sure to introduce our topic and all of our panelists, including our guest panelist and that the panel flowed smoothly. I had a large variety of questions to choose from, so I could make sure I was able to explore many different aspects of our panel. I also made sure to be aware of timekeeper so that we did not go over time, which would have caused some problems for the panel going after us. During the Q&A, I was ready to put a stop to back and forths if we needed to move, but fortunately, our audience was not at all confrontational. Afterwards, I took my assigned role at the guest panelist sign in table, and made sure that the guest panelist I was assigned to sign-in and help made it to his panel. After that, I tried helping around the exhibition wherever it was needed and participated as an audience member for some of the live poetry we had outside.
For this project, we had to research into a variety inequalities in America, many due to factors such as class, race, and gender, with all of our work culminating in our Mind The Gap exhibition, an exhibition where we had a variety of panels that covered a variety of inequalities in America, such as the ones mentioned above. This project included both aspects of math and humanities, so a wide variety of topics were covered throughout. In math, we learned about how to create a current financial plan and how to read and create statistics. In humanities, I worked on a panel on immigration and low wage workers, which I chose because I was not that familiar with the topic and wanted to learn more about it. When studying for our panels, we had to eventually compile all of our research into a position paper, which shared with the teacher what we had learned and how we thought to improve an issue we researched. Throughout this project, we also large group discussions, where everybody were able to share what they had learned and we could comfortably discuss controversial topics and
Mathematics
For math, we began with a financial plan assignment, where we first researched the cost of the college we were planning to attend and found out how to save money on college. Afterwards, we researched into a job we were interested, and found out how much we would make with that job, and how much money we should save. We also gathered information about the cost of living, and create a financial organizer on a spreadsheet, to see how we should properly and responsibly spend our hypothetical salaries. I chose UC Santa Barbara as my college, since it provides two majors I'm interested in, Film and Actuarial Sciences, and has a reasonably affordable overall cost, and I chose to be an actuarial as my profession, since it has an high starting salary,
Afterwards, we created infographics based off of information we had gathered from our research. For my infographic, I focused on an odd trend that I discovered: Until 1977, minimum wage had a negative correlation with inflation, but after 1977, it had a positive correlation with inflation. I also included other facts that supported my argument for a higher minimum wage, such as statistic that 57% of small business owners support a $10.10 minimum wage.
Throughout this project I learned much about many important financial concepts, such as budgeting, saving, and debt. When working with a budget, I learned to stay very organized. I also learned that seemingly small costs build up quickly to become very expensive. With saving, I learned that it is best to save with a "three-bucket-system", one bucket for short term spending, one for long term, and one for retirement. I also learned about how debt can have affects on my credit score and to never go to a payday loan to pay off my debt, because it will only lead to more debt. To find out how much I needed to save to make sure I'd be able to retire comfortably, I used mathematical modeling to make projections.
We also learned about the concept of logarithmic functions, which is the inverse of an exponential function, where you try to find the exponent that the base is raised to produce another number,. The types of functions are used in real life for interest rates. So, logarithms can be found in a variety of real life examples, such as debts, credit scores, and investments. Another thing we were taught was exponential growth and decay, which can be used for compounding interest. I was already pretty familiar with exponential growth and decay, so most of what we learned only refreshed my memory on the subject instead of teaching something new. However, it did give me a useful skill of being able to make projections for how much interest I'd earn with my bank savings.
Throughout this project we learned about the Statistical Problem Solving Process, which goes through these four steps:
1. Ask or formulate a question.
2.Collect or produce data.
3. Analyze or interpret data.
4. Interpret results.
I used this process when creating my infographic, collecting data on both minimum wage and inflation over the years, to eventually discover an odd trend.
Throughout this project we were taught about many other important statistical concepts, vocabulary, and measurements. Some of the most important and useful one I learned were standard deviation and z-score, since I was not very familiar with these forms of measurement before. One of the concepts I was most thankful to be taught in this class, were the aforementioned logarithms, which I never quite fully understood until now. I also learned more about how to read graphs and analyze their data, via finding the spread, center, and shape of their distributions.
I used many of these concepts to truly understand our economy today and the current. For example, the organizational skills I learned from the financial plan will surely prove to be invaluable in the future. I also used the concepts of exponential growth to understand how far in debt payday loans will drag you. I also used many of these math concepts simply when researching to help me better understand what is happening in our economy today.
Humanities
For humanities, I worked as a moderator for my panel, "Income Inequality & the American Dream: Do you get paid what you’re worth?", and as a event organizer for the entire panel. My panel focused on the inequalities that low-wage workers, guest workers, and undocumented immigrants face everyday in America. I began this topic by researching into the guest-worker program, then minimum wage, and then undocumented immigrants, since, as a moderator, I needed to be knowledgeable on all of my panel's topics. After all of this research, I compiled all I found into a position paper on the various topics I studied. I then wrote up my opening statement, closing statement, and questions for the panel and went through run-throughs with my panel until we were ready for the exhibition. As an event organizer, working on the schedule and the event program. I also worked on all of the signs, such as the parking signs that guided people here and to find a guest panelist for my panel, which I managed to do in the 11th hour.
In humanities, I learned much about how privilege and power plays a large role in the quality of American life. Many aspects of your life that are out of your control will have great effects on your chance to achieve the American Dream, such as race, gender, economic class, among many others. For example, through my panel, I learned that many who try to immigrate to America have many obstacles. Many of them must immigrate illegally, because they did not meet the immigration criteria of the U.S. Before I thought undocumented immigrants were merely people who had become impatient waiting for the immigration process; now I know that for them, there isn't even anything to wait for. I also learned that while many think that undocumented immigrants are costing the U.S. money, they are actually paying some taxes, and aren't receiving any of the benefits that American taxpayers receive.
I also learned much about how upward mobility is very difficult for those born in lower class families. One of the key factors of this difficulty is the current minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 and much too low for many. Not only does it prevent upward mobility, 66% of those who make $10 or less an hour reported that they have difficulty or were unable to get by on their current salary. I learned through my research that a more acceptable minimum wage would be $10.10, since it would both benefit the workers, but also many businesses, since the more money gained by the low-wage workers would lead to economic growth. I was not very aware of the plight of the low wage worker in this country before my research, and, now I have found a possible solution to the problem that I would support.
Exhibition
For the exhibibition, I began working early by helping to set up the exhibition, mostly helping to move objects and make sure that everything was where it needed to be. Then, when the exhibition began, I assumed my role as the moderator of my panel. I made sure to introduce our topic and all of our panelists, including our guest panelist and that the panel flowed smoothly. I had a large variety of questions to choose from, so I could make sure I was able to explore many different aspects of our panel. I also made sure to be aware of timekeeper so that we did not go over time, which would have caused some problems for the panel going after us. During the Q&A, I was ready to put a stop to back and forths if we needed to move, but fortunately, our audience was not at all confrontational. Afterwards, I took my assigned role at the guest panelist sign in table, and made sure that the guest panelist I was assigned to sign-in and help made it to his panel. After that, I tried helping around the exhibition wherever it was needed and participated as an audience member for some of the live poetry we had outside.