VA Tech Support by Random Acts of Kindness Dedications

The UF Peacejam group at Eastside decided they wanted to support those impacted by the VA Tech shootings. Led by Ashley Nelson, Junior in the Eastside IB program, the group asked teachers to give their students time to dedicate a Random Act of Kindness to the survivors, families, and friends at Tech. We had a terrific response and are in the process of creating a scrapbook. Students from Eastside wrote their own expressions of support and a promise to reach out to others in their Gainesville community through an act of kindness. We were so pleased with the dedications that we are extending the project through the Fall so that other schools can participate. If you would like to dedicate an act of kindness to be included in our book, send us an e-mail at swebster@ufl.edu with the act you will do and any other words that you would like to convey to the families. You can sign your name or leave it anonymous.

June 3rd Meeting

The Peacejam group has decided to do a campaign in a local middle school to increase awareness about the effect of T.V. on choices of middle school students. In an effort to encourage students to 'write their own story rather than have others write it for them', Eastside peacejam students will do a 3-part service project around this campaign:
1) Increase awareness of the impact of t.v. on students through posters in the schools
2) Engage middle school students in a conversation about choices and role models as impacted by the media in an after-school dialogue
3) Produce and distribute a newsletter about how to 'write your own story' by including reactions from the after-school dialogue, introducing info on choosing good leaders, groups, and role models, and identifying the activism of nobel peace laureates as examples of active citizenship vs. passive viewership

March 25th meeting

Over the past 2 months, the Eastside IB students have been doing some data gathering. They found that research tells us that today's youth are spending more time in front of the t.v. than in the classroom.

They also did some interviews on their own. While high school students and middle school students say they watch t.v. to relax and they don't think it impacts their lives in terms of violence, they unanimously felt that T.V. impacted their satisfaction with their own lives. The interviewees said that they felt they wanted more materialistic things when they watched t.v. and that they felt worse about their own bodies or personalities after watching actors/actresses on shows. The impact was most significant for women. There were several positive effects mentioned by the interviewees. Several students felt that t.v. improved their sense of humor, allowed them to relax, and taught them about social skills.

Shows such as 'the discovery channel', 'oprah', 'beauty and the geek', and 'ugly betty' were given positive accolades. Other popular shows that today's youth are watching, but that they said taught them more negative values included: mtv, the OC, Made, Cribs, and vh1.

The peacejam students decided to broaden their topic a little. They decided that their end goals were to get people to help others more than just 'stop watching t.v.'. To this end, they decided that they wanted to find out how much adults in our community think that today's youth think of global issues, want to volunteer, or spend their free time helping others. The theme that will guide further investigation will examine: 'The climate of youth today'. Peacejam students want to explore what messages surround youth today in terms of helping others vs. materialism.

The next month will be spent finishing out the investigation of Gainesville climate. This summer, peacejammers will plan their community service project to be carried out over the Fall. Then they will travel to present their program to a Nobel laureate early Spring '08.

January 28th meeting

At this meeting, we selected option #2 and decided to look at the impact of t.v. on today's youth. In particular, we wanted to see how t.v. conveys values that do or do not help build a cooperative community. We decided that our next step was investigating the issue in our own community.

Dec. 29 meeting

During this meeting, we focused on clarifying the different projects we could do and tying them to the 10 goals of the Nobel Peace Laureates. We focused in on 5 potential projects:

1) Donating in the wake of Natural disasters and where the money goes: Nobel goal = "Home Security". This project would involve looking at perspectives of students at Eastside toward organizations that handle donations following a natural disaster. We would examine how students perceived their money would be handled and how likely they would to get involved in helping following a natural disaster.
2) The influence of t.v. and the media on norms of consumers (in this case, students at Eastside). Nobel goal = "Human Rights and Social Justice". This project would examine the impact of media on the thoughts and actions of students. We would examine what students watched, what they thought about the values and ideas in those shows, and if the perceived similar phenomenon in their immediate communities.
3) Encouraging youth to get away from the t.v. and become active citizens. Nobel goal = "Social Justice and Human Rights for all". This project would be a campaign encouraging youth in elementary and middle schools to decrease the amount of t.v. that they watch and to become more involved in expressing their voices in their communities by getting involved in clubs and organizations.
4) The group divide at Eastside. Nobel goal = "Decreasing Racism and hate". This project would examine the causes of the distance and stereotypes between groups of people at Eastside high school. It would culminate in an awareness campaign to break down barriers between students.
5) Moderation of food and Poverty. Nobel goal = "Decreasing poverty". This project would seek to decrease the rise in obesity by encouraging students to decrease their consumption of fast food. At the same time, an effort would be made to use the money not spent on junk food to make a donation to those that may go without food because of poverty in other countries. The project would increase awareness of poverty and create a respect for food as a resource.

The peacejam group has had 2 meetings this semester. Currently, we are brainstorming a community service project. We will start with general themes and issues, and then we will slowly narrow those down to a focused project and action plans. Our goal is to research and develop the project during Spring of 2007, and to implement the project by Fall of 2007, with a presentation to a Nobel Peace Laureate during Spring of 2008 at the latest.

Current ideas include: health and wellbeing of young people; encouraging youth to be more active; supporting healthy food options in schools; encouraging healthy school environments; breaking down barriers between groups in schools; discouraging judgments and labels based upon external factors; supporting the voice of youth in community politics; examing decisions about the distribution of wealth in community politics; increasing awareness of impact of media on norms in the community; supporting community recreation programs for youth; addressing the arts in schools; addressing healthy choices to prevent teen pregnancy; increasing empathy for those impacted by natural disasters in other states and countries.

We agreed to meet two times a month while the project is in its planning stages. The next date has yet to be set.