The Social Justice Project

          This project began with the writing of a research paper. This was the second major research paper that i had written, but it was different than the rest. The non-profit organization I chose to base my project on was called the Sierra Club. I did this because, one i needed a non-profit and this was the best one I could think of, but also because I have been to a couple of National Parks myself and I see how big they are and how expensive their stuff is and I wanted to know what they do and why. The Sierra Club was created to aid the National Parks. My original idea was do discuss the effect of new technology on the attendance of National Parks, but that had no social justice in it at all. I decided to write my paper on simply how National Parks do their jobs and what exactly their job is. Focusing on the Sierra Club itself, which is what I had to originally research, I learned a good deal about what it does and its purpose. Primarily the Sierra Club provides funding to National Parks from donations, but it also provides political pressure on congressmen to force them to uphold the safety of National Parks. The Sierra Club also combats other problems, such as air pollution and raises awareness to problems that people create for National Parks. From that I was able to find more reading and write my paper.
           On the topic of social justice my learning came quick and at the beginning of the project. One the first day of the project I was explained what social justice was by Ms. DeGrano and that is where my rough knowledge of the definition of social justice comes from. I wasn’t until we watched that Invisible Children documentary when how real this idea was and how abundant world problems are. From that documentary I learned of the horrors many children either endure or are forced to run from by the evil people in this world. I learned how complex and difficult it is to run an organization like Invisible Children, but i also learned how easy it is to start, all one needs is an idea.
           GIMP was my major challenge in this project, but it ended as a success. At first I had major trouble with GIMP. Not only was i not imaginative enough to figure out a good idea, but I was not skilled enough with GIMP to execute any of them. My first attempts failed miserably and i thought I would fail. My savior came in the form of Tristan Bench who had experience with GIMP and he helped me create my best GIMP picture ever. I am actually particularly fond of that image.

The research process was rightfully the longest. It required the navigation of numerous humongous websites and the bookmarking of nearly 20 just for basic research and quotes. Once I had done the research I began to write the actual paper. This was not a problem because it was a first draft and mistakes and a short paper were allowed. Once I showed up for the first pier edit and got my paper back I realized how small and bad it was. By the time of the next pier edit I had added facts and other things and by the time of the final draft, after much stretching, I had the necessary 8 pages. This writing went surprisingly well.

My time was not used very wisely in this project. I did procrastinate a great deal and I ended up pressed for time. Although I did meet the benchmarks set up by Ms. DeGrano I would have missed them all if I had set any personal ones. This was a problem, but it ended peacefully and I completed the project well and on time. I ended up lucky after procrastinating.

If I were to attempt this project again I would have first forced myself to get at least more of the project done earlier to avoid any haste and staying up late. to I also would have bought transfer paper rather than relying on the limited supply of 4 sheets at my house. Other than that I see nothing to change, I am happy with the results. I would only stress the idea to not procrastinate.