Blog Post #2 - Oscar Gonzalez

    I had an enjoyable time working on the Changemakers project. However, I did find the process to be more confusing than the last presentation. There were four assignments that seemingly had to be done at the same time: the civic action assignment, the agenda, the study guide, and the presentation slides themselves. It became extremely confusing for me to keep track of everything by the end, but I still tried to do my part where I could.

    I liked that all three of the presentations first began with some historical context. It helped the rest of the presentation feel organized. I chose to make my section of the presentation about Frederick Douglass, an important leader of the African American civil rights movement. I researched him very thoroughly for this, which led me to learning some finer details about him, like how he served as a U.S. Marshal under five presidents. The rest of my teammates' presentations were very informative, too. I learned that Susan B. Anthony was similar to Frederick Douglass in that she also published a newspaper, called The Revolution, and traveled across the U.S. to give speeches. I also learned that Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson received the same number of electoral votes, which caused a problem. Overall, I think my group did a good job at presenting our changemakers and explaining what they're done for our society.

    As the second presentation started, I found myself liking the black and white aesthetic of it. I learned a lot about Mother Teresa and what she did for the poor and homeless. I learned a lot about James Baldwin, a black openly gay man who exposed injustices via his experiences. Marie Curie was also the person who coined the term "radioactivity", which was something I didn't know about. She also personally drove fleet cars that came with portable X-rays during World War I. This presentation overall taught me some things I didn't already know about the changemakers who were covered.

     This last presentation was probably the most interesting to me due to its topics being the most recent, and how most of its changemakers are still alive to this day. For example, I had never heard about Dr. Francis Collins or his gene discoveries and how he helped map and sequence all of human DNA before this presentation. I also didn't know about Tom Skazy or his company, TerraCycle, which is working on eliminating waste. Overall, this group's presentation stuck out to me as especially interesting.

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