CAS Expo Preparation

As of today, 3/2/2016, Callie, Kiara and I are finished with our CAS Expo preparations and are ready for tomorrow to present our project. I am very excited, as we are making cupcakes tonight, we already have our poster done, and are also buying balloons to put on the table. We are all going to wear our Neural Activity shirts tomorrow and we are very prepared and looking forward to everyone being able to hear about our CAS project!

February Update

After the presentation, we got a very good response from the parents and students who attended. Callie, Kiara and I discussed the presentation and thought it to be a great presentation and were simply disappointed about the turnout of people who attended. However, we are still in Neural Activity and will continue to spread the information about drugs and alcohol to students to positively impact their lives. We are continuing to run the Neural Activity club every Monday, and in there we continue to do things such as teach the members and give presentations about different drugs and the effects of them. We believe this is definitely a universal problem, and will continue to influence our peers to make better decisions to positively impact their future.

PRESENTATION DAY! 1/27/16

Today was the Parent/Student night and the presentation by Colter Church in the library. It was a little hectic before the presentation because I had contacted Mrs. Scroggins earlier and asked her if she could provide us with a projector in order to project the presentation. However, when we arrived, the projector was not there and the library was locked. On top of that, we had technical difficulties in setting up the projector with the computer, and this was hectic and stressful. But the presentation itself was a great success, as those who showed up gained new knowledge about what is happening in the Grand Valley and also very interesting and informative information about a variety of drugs such as marijuana, heroin, meth, cocaine, and prescription drugs. I learned so much from his presentation, more information than I can remember. However, about six people showed up, which was a little disappointing considering how needed this information is among both parents and students to know. The parents and students who attended were all very interested and had a lot of questions for Mr. Church, for which they gained valuable information and insight into what they wanted to know. I believe that this presentation was successful even if it did only influence six lives. The people who are opposed to knowing the effects of using drugs and alcohol, the ones who needed to come most of all, of course do not come because they have a different opinion about drug use than we do. However, through all of the opposition to knowing the negative effects of drugs, I still believe that by doing this presentation, it could set off a chain reaction, in that those who attended could tell their friends and be able to relay information to those who may be affected by drugs. The issue of drug use and abuse in the world is real, not just in the Grand Valley. The impact we are making is small, but it is important to get the information out there so that more and more people come to know about drugs and can be informed to make the right decisions when they are faced with the option of doing drugs.

Final Planning/Preparations 1/11/16

Today, Callie, Kiara and I all met once again to discuss our final plans for the Parent/Student Night with Colter Church as our presenter. Colter Church has prepared a slide show presentation and is planning to bring drug paraphernalia to show parents and students what drug users are using and have used to hide drugs and to use them. Today we verified that the blurbs got put on the newsletter and the event will be announced on the morning announcements. We also discussed the time we would meet on the 27th in order to set up and be prepared for the presentation. We also established the location by meeting with Mrs. Farlow, who told us there are no other events going on in the library the night of Wednesday the 27th, so we were all good to go. I am looking forward to this presentation and am excited about how people will respond to it. We know that Colter Church is highly qualified to answer questions and provide relevant and pertinent information, and so I am hoping that those who need to hear this message will show up to this event as it will be very informational and influential to those who are affected by drugs and alcohol.

Meeting with Mrs. Marsh - 12/14/15

Today we met with Mrs. Marsh and talked more about getting the blurbs on the morning announcements and into the school newsletter. However, we are changing the date of our presentation. Kiara has contacted Colter Church and he has expressed interest in helping with our presentation. We are changing the date of the presentation because Callie, Kiara and I have become too overwhelmed with the stress of the holiday season on top of having to study for finals. We just were unable to coordinate everything in time for the presentation to be before Christmas Break because our lives just got too busy.
I didn't want to have to move the presentation, however, I knew that this would be the best in the long run. We didn't want to rush the presentation and not be prepared, and so we are continuing to collaborate and plan for a night which will work well for all of us and for our target audience. Therefore, at this meeting we discussed the date to be sometime at the end of January, and we will definitely stick to this date. This was a challenge for us in having to work around our schedules and move the date constantly, but we know that this date will work well and hopefully it will be a good day for people to come as well.

Meeting 11/19/15

Today, Callie and Kiara and I met again to discuss our upcoming presentation. At this point, we have discussed who we are wanting to talk at the presentation and decided that we are not going to contact the previous speakers we were considering but rather contact somebody else. Kiara's mom went to a presentation in which a man named Colter Church did a drug presentation. He works with the Mesa Country Drug Task Force and has seen first hand the effects of drugs and alcohol on teens within the Grand Valley. We are going to contact him and see if he has any interest in preparing a presentation to present to the parents and teens at our presentation night. We are thinking that he will be very influential because he not only is knowledgeable about the various drugs that teens are using today, but also because he has seen how they affect kids and can vie for the devastation which they induce in the present and the future.
Callie and I are preparing a blurb to put on the announcements and in the school newsletter, so that this event is better advertised.
Again, I think that this presentation should be successful. I'm looking forward to this because it truly is not just  a problem within the Grand Valley, but a problem all throughout the world. I realize that not everybody thinks that drugs are a problem or that their affects are blown out of proportion. However, I am aware of the effects of drugs and alcohol and I believe that people should be educated before they jump to conclusions about the pettiness of drug and alcohol use. Planning this event is exciting because we have the opportunity to reach out to people who might be affected by drugs directly or indirectly, and even if the presentation isn't a huge success, I will continue to try to educate and help those who might not know a lot about drug usage and its affects. I am truly enjoying this because I am not only helping others but I am becoming more comfortable talking to big crowds of people and becoming more comfortable around people in general. It has definitely been a challenge to overcome the naysayers and those who think that drugs aren't a big deal, but I becoming more confident in speaking up about what I believe and what I think.

Meeting with Kiara and Callie - 10/2/15

Today, Kiara, Callie and I met at Main Street Bagels to discuss a date for our presentation or Parent-Student night. We talked about what we wanted the presentation to look like, as far as guest speakers and how we would advertise it, and we are planning for the presentation to be sometime in December before Christmas break. We talked about the potential guest speakers from Hannah Carver and Kierra Hall (one who was a counselor for teens who struggled with substance abuse, and another who worked with troubled youth) and talked about contacting them. Obviously, we want the presentation to address the problem of teen substance abuse in the Grand Valley, but also we want to make teens and parents more aware of the problem and help them to realize there are other options for them rather than participating in drugs and alcohol.
We are thinking that this presentation should be a success. We know that drugs and alcohol are becoming increasingly worse in the valley and both teens and parents need to be informed. I am feeling confident in our ability to organize this and hopefully have a good turnout. I think that this is something that is beneficial for students who may be struggling with substance abuse but also need to know about how the different drugs they are abusing are affecting their brain  and future development.