Salvete Omnes!

Hello! My name is Ciara and I’m currently a freshman at Kenwood Academy High School. So far, freshman year is the absolute worst. The homework is also unnecessary. Since I was at Kenwood’s academic center, I’m taking all sophomore classes.  My birthday is on December 19, 1999, which makes me a Sagittarius. I’m 14-years-old, 5’2, have brown hair and brown eyes. I love my hair and enjoy styling it. I also enjoy polishing my nails. I love love love fashion. I love love love listening to music and have become obsessed with PARTYNEXTDOOR, SZA, Drake, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, and more. My favorite social media as of now is Snapchat because, unlike Instagram, it’s not about competition or how many likes you have. Plus, people act really goofy. I love love LOVE my iPhone, but I want the 5s. I don’t want the 6 or 6 plus because it looks way too much like the galaxy, which I don’t like very much. I’m an only child, so I’m bored most of the time. I love my friends to death, but they can be a headache. I’m the only one out of all my friends who isn’t in a dance program at After School Matters. I’m extremely talkative and outspoken when I’m at school, but need to take a break every once in a while. So, you can say I’m shy I guess. When I grow up, I want to be either a Cardiologist, Neurologist, Psychologist, Astronomer, Lawyer, Politician, Nurse, Medical Examiner, Journalist, or a Teacher. I love watching movies and I love popcorn. My favorite T.V. shows are Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Castle, and Red Band Society. I love watching sports, but I have this love-hate relationship with basketball. I like it, but it's very aggravating. My favorite sport to watch, however, is football. And that's all you need to know about me for now. Bye! ;-).

Gonorrhea

by Devonte W.

I've been living in Cook County all of my life and never been educated about gonorrhea. I took some time to educate myself a little more and want to share the information I've learned with YOU. Parents, teachers, and mentors should always make it their business to teach sexual awareness. Although I didn't learn about Sex Ed in school I was taught sexual risks & warnings from a mentor. The reason I wasn't taught about subjects like STIs, Gonorrhea , and AIDs ,etc.; because it wasn't offered at my school. Cook County has the most gonorrhea cases in the country, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that can infect both men and women. It can cause infections in the genitals, rectum, and throat. It is a very common infection, especially among young people ages 15-24 years.

You can get gonorrhea by having unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted bacterium. Reading a recent study from the CDC, I've learned that in the nation, Chicago ranks 1st and 2nd, respectively, for the highest rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia infections among young people aged 15–19 years . To help reduce these high rates of STIs and prevent HIV infection among youth, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) partnered with the Chicago Department of Public Health(DPH) to pilot an education and testing  project for gonorrhea and chlamydia. Overall In the 2010–2011 school year, 15 high schools participated  in the STI pilot testing project. For the 12 high schools that completed the pilot testing program during the 2010−2011 school year,

• 3,189 students received HIV/STI prevention education and 2,188 students were tested.

• 289 students tested positive for an STI; 280 have received treatment thus far.

To help educate more students that weren't informed, like me,  CPS has built a policy for sexual outlets in school. Below is the new policy

http://policy.cps.k12.il.us/download.aspx?ID=57

The Not-So-Amazing Life of Ciara

Hello! My name is Ciara, I’m 14-years old, 5’3, and attend Kenwood Academy  High School as a freshman. Like the majority of the people in this world, I have brown hair and brown eyes. My favorite color is orange. My favorite foods consist of hot crunchy curls, pizza, ice cream, and cupcakes. On rare occasions, or with friends, I am talkative, loud, funny, and weird. But for now, I can be seen as shy, quiet, and very soft spoken.  My favorite tv shows include Regular Show, Adventure Time, Keenan and Kel, Full House, and my most favorite of all The Amazing World of Gumball. My favorite movies are The Notebook, Dirty Dancing, Hairspray, and most recently The Fault In Our Star. My favorite music artists are Drake, Childish Gambino, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jhene Aiko, Ariana Grande, and lots of old soul music since that’s what my parents listen to in the car. My favorite subjects in school are Math, Science, and English in that order. I hope to learn a lot from this program. I wish to get a head start learning about health for my Human Body Systems course at school. I am at Health Science Explorers because I have a passion for science and learning about living and nonliving things under a different light. Science may not be my top favorite class at school, but I do love it a lot.

Health Science Explorers Take on Northwestern Unniversity

Major Trip in our program on Wednesday, March 26th, 2014. We had the privilege to partake in a college tour sponsored by Northwestern on the Magnificent Mile. We visited the 

Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences Northwestern University Feinberg Medical School.

This event was led by actual professors from Northwestern's Physical Therapy (PT) program and several current graduate students! Chandi Edmonds and Tobey DeMott Yates are both teachers in the PT program. They started our visit by asking us how our day was and then describing about history of the program. We were able to hear from two graduate students about the types of classes they were taking and what the day-to-day looks like as a student in the program. We collectively asked and even answered from our hosts and created a new bond with them that day.

Purple is one of the university's colors so our new friends loved our purple After School Matter shirts. After our Meet & Greet, we watched a news piece via ABC about an older man who had been told he was paralyzed but was determined to complete a race up the Willis Tower's staircase. The video taught us that we can improve our bodies through physical therapy and that it can help recapture one's life. 

This field trip was different from other one. We usually are taking notes and asking questions or just listening to speakers. However, we were the only group participating in this program, which was a bonus, and the instructors took us around their campus. We visited the Accelerated Rehabilitation Center and watched as physical therapists worked with actual patients. We saw what it would be like if you were hurt and how the therapists would work with you. After our tour, we participated in an activity where we had to jump off a stoop and then jumped up trying to touch the ceiling. The activity was recorded on a camera and we watched the video in slow motion to see how our body moved. This is an actual activity a Physical Therapist would use because it can tell the doctor where a patient went wrong. 

We concluded our trip with some final questions and even a demonstration of how a physical therapist would check a patient's leg who was experiencing pain. Northwestern offered our team a great lunch and a brighter understanding about physical therapy & therapist clinics. It was an amazing experience!