This benchmark turned out to be far more difficult than I originally anticipated.  I didn't realize how hard it would be to find examples, especially negative ones.  When looking for laws, court cases or executive functions, Just typing in "beneficial laws" didn't get so far.  I decided the easiest thing to do was to think of a life situation first, instead of trying to find any random law and make it applicable.  For example: I'd think of something that I wish I didn't have to do or could do, and then find the law that makes it so.  This helped mitigate my struggle a great deal.  

As I said before, this definitely wasn't an easy benchmark.   I wish I had organized myself more carefully.  I should have found all the examples I  wanted to use first, and then done all the paragraphs.  

I definitely think the government will affect my life more as I grow older.  It will happen as I gain independence and become more involved in politics and national interests.  Some laws won't apply after a while, like student education laws, but others apply more with age and work.  

            For this American Government Benchmark project, finding a way that incorporated the laws, offices, and cases, seemed difficult at first. I attempted to relate the various examples, to situations that were happening in my life at this very moment, in relation to the college process, sports, and everyday living. This process wasn’t as easy as it seemed, having an objective to find laws and regulations that affected our everyday lives.

            I would deem this project with having a very difficult and strenuous process, simply because there are certain rules which only correspond to certain people. I had some difficulty when it came to finding offices that implement the rules of a specific Executive Branch. I thought we had to find actual laws of the executive branch, but then that would coincide with the legislative branch.

            The anticipation of my life becoming more affected by the government was recognized, because once you get older and reach certain limits, then your life is then intertwined with a whole new set of rules. The older we get, the more responsibilities we take on as humans. We have to live our lives responsibly following our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

            By completing this benchmark, I now understand most of the processes of government; whether it is how it is run in perspective to its specific branches, to how a law is passed. I understand the rules and regulations I have to follow, and will result in following as I get older.

• Have at least one SRC representative to report back to. This person will guide you through this process, answer all questions, show support, lead you in the right direction, and help you get the job done so you can reach across to all schools.
• Visit various schools to see how education is perceived there.
• Take a survey from students at all different types of schools. Refer back to the survey we created in one of our earlier blog posts.
• Attend some SRC Meetings so that the public can know what you are lobbying for. You also need the School Reform Commission’s meetings to allow the public to understand your views as attending Student Reform Commission meetings. The officials who conduct these meetings can allow the issues to reach the higher powers above. http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/s/src/schedule
• These are the allies that you need on board in order to allow your points to reach a higher power in the world. These are the people who can help you make that happen:
• Robert A. Brady
• Michael Nutter
• Johnny Irizarry
• Denise McGregor Armbrister
• The Lifeworks Alternative School.
• Ozzie Wright (Father of Maya Wright [Class of 2011] )

Hello, I'm not sure if you got my email but I'm going to send it to you again. My apologies for responding late but you said an volunteer opportunity was "If you have any connections at area grade schools or high schools, let us know; we are always trying to get into schools with our Humane Education Presentations." What does this mean or involve actually? I am asking because I attended Science Leadership Academy and many people here are vegetarian, and not to long a go in a history class was playing a move on how our food is produce and what they do to the animals. So, if you or any of your members of the Humane League would like to come and talk to our school that be grate. Just let me know. Have a blissful rest of the week. 

Sincerely,

Leeann Nguyen. :]

It took Lydia until today to message me back on the topic. She was happy I followed up to make sure she got the email and responded with this email: 

Hi Leanne,

Thanks for following up with me! I did indeed have miss  your earlier email so I appreciate  your reaching out again.

Our Humane Ed presentations   focus on the ethical issues of factory farming and its impact on animals, the environment and human health.  They are free and virtually always get great feedback from students. You can learn a bit more from clicking on the link above.

The most important information we would need from you is the name and contact information of a particular teacher who would be interested in devoting his or her classroom time to one of our presentations. Appropriate teachers might be biology teachers, ethics teachers, social sciences teachers, or perhaps in your case, the history teacher who showed the movie you described. If you can provide a name of someone who would be receptive to the idea of a presentation, let  me know and I will follow up from there.  

If you need any more information or have other questions, contact me!

Thanks again,

Lydia

I'm thrilled she had messaged me back on this matter but a little disappointed in myself that it was to close to the due date to make this an event for people. If I had more time I would have liked Lydia to come in and talk to students that are interested in the topic as well and go and volunteer at an event with her. I should have followed up with my first email sooner then I did. I know that their are a lot of organization out there that deal with animal cruelty that I could also contacted for example PSACA, WSPA, and FoA. I reflect on this and am glad I had the chance to be in contact with Lydia and for her to give me information on what their organization does to help prevent animal cruelty and I wouldn't change my topic, I would just have wished I could have done more. 

In american government we did a bureaucracy project to see the process and the procedure for a topic we had choose. My partner  (Alexis Beren) and I chose the topic EMANCIPATION. Emancipation is the process in which a child under the legal age gets independence from their parents or legal guardian. The judge is the one to verdict the discussion and to become emancipated you have to have evidences that you dont get finical support from your parents, moved out and can support yourself. 

There is no paper work that you can get from online, you actually need to go the judge or lawyer to get the paper I believed. It is  difficult to get emancipated because the judge needs to make sure the individual can care for themselves. I wouldn't change anything, I think that Alexis did a very nice job on the flowchart. It simple but also informational. I think that this is a complicated process because the judge needs to make sure that his decision is best for the child and his/her family.  

There is nothing quite like bureaucracy.  Every system contains it, we all have to work through it, but most agree that it can often be a pain in the rear.  With a partner, we (American Government class) were all assigned to investigate the processes behind a bureaucratic system with a partner.   My partner, Aimee, and I chose to look into Food-Stamps (also known as SNAPS)

            SNAPS is a national food-assistance program for families who are struggling to provide for themselves.  Families receive a certain amount of benefits each month, based on their calculated need.  In PA, these families then receive an ACCESS card, which can be used to purchase food (excluding certain items like alcohol.)

            The Food-Stamps system doesn’t seem necessarily difficult, but is very complex.  Although it is a nationally based system, a person must apply within a specific State, and complete the required paperwork.  You can do part of the process online, depending on your State.  However, Aimee and I did it by hand because we would have had to actually create an account, and this is strictly academic. 

Instead, we printed out a 24-page application and tried to fill it out.  They consider a lot, and much of the information gets repetitive.  Since SNAPS is often closely tied to other systems like Welfare Benefits, WIC, or unemployment, there are many factors taken into consideration.  You have to provide social security, who you’re applying for, people in your household, income (if any, including job and other resources), expenses per person in house, whether you own a vehicle…etc.  To receive benefits, you have to meet specific income eligibility requirements, which vary depending on who lives with you.  It’s quite tedious.

            The 24-page application was for other benefits, including healthcare.  We soon found a much shorter form for just SNAP benefits, and filled that one out for a (non racially stereotyped) single mother of two. 

            In some way I see why there is so much to consider in application.  They have to consider just about any possible scenario a person can have.  When it comes government money, they don’t want to leave any loopholes.  It’s very specific, but probably needs to be. 

            It was very frustrating trying to figure out how to put all the steps and things to consider into one cohesive “flow” that made sense and didn’t exceed our 60-object free trial on Lucid Chart.  There are probably more specific details that could have been included, but we tried to pick out the most important bits.  I would like to see this professionally done, with every detail, just to grasp the complexity. 

For this Bureaucracy Project my partner Taylor Tomasco and I were assigned to create a flow chart on how to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid ( FAFSA). This process involved researching all of the documents needed to complete the FAFSA process. Although we as students cannot complete the FAFSA until January 1st, this flow chart will assist all students preparing to enter into college. This flow chart shows the documents needed, the actual FAFSA form from last year, so that students could get an idea of what the form looks like on paper or online.

We referred to the FAQ, on the FAFSA website to know what information we needed to add to our flowchart, so that no information was misleading. We also printed out the tax forms a student would need, or that their parents would need when filling out this form. We created an alias name and identity to go along with the forms, so that a replica of the forms could be easier to understand; henceforth what information goes where. Filling out this information was a little difficult, because all the information on each page had to make sense.

If we were to change one thing about this Bureaucratic Project, then it would be to document what actually goes into filling this form out; the process, papers, time, and effort with accuracy.

This process has become so complicated in the past decades is because many people attempt to steal others identities so that they could receive a free education. Although there is a limited amount of money, people attempt to use another persons identity to receive the most benefits.

Link to Flow Chart:

https://sla-cc-live.sla01.archive.jarv.us/sections/American_Government_-_Laufenberg:2