I chose to write my letters of inquiry to Katherine Humphrey and Kaylene Craig.
Kaylene Craig is the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coordinator in Idaho Falls, Idaho. I e-mailed her the following:
Hello,
My name is Ariel Rivera and I am a student at College of Western Idaho. I am writing an argumentative essay regarding teen pregnancy and I'd like to ask you a few questions. I will be including my letter to you into my essay, and would greatly appreciate your response to include as well.
1. What is your view on teen pregnancy?
2. Do you think teens are properly educated about safe sex?
3. Do you think parents are talking to their children about sex or expecting the school to do it?
4. Are adequate efforts being made to let teenage parents know their options?
5. What percent of teenage mothers end up on Welfare?
6. What percent of teenage mothers finish school and go on for further education?
7. Tell me about some of things you have done to decrease teenage pregnancies?
I'm not sure if you have any statistics but if you do or if there is anything else you would like to include, please feel free to do so.
Thank you for your time,
Ariel Rivera
I then received the following e-mail response from her:
Ariel,
I appreciate your interest in this topic. Unfortunately, I do not have the hours available right now to adequately respond to these complicated and interesting questions.
I suggest that you visit our state website at idahoteenpregnancy.com and possibly contact Katherine Humphrey, who is over our State APP Program.
Another great website is the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Both of these sites have great statistics for you.
Good luck!
Kaylene Craig
Kaylene Craig
Physical Activity and Nutrition Program Coordinator
Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coordinator
Eastern Idaho Public Health District
1250 Hollipark Dr.
Idaho Falls, ID 83401
208.533.3150
kcraig@phd7.idaho.gov
In Kaylene's e-mail she referred me to Katherine Humphrey who I did indeed contact. I sent her the following:
Hello,
My name is Ariel Rivera and I am a student at the College of Western Idaho. I was hoping you could tell me more about the program you run, and how it helps teenagers. I am writing a paper on teen pregnancy in Idaho and will further discuss it on a global level. Any help you have regarding my topic I would greatly appreciate.
Thank you,
Ariel Rivera
Unfortunately I did not receive and response.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Film Analysis Essay- "The Pregnancy Pact"
Ariel Rivera
Leslie Jewkes
English 102-034W
Film Analysis
06 November 2011
The Pregnancy Pact
The movie, The Pregnancy Pact, starring Thora Birch, Madisen Beaty, and Camryn Manheim; also directed by Rosemary Rodriguez. This movie is based on a true story about four teenage girls that make a pact to get pregnant. Gloucester High School faces its troubles with the 18 pregnancies it is dealing with in just two months. This paper will analyze the pact four girls make, and the way Gloucester High School deals with the increasing rate of teen pregnancies.
In the beginning of the film, the school nurse is giving a fifteen year old girl a pregnancy test. This young girl was full of excitement, hoping for a positive reading. After getting her desired reading, she is nervous to get to her friends to share the good news. The nurse notices her strange amount of excitement and is taken aback. This scene shows the teenage girl had no thoughts about her future, or how she would take care of a baby, but how she would be like her friends. This scene, I think, sets the mood for the movie because the eagerness the teen feels to become pregnant; it expresses that perfectly.
Further into the film, there is a scene where a PTA meeting is taking place. During this meeting it is stated that the daycare inside of the school is costing the school budget $13,000.00 per slot. A reporter, a past local of the town, takes a stance about how absurd it is to be spending so much for a daycare slot when birth control is financially the better choice. However, there is much dispute from one of the teenagers mothers who just happens to be head of this meeting. She feels handing out condoms is letting the kids think it is okay to have sex. This scene represents how one-sided the parents present are being about the teen pregnancies and how the school, in a way, is making it okay for teenagers to have babies. This scene is also showing how much these parents at the meeting are willing to spend from their school budget on a daycare slot for one teenage mother rather than taking that money and putting it towards an awareness program for the whole school.
As the movie nears to a close, there is a scene where the father of one teenage mother, Sara, has started dating another girl. As the teen mother watches them walk away, her eyes well up with tears and she touches and glances down at her full term belly. By her physical reaction and the eye contact made by her and her baby’s father you can see the sadness she feels about lying to her boyfriend and trying to get pregnant on purpose. When Sara was asked about her “…ruined future…, hopes for college,” (Rabinowitz) the response was “…these were never her dreams, she answers. All she ever wanted was to stay where she was, never to go anywhere else: Stay, marry and have babies—that was happiness to her and she wanted nothing more.” (Rabinowitz)
Although this movie is based on a true story, not all the facts were true. “In reality there was no pregnancy pact at Gloucester High. A couple of girls who were friends agreed to help each other raise their babies when they discovered they were pregnant and the school principal and the media distorted this into being an agreement to get pregnant at the same time.” (www.IMDb.com) The principal, Joseph Sullivan, of Gloucester High School stated about the original pregnant girls, "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy.” (McLeod)
The Pregnancy Pact, shows how some teenagers can be naïve. They do not think about the consequences of their actions, just how they “think” it will get them the result they desire. This film portrays teens that would go to great lengths to be like one another, and a school that helped current teen mothers with very expensive daycare instead of educating them about birth control. In this movie, less is done to prevent pregnancy and more to help the teens after they have already gotten pregnant.
Works Cited
McLeod, Kimberly. “Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High.” Time Magazine 18 June 2008: n. page. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
Rabinowitz, Dorothy. “Sex and the Schoolgirl.“ Wall Street Journal 24 Jan. 2010: n. page. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
The Internet Movie Database. Amazon. 1990-2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
The Pregnancy Pact. Dir Elizabeth Rodriguez. Lifetime Movie Network, 2010. DVD.
Global Issue- "Teen Pregnancy in Africa"
College of Western Idaho
Teen Pregnancy in Africa
Ariel Rivera
December 3, 2011
Leslie Jewkes
English 102-034W
Abstract
Teen pregnancy rates in Africa must be lowered. Their numbers are very high, not only in teen pregnancies but in HIV/AID cases. Teen girls are being discriminated against for seeking out birth control which is absurd. Kids must be educated at younger ages in order to instill all the proper tools in them to be better aware of teen pregnancies.
Teen Pregnancy in Africa
Teen pregnancy in Africa is at startling numbers and providing sex education at a younger age must be done in order to reduce the overall number of teen pregnancies. Young girls are becoming pregnant despite sex awareness programs. In Africa, not all teenagers want to become pregnant but are being forced to do so.
In Africa there is a belief, the more children you bring into the world, the more blessed you become. Africans believe even if you have money, a man is wealthier if he has a lot of children. “Children as young as 12 an 13 year olds are giving birth every minute in Africa” (Africaw Group). Teenagers are dropping out of school because of their pregnancies. “…adolescents under 16 are facing four times the risk of maternal death as women over 20” (World Health Organization). Most of the teenagers becoming pregnant, do not want to be. Teens will be so desperate as to get illegal abortions and which sometimes causes death. Some African teens want abortions but cannot afford them so these teens will drink these concoctions of toxins in the hopes it will terminate the pregnancy, but sometimes end up killing themselves in the process. The fact that abortions are illegal in Africa makes it harder to obtain one by a licensed physician.
There are African teens that are trying to prevent pregnancy but feel judged by doing so. “According to a recent MRC study, 'Blood Blockages and Scolding Nurses: Barriers to Adolescent Contraceptive Use in South Africa', "Nurses' attitudes were a major barrier to teenagers getting hold of contraception. The nurses were uncomfortable about providing teenagers with contraception, as they felt they should not be having sex. The Nurses responded to requests for contraception in a manner that was highly judgmental and unhelpful. The girls described it as 'harassment'" (IRIN). Although there are some teens wanting to prove their fertility and have babies so they can be seen as women, other teens are being requested to have babies from their mothers because the mothers want the presence of another baby in the home.
The high rate of teen pregnancies in Africa has also lead to their rise in HIV/AID cases. In the Sub-Saharan Africa area the amount of HIV/AID cases is at a high of sixty-seven point seven percent. Teens are either willingly or being forced to have unprotected sex and transferring the disease at an alarming rate.
A child support grant was instated in Africa, and some observers think this was seen as an incentive for teen girls to get pregnant. However, "A recent survey of 1,500 girls aged between 15 and 24 indicated that only 2 percent cited the child-care grant as an incentive. About 25 percent just said they wanted to have a baby." Other influencing factors - accounting for 20 percent - were "social pressures and self-affirmation" (IRIN). There has been no research done to determine the male role in the problem of teen pregnancy.
The Medical Research Center has made some recommendations they believe will help lower the numbers of teen pregnancy in Africa. The Medical Research Center recommends sex education in school before reaching the age of fourteen because that is when most teens are becoming sexually active. Keeping the teens in school is most important. Young girls that remain in school are less likely to become pregnant than young girls that drop out of school. Hleki Mabunda, Gender Equity Director of The Department of Basic Educations said “Life Orientation classes in the curriculum were also being used to create awareness on the problem. There was also a need to re-establish mobile clinics for health screening in schools, where health professionals, instead of teachers, would be able to identify pregnant youngsters” (Hweshe). The Medical Research Center also recommends, "information for teenagers about avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, providing detailed information about contraception and its side effects; better management and training for nurses, so they can deal sympathetically with teenagers requiring contraception and provide the necessary information and education campaigns that take away the stigma of teenage sexuality, that girls are not afraid to ask for contraception" (IRIN).
There are steps that can be done to help prevent these unintended pregnancies:
“Adolescents require:
- information including comprehensive sex education;
- access to a full range of sexual and reproductive health services, including condoms, other means of contraception as appropriate and other interventions for the prevention, treatment and care of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; and
- safe and supportive environments free from exploitation and abuse” (World Health Organization).
It is outrageous what teen girls in Africa have to do to abort their pregnancies and should not have to go to such extreme measures. Sex education steps must be followed to help these young girls know how to prevent themselves from getting pregnant. Not only does Africa need to focus on helping teen girls but research must be done to educate all males in Africa. In following guidelines and educating all people in Africa, it ought to lower Africa’s numbers of HIV/AID cases and teen pregnancies.
Works Cited
Adolescent Pregnancy in Africa. Howard E. Kulin, 2008. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
AfricaW: Africa and the World. AfricaW Group, 2006-2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
All Africa Media. BuaNews, 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
Children’s Institute. HIV & Aids and STI National Strategic Plan, 2007-2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Free Malaysia Today. South Africa Worries Over Rising Teen Pregnancy, 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
IRIN. OCHA, 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
Making Pregnancy Safer. World Health Organization, 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Science, Technology, and AIDS. World Press, 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Final Reflection- "Final Farewell to English 102"
Final Farewell to English 102
It has been an interesting semester in English 102, with all the research, deadlines, and planning. Over the semester I feel I have improved from the beginning of the semester, I still need improvement in certain areas, and I think what I have learned will help me in future school assignments.
During the semester I think I have improved on research, and writing a works cited page. I did not have much experience with this in English 101, so it was something I had to remember from high school. Before this class I would simply Google any information I needed and that would be the end of it. However, English 102 has taught me to take a look at the source I am getting my information from. I now make sure that it is a credible source, it has been updated recently, and that there are more ways to get information besides Google.
Thesis statements have never been easy for me. I struggled with them a lot this semester. I was offered help from my teacher but did not follow through with that, and I wish I had. Just because this class is over, I will continue to figure out how to form a correct thesis and statement and how to incorporate it in the conclusion. I do not think I know enough on thesis statements and hope to improve them in the future.
Annotated bibliography is something I have never done before and although it was a lot of work, I found it to be very beneficial. I got very frustrated doing an annotated bibliography because I felt I was basically writing my paper. Although I found creating the bibliography was time consuming, and a lengthy process, it really did put my paper together. Creating an annotated bibliography was somewhat of a rough draft, so when you went to write the paper it was already done. I found it very useful and I think in the future with other classes I need to do research on I will use an annotated bibliography.
It has been a fun, and challenging semester but I am definitely ready to say farewell to writing papers, at least for a while. I learned things I never knew how to do, need to continue working on how to provide a proper thesis statement, and will use annotated bibliographies throughout the rest of my schooling.
Bibliography
Adolescent Pregnancy in Africa. Howard E. Kulin, 2008. Web. 3
Nov. 2011.
AfricaW: Africa and the World. AfricaW Group, 2006-2011. Web. 12
Nov. 2011.
All Africa Media. BuaNews, 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
Bohnenblust, Steve, Dawn Larsen, and Amy S. Hedman. “Relationship between Comprehensive Sex Education and Teen Pregnancy.” American Journal of Health Studies. 17 Sept. 2011. Scholarly Journal.
Children’s Institute. HIV & Aids and STI National Strategic Plan, 2007-2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Craig, Kaylene. Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program. Craig, Kaylene, 2010. Web. 16 Sept. 2 Dow Jones & Company Inc. “Idaho County Tests A New Way to Curb Teen Sex: Prosecute --- Pregnant Girls and Boyfriends Get Hauled Into Court; Welfare Is the Real Issue”. 14 Feb. 2011. Scholarly Journal.
Elizabeth Terry-Humen, Jennifer Manlove and Kristin A. Moore, “Playing Catch-Up: How Children Born to Teen Mothers Fare,” The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy/Child Trends, January 2005. Scholarly Journal.
Free Malaysia Today. South Africa Worries Over Rising Teen Pregnancy, 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Hamilton, et al., “Births: Preliminary Data for 2007,” National Vital Statistics Reports, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 18, 2009, Web. CQ Researcher.
IRIN. OCHA, 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2011.
Kate Perper, Kristen Peterson, and Jennifer Manlove, “Diploma Attainment among Teen Mothers,” Fact Sheet #2010-01, Child Trends, January 2010, Web. CQ Researcher.
Kevin Freking, “States Reject Abstinence-only Funding from Federal Government,” The Associated Press, June 24, 2008, retrieved from Huffington Post blog, Web. CQ Researcher
Making Pregnancy Safer. World Health Organization, 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
McLeod, Kimberly. “Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High.” Time Magazine 18 June 2008: n. page. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
Moylan, Patti. Personal Interview. 16 Sept. 2011.
Quoted in Pauline Anderson, “Distress Combined with Poverty Increases Risk for Teen Pregnancy,” Medscape Medical News online, July 31, 2009, Web. CQ Researcher.
Rabinowitz, Dorothy. “Sex and the Schoolgirl.“ Wall Street Journal 24 Jan. 2010: n. page. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
Rachel Larris, “Appropriations Bill Ends Abstinence-Only Funding, Increases Family Planning,” RH Reality Check online, Dec. 15, 2009, Web. CQ Researcher
Rivera, Erika. Personal Interview. 14 Sept. 2011.
Science, Technology, and AIDS. World Press, 2011. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
The Internet Movie Database. Amazon. 1990-2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.
The Pregnancy Pact. Dir Elizabeth Rodriguez. Lifetime Movie Network, 2010. DVD.
VanLenten, Barbara. “Today’s Pregnant Teen: How can healthcare professionals combat this prevalent pandemic?” 17 Sept. 2011. Scholarly Journal.
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