Thrilled that we are hosting our third TEDx event at DNA’s Comedy Lab in Santa Cruz! Join us on September 15, 2019 at 1 pm! Get your tickets for TEDxMeritAcademy at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets. Meet Zachary George!
“What If We Restructured the School Calendar?” by Zachary George: Zachary proposes that we alter the traditional school schedule by replacing long summer vacation with seven, evenly distributed, one-week breaks. This revised schedule would have the same amount of learning time, just spread out to encourage a better work/life balance. By adopting Zachary’s new schedule, students will benefit by not losing academic momentum during the summer, having a consistent and supportive schedule, experiencing less burnout, and increasing their school attendance. Zachary’s schedule is not only advantageous to students but also to parents and teachers.
About Zachary George: Zachary George is a high school senior and does many activities outside of school relating to teaching through mentoring, leadership positions, and tutoring at his local high school and middle school. Zachary hopes to help improve his teaching skills and the world of education.
Thrilled that we are hosting our third TEDx event at DNA’s Comedy Lab in Santa Cruz! Join us on September 15, 2019 at 1 pm! Get your tickets for TEDxMeritAcademy at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets. Meet Zachary George!
“What If We Restructured the School Calendar?” by Zachary George: Zachary proposes that we alter the traditional school schedule by replacing long summer vacation with seven, evenly distributed, one-week breaks. This revised schedule would have the same amount of learning time, just spread out to encourage a better work/life balance. By adopting Zachary’s new schedule, students will benefit by not losing academic momentum during the summer, having a consistent and supportive schedule, experiencing less burnout, and increasing their school attendance. Zachary’s schedule is not only advantageous to students but also to parents and teachers.
About Zachary George: Zachary George is a high school senior and does many activities outside of school relating to teaching through mentoring, leadership positions, and tutoring at his local high school and middle school. Zachary hopes to help improve his teaching skills and the world of education.
Thrilled that we are hosting our third TEDx event at DNA’s Comedy Lab in Santa Cruz! Join us on September 15, 2019 at 1 pm! Get your tickets for TEDxMeritAcademy at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets. Meet Arul Mathur!
“Why Fires Pose Such a Great Threat — and How to Prevent Them” by Arul Mathur: Millions of acres of land are destroyed across the nation each year as a result of wildfires. What if a fire were to erupt near your home? Arul Mathur discusses the threats that fires of all types pose to our everyday lives, and calls for a solution to control the damage being done by them. He also explains the effects that fires have on our society, and presents an idea which may help in stopping this crisis.
About Arul Mathur: Arul Mathur is a tenth-grade student in Danville, California. He has a passion for public speaking, and competes in speech and debate tournaments across the Bay Area. He also has an interest in computer science and medicine.
Thrilled that we are hosting our third TEDx event at DNA’s Comedy Lab in Santa Cruz! Join us on September 15, 2019 at 1 pm! Get your tickets for TEDxMeritAcademy at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets. Meet Shreya Agrawal!
“Animal Abuse in Eco-tourism” by Shreya Agrawal: Shreya will shed light on how animals are mistreated behind the scenes, and how many tourists are misinformed about animal cruelty and the ecotourism industry. She will also discuss how to evaluate various types of wild animal businesses. Shreya hopes that you will support humane ecotourist destinations to end animal abuse for our entertainment.
About Shreya Agrawal: Shreya is a sophomore in high school who is very passionate about animals. In her free time, she likes to read, draw, sing and play badminton. Her ultimate goal is to help stop animal abuse and help them live a better, more natural life.
Thrilled that we are hosting our third TEDx event at DNA’s Comedy Lab in Santa Cruz! Join us on September 15, 2019 at 1 pm! Get your tickets for TEDxMeritAcademy at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets. Meet Sethumadhav Perumalla!
“Influence on Teenagers” by Sethumadhav Perumalla: Sethumadhav discusses online misinformation that only a clown could believe. He explains how teenagers are easily influenced in ways that harm themselves and others. Acting on and spreading false medical information can lead to illnesses and deaths. Insulting people online leads to mass cyberbullying through copycat behavior. People shouldn’t be swayed into believing or repeating online information without enough evidence. How teens act online can negatively affect them and other users of social media. His advice can help teens avoid becoming stupid clowns.
About Sethumadhav Perumalla: Sethumadhav Perumalla is a senior and interested in business and finance. He enjoys playing video games, spending time with friends, and reading. He wants to help other teens learn about online and social media dangers which pose significant threats to themselves and others.
Thrilled that we are hosting our third TEDx event at DNA’s Comedy Lab in Santa Cruz! Join us on September 15, 2019 at 1 pm! Get your tickets for TEDxMeritAcademy at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets. Meet Nicole D’Arcy and Anna Krawisc!
“Ode to Advance Directives” by Nicole D’Arcy: This music video about advance directives was a Stanford Medical School project. By using a bit of humor and music, Nicole D’Arcy and Anna Krawisz encourages everyone to write their advance directives to make it easier for loved ones when health and life decisions need to be made in the future. Audio produced at the Stanford Videography Department.
About Nicole D’Arcy: Nicole is a doctor of emergency medicine who is currently doing an EMS/Disaster Fellowship at UCSF. She completed her Emergency Medicine residency at Harbor UCLA and medical school at Stanford School of Medicine. She enjoys singing, dancing, and playing guitar, and she enjoys making music videos as a creative method for reaching her audiences. A native Santa Cruzan, Nicole loves to kayak and paddleboard. During the winter, she enjoys downhill skiing.
Thrilled that we are hosting our third TEDx event at DNA’s Comedy Lab in Santa Cruz! Join us on September 15, 2019 at 1 pm! Get your tickets for TEDxMeritAcademy at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets. Meet Spencer Balliet!
“Why Plastic Belongs in the Trash” by Spencer Balliet: Plastic is piling up all over the country, and we only have ourselves to blame! Spencer Balliet will talk about the problems facing the recycling industry and what can be done to fix it. This includes information about the misconceptions of plastic, what has happened to the recycling industry over the past two years, what you can do right now, and his project H.E.A.R.T. Plastics that intends to save millions of pounds of plastic from landfills all over the country.
About Spencer Balliet: Spencer Balliet has a passion for computer science and technology. He runs his own virtual reality company to help introduce world to the amazing new technology being developed.
In this short podcast, I explain what a micro community is and what you need to do to set one up. I’ve included a micro community checklist in the Emergency Planning Checklist located on the AmericanMothersCalifornia.com website here, and you can also listen to my previous podcast on Preparing for Emergencies here.
Listen to today’s podcast here, find GakkoMom on iTunes and subscribe to my podcast, or listen to it below:
TAG applications Sept 1-30 for Fall Transfers; May 1-31 for Spring Transfers
Students interested in applying to a UC as a junior transfer must complete their Transfer Admissions Guarantee application by September 30th. Six UC campuses offer guaranteed admission to students from all California Community Colleges.
Here are the basic requirements and information:
- Must be transferring directly from a California community college.
- Must have 30 semester (45 quarter) UC-transferable units
- Must not have a bachelor’s or graduate degree
- Must not have attended a UC
- Must fulfill all remaining coursework and GPA requirements designated on the TAG
- Must also apply for admission between November 1-30 (in addition to the TAG application)
- Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz offer TAGs
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If you think child care is expensive, brace yourself for elder care. Nursing homes charge upwards of $100,000 per year, which is about EIGHT TIMES more expensive than child care. Taking care of ones parents used to be shared by many children, but today, the family size has shrunk to just 2 kids per couple. Soon, seniors will outnumber children.
There are 34 million family members who provide unpaid care to an older parent here in the US. Most of these caregivers are women. With the high cost of elder care, home-health aids, and nursing homes, many families opt to move in with the senior or have the senior move in with them. This drastically changes the dynamics of the home and strips the family members of free time because they are juggling their jobs and their fulltime elder care responsibilities.
Neither Medicare nor standard private health insurance cover long-term personal care. Social security usually only covers a small percentage of nursing home costs. Although Medicaid does cover long-term care, it’ll only kick in after the patient has spent all of their savings and this varies from state to state. And private long-term care insurance is usually too expensive or not available for the patient.
As our aging population grows, unpaid caregivers for seniors will become crippled with stress, loss of wages, and ruined family relations. Taking care of elders has long been considered a family responsibility with pressure on the children to handle everything from feeding, bathing, and entertaining to doctors’ appointments, financial planning, and long-term care. Many caregivers feel isolated and can’t afford to hire in-home caregivers or pay for nursing homes.
I believe that elder care and how we as a society will finance it should be a topic for debates and campaign speeches for the 2020 elections. It’s just as important as child care, climate change, prescription drugs, and gun violence. We all need to start having these conversations with our loved ones to pool resources and finances.
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After 31 months of Trump in the highest American office, political fatigue has set in with the sensory overload. So here’s some good news in the political world: California Governor Gavin Newsom fired Ken Harris, the head of California’s oil and gas regulatory agency, after activists complained about a sharp rise in oil drilling permits and conflicts of interest.
It’s refreshing to see a politician oppose fracking (hydraulic fracturing) because of potential health and environmental risks. Fracking injects high-pressured water into wells to release methane (aka natural gas). Each fracked well uses 1 million gallons of water and chemicals containing known carcinogens, which contaminates the ground water. Residents across the US complain that their water from their tap ignites but the EPA claims that their water is safe to drink. The level of corruption is obscene.
Watch “Gasland 2” to learn how our EPA and government officials have been denying problems with ground water contamination. My students loved how Josh Fox interviewed victims as well as oil companies and the EPA in “Gasland 2.” I believe that every high school student should watch “Gasland 2” in their environmental science and chemistry classes.
My hat’s off to Governor Newsom for taking a strong stand against fracking in California. Wish other governors and elected officials would protect their constituents instead of looking the other way.
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