Blog 21: Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

EQ: What is the best way to encourage youth voter involvement in local government systems?

My Best Answer was my first as increasing the role of education in encouraging youth involvement in politics is vital to addressing low voting turnout rates among youth voters as a societal issue. In this regard, the nearly universal levels of high school education among youth stands the best chance of reaching and influencing the larger population. In particular, youth voting receiving an increased emphasis in high school means that development of the youth voting behaviors can occur in a peer to peer environment which has proved crucial to the reinforcing of those behaviors.  This principle of peer to peer influence has been repeatedly codified by multiple sources and should not be overlooked. Sources supporting this idea include Megnan Condon's work on th voting behaviors of young adults, but this principle is ubiquitous in most readings of political science works. For these reasons, my best answer of increasing an educational emphasis on positive voting behaviors is rooted nt eh creation of a nurturing environment for the development of those behaviors that is not currently provided. 

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

The process to this answer was an arduous development predicated on an evolving definition of what the essential question was. To begin with, my original problem was the question of what it to,k to scceed in politics, an answer I thought would be addressed through outlining the solutions. The true issue that I would work on for my senior project would not arrive until later. This meant that I had a lot of foundation that was largely irrelevant in the face of my later research. Nonetheless, there was a great deal of research available on this subject given the matter at hand. This answer was decided as the best answer given the research available on why exactly individuals decide not to participate, and my own research also conducted on the subject. 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

As stated previously, a great deal of the foundational work done on my subject was irrelevant given my later topic switch, yet this was counteracted by the great deal of research done to resolve this issue. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

Wendel, Stephen. "The Dynamics of Political Participation: An Analysis
of the Dynamic Interaction between Individuals and their Political
Micro-Environment." Order No. 3517713 University of Maryland, College
Park, 2012. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 26 Sep. 2014.

This source was absolutely vital to my response as it outlined the basic principlebehind most major voting behaviors. It outlined significant trends among various demographics, but most importantly it outlined the specific effect of minor influencers among this demographic. It was one of the few sources to particularly place an emphasis on the peer to peer influence angle which was found to have a measurable impact in encouraging others. This article was a phenomenal source to have and provided a great deal of information on my subject throughout the entire year.

Condon, Meghan, and Matthew Holleque. "Entering Politics: General Self‐Efficacy and Voting Behavior Among Young People." Political Psychology, 34.2 (2013): 167-181

Similar to the last article, this article provided a great deal of resources on answering this topic in a significant capacity. To differentiate it from the above, this article focused specifically upon analyzing the specific attitudes of the young.

Be prepared with evidence and specific examples to support any response.  It is also significant to cite sources as you explain.

April Extra Post

Last City Council Meeting For a While

-Submitted SIR to UC Davis
-Economics Class Midterm is on Tuesday
-Had Discussion with Mentor on Economic Influence on Elections
-Finished all Research Articles
-Created a rough Draft of the
-Finished Independent Component two


To Do
-Finish Final Lesson Plan
-Finish Up my Mentorship Hours Records as I've been rather sloppy with those. Luckily, I kept pretty meticulous notes on the handouts they delivered so that will be easy an easy objective to complete

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) Include this statement: “I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents ___ hours of work.”
“I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents ___ hours of work.”
(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.
I would like to thank Mr. Rivas and my mentor Professor Coson for their help in regards to this subject matter as their insight to current education practices really helped out with this project by providing a basis for my hypothesis. The arguments and attitdes they cited about the youth demographic experience greatly contributed to providing a solid underpinning to the whole of the work.


(c) Update your Independent Component 2 Log (which should be under your Senior Project Hours link)
 It's Updated
 
(d) Explain what you completed.    
 This project is a 25 Page research essay designed to understand the fundamental reasons behind why youth voters (defined as being between 17-24 years old) participate or disengage as well as getting a better handle on the types of behaviors and contexts where they express themselves outside of just voting. This goal was facilitated by a two week long research period wherein I distributed surveys on both the Cal Poly and I-Poly campuses to better target this age range, and ultimately 201 unique surveys were collected in this demographic. This project is designed to easily showcase the data gathered and
 
INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain the component's significance and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

My work is the culmintion of a long period of work and time as detailed in my component hours. I really did spend a great deal of time surveying, and in addition to the described hours I also surveyed random people the entire length of time that I had my surveys as can be attested to by multiple students. To demonstrate my hours, I took multiple pictures of the survey stations where I distributed my survey along with other proofs of my work.

Here's a Picture of me about to survey some people. From my phone date, this was apparently on the day that I surveyed at the library. So it was before I walked there.

Here's a PIcture of the survey station described on April 21st. I moved a bit around the food court, but here's the base of my survey station design. I tried to get tables with a lot of room around them so that I could survey people on all sides as can be seen in the surveys all around the sign.

Here's a Picture of my sign. I was carrying this thing around for two weeks.

Here's a Picture of my Independent Component on Sunday Morning Pre-editing. A lot of work to do to be frank.

Here's a picture of my old spot with me in the background. I surveyed here twice.

Here's what my work looked like on Saturday Morning before i worked on it. Notably, Only the intro is actually done, and aside from the raw data there is practically nothing.

Here's a Picture of the 200 surveys I collected as physical evidence of the work, and proof that I didn't just make up numbers.

Here's the same set of surveys, but organized in five stacks of 40.

Demonstration of Work
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MkPaMn9JLbFRRWTLgHvjx6Jm92UAlvgFOhghIiYOhHA/edit#gid=1498712964
Here's the actual raw data of the surveys collected, compiled into an easily read google doc sheet.

Here is that same Data of those surveys collected into easily read graphs in the event that you don't want to read through 200 unique survey results.

APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 
 This component specifically addressed my EQ in that it set out to find the direct reasons behind why youth voters (defined as the 17-24 demographic and the sole subject of this research study) fail to vote or otherwise engage with regularity the modern political system. This data would prove extremely useful as it would corroborate the interviews that I conducted n why educators believe that this demographic has such low voting rates with actual tangible data that is broken into easily digestible charts. In addition, it might simulate the type of research I might perform in college for my degree of political science.

Monthly Extra Blog Post

Accomplished:
-Attended another city council meeting as part of my senior project
-Did some work on my senior project independent component
-Quite a lot of college stuff
-An excessively large amount of college stuff
-Tried to arrange interview with second mentor Professor Murniz Coson. I am still waiting for his reply
-Expanded work on research for topic

Will Do
-Hopefully arrange that interview. It's due pretty soon after all.
-Continue attending city council meetings
-Finish my college stuff
-Hopefully get into an economics course
-Finish Independent component 2
-Work on Senior Project activity

Summary:

Blog 18: Interview Questions

Due to my choice of interview subject being different from my last I'll incorporate my last 10 questions from my last interview into this one in addition to ten new ones as they still warrant answering and seeing the diversity of response would provide insight. They will also be reworded to better work with a college professor. The ten new ones will be listed below.

1.  Do you believe that the current generation is politically uninvolved?
2.  Do you think that there is a higher perception of disillusionment in the government amongst voters today? 
3. What factors do you fell are inhibiting youth voter participation (youth defined as being between the ages of 18-
4. Do you feel that education has a place in encouraging voter participation?
5. What public Policies are effective for encouraging voter participation
6. If elected, what would be your primary goal to better help the community?  
7. As a political Science Professor, what is your evaluation on the future of political involvement?
8. Aside from active voter involvement, what else do you feel is important to an active democracy?
9. If you had any advice for a person looking to get involved in politics, what would it be?
10. In your experience as an educator, what encourages people to participate in voting or other political activities?
11. What do you think are effective activities that a person can do to engage with the system aside from voting?
12. Do you feel there are any aspects or politicians about politics that are overlooked despite their impact?
13. Are there any political phrases or attitudes that you personally find frustrating or counterintuitive?
14. What is your evaluation on the rise of super pacs as significant players in politics? Does their increasing participation warrant concern?
15. Would you consider attempting at running for the same or potentially a higher office in the future? 
16. As a Political Science Professor, what would you like to see in a potential political leader?
17. What Political Theories are essential to understanding the machinations of the modern political process?
18. Are there any major misconceptions about the political process among your students that are common? If so, please provide an example and state if you believe that they might have influence on their understanding.
19. What readings or authors would you recommend to better continue my understanding of the subject?
20. Who would you recommend I talk to further about this?

Blog 17: Best Answer #3

• EQ 
• Answer #3 (Write in a complete sentence like a thesis statement)*
• The Best Way to address declining youth voter participation is to address the systematic inhibitors of voting that lower perception of the effectiveness of voting.
• 3 details to support the answer (a detail is a fact anad an example
• There is increased perception of the structural weaknesses of government such as, and only 20% of people trust the government to make the correct decision.
• Issues such as Gerrymandering are more prominent and negatively impacting the effects of voting by creating concentrated blocs of political power. Their presence effectively disenfranchises voters and lends credence to the pointlessness of voting. 
• Research has concluded that many find their trust in the government diminished by scandals and the impression that the government fails to address those issues properly. By encouraging a connection to politics, a sentiment which research has found to be the best way to encourage a lifelong involvment in politics, youth voters are likely to be benefited from the perception that there is change.
• The research source (s) to support your details and answer
• Wendel, Stephen. "The Dynamics of Political Participation: An Analysis
  of the Dynamic Interaction between Individuals and their Political
  Micro-Environment." Order No. 3517713 University of Maryland, College
  Park, 2012. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 26 Sep. 2014.
• Kuttner, Robert. The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. Print.
• Record, Matthew. "Empowerment and Education: Why Young People Don't Vote." Scholars and Rogues Progressive Culture. Scholars and Rogues, 11 Nov. 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.
• Concluding Sentence
• Addressing these issues would aid the government as a whole in addition to helping out people. 

February Extra Post: Backup Interview

Recently for my interview, I talked to my homeroom teacher Mr. Rivas due t his status as a teacher. Just a few days ago, my original interview candidate my former political science teacher Mr. Coson, emailed me back with his response to my interview questions. While he couldn't make an in person interview, his  answers proved insightful. They proved rather pressing to my answer, and I very much appreciated it. Also big shout out to Rivas for agreeing to help me out when he cancelled. Really saved my grade. Attached is the interview transcript for Professor Coson.