Military Track

For our first Economics, we learned about supply/demand and to see how it functions. For our action project, we had to think about what we want to do after high school, and do research about it to see how much money we will make and how much we would be in debt by the time we retire. My family supporting me in my career choice really helps me because it motivates me more. I want to join the military and serve as a Naval Officer.



Script:
Hello, I am a Senior here at GCE Lab School. After High School I would like to become a Naval Officer. I would like to be able to serve my country. I think serving your country is the best way to show your love for this country. I chose the Navy because it best suits my temperament, which means a person nature as it affects their behavior. The Navy officers seem to me to perform at the highest standards. In order to become a Naval Officer I have two ways of getting there. The first way is to join the United States Naval Academy for 4 years. Then afterwards get commissioned. The second way is to go to UIC for 4 years, then afterward go to OCS which stands for Officer Candidate School, which is 12 weeks long. Then afterward I will get commissioned. Both ways I can achieve my end goal, but the academy route would be best. This is the best way of becoming a Naval Officer, because I will get more training out of it. Take a look at my presentation to see why I came to this conclusion.

  

Employees Protest About Harassment At McDonald's

This is for my class called Journalism. This is the first unit called Text. In this unit, we investigated why and how written journalism has been used to connect us today with print in the newspaper and virtually on TV and online. We took on the role of a newspaper journalist, practicing both the skills of observation as well as precise writing. For our AP, we had to write a newspaper article on something newsworthy that happened in our neighborhood. I did my newspaper article on the McDonald’s protest strike that happened because of sexual harassment in the workplace. The thing I liked most about my project was learning more about a topic that I did not know anything about--sexual harassment at McDonald's. The aspect I had the most trouble with was getting customers of McDonald's to interview. I overcame this by interviewing two customers who happen to be my classmates.

NBCNEWS, McDonald’s Protest, (2018)

McDonald’s workers and some social activists staged noisy two-hour demonstrations in Chicago and nine other cities nationwide at noon on Tuesday, September 18, 2018, to protest sexual harassment in the workplace. The Chicago protest took place outside McDonald’s new corporate headquarters in the Fulton Market area of River West.

According to NBC News, protesters like Breauna Morrow, 15, an employee at the St. Louis demonstration, came armed with specific examples. She quoted a male employee who said to her, “You have a nice body, have you ever had white chocolate inside you?” Morrow said she reported the incident to a manager who allegedly told her, “You will never win that one.”

As passionate as the Chicago headquarters protesters were, it appears that interest and knowledge of the event were uneven among Chicagoland McDonald’s workers as a whole. Four McDonald’s restaurants in the Lincoln Park area were visited on Wednesday, September 19, 2018. No employees interviewed showed much concern. Only a few had even heard about the Tuesday event.

McDonald’s spokeswoman Andrea Abate told the Chicago Tribune through a statement, “We have strong policies, procedures, and training in place specifically designed to prevent sexual harassment. To ensure we are doing all that can be done, we have engaged experts in the areas of prevention and response including RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), to evolve our policies so everyone who works at McDonald’s does so in a secure environment every day.”

The McDonald’s protests appear to be the latest example of the growing strength and awareness of the #MeToo movement that sprang up earlier in the year surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace.

When asked about their feelings toward the protests and the protesters, several McDonald’s customers expressed mild to strong support.  GCE High School student AA explained, “I go to McDonald’s a lot, and I really like their business. It depends on how they handle this situation.  I want to support them, but it all depends on how they deal with this.”

Another student, CG, had a stronger opinion.  “I think it's good that people are striking because they're doing it for a good reason.  As long as the corporation or the company leaders do their job and ensure the workers’ safety, I think that the strike was a success.”  Asked if she would go back to McDonald’s, she also added, “It's a yes and no. No, because I think their food is generally bad, so I don’t go very often.  Yes, because my small amount of business still helps some paychecks.”

Then she reflected, “I think if they had like a seminar for employees on what is appropriate behavior in the workplace that would be good. And also I think if the supervisors actually did their jobs and actually supervised there wouldn’t be any sexual harassment.”

It remains to be seen if the protests will create any lasting changes at McDonald’s.  If nothing else they were the first step to bringing awareness of sexual harassment in the McDonald’s workplace to the attention of management and the public.

WORK CITED

“McDonald's Workers Go on Strike over Sexual Harassment.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group

Trotter, Greg. “McDonald's Workers, Activists Protest Alleged Sexual Harassment in 10 Cities, Including Chicago.” Chicagotribune.com, 18 Sept. 2018