Podcast time!! As I have talked about previously, my class and I have been focusing on podcasts. Its the way we are showing our learning about each unit. This units goal is to answer the driving question,
“How has the “Canadian Experience” been different for minorities?” So, lets get into the podcast and what I took away from this project!

THE PODCAST

We were given around 2 months including spring break to make a podcast about one minority group. The choices were Physical Health, Mental Health, Race, Religion and Sexuality/Gender. There were groups of three and I was put with Morgan and Lucas. Before being assigned groups we had to write a mini essay on 3 minority groups that we are interested in and why. I wrote about the Japanese (race), Bipolar Disorder (mental health), and Buddhism (religion.) I would have been happy to focus on any of these, but I was assigned with the mental health category. I was really excited to start researching and getting to know this topic as I hear a lot about it but don’t know too much.

CHINATOWN

While working on our own podcast, we got to take a little field trip to Chinatown! I was super excited to do this as Chinatown is somewhere I’m always in, or near to yet I know nothing about. We spent the day in Chinatown to learn the history about how the Chinese in Vancouver were treated in the past. This was directly correlated to our driving question as the Chinese (minorities) were treated insanely different compared to other immigrants in Canada at the time. Our tour guide was very informative and I learnt some things I wouldn’t have if I didn’t go on the tour. We got to go inside buildings, walk around outside, go in a garden, and we went for lunch at an awesome Chinese restaurant! (Awesome soup dumplings!) We all had to make a mini podcast on our time in Chinatown, so here is mine!

THE INTERVIEWEES

This was the most educational part of this project for me personally. Ill explain why for each interviewee, but my perspective genuinely changed after each time I talked to these people. So, meet the lovely interviewees!

Here’s Karen, a Clinical Counselor! Aka, my aunt. She’s an amazing person who used to work with teens and families dealing with issues connected to mental health and a lot more. Basically anything that could go wrong in a teens life, she dealt with it. I interviewed Karen to get a perspective on how mental health is handled with teens, and she did an amazing job at explaining it to me. Sadly, voice memos decided to ruin my life and delete the interview I had with Karen, but luckily I was the one to interview her so I used the information she told me to write and record my parts of the podcast, the audio of her talking just couldn’t be included into the podcast.

Maia! Maia is a student at Seycove, as well as a friend of Morgan and I. She deals with diagnosed mental health issues, and she was the perfect person to talk to to open our eyes to what it’s like to deal with so much while being a teen.  Morgan and I sat down with her for a while and had a conversation about mental health and the pros and cons of Seycove for teens. This interview was amazing and I’m grateful she shared her story!

LISTEN TIME!

After much research, recording, revision, sharing, interviewing, and learning, we ended up with a final product. Morgan, Lucas and I all equally contributed to the podcast and we are happy with the message we portray in it. Take a listen!

THE ESSAY

Before I reflect on this unit, an important part of it was the in class essay we wrote. While working on the podcast and beforehand we were reading “Jade Peony” a book written by Wayson Choy. It is based around 3 stories told in Chinatown in the 1900s. The essay we wrote had to include yourself, Jade Peony, and Wayson Choy, and be based around how different people interpret literature. Mine focuses on how experiences and age are what creates perspective, which causes you to understand literature in a certain way. I’m happy with my essay and I feel you can hear my voice in it, and I kept revising it until my teacher and I were happy with it. If you want you can take a look at it below.

MOVING ON

To wrap this all up we did a class seminar to show what we all learnt. This was one of my favorite classes out of the year because everyone was so mature about talking about there subject, and everyone seemed genuinely interested. Here’s the keynote I made for my group which we presented in the seminar.

 

So, after all of this, what did I take away from this project? Besides the factual parts about mental health, I walked away with some valuable things. My perspective on mental health and people who deal with it drastically changed. After talking to Maia, and Karen, my eyes were opened. Mental Illnesses are something so common, yet aren’t really talked about.  That’s why we wanted to make this podcast, to start a conversation around it. Mental health is JUST as important as physical health. The biggest thing I took away from this project is that people who deal with mental health issues have it so hard because it can be such an invisible thing to others, yet hurt the person dealing with it horribly.

OUR GOAL

I hope this podcast can start a conversation around mental health in teens and younger. I first heard and really thought about the word mental health once I reached high school, which I think is a fault in the curriculum. How come we have gym class and education on health yet no talk about your brain and why you feel the way you do? I want everyone to talk about mental health as its so so so important!

While this podcast isn’t 100% perfect, It gets the message we want to get share, out to the world. I hope in the future I can focus on mental health awareness more.