Hello! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. My research paper should be complete and available to be read somewhere close to the end of the year or very early next year! If you don’t know already, the topic I’m writing about is “how does exposure to war affect children’s physical and mental health, and what strategies can be implemented to protect them?” I have learned a lot of interesting information as well as had many challenges. Obviously, starting the research paper and researching was difficult but got easier over time. As I am writing my research paper right now, there is a lot of trial and error. I’m making steady progress and while hard, I’m trying to use it as a learning experience and hopefully in the future when I must write research papers again it’ll be easier with the experience I’ve gained. In summary, my research paper should hopefully be completed soon and ready to read! I’ve been working very hard on this so I am excited to share it with you all and I’m grateful to have this opportunity to expand my knowledge!

I’ve been preparing to write another research paper somewhere in the future. I created a survey on Teen’s awareness on public health. I distributed it to my friends and peers and asked them to send it to their friends as well. I have received enough response data to begin writing the paper and hopefully complete it in the 2026 spring-summer time frame. A general overview of the survey is that I wanted to gauge how aware teenagers are on the matter of public health in my area. Some examples of questions on my survey are as follows: (i) “Are you aware of the term public health?” (ii) “How accessible are the public health resources in your area?” (iii) “What are some examples of public health resources available to you?” e.g., I have enjoyed receiving the data and seeing people’s responses. I’m personally very excited to write this paper so I will make sure to give you updates when the time comes!

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! During my Thanksgiving dinner I couldn’t help but think about all the people who might have not had enough funds to afford a Thanksgiving meal. In the USA, approximately 25% of the population can’t afford to spend more than $100 or are forced to skip it entirely due to financial constraints. Fortunately, the prices concerning Thanksgiving dinner have gone down over the years but have not returned to the affordability of the pre-pandemic prices. Another population affected by this would be people who rely on food stamps. During the government shutdown, food stamps were paused for 43 days. This would have heavily impacted those who relied on the stamps to feed their family. Luckily, the government reopened and people have a somewhat stable food source now but the damage had been done. Those affected by the pause of food stamps would still be recovering financially and either forced to skip or limit the food during Thanksgiving. I plan to donate more food leading up to Christmas break to help those in need and I encourage you to do the same, if possible!

Below is an image depicting the decline of Thanksgiving dinner prices over the past three years.

Cost of Thanksgiving Dinner Declines | News Release | American Farm Bureau Federation