Elizabeth's Writ 340 Blog

At Brighter Futures, our mission is to help enroll homeless children and teenagers in school, aid in costs of attending, providing a safe space for academic growth, and ultimately providing homeless youth with brighter futures.  The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a federal law that was passed in 1987 and re-authorized in 2015 that guarantees certain rights for homeless children. This act requires schools to provide “equal access to the same, free, appropriate public education, including public preschool education, as provided to other children and youths” (McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, 1987).  But, the Los Angeles Unified School District does not even crack to the top 10 in the percentage of homeless students enrolled compared to other districts (EdSource).  Brighter Futures will team up with local shelters, as well as doing its own public outreach, to help raise the number of homeless youth enrolled in the LAUSD. All of my life I h...

Though I grew up in an upscale neighborhood, there was one thing that plagued the area: homelessness. Brentwood is located next to the Veterans Center. This institution includes a hospital as well as other services for Vets. Due to this, there was always a lot of homeless vets that would sleep on the streets outside the center and  surrounding  the area. Due to PTSD and other mental problems, veterans did not have jobs, leading them to be homeless after fighting for our country. Every winter, a military storage warehouse on Wilshire in Brentwood, becomes a homeless shelter, providing hot meals and a bed to many of the homeless veterans. Every year, with my school, I would go and volunteer there;  preparing and serving meals. It was sad to see the amount of homeless trying to get into the shelter for the night, many with obvious mental and drug issues Now attending USC, I live in an area even more struck with homelessness. I drive down Skid Row on a monthly basis and see...

I have never really had the desire to do freelance graphic design because frankly, I am lazy and just can't be bothered. For some reason, in the past couple months, I've had people contacting me asking me to do freelance for them. When someone comes to you and say's they'll pay you; you just can't say no! In the past few months, I have done freelance projects for a clothing company, a communal workspace, a tutoring company, a female empowerment media platform, and a wearable lingerie company. Some of these projects have been so much fun and rewarding, while others have been an absolute pain in my ass! The first project I did was for a company called MadHappy ( madhappy.us ), which is an apparel brand which promotes positive thinking. The CEO got my contact and called me and told me he needs someone to design a sweatshirt for them. This sweatshirt was especially important to him as it was an homage to his friend who had passed away. This made me feel the pressure. ...

I grew up on the westside of Los Angeles in a suburb called Brentwood. Brentwood is considered to be one of L.A's most affluent neighborhoods according to the LA Times. I went to a small, "elite", private school, Brentwood School. Essentially, as most people I know, I grew up in a bubble. Though I am not the heir to a family fortune, I feel I can relate to the author of Born on Third Base, Chuck Collins.  I thought this would book would be a radically left viewpoint bashing the one percent. Rather, Collins is understanding of the one percent, and rather than bashing his own kind, he offers suggestions and ways to help humanity.   Upon reading the first chapter, the first thing I thought to myself was: Chuck Collins just feels guilty. Low and behold, as I turned the page, Collins confronts this guilt. I appreciated his two definitions of guilt, and how he  has chosen to take his guilt and use it as something productive.  Along with this, I related to his rema...

Over the weekend, I watched four different movies. The irony is I don't even like movies...I generally do not have the patience or attention span for them. But, for some reason, this past weekend, all I wanted to do was watch them (probably out of procrastination). Usually, I am the girl watching reality TV and romantic comedies. But this past weekend, I watched Lady Bird, Black Panther, Blade Runner, and Blade Runner 2049. For those of you who do not know, Lady Bird is about a teenage girl's senior year of high school. With a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, I've been excited about this movie for a while. This movie was not your typical story of a high school girl's life. Rather, it explores her complicated relationship with her mother, her hometown, and her future. I think I felt especially connected to this film due to the fact that the protagonist ends up at NYU, where I attended my freshman year. She tells her mother, "I  want to go to the East Coast. I want to go wh...

Design: The Thought Process You Can See A Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming a Professional Graphic Designer http://obsessive-coffee-disorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/1175341_10151810192895210_524476179_n.jpg Design the All-Mighty: “Everything is design. Everything!” –Paul Rand Look at the computer you’re sitting in front of. Do you see that little logo below your screen? You probably haven’t thought much of it, but that simple logo has been worked on endlessly by a whole team of individuals! These individuals are graphic designers.  Graphic design is the form of visual communication with the end goal of illustrating or visualizing ideas in the most straightforward and most visually pleasing way possible. If this excites you, inspires you, or motivates you, you might consider a career in graphic design. Thomas Watson of IBM once said, “good design is good business” in 1950. Today, this idea is becoming even more important, only furthering the need for ta...