About Us

About us:

Our group’s name is "The Ponies" and we are all high school students from Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto, California. As students from the United States, we built this website in order to answer the numerous questions people may have about the foster care system in the United States. We wanted to gain perspective of the system that has been largely ignored and avoided--a topic that many teenagers are not knowledgeable about. This topic deserves much attention and support because there is a lack of creditable information. In addition, we wanted to achieve awareness across the youth of the world. Our target is to thoroughly explain the foster care system in the United States, since it is one that is very complex. It is more than just putting a child in someone’s home; it is a long process that takes general goodwill to place a child. The process of building this website was a difficult and there was especially much hardship in agreeing. We got through our difficulties and we were able to build this amazing website.

Laura

My name is Laura. I am a sophomore at Eastside College prep. I have taken this multimedia class in order to better my relationship with computers since I am not as exposed to things about computers. I am the second child of four which is cool. I live in East Palo Alto, California and come from a Latino background meaning my parents are Mexican but I was born in the US. Our group for this assignment is consists of Victor, Nadim, Sammy, Sally and Stephanie. In a way I was adopted by my team which seems ironic because our topic is foster care. I was absent the day the teams were chosen and my current team offered me a spot. We have had some difficulties through out the building of our page for several reasons. For example, the division of labor was a tuff one to cover come. I was always absent during class so I believe that could have helped nourish the conflict between us and lack of communicating to each other. I still today have a bit of trouble with computers but I have learned much more than I knew. This makes me feel more confident whenever I sit down to use a computer. I am also really interested in forming my own opinion on foster care because the media is always putting such a negative perspective on it. Now, I know foster care is a work in progress.

Nadeem

My name is Nadeem and I am 14 years old. I am currently a freshman at Eastside College Preparatory High school. I live in the city of East Menlo Park which is pretty close to East Palo Alto which makes it easy to get there. I am part of this year’s Multimedia team which includes Laura, Stephanie, Sally, Sammy, Victor, and me. Our topic for our website was Foster Care and I was responsible for the Aging out page and information about children, I also provided the pictures which came from my older sister who is currently a senior in college who went to South Africa. Since we first started the Thinkquest project I have learned many useful skills that I plan to use later in my life. When im not at school I like to; skateboard, play vidoegames, play sports, go to the movies, and hang out with my friends.

Sally

Hi my name is Sally and I’m a junior at Eastside College Prep.
I’ve been attending Eastside since my freshman year, and I can truly say I love this school and the people here. At Eastside I’ve been able to go places I’ve never been before, taken classes I’ve never taken before. For example my freshman year I enrolled in the art classes, and discovered how incredible it was to express myself through painting and drawing. This is my third year enrolled in art. I’ve also taken yearbook for two years in which I have found a deep interest in graphic design. Right now I’m also taking multimedia class, which I decided to take to expand my knowledge on computers and contribute my knowledge of art and yearbook into creating a web page of my own. My parents and rest of my family have really influenced me to become a successful person in life and achieve many great things that they never had an opportunity to achieve. My aspirations as well as theirs have led me to take any opportunity available to get a step closer to my goals. Eastside to me means the world because they are helping me achieve many of my aspirations, and to succeed in life by preparing me to go to college, so that in the future I can help my community progress.

Sammy

My name is Sammy. I am 15 years old, and currently a freshman in high school. I go to a very strict and exclusive private school. We go to school from eight to five, yes we have very long school days. We also have a ton of electives. You can choose up to three a year. I only chose two because I wanted a period where I can do my homework, to lighten the load when I got home. The two electives I chose were fitness, where we basically get a ton of exercise since physical education isn’t required here. Multimedia is ultimately what got me here in the first place. Thinkquest has taught me a lot of things. It has also taught me social skills and responsibility, with me being in a group and all. I have also gotten to know my fellow group members a whole lot better. Learning and seeing how they are when they are comfortable and they let their guards down and just being themselves, and not just who they are around their friends.

Stephanie

My name is Stephanie and I am sixteen years old. I am an 11th grader at Eastside College Preparatory School. I entered the Think Quest contest through my Multimedia class at Eastside taught by my teacher Jenny. This was my first time taking a Multimedia class and I joined it so that I could learn about computer technology. My true interests are photography and political science. My group’s name is the “Ponies,” and I agreed to do our website on the foster care system because I believe that more attention is needed on this governmental system. More people need to become aware of the amount of work and time it takes to actually place a child into the right home.

Victor

My name is Victor and I am a freshman in high school. I am 15 years old and I live in the small city of East Palo Alto. I like to play soccer and just hang out at school and at other places with my friends. I am part of the Multimedia class at school and that is how I met and worked with Sammy, Nadeem, Laura, Sally, and Stephanie. I got involved in this Thinkquest project at school and it has changed me a lot by teaching me about the foster care system. Overall, I am glad that I chose to do this Thinkquest project.

We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations that assisted us in our project:

Jenny for coaching us and organizing us to form a strong team, Sarah for assissting Sally in building the Template, Adrian for showing us how to use Fireworks and bringing in speakers, Kameelah for letting use her beautiful photographs, the McLaughlin family for letting us interview them and for all the resources where we got our information from. We thank you for supporting us.