Adopt Our Community Foundation

Initiating Our Voices

Initiating Our Voicesis an online journal founded by Adopt Our Community Foundation that seeks to provide information on current events or social issues from students' perspectives. Published pieces range from scientific articles to opinion pieces to personal essays. We hope that through this journal, young people can be empowered to use their voices to create positive changes in their communities.

All Posts

Hannah Jiang · Dec 4, 2022 · 3 min read

Motivation: The Key to Success

Have you ever set a goal for yourself, like getting straight A’s every term of the school year, going to the gym every day, or being picked for a sports team? Like lots of people, maybe you started out doing great, but then lost some of that drive and had trouble getting motivated again. Think about this: world leaders, athletes, scientists, university students and overall well-rounded, successful people all have one commonality: motivation.According to dictionary.com, motivation is the act of p

Jingrui (Alice) Xue · Nov 27, 2022 · 2 min read

Ordinary Extraordinary

Have you ever harbored dreams of becoming a successful leader, a billionaire, or the most respected businessperson in the world? When I was a child, I aspired to become a well-known singer and a famous director. The last thing I wanted to do was be ordinary. I was featured on public television and in weather broadcasts. My picture made it into the local newspaper, and my friend cut it out to show our whole class. At the time, I believed I was extraordinary.However, when I started junior high sch

Arantza García Morales · Nov 27, 2022 · 2 min read

The Social Dilemma (Netflix documentary)

Why is social media so important nowadays? Why is there such a great social dilemma regarding this issue? Social media forms a large part of our daily life; regardless of whether you use it or not, it impacts your life and is always present in one way or another due to the big technological advances that have taken place in recent years. That is why, day by day, social media has become more important all over the world, having more influence and control over us because we do not realize the nega

Xinyu (James) Xue · Nov 27, 2022 · 2 min read

Racial Discrimination in Saskatchewan

Racial discrimination is terrible. Unfortunately, in 2022, racial discrimination still exists in many places around the world. Although racial discrimination in Canada is relatively rare, it is difficult to avoid entirely. In Saskatchewan, racial discrimination poses a great threat to black and First Nations children.The attitude and measures that the police take towards black children have put their personal safety and health at a risk. Police treat black teenagers as criminals, not as children

Jessica Liu · Nov 27, 2022 · 3 min read

The Dominating Impacts of Beauty Standards

“Looks are everything” is a cliche most people have probably heard of before. While this belief is often criticized as incorrect and toxic, it is a significant part of society that many people subconsciously agree with. Beauty standards are having a dominating effect in society today, particularly among young adults. With the support of social media and technology, beauty standards are impacting people in both positive and negative ways. “Beauty” is given a definition based on the stereotypical

Malia Hendricks · Nov 27, 2022 · 3 min read

The Clash of Artificial and Natural Minds

For many, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) poses the pressing question, “Will robots replace humans?” In recent years, this overtaking seems more probable than ever as robots refine a rudimentary human trait: creativity and innovation. AI can be described as “the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems” (Burns). Computer learning has been around for a long time, dating back to the first AI in 1951. But what sets the AI of this age apart from it

Sally Wang · Oct 2, 2022 · 2 min read

Parental Pressure

Parental pressure is a problem that I am facing right now. It has been one of the biggest problems during my school year, since my parents do not understand what I am learning, but still want to pass their suggestions onto me. Such pressure comes from parents who are the most considerate overall, but also careless in some ways. In my family, my mom is the one who stays at home for the whole day and takes care of all the things happening in our house. She loves me and wants to help me, but usuall

Jason Jiang · Oct 2, 2022 · 2 min read

'Very' Organic, Natural Eating

Unhealthy eating is becoming a more critical problem than ever. Having meals with ingredients from the great outdoors is a free and fun solution. In this article, I will discuss the health benefits of consuming many easy-to-find plants including dandelions, sorrel, and tree bacon. Dandelions are surprisingly dense in nutritional content. To the chagrin of desperate go-green advertisements about kale and spinach, dandelions give them a run for their money. These pleasant yellow flowers, which are

Ivena Lois Susantadiredja · Oct 2, 2022 · 3 min read

Trash & Where it goes

Trash can be found anywhere, from the bottom of the ocean to the streets in our neighborhood. Trash can also be really dangerous both to the animals and the environment.I joined a volunteer group at school where we pick up trash in the neighborhood. From those cleanups, I realize that there is a lot of different types of trash. Some can be recycled and some cannot. Usually, the trash that cannot be recycled will go to a dumpster or landfill. But the thing is, rich first-world countries would dum

Ella Peng · Oct 2, 2022 · 3 min read

Silent Cry

Generally speaking, there must be some unpleasant experiences in one's life. Often unhappy social relationships lead directly to these problems. If these unpleasant experiences occur in one’s childhood, they can cast a shadow on that person for life. Campus bullying is the most common one that usually happens. There are many types of bullying on campus. In addition to physical assault, which is a common form of bullying, bullying in words and behaviour can also be harmful. Sometimes bullying and

Elaine Li · Oct 2, 2022 · 2 min read

REMEMBRANCE OF STEPHEN SONDHEIM

Listening to music, drifting off into your own mindless thoughts…How about combining drama and music at the same time? The Broadway musical’s greatest songwriting titan, Stephen Sondheim, set up a novel artistic standard in musical plays. On November 26, 2021, he passed away at age 91, resting in his home in Connecticut, a discovery that struck society with grief. During the most climatic stage of his lifetime - 1970-80s - Sondheim produced an abundance of musical works, including ‘Company’ (197

Lindsay Liu · Mar 18, 2022 · 2 min read

Intersection of Art and Society

Nick Cave is an American contemporary fabric sculptor, dancer, and performance artist. Cave's family was large in size and always supportive of his artistic interests. He claims his upbringing gave him an artistic attentiveness to found objects and assemblages.Cave's low socio-economic status growing up forced him to repair hand-me-downs from older siblings, which is where he began developing skills in manipulating fabrics. He created his first Soundsuit through the utilization of these skills.T

Alissa Morris · Mar 18, 2022 · 4 min read

Inequality in BC’s Legal System

In the words of Chief Justice Wagner, "All Canadians should be able to see themselves reflected in their justice system. Justice should not make a person feel like an outsider or an 'other' when they confront it." This is currently not the case. For example, 28.8% of BC’s population are a visible minority, but only 16.15% of lawyers in the BC Bar are a visible minority. Canadian courts will never be true courts of justice until we have diversity in the legal profession. In other words, without e

Rodrigo Bertelsen · Mar 18, 2022 · 2 min read

Celebrating National Holidays Abroad

Every year, on September 18th, here in Chile we commemorate the “First Junta of Chile”, or in other words, the Chilean National Day. To celebrate, we usually hold big barbeques with our families and listen to Chilean folkloric music, which can include “Cuecas” or other types of music. Back in 2019, I participated in an international student exchange program and lived in Nanaimo, British Columbia for a year. Celebrating the Chilean National Day over there was “special," but nonetheless a bit weir

Yichen Li · Oct 21, 2021 · 3 min read

How a Deadly Pandemic Is Saving Our World

During a period when our human world has ceased working, the natural world continues on. Over the past year, COVID-19 has led to a massive halt in countless transportation systems and industries across the world. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions have been decreasing at an unprecedented rate - in the spring of 2020, China, the world’s largest emitter, reduced its carbon emissions by approximately 18% in one month’s time. This has prevented around 250 million metric tons of carbon from pollut

Helen Si · Oct 21, 2021 · 3 min read

The Correlation Between Happiness and Socialization (1)

Seeking connection between friend groupsHave you ever felt that you’re forced to fit in, make many friends, and hang out with “cool people” to acquire happiness? Have you ever felt uncomfortable being with people who you call “friends?” How can you seek that balance between you and others to avoid being overcome by peer pressure? Does what you think will make you happy really make you happy? These are some common concerns teenagers face during their stage of identity confusion, and I will answer