Bio: Jovon

My name is Jovon Gilliam and I attend New Explorations into Science Technology and math (NEST+m) high school. I am one that like quite a few things, but one of my keen interests is the different kinds of technology that are in constant motion. Two things that really interest me are roller coasters and trains, primarily because they are two fast moving objects on rails. The career that I desire is a little out of the ordinary; I want to be a roller coaster designer. Another you should know about me is that I love to eat, I will eat almost anything except eggs, I do not know why either. I am a very athletic person considering I been on quite a few teams in my lifetime, the sports I play include: football, cross country, basketball, indoor track, outdoor track, and almost any sport that includes running. I always like to try new things, you will always seem me say something like “I will try it”, unless of course the thing I try is absurd and disgusting, and then I will consider not trying. I love to travel even though I do not go out of country often, but I do love to go out of state. I am one who is very playful and friendly, everywhere I go I attempt to get to know people, for example, when I started working with Youth Media Makers NYC, everybody was a stranger to me, and nobody wanted to talk. However, by the end of the day, I was one of the first people everybody talked to, just ask Casey, Georgiana, Ayumu, or Benjamin. I love the summertime, I always say, “anything you do in the winter, you could do in the summer, but you cannot do everything in the summer in the winter. Personally I love to get money and thus I have three jobs: The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, at my school NEST+m, and now at The New School. I like giving back to my community and thus I have quite a few community service hours, and I like giving back to people in general.

We Have Our Rights

Last week, our project had a small addition to the overall topic of the project, which was supposedly women’s rights, but our minds were shifted when a guess speaker visited The New School. The guest speaker was a employee from the non-profit organization known as the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), and the conversation that we had with her was very informative when it came to how people view the police in our city. Our conversation started with her introducing to us what CCRB is and what they do for their community, which was fight for the rights of people who said they had their rights abused or excessive force was used when they came in contact or maybe even confrontation with the police. Some people who visit the CCRB are people who actually have a legitamite complaint, but some people however do not. We spoke on how some people who come to the CCRB to file a complaint are actually in the wrong. Some people who stated that the police used excessive force actually spoke back and decided to resist arrest, and thus, the CCRB could not win the case for that person.

We discussed the ways to avoid police confrontation when approached by a policeman or woman. This discussion allowed us to change our project from only women’s rights, to people’s rights, which will include the rights of men and women, and possibly even how the police feel about this. We are attempting to gather information form as many people as possible, primarily from the areas that file the most complaints about their rights being abused by police and even by other people.