Jooheon Song

a. What have you accomplished so far on your Capstone project? If nothing,

why?
: I added one extra page that addresses the issue about extreme college tuition fee.
In my opinion essay, I put an emphasis on possible benefits and drawbacks of New
Mexico’s plan, tuition free college system. The policy was finally adopted to alleviate
the decline in enrollment rate of post secondary education, and I provide my insight
of this new educational approach.

b. What do you plan to accomplish by the end of this week? How will you hold
yourself accountable?
I am planning to embark on the next (writing) topics regarding child poverty in the
U.S. and free speech on social media. To hold myself accountable, I will try to work
on my task without disruptions by exploring the depth of the topics under
discussion.

c. Your needs, including time, space, materials, and personal contacts

As my work requires academic research, I need computer-using environment without
much noise. As for time, I need at least guaranteed 2 hours to work on the Capstone
Project for high quality outcome. Personal contacts aren’t necessary at the moment
as I need self-study time rather than other’s help.

d. What your interactions with your mentor(s), have been so far. If nothing, why.
What Is your plan?
The interactions with my mentor haven’t been activated yet as I need to finish
analysis and research on the selected topics.

e. Any obstacles you anticipate and your plan to overcome them?

As other subjects require me to finish assignments and prepare for exams before the
mid-term, it has been busy days, which doesn’t provide me with enough time to
work on the Capstone Project. Fortunately, I have three days of long weekend this
week, and I will use this time wisely to catch up with the delays.

f. Pictures/video evidence of your progress

The following pages are the evidence of my progress. Please find details on the next
pages.
Contents & Reference work
Article # 1. Teen Mental Health in Crisis

Callie Holtermann. (May 5, 2022). Is Teen Mental Health in a State of Crisis?. The NewYorkTimes. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/opinion/nuclear-family.html

Article # 2. Free College Tuition

Callie Holtermann. (May 19, 2022). Should College Be Free?. The NewYorkTimes. Retrieved from https://
www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/learning/free-college.html

Article # 3. Child Poverty in the U.S.

Callie Holtermann. (May 23, 2022). Should the U.S. Be Doing More to Prevent Child Poverty?. The NewYorkTimes.
Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/learning/should-the-us-be-doing-more-to-prevent-child-poverty.html

Article # 4. Free Speech on Social Media

Callie Holtermann. (April 27, 2022). How Much Should Speech Be Moderated on Social Media?. The New York Times.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/27/learning/speech-moderated-social-media.html

Article # 5. Extreme Tipping Culture

Christina Morales. (April 19, 2022). To Tip or not to Tip?. The NewYorkTimes. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/
2022/04/19/dining/tipping-gratuity-restaurants.html

Article # 6. Inflation Reduction Act

Joseph E. Stiglitz. (August 10, 2022). Why the Inflation Reduction Act matters. Korea Herald. Retrieved from
https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20220809000288&np=1&mp=1

Article # 7. Family Structure in Modern Society

Jessica Grose. (March 30, 2022). The Nuclear Family Is No Longer the Norm. Good. The NewYorkTimes. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/opinion/nuclear-family.html

Article # 8. Climate Issues and Mental Health

Laurence Wainwright & Eileen Neumann (July 12, 2022). Heatwaves worsen mental health conditions. The Conversation.
Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/heatwaves-worsen-mental-health-conditions-186759

Article # 9. Marriage Culture in India

Nanda, Serena. (2000). Arranging a Marriage in India. John Jay College of Criminal Justice,
Retrieved from http://public.gettysburg.edu/~dperry/Class%20Readings%20Scanned%20Documents/Intro/Nanda.pdf

Article # 10. The Amish: an Intimate Society

Henslin, James M. (2014) Sociology, A Down-to-Earth Approach (6th ed.). Pearson

Article # 11. Bullying in the United States
Powell, Sara Davis. (2018). Your Introduction to Education (4th ed.). Pearson

Article # 12. The value of a college degree

Porter Cathleen. (2002). The value of a college degree. ERIC Digest. Retrieve from https://
files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED470038.pdf

Article # 13. Pros and Cons for Vaccine Passports

Alberto Giubilini & Helen Kennedy. (December 23, 2021). Head to Head: the ethics of vaccine
passports and COVID passes. The Conversation. Retrieved from
https://theconversation.com/head-to-head-the-ethics-of-vaccine-passports-and-covid-
passes-172369

Article # 14. Italy’s citizenship debate

Megan A. Carney & Sara Vannini. (Dec 21, 2021). Italy’s citizenship debate: how a country of
emigrants is learning to live with immigrants. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://
theconversation.com/italys-citizenship-debate-how-a-country-of-emigrants-is-learning-to-live-
with-immigrants-174001

Article # 15. Pros and Cons: Private Prisons

Editors of Britannica. (Unknown). Private Prisons — Top 3 Pros and Cons. BRITANNICA.
Retrieved from https://www.procon.org/headlines/private-prisons-top-3-pros-and-cons/#overview

Article # 16. Is Cancel Culture (or “Callout Culture”) Good for Society?
Editors of Britannica. (Unknown). Cancel Culture — Top 3 Pros and Cons. BRITANNICA.
Retrieved from https://www.procon.org/headlines/is-cancel-culture-or-callout-culture-good-for-
society/#arguments

Article # 17. Legalizing drugs_Pros and Cons

Ocean Recovery. (Unknown). Pros and Cons of Legalizing Drugs. Ocean Recovery. Retrieved
from https://oceanrecoverycentre.com/2020/07/pros-and-cons-of-legalising-drugs/
 Jooheon’s Opinion Column

Preface
Description of my Capstone Project
: To call attention to social issues in various settings, I have collected the issues of controversy and
investigated the root of problems and key solutions. As a student, I am deeply concerned about teenagers
distancing themselves from the knowledge of current affairs, as many of them are highly preoccupied with
developing academic performance in a school setting. To encourage the school community to have interest
in what is happening around us, Jooheon’s opinion column will play a significant role in raising awareness
of social issues. This will awaken the minds of those who are afraid to confront uncomfortable social
issues.

This collection of opinon columns will deeply explore many social issues that range from gender
disparities, children’s access to learning in computer-using educational setting, the high college tuition,
extinction issues to abortion and human rights. The resources are to be collected from reliable collection of
databases, such as JSTOR and EBSCO, from websites, such as The New York Times and The
Conversation. Based on my research about the given topics, I will create 20 pages of opinion sections that
explores and examines insight into the various societal issues that have often been ignored.

Each page will investigate one single issue, which is composed of the head title and the byline, followed
by the reference of the article. Reflecting the structure of an opinion column, the column is divided into an
opening remark with an introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion with the concluding remark.
 Plans for the key out

Article
page

3
H's opinion essay (450W)
 What should we do to save teenagers with mental disorder?
By Jooheon Song
Mental disorder has become a common ordeal among young people. The teens are are
struggling with mental disorders that caused anxiety and depression. As it is closely
related to the serious social issues, such as self-harm and suicidal attempts, the public
started paying more attention to the issues. It led the people in the higher social standing
to take active movement for the situation.

Overwhelming mental states are fuelling the needs for probing into the nature of
problem. To define the severity of the crisis, many experts provide deeper insights into
the tumultuous period of adolescence. According to the recent research, many youngsters
show the signs of the trace of facing mental problems: some of them undergo lethargy
avoiding eating and socializing with others. Since these are the most common
phenomenon of the adolescence throughout their puberty, it is hard to notice what kind of
major shift they are experiencing. When a teen is left alone without a revenue opened for
communication, they sometimes make socially unacceptable or even dramatic decision.

Analyzing the severity of the problem, the movement to save adolescents out of the
mental issues is activated and successfully provided the findings that indicate the
importance of emotional bond between counsellors and teenagers. However, the
approach reveals fragility in that having a good support for communication requires
tremendous efforts and the view of experts. Therefore, structuring a better system for the
treatment of mental crisis is emphasized. To provide easier access for counsultation with
experts under the systematic mechanism, adults in power need to give their hands. They
need to focus on reflecting more lessons about mental health in school curriculum and
establishing better counseling system in the educational environment.

The radical rise in mental health crisis among young generation has become one of the
dominant issue for the teenagers. To address the problem, the people with power should
take an initiative role in building a well-designed framework to support the adolescents
in need.
Is New Mexico’s plan, tuition-free college, realistic approach to alleviate
current decline in enrollment rate of post secondary edcation?
Enrollment for college and university are in decline with the fall of national educational quality.
To alleviate the current trend, New Mexico adopted tuition free college system that provide free
post-secondary learning opportunities for their residents. However, there are voices that express
concern about the city’s financial state to supply the additional budget.

High tuition fee has become a great hindrance for the learning motivation, and it brought about
steep decline for the enrollment. New Mexico newly devised an educational policy that supports
tuition fee for students in their district without specific conditions for the recipients. This
approach is aiming at open educational opportunities, which would lead potential learners to
schools instead of being employed right away after highschool graduation. It is important given
that the activation of post-secondary education is the key factor for the enrichment of national
standard of intelligence. Tuition free policy is the new frontier of pioneering unprecedented
educational route for the citizens.

On the other hand, the opponents give rise to concerns about side effects of the radical change.
The sudden adoption of tuition-free policy might cause the long-term massive economic burden
on the financial state. New Mexico just built its great foundation of influx of huge revenue with
flush of gas and oil, which represents that the city doesn’t possess stable economic status.
Supplying tremendous amount of additional fee, the newly structured financial system would
possibly in the significant risk of getting collapsed. The absence of specific requirements for the
recipients will end up bringing more financial burden to the national assets. Considering
potential economic threat, the new educational policy is still a hasty decision.

More and more students are making a decision to get a job rather than applying for college and
university, and the major cause for the current trend is extremely unaffordable tuition fee. New
Mexico has adopted the new educational plan to free potential learners from financial burden,
but the additional budget planning and the absence of limits creates public reluctance. Through
the controversial debate, I personally support the withdrawal of the policy given that the
drawbacks seems irreplaceable risk.