Matthew Gordon

I participated in a project which dealt with penguins. The intent of this is to assist researchers mainly from the university of Oxford with monitoring penguin population in the southern parts of the world, particularly Antarctica; scientists have setup cameras in common colonies of penguins in order to detect such action. Also, my efforts and fellow participants help train AI models that will be eventually capable of doing this task automatically, as it needs a large pool of data to work with, which I provided. I found it to be engaging at times, though many times I'd see empty biomes, but identifying those are just as important to understand movement and location. Overall it was fulfilling to aid in their efforts to determine whether penguin populations are increasing or decreasing, and also to identify anomalies in certain snapshots worth researching further.

I participated in a program, United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP), remotely which focuses on tackling world hunger in various countries. How it works is that people partake in educational questions and right answers are converted into 10 grains of rice, with 100 grains equaling a bowl. While taking the FIU bus between MMC and BBC, I logged 5 separate sessions roughly an hour each and got 5,000 grains, or 50 bowls. In total, I acquired 25,000 grains of rice, and as a point of reference the UNWFP estimated that it takes around 19,200 grains to feed one person for an entire day. This means that my time and efforts went towards feeding someone and then some, but it also speaks to an even larger point. World hunger is something that I feel doesn't grab the attention of many people in America versus a third world country, and this program helps to bridge that gap and raise awareness. Realizing how despite my efforts and time I was only able to feed one person fully for one day taught me how difficult it truly is to have enough food to feed entire countries, which helps to make people see those in need not as merely numbers but as names. This program humanizes needy people globally while also providing educational services to participants, which I also enjoyed and sharpen my own skills throughout the experience. I'd urge anyone to give this a try for at least one session to truly understand the realism deployed in how lengthy and time consuming it is to actually feed one person for one day.

I participated in the Orange Bowl 5K Run and also cheered people on after my run which they wanted runners to do afterwards. Orange Bowl Cares which provides funding for youth sports throughout South Florida and educational opportunities. They also partake in community engagement and legacy programs so the Orange Bowl run directly assisted these causes and help to showcase their contributions. As for the run, I enjoyed the course which included running through South Pointe and was overall great to see many people attend, including many people representing their colleges for recognition; I wanted to rep my FIU gear.

I participated in the Shatter the Stigma 5K Run hosted by FIUSPS which was trying to recruit people to share their mission and purpose to the Miami community. This is a nonprofit supporting psychedelic-assisted therapy that supports the healing of veterans and first responders. I had a good time running for a cause for FIU while also getting to experience a fulfilling 5K alongside the beach and afterwards stayed around for the awards ceremony and to check out the booths about the cause.

Visited my High school Cross Country team again and assisted with conditioning before their races. During their races I was a waterboy and moved to different spots of the course in case they needed it. We went on a warmup run to get them ready and this time they were able to race without any weather problems. The coaches there were Jackson and Monsalve. I tried submitting a video of us running in preparation for their races, but the file size was too large apparently.

Visited my High school Cross Country team and assisted with warmups and conditioning prior to their races. Was pacing them so they could get a better understanding of their splits as well. Also helped with some of the equipment including the cooler. Unfortunately, inclement weather canceled the final race and we had to depart earlier than usual. The coaches there were Jackson and Monsalve

I visited my high school cross country team in preparation for their meets at the school for practice. I did a long run with them and helped with getting their pacing strategies situated, and towards the end there was typical miami weather which made for a perfect opportunity to pick up the pace and return back to the school. We did a variety of cool-down stretches afterwards too.