From University-Sponsored Nonprofit Internships to Student-Created University Programs -- making change possible

In reading about Princeton Project 55, an organization of Princeton Alums from the Class of 1955 that helps current Princeton students find paid summer internships (paid by the host organization, not Princeton) with non-profit organizations, including health insurance, I came across some interesting info --

There's a network of universities nationwide, called The Alumni Network (TAN), that collaborate to create these nonprofit internship programs for their undergraduate students and recent graduates.

The programs are all structured differently - in some cases the funding comes from the alumni clubs, in some cases from the host organizations, in some cases from the universities, and in some cases the internships are unpaid. Some of the programs provide alumni mentors. Some provide seminars for students and networking opportunities in their host city. Some of the programs provide interested students with a list of host organizations, in at least some cases thanks to alums who work at these organizations. Some allow students to select their host organizations themselves, and then submit all of the details to receive sponsorship by the university's program.

At Colorado College, the students who were selected to participate in summer internships are profiled on the college's website. I like this touch.

Regarding student profiles --

At Northwestern, an alum of the Northwestern University Public Interest Program, Nathaniel Whittemore, co-founded the awesome organization Just Naïve Enough Global Capacity Initiative with Jonathan Marino, a co-founder of the Northwestern University Public Interest Program in 2005, while the two were still undergraduates. The organization aims to make “globally conscious American undergraduates globally capable.”

Jon Marino graduated in 2006 from the School of Education and Social Policy. As an undergrad, Marino led the External Relations Committee of the Associated Student Government, started the Northwestern Community Building Initiative, NU Public Interest Program, and Global Engagement Summit, and served on the board of Connections for the Homeless in Evanston. Since graduating, Marino has coordinated programs for the Chicago Public Schools Service-Learning Initiative on a NUPIP Fellowship and started the ENGAGE Uganda study abroad program at Northwestern. For the past year, he has been in Uganda on a Fulbright Scholarship to study education opportunities in displaced communities.

While an undergrad, Nathaniel Whittemore spent 3 months touring the Balkans, the West Bank and Middle East, and East Africa on a Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences research grant to assess the status of student international volunteering. “It confirmed my suspicion that there are a lot of young people from a lot of places who want to explore international issues,” said Whittemore. “But unskilled volunteers can only do so much.” Far too often, Whittemore found, their work, while dedicated, wasn’t actually helping to create change.


Photo: Jonathan Marino gets his hair braided by students at a school in Kayamundi, South Africa.

Photo: Nathaniel Whittemore's international efforts included work on the OpenShutter Project, a collection of photos, drawings, film and writings, inspired by his time in Uganda.

Nathaniel and Jonathan organized a 4-day conference, the International Youth Volunteerism Summit, to teach students fundraising and grant writing, engaging local populations and interfaith communication, in order to provide students interested in international volunteering with the knowledge and tools necessary to create effective and lasting changes. The conference was attended by about 75 student delegates representing almost 30 U.S. universities and 20 countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka and Yemen, as well as panelists from an assortment of nongovernmental organizations. The delegates were selected based on applications and project proposals, which ranged from a documentary on Tibetan children to educational programs in Ecuador.

After graduation, Nathaniel returned to Northwestern to run the organization through Northwestern's Center for International and Comparative Studies. “This program is a possibility for Northwestern to take a leadership role in [a field] that will be growing in the next several years,” said Andrew Wachtel, director of CICS and dean of the Graduate School.

One of the 2008 -2009 Fellows worked on ENGAGE Uganda, one of the programs founded by Jon Marino:

Ryan Pederson (Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement)
Ryan Pederson will work as Co-Director for the Center for Global Engagement (CGE) at Northwestern University (NU). Over the summer he is helping to coordinate the Engage Uganda study abroad program, which places 20 students with host organizations to complete a small development project in teams of five. When back in Evanston, he will help with the CGE's development of a Global Engagement Summer Institute, which will expand the Engage program to Uganda, India, Egypt, and Latin America. He will also help to advise the Global Engagement Summit, consult on student social entrepreneurship projects, and advocate for further institutional commitment to global engagement at NU. He is excited to set up experiences for other students that he found personally transforming. Ryan grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and studied economics and international studies at NU. On campus he was heavily involved in leadership in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the Global Engagement Summit. He spent his summers working on projects in China and Uganda and did research in Uganda on the life stories of community leaders. Ryan loves to play tennis and basketball in his free time and, long term, hopes to integrate his passions for ministry and international development.

OK - things always circle back ...

While looking for additional information about the Northwestern programs above, I discovered that Nathaniel blogs over at Change.org's Social Entrepreneurship blog.

He even gave the keynote speech at the Global Engagement Summit 2009. The event is an entirely student-run, week-long training program for young social innovators from around the world.

The Global Engagement Summit began in 2005 as an attempt to develop better training for students participating in on-the-ground international development and social entrepreneurship, to put driven students in touch with one another and with innovative nonprofit leaders, and to develop a resource network to support student global change projects.

In its three years, a staff of between 60-90 Northwestern University students per year has developed a curriculum featuring more than 40 workshops each year and has created numerous opportunities for project support, including, among others, internship experiences, media outlets and funding prospects through partnerships with groups like the GlobalGiving Foundation.

The GES alumni community now includes more than 400 people. Even as GES has grown, the GES founders were able to expand the idea and build a the Center for Global Engagement, a global program design center at Northwestern University which now offers credited international immersion programs.

Taken from Nathaniel's keynote:

This is our legacy. This is our story. Every day I meet older people, family, friends, mentors, absolutely stunned by how young the members of our movement are. They're so used to the old, tired trade off between passion and selling out; they're used to idealism deferred. They often feel, to quote Bob Dylan, that "People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent." But cynicism has gone out of fashion, and they're looking to us for leadership. The moment is ours to create.

Our obligation is to find our passion, and to unleash the passion of others. Our responsibility is to remember that systems of oppression were created by people, and so too can people undo them. Our hope is to never stop believing that we can change the world, because we must.


During his keynote he also referenced previous summit attendees, including:

Caitlin Cohen, a student from Brown who has spent the last four years since the very first GES forging alliances between communities, international nonprofits, and the government to create a comprehensive, citizen-led health system in Sikoro, Mali. People like Rolf Garcia-Gallont, a Guatemalan student at Duke who returned to his home country after graduation in order to help train entrepreneurs how to fully harness microcredit to unleash their own potential. People like Hany Amin, who's brother Ramy joins us this year, who sees the very best potential of Egypt, that confusing place where my own journey started, and is working to build equitable health access for the poor.

Absolutely phenomenal.

What's on YOUR plate?

Taken from the Organic Consumers Association website - my absolute favorite source for health & enviro news:

WHAT'S ON YOUR PLATE is a witty and provocative documentary and outreach campaign produced and directed by award-winning Catherine Gund about kids and food politics.

Filmed over the course of one year, the film follows two 11 yr-old African-American city kids, Sadie and Safiyah, as they explore their place in the food chain. The kids take a close look at food systems in NYC and its surrounding areas.

Watch the trailer below or visit this website for more info.



This is especially important because - check this out - a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives has revealed that children - particularly those under 7 yrs old - lack sufficient levels of the enzyme most responsible for detoxifying pesticides.

Of particular concern are chlorpyrifos and diazinon, pesticide chemicals still used ubiquitously in US agriculture. Pesticides have been cited as a possible cause of developmental difficulties and childhood cancers.

A University of Washington study found that children fed mostly organic produce and juice had only one-sixth of the level of organophosphate pesticide byproducts in their urine compared to children who ate conventionally grown foods.

More info here.

Finally, check out this cute music video created by What's On Your Plate? --

Another Artist (DMB) Partners with TOMS Shoes

photo: The women's TOMS Shoes style, available for $68 at the DMB store.

DAVE MATTHEWS DESIGNED WOMENS' TOMS SHOE AVAILABLE ON TOUR THIS SUMMER.

NEW MEN'S SHOE DEBUTS AT ALPINE VALLEY!

TOMS Shoes DMB recently forged a relationship with TOMS Shoes as part of their continued effort to give back and support charities worldwide. TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: for every pair of shoes that are purchased, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need.

Available now in the DMB store and becoming available on the DMB tour beginning Saturday 18th at Alpine Valley, buy your pair of the women's Dave Matthews-designed TOMS. The NEW men's TOMS featuring a Fire Dancer will debut on the road at the Alpine show and will be available in the Warehouse and DMB stores next week. By purchasing a pair of DMB TOMS shoes, you'll not only receive a great pair of shoes for yourself, you'll also provide a pair to a child in need!

PS - additional news from the 7/17/2009 DMB e-newsletter:

We are pleased to announce that Dave Matthews will perform at Farm Aid 2009 presented by Horizon Organic. The Farm Aid concert will take place on Sunday October 4, 2009 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, MO (near St. Louis, MO.) Dave will join fellow Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Neil Young as well as many other artists scheduled to be announced over the coming weeks.

Favreau, Obama, Millennials in the White House & Health Care Reform

photo: Favreau & Obama

I was reading this article in Roll Call today about the health care reform debate, which briefly references Obama's 27 year-old chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, the youngest person ever to be named chief White House speechwriter.

Curious to learn more about him, I dug up this old Washington Post story from December 18, 2008.

I learned that Favreau joined Obama in 2004 when Obama was just elected to the Senate.

He brought Favreau, then 23, into the Senate dining room for an interview on his first day in office. They talked for 30 minutes about harmless topics such as family and baseball before Obama turned serious.

"So," he said. "What's your theory on speechwriting?"

Awkward silence. Favreau, just graduated from Holy Cross, had talked his way onto Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign in 2003 and had become a press assistant, arriving at the office at 3 a.m. to clip newspapers. The speech he had given as class valedictorian circulated around the staff, and Favreau eventually got a shot at speechwriting. He wrote well and rose to the top of the department, but there was never any time to formulate theories. Now, Favreau looked at Obama and went with his gut.

"A speech can broaden the circle of people who care about this stuff," Favreau said. "How do you say to the average person that's been hurting: 'I hear you. I'm there. Even though you've been so disappointed and cynical about politics in the past, and with good reason, we can move in the right direction. Just give me a chance.' "

"I think this is going to work," Obama said.

...

No matter how it goes, Favreau believes this will be his last job in politics -- "anything else would be so anticlimactic," he said. Someday, he wants to write in his own voice, for himself.

"Maybe I'll write a screenplay, or maybe a fiction book based loosely on what all of this was like," Favreau said. "You had a bunch of kids working on this campaign together, and it was such a mix of the serious and momentous and just the silly ways that we are. For people in my generation, it was an unbelievable way to grow up."

I particularly like the way this story ends --

How is this supposed to work, anyway? Do Favreau and the rest of Obama's young staffers transform to meet the formalities of the White House, or does the White House change to accommodate them?

Circle back to the health care reform debate article, above ...

Acumen Fund Workshop for the Next Generation of Social Entrepreneurs

On May 28-30, 2009 Acumen Fund hosted its first ever Student Leaders Workshop designed to introduce the next generation of leaders to social entrepreneurship and the concept of patient capital.

20 students from universities all around the USA, including students from India and Singapore, attended the event and left committed to spread the message of Acumen, social entrepreneurship, and patient capital to their campuses and abroad.

A highlight of the 3-day workshop included this inspiring talk by author and marketing guru Seth Godin.

G Love & the nonprofit Malaria No More

From a recent Brushfire Records e-newsletter:

Staying true to his word, long time friend of Malaria No More and self-described "Hip Hop Blues artist" G. Love put down his guitar and found a new creative outlet to fight malaria... hats! Partnering with Adventurehat.com, the Philadelphia based musician has produced a slick fedora hat inspired by the headwear of another Philly legend, Rocky.

G. Love and Adventurehat.com are generously donating 100% of the profits ($25 of each hat) to MNM to fund mosquito nets and other life-saving interventions in Africa! To get your own life-saving hat, click here. G. Love & Special Sauce will be on the road this summer playing festivals and opening for Jason Mraz.

John Legend - Billboard's #1 Green Artist of 2009, Hip Hop Caucus partner, Nonprofit Founder, Obama Campaign Supporter

Hip Hop Caucus is handing out tix to see John Legend and India Arie at Merriweather outside of DC on July 17th to the first 20 people who sign up to volunteer with the Hip Hop Caucus' Opportunity Corps, following an email blast that went out to their email list today.

The email noted that the Hip Hop Caucus is partnering with John Legend ... "because of his commitment to going green, we have partnered with IMP Productions and his green summer tour in support of his latest album 'Evolver.'"

To read the Billboard write up on John Legend, who was recognized as Billboard's #1 Green Artist of the Year, click here.

To read about John Legend's 2009 "green tour" in partnership with Reverb, click here.

To check out his philanthropy, the Show Me Campaign, which seeks to eradicate extreme poverty in villages across Africa, click here.

To read more about the origins and details of the campaign, check out this ABC story.

And check out this CNN video interview with John Legend.



And this promo video that John made for Show Me Campaign.



John Legend talking about why he supported Obama for President:



John Legend interview from the Obama Inauguration:

Interns clamor to get in the gov't game

photo: Summer 2008 Office of Senator Barack Obama interns

Interesting article from the Capitol Hill-focused newspaper, The Politico.

Interns clamor to get in the gov't game
By: Daniel Libit and Anna Handzlik
July 14, 2009 04:46 AM EST

United Breaks Guitars

From the band Sons of Maxwell's website:

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise.

For the long version of this story, click here.

They MUST be Kidding.

Here in the USA --




Meanwhile, in Australia --

United We Serve & Hip Hop Caucus

Opportunity Corps is about increasing service among young people in our urban communities.

Through the Hip Hop Caucus Online Community you can volunteer from anywhere in the country. As a volunteer you can determine how much time you can give, and also let us know what skills and interests you would like to lend to the process.

Sign up here, today! You could win a free ticket to the Rock the Bells Concert this weekend at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, located just outside of Washington, DC.

Sunday's Rock the Bells Scheduled Line-up:
NAS • Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley • The Roots • Common • Busta Rhymes • Big Boi • Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek • Tech N9ne • RZA • Raekwon • K'Naan • Sage Francis • Slaughterhouse • Buckshot • M.O.P. • Necro • Slum Village • Eyedea and Abilities • Evidence and Alchemist • The Knux • Psycho Realm • Mystik Journeymen • Chali 2Na • Mickey Factz • B Dolan • Tabi Bonney

Hosted by KRS-One, Supernatural, Murs & Pete Rock

About the Hip Hop Caucus:
At the Hip Hop Caucus, we work to organize and engage the Hip Hop Generation, those born after 1964, on the most pressing issues of our time. Utilizing the power of celebrities and media, combined with cutting-edge technology, we use issue campaigns, events, voter registration and education to ensure that the voices of the Hip Hop Generation are heard in the democratic process. We also place an emphasis on the empowerment of women as our 700,000+ national online membership list is 60% women.

The New Girls of Summer

With the sun setting on an older generation of women surfers, underscored by the recent retirement of seven-time world champ Layne Beachley, 37, the next tide of young women is ready to rise. Some of these female surfing prodigies came together in Crystal Cove State Park, in Newport Coast, California, to be photographed by iconic surf photographer Michael Halsband for Vanity Fair’s July 2009 issue. Ranging in age from 14 to 26, these women are no “Girl-Midgets” on the beach; just ask the bros who got snaked.




Caption: Don’t be fooled by the skimpy suits and the sunny smiles: it was a chilly Southern California afternoon when these 12 young athletes gathered surfside for our shoot. From left: Sierra Partridge, Sofia Mulanovich, Leila Hurst, Alana Blanchard, Malia Manuel, Sally Fitzgibbons, Coco Ho, Laura Enever, Sage Erickson, Quincy Davis, Courtney Conlogue, and Hailey Partridge.

Styled by Tracy Taylor.




Caption: Not accustomed to life on land, these surfers are most comfortable with their boards in hand. “The photo shoot was amazing,” say Coco Ho, 18, of Oahu, Hawaii (bottom row, second from left). “It was super different from anything any of us have done. Going into Vanity Fair, we had legit makeup artists and hairdressers, which was something we weren’t used to. I mean, we’re just surfers.”




Caption: Malia Manuel (right), 15, may be the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Open of Surfing, but Sage Erickson, 18, of Ojai, California, is quickly rising in the ranks. On Team Freestyle’s Web site, Erickson mentions that her favorite foods include Taco Bell and Panda Express, but now she’s getting down to business. “When I was younger, I was the biggest junk-food junkie on the planet. And now, taking my career more seriously, you can’t eat like that,” Erickson says, sentimentally. “My biggest goal is to make the W.C.T. I want to be a surfing role model, not only just winning contests.”




Caption: A surfer since four years old, Conlogue represented the United States this year on its national surf team, but her sights are set on a larger prize: “My ultimate goal in surfing is to become an A.S.P. World Champion, and it’s going to take a long time to get there, because it’s just a lot of work. Once I graduate, I’ll hit it hard.”

source: The New Girls of Summer, Vanity Fair, July 2009 issue

The African Youth Climate Change Movement

I received this note in an email from 350.org today:

As part of our ongoing effort to build a broader and more inclusive movement, we're trying something new this summer: training more than 500 youth climate activists as part of our 350Speaks program. We just finished an inspiring workshop with dozens of African youth climate activists in Johannesburg, South Africa (check out the video), and we have leadership workshops coming up in Dikili, Turkey and New York City.



More details about the Johannesburg training, taken from the 350.org website:

Submitted by Phil on 24 June, 2009 - 06:12

We came from throughout the continent and beyond -- from fishing communities in Zanzibar to townships in South Africa, from villages in Zambia to teeming capital cities across the continent. More than 40 youth climate activists from throughout Southern and East Africa traveled by boat, car, taxi, bus, train and airplane to Johannesburg South Africa for the inaugural 350Speaks Climate Leadership Workshop.

For four days, we shared our stories, learned organizing skills and planned campaigns in our countries and our communities leading up to October 24, the International Day of Climate Action. From my experience, as one of theh conveners of the workshop, It was an incredibly powerful experience to be with all of these thoughtful, excited and savvy youth leaders.

In the rest of the world, we often think of Africa as bearing the brunt of many of the effects of climate change -- flood, drought, storms and disease are already increasing in intensity, frequency and range throughout the continent. That's why it was so important for me to see that African youth, in solidarity with climate organizers all over the world, won't be satisfied with the status quo.

As Emmanuel from Uganda said to me, "We don't just need a .... we need a fundamental change." The 42 activists and organizers who came to the 350speaks workshop are committed to fundamental change. They're not going to let world leaders make decisions about their future without hearing from them. They're also not going to wait around for developed countries to send over money or technology. Since those leaders are dragging their heels, African youth climate activists are developing African solutions to the climate crisis, from planting millions of trees on the continent to building solar stoves and biogas digesters. Don't take it from me -- watch them tell us how they're going to make some noise in the video above.

From my perspective as a US-based global organizer, there's nothing more important right now than collaborating with youth all over the world to build a larger and broader movement. Nothing short of a global grassroots movement is going to force our leaders to act fast enough and commit to targets strong enough. I've been lucky enough to have the chance to meet some of those change agents, work together with them to build our voices into a truly diverse, global movement.

In preparing for the summit, I came across this great quote from Gandhi, who spent a fair amount of his young life in Johannesburg, South Africa working with Africans, Indians and other groups to fight for their rights:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win"

I'm not sure where we fall right now on Gandhi's timeline, but I know that if we keep building the movement by connecting and mobilizing each activists from all over the world, we'll get to that last piece soon enough.