Don’t Do What Makes you Happy

Thoughts on Charlie Day’s Commencement Speech

Charlie Day, co-creator of the television sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, gave a commencement speech at his alma mater Merrimack College last weekend, and one line in particular struck me: “Don’t do what makes you happy”. Whenever I ask students what they want from life, I often get an answer that includes “I just want to be happy.” Depending on how snarky I am feeling, I may respond, “Well, marry rich and lounge by a pool all day.” But I don’t think students actually want to just be “happy”; they want to be successful. They want the kind of success they define on their terms. For Charlie Day, this was making a TV show in which he gets to entertain the masses wearing a green full-body spandex suit and putting mittens on cats. Of course, his success was not without unhappiness in setbacks and challenges. The point is that once you define your success, you shouldn’t expect every subsequent minute on your journey to achieve it to be happy ones.

 

I have spent the past week sifting through stories from volunteers in preparing for the NGS CrowdRise campaign. I noticed the word happy was rarely mentioned. Volunteers did, however, mention fulfillment, rewarding experiences, challenges and learning. Most spoke about things like the injustice they saw (read the interview with Camille Tacastacas about life in rural Philippians), the pain they felt when they saw a family struggle (watch the video of Laura Hanley talking about a baby with severe lead poisoning from a contaminated home) and how this motivated them to make a difference. When they made a difference – no matter how small (Omar was able to teach a refugee family how to take the bus) – that success brought a joy that could only be felt after moments of unhappiness. I wish all you recent grads success in whatever happiness means for you, and peace on the not-always-happy journey.

Written by Anna Lenhart, Edited by Nicole Campbell

 

in Ideas  by 26 May 2014 0 comments

Alternatives to Teach for America

Teach For America has an average acceptance rate of less than 15%, the majority of the applicants from Ivy league schools…tough odds for the majority of young people. The good news is there are plenty of other ways to work to address the education disparity in this country and even in other parts of the world.  Some of these programs are service years, other are designed for people who want to become teachers for a longer period of time. If you would like help exploring these opportunities or completing the applications, sign up for an NGS mentor here.

City Year (nationwide)

“City Year’s mission is to build democracy through citizen service, civic leadership and social entrepreneurship. It is through service that we can demonstrate the power and idealism of young people, engage citizens to benefit the common good, and develop young leaders of the next generation.

City Year is wholly focused on fighting the national dropout crisis. We have committed to leverage the talent, energy and idealism of corps members to serve as tutors, mentors and role models in schools to help students stay on track – and get back on track – to graduate. “

World Teach  (worldwide)

As a WorldTeach volunteer, you will witness firsthand the challenges and rewards of education in a developing country. You will share the skills and knowledge gained through your education and life experience with your students, and you will make a lasting difference in their lives, opening their eyes to a world beyond their classrooms.

You will gain cultural understanding and the ability to work independently in a new and often challenging environment.

You will develop key skills– including teaching, language, cross-cultural communication, and leadership– that will be useful in any career path.

Americorps Builds Lives Through Education (Buffalo, NY)

“AmeriCorps Builds Lives through Education (ABLE) members serve K-12 students in the city of Buffalo, NY by tutoring and providing academic assistance. ABLE members commit to one year of full-time service as AmeriCorps members at a partner site. Many ABLE members come to the program as certified teachers, but it is not a requirement for service. In addition to serving at a host site, ABLE members participate in continuous professional development including monthly trainings, site visits with ABLE staff, reading & discussion series, and other opportunities provided through ABLE. “

Citizen School (nationwide)

The AmeriCorps Teaching Fellowship at Citizen Schools gives leaders real teaching and non-profit experience, while engaging them deeply in communities and schools. Two years of service helps to build the school of the future.

Build relationships with a team of middle-school students. Learn how to make lessons engage the toughest classrooms. Analyze student progress in academics and help teachers provide targeted support.

CoaHcorps (Boston)

The 2014-2015 CORPS will include 42 full-time staff members working with approximately 15 CoaH students each day. There will be 19 CORPS members at CoaH I with grades 9-12 (on Circuit Street in Roxbury), 14 CORPS members at CoaH II with grades 9-10 (on Washington Street in Roxbury) and 9 CORPS members at the New Bedford school, which will only have a 9th grade. CoaHCORPS members deliver individualized instruction in literacy and numeracy. The CORPS seeks to meet students at their entering achievement levels and advance them past grade level.

Japan Exchange Teaching Program (Japan)

The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, now in its 27th year, is aimed at promoting grass-roots international exchange between Japan and other nations. The number of countries sending participants has risen over the years, as has the number of participants. In 2013, the Programme welcomed 4,372 participants from 40 countries.

No matter where you go in Japan today, you will find JET participants developing strong relationships with their local communities through foreign language education and international exchange activities. After completing their time on the Programme, many former JET participants use their experiences in Japan to continue enhancing relations between Japan and their home countries.

Boston Teaching Residency (Boston)

Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) recruits talented college graduates, career changers and community members of all ages and gives them the tools to make an immediate impact in the classrooms of the Boston Public Schools (BPS). Combining a yearlong classroom apprenticeship with targeted master’s-level coursework, the program offers much more than just an affordable route into teaching. BTR provides every Resident with the practical learning, hands-on experience and ongoing support essential to any successful career in teaching. Download the program flyer.

Match Education (Boston)

In the first year, residents are trained in Boston. During the year, they participate in our Match Corps tutoring program Monday through Thursday and receive MTR training on Fridays and Saturdays.  For more information on the Match Corps component of the program, click here. The intense Friday/Saturday MTR training sessions are a mix of graduate school classes, simulations, and ultimately student teaching.  In the spring, we help our residents find teaching positions in the nation’s top urban charter and turnaround schools.  School leaders covet Match Teacher Residents; many folks get multiple job offers. This first year culminates in residents receiving a Massachusetts teaching license. At this point, 80% of the MTR experience – and the work towards earning a Master’s Degree in Effective Teaching – is complete.

During the second year, residents have left Match Teacher Residency. They have full-time teaching jobs elsewhere.  However, they continue to participate in MTR in two ways: First, we provide ongoing support and coaching to residents who take teaching jobs in the Boston area. Second, residents take a yearlong distance-learning course that is closely connected to their work as full-time teachers. Ultimately MTR evaluates each resident’s performance as a first year teacher to determine if they earn the Master’s in Effective Teaching.

NYC Teaching Fellowships (New York)

Our mission is to recruit and prepare high-quality, dedicated individuals to become teachers who raise student achievement in the New York City classrooms that need them most. We value individuals from a broad range of personal and professional backgrounds who are passionate about making a lasting impact in New York City public schools. Learn more about our mission and values.

In New York City, almost 4 in 10 New York City public school students do not earn a diploma within four years, and black, Latino, and low-income students in New York City score, on average, several grade levels below their peers on standardized tests. We know that when students in high-poverty areas have equal access to the resources available to their more affluent peers they are able to achieve at high levels, and we know that effective teachers are the most influential factor in determining student success. Fellows are committed to ensuring that all students in New York City receive an excellent education—and they are making a dramatic difference. Learn more about why teachers matter in New York City.

Reach to Teach (worldwide)

Reach To Teach is a FREE ESL Teacher Placement Agency. We never take a percentage of your salary and there are no hidden fees. We have placed thousands of happy native English teachers in ESL teaching jobs and volunteer positions in destinations all over the world. Our extensive experience with placing teachers in government teaching programs and private language schools allows us to give simple answers to your questions and help you make informed decisions every step of the way.

Inner-city teaching corps of Chicago (Chicago)

Inner-City Teaching Corps (ICTC) energizes urban classrooms with tomorrow’s high-impact leaders today by recruiting top recent college graduates and accomplished career changers into urban education.

Inner-City Teaching Corps is an elite group of future leaders working to close the achievement gap. Committing to teach in Chicago’s urban schools for two years, corps members obtain their certification and receive ongoing, personalized coaching and support, living either independently or in a faith-based community

In collaboration with Northwestern University’s nationally ranked School of Education and Social Policy, ICTC develops beginning teachers through a rigorous academic curriculum, expert coaching, and opportunities for collaboration with other educators to develop the skills needed to be leaders within their schools. The path to educational leadership begins with outstanding, results-focused teaching. Focusing on qualities and skills that comprise The Alain Locke Initiative Leadership Framework, corps members provide the high-quality instruction that energizes schools and closes the achievement gap, opening opportunities for all students to achieve regardless of income level.

Teaching Fellow TNTP (nationwide)

Operating in more than a dozen U.S. cities, TNTP’s Teaching Fellows programs hold the highest standards for effective teaching of any teacher preparation program in America. Each of TNTP’s programs trains teachers to meet district needs in key subjects, such as math, science and Special Education. Click the logos below to visit each program’s website.

in Ideas  by 19 Jan 2014 3 comments

Service > Grad School

I recently had dinner with a dear friend of mine and like many twentysomethings, she has been struggling to get out of the dead-end job rut.  As she told me she wanted to attend grad school for administration, I gawked, “do you even like administration?” Her answer was a lack-luster, “well it is something.”  I am all for expanding horizons and skill sets but at a cost of $70,000- that education better be worth more then “something.”

 

I asked her if she had considered participating in a year of service, and her response (typical of most young people I talk to) was “I need to make money to pay off student loan debt.”

 

This is a valid response, but it highlights the misconception that a year-long service commitment is equivalent to stuffing envelopes at the local church or serving soup at a soup kitchen (while still powerful acts of service, they are often temporary and less of a career-boosting experience than a year-long volunteer post).

 

While they do not pay well, long-term service opportunities often defer your student loan debt (AmeriCorps, PeaceCorps and Teach For America all do). These programs provide positions where the volunteer has an opportunity to be a leader without needing past experience to do so. In these roles, volunteers are empowered to take initiative, and in most cases they are given responsibilities similar to paid staff.  Being a staff member within a non-profit organization requires wearing multiple hats, and can include everything from coordinating volunteer teams to managing a website, to training program directors- all of this being accomplished by one person! Consider this scenario: You are a mid-twenty something trying to discover your life calling. You are unsure of what to do with your current skill sets, and you have the desire to learn more- Why would you pay thousands of dollars to acquire “mastery” in a specific field if you are not sure that is the field that makes you come alive? Long-term service opportunities may not pay off monetarily, yet its value in experience is far greater, and will not put you in debt like years of grad school would. In fact, check out this initiative from the Brandeis University, offering a minimum of $10,000 in scholarship to Americorps Alumni!

 

Once my friend reoriented to service learning not as a high school graduation requirement, but instead as an actual means to discover her purpose, while building skills- she was then able to look at a year of service parallel to how she was looking at grad school-as an investment.

 

Written by Anna Lenhart, Edited by Nicole Ryan

in Ideas  by 25 Dec 2013 0 comments

Rise Up Development Collective: Starting an NGO and Building Community as a Student

Before Jeremy Kirshbaum was the USA Facilitator of the RiseUp Development Collective in the Volta Region of Ghana, he was a Politics and Economics double major at UC Santa Cruz. Today, he has been featured by UCTV Prime as well as in UCEAP systemwide publications. Jeremy took his experience with UCEAP Ghana as a time to build an international community and shares some of his strategies for using the power of connection in grassroots projects here with GiveYourGap. The following essay solely expresses the views of Mr. Kirshbaum and his experience with RiseUp Ghana.

In 2010, I travelled to Ghana to study abroad through the University of California Education Abroad Program.  While there, a group of friends and I started the Rise Up Development Collective, and the Wli Todzi Clinic Project.  As of 2013, the Wli Todzi clinic has walls and a roof, and soon will have doors, windows, and a ceiling.  Progress has been slow, but we are very proud to have come this far.  Starting an international project from scratch has not been easy, but through many people across the globe recognizing a need and rising to the occasion, our dream is slowly becoming a reality.  A major contribution to this has been the power of connection, one of the many important tools for a grassroots project.  An international community of individuals inspired to make change has grown up around the project.  Ultimately, this has been a great an outcome as the progress on the clinic itself, and nearly as difficult to accomplish.  We’d like to share our story of how we got to where we are today, and some strategies we’ve used that we think will work for you too.

The village of Wli Todzi rests on the peak of the Agumatsa mountain, in the east of Ghana near the Togo border.  The village’s beauty is astonishing.  From plateau at the summit, you can look out all the way across the Volta River valley 3000 feet below.  The village is nestled in the rainforest, and surrounded by fertile lands that the 1500 people living in and around the village farm with a skillfulness recognized throughout the region.  The people of Wli Todzi are incredibly strong.  There is no easily accessible road to the village, so everything from the outside is carried up the mountain on their heads, or brought in from the neighboring country, Togo.  Although for a young American such as myself, the climb can be very tiring, there are old women in the village who go up and down the mountain twice in a day.  The villagers deals with the sometimes- vertical path with aplomb—the  sporadic electricity that is available in the village is made possible because the villagers carried up every electrical pole by hand.  Because of their isolation, most of life in Wli Todzi passes with a peaceful regularity.  The people are friendly to one another, work hard for their families, go to church on Sunday and enjoy the occasional palm wine during celebrations.  Most who visit the village fall in love with it.

Although their peaceful isolation is easy to romanticize, it is also the cause of great distress for the villagers.  When there is a medical emergency, for instance complications with childbirth, then the villagers must carry the patient down the mountain on a stretcher.  This is time-consuming and dangerous, and results in deaths every year.  Since Christmas of 2012, there have been 12 fatalities, 5 of which were children.  Many of them could have been prevented with easy access to healthcare in the village.  Wli Todzi is a beautiful place, but its isolation can be deadly.

Slowly, a growing collective of people across the world have come together around the project.  At first it was just people who had been to the village that worked on the project.  It is matter- of- fact to us that this clinic needs to be built.  The people of Wli Todzi are our friends, and it is natural to want to help friends.  The difficult part is getting people involved who have never been to the village at all.  Most people who have helped with the project have never heard of Ghana, and will probably never go there.  However, these people are the most essential and most inspiring element of the project.  These people participate in the project simply because they think it’s a good thing.  Sometimes, though, they can take some convincing.  Here are some strategies we’ve found that work well for helping people feel connected to a place very different from their own,

1.     Use reference points that they understand.

No matter how different the place, there is going to be some kind of overlap between cultures.  Playing up how exotic the people are makes people feel disconnected.  Talking about elements of the project people understand, like food, holidays, or jokes, you can make the most “exotic” of places feel familiar.

2.     People, people, people

It is essential that any project have a solid budget, timeline, and theoretical framework.  However, conveying the project only in this fashion quickly becomes boring or confusing for people.  However, the individuals involved in the project are something that newcomers to the project can connect to, even if they haven’t met them.  Talking about the personalities of the people in the village makes the project come alive for people, and makes them feel like they are dealing with a community of real people, not an accounting apparatus.

3.     The community at home is just as important as the community abroad

People need to be able to talk about what they’re doing with others.  Through events, social media, and even small projects, a community at home is maintained.  Because project participants can’t call the people of Wli Todzi and talk to them directly, having a group of people around them who are working on the project together makes them feel more connected- otherwise they can feel lost in space.

There is no silver bullet for an international grassroots project.  It takes very hard work, stubbornness, and an appetite for overcoming insurmountable odds and disappointment.  However, for us, it has continued to pay off.  Not financially (we are a 100% volunteer program), but because the clinic is going to be completed, because of what we’re learning in the process, and because of the incredible people that we’ve met at every step of the way—people we now call friends.  This is what keeps us going on the project, and will keep us going until the clinic is built, equipped and staffed.

And our connections are growing.  We’re excited this summer to announce the first ever opportunity for people to travel with us in Ghana, and visit the village of Wli Todzi.  We’re teaming up the Operation Groundswell to work with community groups all across the country- including 3 days in the village of Wli Todzi!  If you’d like to travel with us this summer, climb the Agumatsa mountain with us, see the clinic in person, as well as work with community organizations all across Ghana, please visit our website.   However, even, if you don’t think travel is in your plans for this summer, you can still get involved by helping fundraise for the clinic project in your hometown or at your university.  If you’d like to help, or just want to know more about the project, check out www.riseupghana.org, or email us at info@riseupghana.org.  We’d be happy to hear from you, and welcome you into our family.  With your help, we can Rise Up!

IMG_9064-1 SAM_0175-1 IMG_9072-1 IMG_9066-1 IMG_3161-1 IMG_3015-1 _DSC6131-1Stretcher

 

Photos courtesy of Jeremy Kirshbaum, RiseUp

in Give Your Gap / Ideas  by 16 Feb 2013 0 comments

One Step at a Time

With the state of the world right now, it is easy to feel useless.  If you are one of young Americans stuck with an average student loan debt of $29,000, the idea of leaving your corporate job to change the world seems unrealistic.  The NGS Movement understands your dilemma and we have a few suggestions for ways you can make a difference without quitting your job and joining Peace Corps.

  1. Green your commute. If you live in a city that is bike accessible, consider waking up early and biking into work.  On your healthy, money-saving ride, maybe you will have a brilliant idea about how your company can address social issues. At the very least, you are sure to save money, feel healthier and energized for the day, and be more able to focus when you arrive at your desk. If you are not open to cycling, checkout icarpool.com a popular ridesharing program.  Carpooling reduces environmental footprint and introduces you to new people in your community.
  2. Play Freerice.  Weather you have a slow day at work or have your lap top or cell phone handy while watching evening TV, everyone has a few minutes to play freerice, an online game that rewards you with grains of rice instead of points.  The rice is donated to the United Nations World Food Program.  The game will also improve your geography and refresh that high school Spanish.
  3. Sign petitions at change.org.  Change.org is a website that hosts tons of petitions on issues both small and large-scale, relating to the environment, human rights, sustainable food, animals, or economic justice – to name a few.  Signing one is as easy as entering your name and email, and these petitions actually lead to victories such as banning the sale of bottled water in Grand Canyon National Park.  Check it out, and if you’re feeling up for it, write one yourself for a cause you believe in!
  4. Help translate the web.  What if rural children in South America or Western Africa could go to an Internet café and learn about building a solar oven or starting a pod cast, they could if most of the web wasn’t written in English.  Duolingo is a project to translate the web from English into other languages, while teaching you a second language! The website is currently in Beta, but keep an eye out, watch the TED talk to learn more.
  5. Micro volunteer.  Across the country, non-profits need your skills and expertise, and don’t necessarily need you in human form in their office.  Sites like Sparked.com match your skills with a non profit’s project, and allow you to work on the project in one weekend or just offer consulting advice a few minutes a day.
  6. Give.  While you participate in the corporate giving program, take your generosity to the next level and research the non profits in your area, find an issue you are passionate about and sign up to give monthly.  Ask if you can come visit their office and meet the staff – chances are these people share your passion and would love to talk to you about your ideas and solutions (especially because you are a donor, a supporter, someone who shows their belief in the issue with their hard earned money).  Who knows, you may even become a new project consultant and open doors for the future… an excuse to leave your company.
in Ideas  by 21 Feb 2012 0 comments

Finding Yourself Through Travel

gyg-logo-teal-transparent1Amber and I used to joke with each other about how much we might change or grow in our “gap years.” For as much work, energy and money we were putting into our traveling – hell, our lives had better change! It was one of those half-joke, 100% serious ideas we carried into this trip. We came to somehow become better people.

Then a few days ago, the GYG team had the wonderful privilege of meeting Ibu (Mother) Robin Lim, CCN’s 2011 Hero of the Year. It’s a big title, to which I would never expect anyone to live up to. But, she was certainly inspiring.

She encouraged us to examine our lives in three periods. As a maiden, as a mother, and a crone – were we leading “heroic” lives? I have never and probably will never consider anything I do heroic. Unlike Ibu Robin, I’ve never gone into tsunami relief zones and literally saved people’s lives. Unlike my parents, I’ve never saved a patient’s life through medicine. I don’t anticipate being able to ever call myself a hero – but damn, it’s a good thing to ask yourself.

That is what is uniquely special about giving on your gap year. Travel forces you to examine who you are in the context of other people and places. Those comparisons, in turn, enable better imaginations of who and how you want to be. But giving on your gap year – I think that allows you to get inspired to be more than you imagined.

Not saying I am ever going to be 1/10000th of the “hero” Ibu Robin is. But I didn’t even really know it was possible to be that heroic! This changes my “get inspired” scale by a lot. Key word: perspective! I probably will not chase after an Ibu Robin-esque life. I don’t really think I’ll ever be as inspired as she is – but I now have a much greater appreciation for her selfless way of life, for what you can accomplish in 60 years. And I will try to find my best contribution to support Ibu Robin-esque people, who are just awesome.

The GYG ladies with Ibu Robin at her treehouse wonderland home in Bali.

We are just one month into our trip now. Surprise surprise, I haven’t “found myself” yet!! (If one ever really does that). But, I have gotten to ask myself some great questions and met some really inspiring people. Reflecting and getting inspired: a great combo when you are trying to figure out your life.

 

Written by the Gap Year Team

in Give Your Gap / Ideas / Travel Team / Updates From the Field  by 16 Feb 2012 0 comments

Occupy Wall-et

With election season approaching, people across America are considering the kind of country they want to live in. As is evident from continually declining voter turnouts, many of us struggle to see the relevance of voting in our society. The government is increasingly at the whim of corporate interests and our votes seem to do little to make a difference. As many take to the streets in frustration this election season, NGS wants to remind you that everyday actions can be a force for change. We live in a capitalist country where our choices in the marketplace are arguably a more accurate representation of our personal values than is our vote. We’ve got to think twice about where we pump our gas, eat lunch, and who we “like” on Facebook. This election season, we encourage you to vote not just with your ballot, but also with your wallet.

 

Unlike the government, corporations do not have a legal responsibility to “protect the people.”  Quite to the contrary, they have a responsibility to protect the financial interests of their stakeholders. And corporate interests are increasingly dominant in politics. In its 2010 ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC, the supreme court gave free range to corruption by allowing corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money in support of a political campaign[1]. It is hardly a surprise that our government is not doing a great job representing our interests.

 

Between 1998 and 2005, ExxonMobil spent close to $67 million on lobbying, more than any other oil and gas company[2].  This money directly supported politicians who voted for oil subsidies.  In return for its “investment,” the oil industry as a whole receives up to $113 billion per year in direct federal subsidies, funds that could instead be allocated toward projects that serve the public good, such as the construction of new mass transit systems. And lobbying isn’t restricted to the oil and gas industry. In Jonathan Safran Foer’s book “Eating Animals,”[3] he explores how industrial farming has completely eclipsed traditional, humane, antibiotic-free, non-genetically modified farming methods, and that every cent that we pour into this industry only encourages this eclipse.

 

We can, and should, complain about these injustices.  But beyond that, we have to look to the source of corporate influence– our wallets.  Unsettling as it may be, corporations get their power from you and me, through the money we spend. The more we spend, the more funds corporations have to lobby for their own monopolies, eventually smothering our voice.

 

Conscious consumerism offers both a means of making a political statement and directly supporting producers who share your values.  It is hard to spend twice as much money on local, organic tomatoes, versus the factory farmed ones at your grocery store.  The trick is to think of that extra money as a vote for cleaner water, local markets, and solar-powered food.

 

And while a good portion of our generation is working in minimum wage jobs, we are a social media generation and whom we choose to follow on Twitter or “like” on Facebook is worth more than we might think.  Marketing professionals in corporate offices across the country are analyzing social media data to understand what we “like” and “share” so they can be the first to give it to us.  If enough people “like” responsible companies, other entrepreneurs or established companies will jump on the idea, and other consumers will want those products[4]

 

Particularly in this chaotic and corrupt political climate, it is hard not to feel disillusioned, helpless and without a voice.  But rest assured that supporting companies and goods produced in a way that is in line with your ethical values can be worth just as much as your vote. Let’s beat Wall Street at its own game, and vote with our wallets this election season.

in Ideas  by 31 Oct 2011 0 comments

Let’s Move

The Next Generation of Service is not a new organization or activist group it is a set of ideas, we are not seeking to change one “issue” we seek to invoke a new way of thinking about what people do with their lives, their time, their hearts.

Our manifesto is bold, we will be ridiculed, we already are “our military is what this nation stands on we can’t cut funding…” The few of us will remain as “lone-nuts,” as Derek Sivers would say, for as long as it takes.  Followers will be leaders, movements are defined by the people that participate and NGS will branch off and evolve in which ever ways its passionate leaders/followers decide (within the values outlined of course).

I see a tipping point, one way or another the way our world currently operates is going to break and it is up to our generation to persuade the “tipping” toward our direction, toward peace, inwardly and outwardly.

The more we write, speak, and serve, the less “risky” our ideas become and before you know it our ideas are policies and social norms (we all know the US government will only make change when risk is no longer involved).

I’ll be here dancing, you are welcome to join, to lead

 

in Ideas  by 09 Aug 2011 0 comments