tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48228237017665610682024-02-21T04:26:29.000-08:00Samantha Ka's Learning JourneyA journey of just one Executive Learner in just one transnational community organization on fire to transform themselves and the world.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-36801759419349354342011-04-26T21:47:00.001-07:002011-04-26T22:06:40.056-07:00Growing Pains and Gains<blockquote><em>"...but what<br />what if no one's watching<br />what if when we're dead, we're<br />just dead<br />what if there's no time to lose<br />what if there's things we<br />gotta do<br />things that need to be said<br /><br />you know I can't apologize<br />for everything I know<br />I mean you don't have to agree with me<br />but<br />once you get me going<br />you better just let me go<br />we have to be able to<br />criticize<br />what we love<br />say what we have to say<br />'cause if you're not<br />trying to make something better<br />as far as I can tell<br />you're just in the<br />way."<br /></em><br />-Ani DiFranco, "What if No One's Watching"<br /><br /></blockquote>The last two days have borne important conversations about the growth and growing pains of CLP. This year has been the beginning of important new projects-- multiple-college internships, year-long local programs, year-long international programs, international visitors and a $25K budget. Amazing achievements and lots to learn.<br /><br />I know I have a lot to learn, and I sit here writing this feeling like I'm finally getting through some of this muck of the learning and seeing the clarity of the lessons. Last night with CLP@NoVi team and tonight with the intern team really helped me clarify the ways I need to grow to be a better a CLP member, a better facilitator and mentor, as well as a better friend.<br /><br /><strong>(SOME) Key Lessons for Samantha: </strong><br /><br />1) I need to hold people to higher expectations-- the same expectations I have of myself. And, when they meet those expectations with their own authentic standard of quality-- I need to recognize and value them for their hardwork and leadership.<br /><br />2) I need to hold people accountable for expectations that are not met. I need to recognize that this is not me being a "bossy bad lady" but being in right relationship with people who are an important part to an important vision. We need them, that's why we need to be accountable. All of us need to be accounted for because all of us are valuable to the process.<br /><br />3) I need to be a better, more gracious friend. I need to slow down and listen and value the time "to be" just as much as our time of "to do." I need to recognize that this is hard work for all of us and that we are deserving of time of care and relaxation. High standards of excellence in our work and coalition-building are only capable with high standards for balance and self-care. <br /><br />4) I need to let people own their process in a public and valued way. We need time to air out our despair, anger, fear, grief and frustration. Furthermore, I need to let people own that process-- what is true for one person in CLP will not necessarily be true for the whole organization, nor is it an attack on me. Creating the space to own our individual experiences as members of the organization is essential to individual and collective health and clarity.<br /><br />5) I need to be better to and gentler with myself. I have run my own body, mind and spirit into the ground, resulting in a projection of my own fatigue on to the people I am partners with around me. I need to respect my own limits and embody healthy commitment-making, excellence and accountability in my own life in order to practice that (and struggle alongside others who are working on that) in CLP.<br /><br />I'm thankful to all the incredible friends--the volunteers and interns in CLP-- who have taught me so much this month. From Shiva's visit, which required a greater level of honesty and integrity of me than ever before, to my colleagues and peers in Riverside who have taught me more about people-powered organizations in the last two days than I have learned in years.<br /><br />Thanks.<br /><br />----<br /><br /><strong>With this reflection, time for everyone else: </strong><br /><br />1) <strong>A reading from the Boston Globe, "The Truth About Grit." You are welcome to comment on this in your reflection question, below. </strong>(The reading: <a href="http://www.duxbury.k12.ma.us/highendpilot/TheTruthAboutGrit.pdf">http://www.duxbury.k12.ma.us/highendpilot/TheTruthAboutGrit.pdf</a> )<br /><br />2) <strong>Your reflection</strong>: What is your re-commitment to or from CLP? What do you plan to get out of this experience to make the next two months the most valuable two months in your entire internship? What are you letting go of to make room for CLP... or how will you let go of CLP to make room for things in your life that are more meaningful?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-379045049339252272011-03-12T19:41:00.000-08:002011-03-12T19:43:16.925-08:00Constant Contact and Email MarketingCLP is about to take the next step in newsletters/email marketing: the email newsletter with fancy HTML-ness via Constant Contact.<br /><br />Em did some good research on email marketing.<br />One in particular: http://www.fundraising123.org/article/14-tips-making-your-nonprofit-email-more-effective<br /><br />I'm trying to consider some of my practices in reading "weekly" emails... I read the ones that are (1) relevant, (2) don't constantly bug me for money, (3) have opportunities that I can get connected to, (4) include interesting information I can refer to.<br /><br />What keeps you reading?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-68364889999621722462011-02-21T06:57:00.000-08:002011-02-21T06:58:57.231-08:00Grants and Community DevelopmentThe "craft" of grantmaking:<br /><br />GrantCraft: http://www.grantcraft.org/index.cfm?<br /><br />Community Development and Grant Making: http://www.hewlett.org/uploads/files/CommunityDevelopment2.pdfUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-70670816211612857112011-02-01T14:42:00.000-08:002011-02-01T14:44:32.656-08:00Youth-Led Organizing Follow-UpMy favorite youth-organizing website: <a href="http://freechild.org/">http://freechild.org/</a><br /><br />An interesting website outlining Nagpur (North Indian city) and its development as a "Human Rights Sensitive" city: <a href="http://www.pdhre.org/projects/nagpur99.html">http://www.pdhre.org/projects/nagpur99.html</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-49604696442197180212011-01-26T05:49:00.000-08:002011-01-26T05:50:14.806-08:00[CLP-Interns] Preparation Entry (Jan 31)<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">26 Jan 2011</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Next week's intern meeting will be Grant-Writing 101 as we prepare to submit for a second year with the Community Foundation and their Youth Grantmakers granting program. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In preparation, please see the following grant information from the Community Foundation's upcoming Youth Grantmakers Grant...</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The Youth Grantmakers Program (2011): </b><a href="http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/TCF_Initiative/YouthPhilanthropyInitiative.html">http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/TCF_Initiative/YouthPhilanthropyInitiative.html</a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The upcoming grant opportunity (due February 15, 2011):</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Grant guidelines: <a href="http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/downloads/grants/2011/YGC/2011_YGC_Grant_Guidelines.doc">http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/downloads/grants/2011/YGC/2011_YGC_Grant_Guidelines.doc</a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Grant application:<a href="http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/downloads/grants/2011/YGC/2011_YGC_Grant_Application.doc"> http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/downloads/grants/2011/YGC/2011_YGC_Grant_Application.doc</a> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Last year (2010) CLP received $2225 from the Youth Grantmakers Committee. This grant is our funding resource for the CLP@NoVi and SU2I Program. A press release about this grant is available here:<a href="http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_W_wgrants15.46289c9.html">http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_W_wgrants15.46289c9.html</a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">For your review and preparation for our meeting Monday</span>, please take a look at the grant that we submitted last year: <a href="http://bit.ly/ygfund2010">http://bit.ly/ygfund2010</a>. At our meeting on Monday, I will show you an example of a different grant I have written that will influence how we change our approach to the 2011 grant. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">---</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Other (vaguely related) resources:</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">How to Write a Grant Proposal from About.com: <a href="http://nonprofit.about.com/od/foundationfundinggrants/tp/grantproposalhub.htm">http://nonprofit.about.com/od/foundationfundinggrants/tp/grantproposalhub.htm</a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">From E-How: <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Grant-Proposal">http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Grant-Proposal</a> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-66296022931451288212011-01-18T22:57:00.000-08:002011-01-18T23:06:19.202-08:00[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Jan 24, 2011)18 January 2011<br /><br />For next week's reflection (Monday, January 24 from 6:30-8:30), I would like you to watch this 19-minute TED talk on the Slow Movement.<br /><br />http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html<br /><br /><!--copy and paste--><object width="334" height="326"><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"></param> <param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/CarlHonore_2005G-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/CarlHonore-2005G.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=320&vh=240&ap=0&ti=73&introDuration=15330&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=830&adKeys=talk=carl_honore_praises_slowness;year=2005;theme=what_makes_us_happy;theme=not_business_as_usual;theme=might_you_live_a_great_deal_longer;theme=a_greener_future;event=TEDGlobal+2005;&preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;"><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="334" height="326" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/CarlHonore_2005G-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/CarlHonore-2005G.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=320&vh=240&ap=0&ti=73&introDuration=15330&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=830&adKeys=talk=carl_honore_praises_slowness;year=2005;theme=what_makes_us_happy;theme=not_business_as_usual;theme=might_you_live_a_great_deal_longer;theme=a_greener_future;event=TEDGlobal+2005;"></embed></object><br /><br />One of the CLP Core skills is our ability "to hold process as important, if not more important, than product."<br /><br />What insights do you make regarding going slowly and "quality"-- quality of life, quality of relationship, of work, etc? Consider your pace (personally, socially, academically, in CLP, etc). Why that pace? What does it mean to you? Where has it "taken" you?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Consider:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Slowness | quality | process | outcome| participation | attentive | prepared | fully present</span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-28035870129834537722010-12-10T21:42:00.000-08:002010-12-10T21:44:23.344-08:00[CLP Interns] Goals and Visions for Winter 2011Hey all!<br /><br />For our last meeting of 2010, we are going to be little planning fools.<br /><br />Follow this link and print out a visioning/goal-setting/planning tool format you can use to assist in this process: http://bit.ly/clpinternplanningtooldec-mar <br /><br />Please come prepared on Tuesday (5PM-7PM) with your calendars and plans for programs in the next three months (or more, if you are visioning that far!)<br /><br />Together we will make one main calendar to set us up for Winter quarter.<br /><br />See you Tuesday!<br />SamanthaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-59882927469658430452010-12-09T07:13:00.000-08:002010-12-09T07:18:22.051-08:00CLP Event Planning Best PracticesDeveloped by the CLP D.I.R.T. Interns, Dec. 2010<br /><br />1. Create a rich environment. ( Raw | Flava' | Relational )<br />2. Outreach and reach-out. ( Power of invitation | Informational materials )<br />3. Commit to the event. ( Before | During | After )<br />4. Give everyone a role. ( Responsive | Proactive | Helpful )<br />5. Engage all the senses. ( Make the event sensual.)<br />6. Be deep / personal. ( Real | [Almost] Spontaneous )<br />7. Give it energy. ( Heart | Body | Soul = Present)<br />8. Hospitality. ( Welcome People | Nourish People | Respect People)<br />9. Accessibility. ( All people are able to attend, understand, participate.)<br />10. Murphy's Love. ( Murphy wants your event to succeed, he just has different plans-- go with them!)<br />11. Look good.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-60481528233242351612010-12-06T06:56:00.000-08:002010-12-06T07:07:46.987-08:00[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Dec 6)Dear Interns,<br /><br />1) Having completed the Making Space event, what did you think about the whole event as "CLP Event"? For example, what was your favorite part and why? What did you take away from this that will help you plan your own events in the future (likes, dislikes)?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">When considering the event, you may want to consider...</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> - Vibe</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> - Hospitality</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> - Atmosphere</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> - Speeches</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> - Videos, Photos</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> - Presentation, preparation</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- Inclusivity</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">- Audience participation</span><br /><br />2) What did you learn about CLP that you didn't know before? After seeing ALL of CLP, what direction do you want your internship to take? Your research?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">For your reference:</span><br />The PE Article about Making Space: http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_W_wclp04.4257f88.html<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Videos</span>:<br /><br />CLP@NoVi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUmleTJBXUU<br /><object width="200" height="137"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JUmleTJBXUU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JUmleTJBXUU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="200" height="137"></embed></object><br /><br />CLP India, Summer 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_AiCo0SHM<br /><object width="200" height="137"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tR_AiCo0SHM?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tR_AiCo0SHM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="200" height="137"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-88477634267565327612010-11-30T12:47:00.000-08:002010-11-30T12:48:43.459-08:00How can you tell if your community will flourish?Openness Beauty Social Offerings <strong><span style="font-size:180%;">></span></strong> Perceptions of Economy Political Leaders<br /><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/knightsoulofcommunity">http://bit.ly/knightsoulofcommunity</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-19710511279255747072010-11-28T09:11:00.000-08:002010-11-28T11:42:33.183-08:00[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Nov 28)Dear Interns!<br /><br />This Tuesday we will be sharing "our stories" to assist us in being powerful, impactful speakers at the Making Space event on December 4th.<br /><br />First of all: fundraising is tricky. Lots of us resist fundraising-- it is uncomfortable to ask for funds and we associate it with "begging" and people demand for a "sustainability plan" by the organization (i.e. people want us to "make money" in a "more respectable way" rather than asking folks to donate). Lots of negative connotations. Lots of questions, too. Do I have enough? What if I give it all away? Only rich people give money. Money is greed. <br /><br />In The Soul of Money, Lynne Twist tells her story of fundraising and the direction of our funds to "our highest commitments." Her stories and her vision of money and sufficiency were important for me in my understandings of work and giving.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">For this week, please take ten minutes and view this presentation by Lynne Twist about the "soul of money": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5xlJg9WxJg</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">On your blog</span> take some time and prepare your response to Lynne's vision. Then, consider: what is your highest commitment? What do you commit your time and money to? One of the things you will be committing significant time (and possibly money!) to is CLP. Why? This is the story we will tell at "Making Space" on Saturday.<br /><br />See you Tuesday night!<br />SamanthaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-13520380492194705672010-11-23T15:20:00.001-08:002010-11-23T15:21:10.207-08:00Great Quote, Great Resources"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." - Martin Luther King, Jr.<br /><br />Outline for the "Better Together" Campaign, awesome tools for using Social Media to make a movement: <a href="http://content.delivra.com/etapcontent/InterfaithYouthCore/attachments/Interfaith%20Leader%20Action%20Calendar.pdf">http://content.delivra.com/etapcontent/InterfaithYouthCore/attachments/Interfaith%20Leader%20Action%20Calendar.pdf</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-3465844981294665002010-11-20T11:10:00.001-08:002010-11-20T11:16:15.934-08:00[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Nov 20)Hello Karla, Cheng, Malcolm, Gilbert, Sara and Francis--<br /><br />As promised, this week's reading/reflection is on “Why India?”/ “Why Riverside? / Why Mexico?”<br /><br />To start us off-- why this?<br /><br />As you know, our annual celebration/fundraiser, “Making Space: Two Years with CLP” is on Saturday, December 4th from 6:30PM-8:30PM at Back to the Grind Coffee Shop in Downtown Riverside. As I'm sure Kat would attest, the most important thing to communicating an idea is the personal story behind that idea. For example-- why you are in CLP and why I am in CLP is different, and should be different. The personal always moves us in a deeper way. We need to be personal at “Making Space.”<br /><br />And, as you know: CLP does not just collaborate with our brothers and sisters in one country-- we collaborate in all three. Sometimes this is forgotten when people hear we “work in India.” The immediate assumption is that we only work “somewhere else.” And there is a feeling of frustration and defensiveness-- “Why not HERE?” Why don't you work here?”<br /><br />What does that question mean to us? First of all, where is that question coming from? Why is that person asking the question? What emotions are behind it? Then, what is our personal response? And where does that response come from? This analysis could bring out some ugly-beautiful stuff: from our own (underlying) feelings of superiority, power or entitlement (as challenged by Ivan Illich) or our guilt for the past and the present or our vision for transcendence and transformation or our hunger for connection.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So, the question for your first formal blog “post” / travel journal entry: [Why India? Why Riverside? Why Mexico?]<br /></span><br />To help you us started or inspire some thought, some light reading/viewing/listening. Skim them all or pick a couple to read/watch more closely to get your own mind/heart going:<br /><br />(1) My sermon/reflection on on the soul and global wholeness: <a href="http://bit.ly/soulandwholeness_swilson">http://bit.ly/soulandwholeness_swilson</a><br /><br />(2) An LA Times article on poverty in Riverside (Oct 2010): <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/08/local/la-me-inland-empire-poverty-20101008">http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/08/local/la-me-inland-empire-poverty-20101008</a><br /><br />(3) Audio recording of MLK on Gandhi, NPR: <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99480326">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99480326 </a><br /><br />(4) Video interview of Arundhati Roy, Indian activist on Obama, war and the Indian government: <a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/acclaimed-indian-author-arundhati-roy-on-obama-s-wars-poverty-and-india-s-maoist-rebels-by-arundhati-roy">http://www.zcommunications.org/acclaimed-indian-author-arundhati-roy-on-obama-s-wars-poverty-and-india-s-maoist-rebels-by-arundhati-roy </a><br /><br />(5) Music video, Indigo Girls “Shame on You”: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKqUglOC3_8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKqUglOC3_8 </a><br /><br />These five links are for triggering our own ideas/thoughts-- they do not represent a formal “CLP” opinion on anything (I don't think we have formal opinions, just principles). Use these to get your ideas and curiosities going. Your blog response does not have to be exact or perfect or complete (whatever that means)-- it can be bullet points, some varied ideas. We will be working on this question for a long time. This is just the beginning. Kat has many resources on this one.<br /><br />See you all, and your blog entries, on Tuesday night. And for some of you, see you in the next couple days as we get started on your projects.<br /><br />Yeah!<br />SamanthaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-89922203651141509532010-11-19T10:42:00.001-08:002010-11-19T10:42:45.431-08:00CLP Internships!Hello, community!<br /><br />Glad to be here updating you all on our CLP Interns!<br /><br />They'll be joining us soon and posting a link to their blogs as a comment to this page. This is the first, and certainly not the last, challenge.<br /><br />:)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-56679393050760021902010-04-15T21:07:00.000-07:002010-04-15T21:31:18.925-07:00"This is Major Tom to Ground Control!"I write from a hotel room in Miami, FL. <br /><br />I've spent my day of travel and subsequent afternoon in a sleepy state of vegetarian-pizza-eating reading and relaxation, browsing the internet, catching up on email and repeatedly falling asleep. I've also been listening to David Bowie's "Space Oddity" with an uncanny sense of identification-- maybe its that floating in a "tin can" part (American Airlines kind of looks that way?) or perhaps its the "feeling very scared" but your spaceship knowing which way to go, so you go with it?<br /><br />This is my third Clinton Global Initiative University gathering. In 2008, I made my first commitment to work on CLP.<br /><br />But really, that commitment had been made in India, on long bus rides and international dormitories where I felt like a Grade-A-Bump-On-A-Pickle. But, an observational pickle-- one aware of the potential of transnational action that could take place, if said pickle were willing to risk.<br /><br />Like, for example, Major Tom!<br /><br />After one day here, I will be "floating in tin can" to Connecticut. I've never been to that part of the USA before-- a more "radical" journey (if you'll allow this) than going to India. In fact, planning this trip was far more intimidating than planning any of my CLP trips to India! Why is my own country, sometimes, so unfamiliar and big and intimidating? Is it us or is it me? When I step into India, I feel like I enter a world of "Annas" and "Akkas" (brothers and sisters)-- why not here? Or maybe it is less explicit? <br /><br />Probably the latter. Today, as I checked in to my hotel, a friendly front desk clerk, Alfonso, hooked me up with my vegetarian pizza. And the driver, an older gentleman from francophone Africa, got lost WITH me as we discovered my California accent and his West African accent confused both of us, and we were both (simultaneously) "too polite" to check with one another again. After ending up in a neighborhood of pink and baby blue houses and palm trees, we pulled over, read the directions and realized his "1800 SW" was my "8200 SW". Laughing, I said "Well! C'est la vie!" to which he replied, "You speak French!?"<br /><br />En peu? <br /><br />And even though, by the end of it, his meter read "$50"-- he charged me $35, and we said "goodbye" to one another in a flurry of apologies and smiles for the linguistic confusion.<br /><br />As of Saturday morning, right at the stroke of midnight, I'll be at the Global Health and Innovation Conference at Yale for the rest of this weekend, sponsored by Unite for Sight. I've been scrolling through the presentations and participants, highlighting names and reading webpages to get an idea of the folks I need to hunt down, "court and woo," and learn with. I attend this conference by myself, as Sydney and Rachel stay at Clinton Global Initiative and continue forward in recruiting and connecting with other college students eager to get connected to something real.<br /><br />Its 12:26 AM on Friday in Miami and I'm restless. Restless with energy to move, to read, to meet. Restless in my desire to fall into a deep, mountainous sleep. I mean mountainous in that timeless, slow-moving, granite way. I want to sleep, literally, like a rock...<br /><br />... but that will wait. Or it will come in pieces. And I'll make a mosaic of rest and restlessness. <br /><br />More on that later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LVC9eW9Q4EUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-88627447929269526832010-04-04T20:21:00.000-07:002010-04-04T20:28:35.875-07:00New books!My reading list...<br /><br />Parker J. Palmer, "A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life-- Welcoming the Soul and Weaving the Community in a Wounded World"<br /><br />James R. Brockman, "The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero"<br /><br />Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, "Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism"<br /><br />David Batstone et. al, "Liberation Theologies, Postmodernity, and the Americas"<br /><br />INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, "Color of Violence: the INCITE! Anthology"<br /><br />Arundhati Roy, "The Cost of Living"<br /><br />Arundhati Roy, "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile"<br /><br />Arundhati Roy, "Power Politics"<br /><br />Melvin Delgado and Lee Staples, "Youth-Led Community Organizing: Theory and Action"<br /><br />Peter Block, "Community: The Structure of Belonging"<br /><br />Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity"<br /><br />Myron Weiner, "The Child and the State in India"<br /><br />Mohandas K. Gandhi, "Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth"<br /><br />Frantz Fanon, "The Wretched of the Earth"<br /><br />Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum, "Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry"<br /><br />Simeon Terry, et al. "Through the Eyes of the Judged: Autobiographical Sketches by Incarcerated Young Men"<br /><br />Greg Mortenson, "Stones Into Schools"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-67162832721192259832010-04-04T20:03:00.001-07:002010-04-04T20:03:35.811-07:00Notes from a recent CLP India Volunteer Training...<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.2 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { so-language: zxx } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER"><b>CLP India Curriculum: “What can we create together?”</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" align="CENTER">
<br /></p> <ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Space for the revolutionaries</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Meaningful, relevant education that can be applied to real-life </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Conversations with parents, teachers and the community</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Emphasis on “mutual transformation”</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Students are not numbers, know them as human beings </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Youth-led activities and organizing whenever possible</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Students as experts</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Reclaim IZZAT in a “CLP” way</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“How” of learning for students, more than memorization (include all ways of learning)</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Addressing issues that can't be addressed at home or in a “typical” classroom</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Remember-- you are NOT alone! (Many others are dealing with these issues-- build community)</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Remember to emphasize “values” and the “universalisms of learning”</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Develop a “culture” and set of life-tools that can be used, comfortably or fluidly, in their lives beyond CLP programs-- we are the “mayonnaise” on a sandwich of their lives (make it tasty, work in the system and daily life)</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Be real as facilitators and co-learners-- use y(our) stories</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Role play for practice, to make it something our bodies actually do</p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Inclusivity of all people involved</p> </li></ul> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-42176212111591832472010-01-24T05:53:00.000-08:002010-01-24T05:54:15.607-08:00Conversations in a Beauty ParlourThe collection of stories I am working on:<br />http://thinkfeminisms.blogspot.com/Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-39299061824556803192010-01-24T05:19:00.000-08:002010-01-24T05:27:44.979-08:00Glimpses from India, a Mini-Report on CLP Winter ProgrammingWow.<br /><br />The Child Leader Project 2009-2010 Winter Program was an incredible success. I type this with confidence and a giddy grin. By “success” I mean that CLP youth leaders were excited, talkative, thoughtful, challenging and engaging as teachers and students. Programs embodied CLP values by the ways in which they were dialogical (or open in the ways in which people spoke more freely from their experience, without a need to prove, convince, or defend one’s ideas, feelings or experiences) as well as experiential, requiring students to act out or experience the topics and ideas discussed in the CLP classroom. CLP Winter Program was also a success in the ways it deepened our roots in India and making a home, while also “branching out” in a serendipitous network with similar-minded organizations in and around our home, Pondicherry. Upon my return from India and my first day back at the “day job” in California, colleagues said I looked even more excited and refreshed—it’s all because of this month-long experience.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CLP Programs</span><br /><br />CLP hosted programs with two of our different partners this winter, Vidiyal Matriculation Higher Secondary School (VMHSS) near Trichy in central Tamil Nadu as well as Anbhagam International Education and Development Center (Anbhagam) in the capital city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. These two organizations serve very different populations of youth, requiring the organizations and CLP to be creative in developing programming that would meet their specific needs.<br /><br />Vidiyal is CLP’s first partner, making this Winter Program their fourth CLP experience and completing their second year of programming! Over 46 CLP students are present at Vidiyal ranging from 8th to 12th standard students. Students who are currently in 10th and 12th standard (similar to the USA “grade” system) are currently focused on preparing for their government-mandated testing and were only able to participate in a closing ceremony. The remaining students (8th, 9th and 11th) were participants for the three-day program.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9Hyty9oEf1v5HTWyjZJYAVArdg6Q7n-4LrgPU0LallWt6lNguFZCzltkOF0686rH0C9Dxtwd0P-s09B_WIOOC4P1elbQNWh26XvLFK5H4Ie2fPC4U7my6oX1V5-JC-6uhd1VJr8QewE/s1600-h/SOS-LOI.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9Hyty9oEf1v5HTWyjZJYAVArdg6Q7n-4LrgPU0LallWt6lNguFZCzltkOF0686rH0C9Dxtwd0P-s09B_WIOOC4P1elbQNWh26XvLFK5H4Ie2fPC4U7my6oX1V5-JC-6uhd1VJr8QewE/s320/SOS-LOI.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430297374283136642" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This winter program at Vidiyal was titled “VISION 2020 in 2010” and utilized the writings of former Indian president, APJ Abdul Kalam as a springboard for discussions and expressions of “community development.” CLP students had selected APJ’s Vision 2020 as a possible topic of interest during our 2009 Summer Program, mindful that APJ’s vision was specifically directed at empowering younger generations and empowering the Indian community towards development. Ultimately, however, APJ argues that India is a “highly developed country in an advanced state of decay.” This statement would turn out to be particularly powerful for students at Vidiyal—in a before survey provided at the beginning of the program, all students stated that India was a “developing country.” In a post-survey, all students stated that India was a “developed country” with social issues that could be remedied by its own people.<br /><br />Following a group reading of an abridged version of APJ’s “Vision 2020” speech, students returned to their homes and dormitories with a list we called “Points of Development.” This list included concerns related to a wide range of topics, including agriculture, education, corruption, peace and security, trade, environmental degradation and the status of women. The goal of the assignment was to engage the idea of “development” in our own lives— for example, what does “development” look like in our village or in our schools? Students returned the next day with short stories and comments about different points and we found topics and stories that overlapped.<br /><br />The places of overlap became our “problems” in the CLP version of Augusto Boal’s “theatre of the oppressed.” In this drama, we used stories and situations from our own lives (i.e. concerns about dowry or women’s rights post-marriage, police corruption and child abuse in schools) to act out new solutions. Students performed as actors in the play and would repeat the play, creating new solutions to the problem with each new performance. Ultimately, students created their own “situations” and performed these for 8th standard students at the end of the leadership program.<br /><br />The experience of performing and improvising new roles and responses was an incredibly new experience for students. One girl, Suhasini performed in the role of the young groom’s father and expressed her total joy at the power she felt in her role. The young man that played the future bride said he felt “negative” describing that he had “never had to be a girl before.” In the performance on police corruption, one student with the ambition of becoming a police officer stood and described how he thinks police could behave differently in the future as students questioned him about the actors in the play. Student performances included issues from caste discrimination in families and friendships to child abuse and public health awareness.<br /><br />Our feedback from this program reveals the power of this sort of community experience. One 8th standard student describes her experience: “First of all I want to thank Samantha Akka (sister) and Amala Akka. Because I am not so happy in my home or in my class. But I am so happy to attend the CLP and clean the community garden. For this class I hope of having some talent. I attend CLP I have some confidence. I like the games then homework. I like drama that we are acting. I am so fun, happy and I have no words to thank you.” When it was announced we would like to create a “CLP Council” of individuals at the school to help make some guiding decisions about the work we would do together in the future, all the students submitted a statement of interest. We are so happy for the community that we are all building together at Vidiyal.<br /><br />Our second, main program was with Anbhagam ICEDC. Anbhagam serves the street and slum communities in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Students from these communities are provided daily tuition and program support from Anbhagam’s three staff members. Anbhagam and CLP come together to provide extra programs, trainings and experiences that inspire and support students in their lives (for the present and the future). This program was focused on the topic of making changes in our lives as it relates to education. We discussed the changes that made a difference in our past and how those changes will also happen in our future. Higher education was described as one of many tools for making a difference in our future.<br /><br />To take the idea of higher education and make it a “reality,” John Bosco (Director of Anbhagam) and staff collaborated with CLP to take students to a local college, Loyola College, in Chennai. Bosco is an alumni of Loyola College and connected with his previous colleagues and professors to create a memorable experience for the students.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgakDKNMy1QULLJWJLZtE9GkMvTn5U23XMacTKlHFUnq_oaBbqMCg3bp5KgYzXSzii3yyHZ02k9LMkpX7x-A8nHHR2f4CX_eaZ8bABF0IWaEETgSecZ77GRJD-VQCChtoCb6YM0dqGCvd8/s1600-h/college.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgakDKNMy1QULLJWJLZtE9GkMvTn5U23XMacTKlHFUnq_oaBbqMCg3bp5KgYzXSzii3yyHZ02k9LMkpX7x-A8nHHR2f4CX_eaZ8bABF0IWaEETgSecZ77GRJD-VQCChtoCb6YM0dqGCvd8/s320/college.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430297034481577986" border="0" /></a><br />Twenty-six Anbhagam students from the Little Mount community came to Loyola College for an exploration of Visual Communications and college student life. They had tutorials of filming and lighting, photo shop and graphics as well as a full tour of the campus with a lunch in the student canteen. To top it off, Anbhagam and CLP created bright yellow t-shirts for each student that said “Child is not a bucket—child is a fire.” Students were stopped by professors and staff and questioned about the meaning of the t-shirt. Students replied that it meant “we have our own dreams!” No participating student had ever been to a college campus before, nor had any of them had family that went to college. This was an incredible first experience for this particular youth community.<br /><br />The following day, Anbhagam students participated in a short debrief about the program from the previous day, as well as led in a guided meditation by a special guest visitor (Vijay Mohan) on visioning their futures and the changes they want to make in their own lives.<br /><br />(I'm also in the process of building Anbhagam a website: <a href="http://www.anbhagam.blogspot.com/">www.anbhagam.blogspot.com</a>!)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Exciting Opportunities for the Future</span><br />First of all, congratulations to our five matriculating students from Vidiyal. We look forward to giving them college scholarships this summer (four featured below)!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9WqHRpE1H9w0wdrDpOGpjtx8g_2rte6zVvY6SVlH4uHHrQTuIjIq8Rjvr8T-FelERGL72zMaL1OC9m-In3V33u7jjPJ-MXdw3z5QibkG5UerUEL3szE-2jsVHBMPCzTd7GIiDvIyEy4/s1600-h/scholars.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 366px; height: 274px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9WqHRpE1H9w0wdrDpOGpjtx8g_2rte6zVvY6SVlH4uHHrQTuIjIq8Rjvr8T-FelERGL72zMaL1OC9m-In3V33u7jjPJ-MXdw3z5QibkG5UerUEL3szE-2jsVHBMPCzTd7GIiDvIyEy4/s320/scholars.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430296379522199026" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />CLP has incredible opportunities for the summer. We are now connected with Baby Sarah’s Home, an orphanage for orphaned and mentally and physically differently-abled children and youth. Baby Sarah’s has over 108 children in its home and is led by a young and enthusiastic 27-year-old man named Karthik. Karthik and I met during an International Conference on Autism that we both attended at Pondicherry University in December 2009.<br /><br />We are also in collaboration with an organization, CHILD (Child Helpage in Long Duration) located in Pondicherry. This organization provides tuition classes, vocational training and women’s Self-Help Groups for a village community in-between Pondicherry and Auroville. The leaders of CHILD are eager to create programs with social change/social justice focus for the children in their area in the summer.<br /><br />While both of these new possibilities root us even more firmly in Pondicherry, we would like to see collaboration and sharing across Tamil Nadu and Chennai. One of our goals for summer is a “CLP Convergence” of sorts in which all of our partners will have an opportunity to meet, dialogue and collaborate. We would also like to bring our students from across Tamil Nadu to do a similar activity, making this convergence and conference an annual community-event that CLP sponsors. Many of our partners have described that collaborative or dialogue-based meetings are less common as there are many issues related to sharing practices or staff across organizations (i.e. people are very afraid to lose funding or staff of they share too much information about their work). Perhaps CLP and CLP partners can create a new paradigm of community-based organizations in the areas we all work.<br /><br />Overall, this winter was an incredible opportunity for collaboration and deepening of our relationships with our partners, new and old. A more extensive report of our activities will be available from our website in the next couple of weeks. This will more clearly outline our work, as well as include the feedback from our students.<br /><br />More importantly, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our staff and partners in India, our Board of Directors and our donors and supporters in the USA. CLP is not possible without an incredible community of people, seen and unseen, that have given their financial, spiritual and emotional resources to see this organization take off. From the deepest place in my heart, I can not express the gratitude I have for the support those around us have given to see this vision continue.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">And with that, happy new year! We look forward to “visioning” our future with you!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-13095753845934056772009-12-24T05:38:00.000-08:002010-01-24T05:39:38.214-08:00CNN Local InterviewFilmed June 2009, prior to the CLP Summer 2009 Programs.<br /><br /><center><br /><object width="432" height="228"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UWbhrfm_enI&hl=en&fs=1&" name="movie"><param value="true" name="allowFullScreen"><param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"><embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UWbhrfm_enI&hl=en&fs=1&" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="432" height="228"></embed></object><br /></center><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-85485857402989553652009-11-22T20:21:00.001-08:002009-11-22T20:21:21.101-08:00The Best Measurement: Measure in Love, Measure in Life.21 November 2009<br /><br />As a young girl, my family took me to the Broadway opening of “RENT” three different times. RENT, a now-cult-classic, is a musical performance that dynamically explores topics of sexuality, gender, disease, art and activism at the turn of the millennium in New York. The hit song, “Seasons of Love,” was a song my mother and I would sing from a tape she had recorded and played ad nauseum in her glaringly red, Pontiac Firebird. The chorus went like this:<br /><br />“525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. <br />525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year? <br />In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. <br />In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. <br />In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?<br />How about love? How about love? <br />How about love? Measure in love. <br />Seasons of love.”<br /><br />Measurement is ever-present in the work we do. As we work our way through November, two CLP Board Members, Rachel Meeker and Sydney Craft, are in the throes of Clinton Global Initiative University applications. CLP has been represented at CGIU the passed two years (2008 a nd 2009) with a special invitation to attend this Spring (2010). CGIU is a non-partisan effort developed by former President Clinton in 2005 as a call to action for college students and universities to tackle global problems with collaborative and innovative solutions. CLP was awarded on-stage in 2009 as an “exemplary approach to addressing a specific global challenge.” This was followed by our being awarded $4,000 by the Pat Tillman Foundation as an Outstanding Commitment Award.<br /><br />One key question in a CGIU application is the organization's quantitative, measurable benchmarks that demonstrate its reach and impact. How do you measure your year? How does the organization prove its effectiveness? How many bed-nets were given? Loans? Scholarships? Computers? How many students enrolled? How many students retained? How much money donated? <br /><br />In my “day job” as Coordinator of Undergraduate Research at the University of California, Riverside, I recognize the importance of benchmarks, assessments and analysis in determining whether or not we have reached our desired learning outcomes and goals. My office sits squarely next door to the Office of Institutional Research, housing a determined Sociologist that pumps out incredible amounts of information as to the success of our student population. By the sounds of her typing and printing alone, I am well aware of the mass of information and work required to have quantified, statistic information about the retention and graduation rates of university students and the “success” of the university, no matter how narrow that may be defined. <br /><br />However, CLP does not strive to model itself after the public university system. Nor does it measure its success in the number of “things” re-distributed across the world or in our local community. If a CLP student dropped out of CLP or did not matriculate into higher education, I know we would not have “failed.” If a book club is attended by three people or ten people, we would not have failed. If two scholarships are given or twenty scholarships are given, we would not have failed. If the organization no longer exists one year from now, CLP would not have failed-- the purpose is not to protect the organization, the purpose is to use the organization as one of an infinite number of tools by which we come together collectively to make change.<br /><br />CLP “goals” are simple: we create spaces where we become fully human, where we engage oppression, where we reflect on the fragmentation resulting from that oppression and where we take action to address it or bring other people into awareness of it. <br /><br />So, how shall we measure our year? I think it is represented in the number of conversations we had; the number of hearts broken open in tenderness or awareness; the people who feel more conscious of their individual lives and their lives in relationship to others; those who are mindful of the world and their power in the world; those that feel capable of contributing their piece to life. <br /><br />We shall be measured by the number of organizations and people that led us in a better direction; the ways we became more conscious of our work; the scholarships given to students who are excited to go to wherever they are going; the parents involved; the obstacles-turned-opportunities; the strangers-turned-board-members who are excited to add their piece to the puzzle; the board-members-turned-strangers who have grasped their own deeper calling and feel ready to plunge into the unknown with it based on the learning they experienced in CLP. As said by civil rights leader Rev. Howard Thurman, “Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs are people that have come alive.”<br /><br />This is not an organization of numbers-- this is an organization for the pursuit and engagement of life. Let us hold ourselves to no other standard than the ways we bring life, engage life and discover life within ourselves and our global community.<br /><br />In gratitude for your support,<br />SamanthaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-80054434632402188282009-11-16T09:44:00.001-08:002009-11-16T09:49:59.817-08:00UCR Magazine: CLP and Samantha Featured<span style="font-weight: bold;">CLP Featured in UCR Magazine:</span><br />http://magazine.ucr.edu/1009/default.asp?tpgid=47251125&sn=112009<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Article Excerpt:</span><br /><p class="none-space"><strong>"Living the Promise"</strong></p> <p>Samantha Wilson, who graduated from UC Riverside in June with a bachelor’s degree in global studies, is now coordinating a new brand of university-fueled volunteerism. </p> <p>In the fall quarter, UCR started a pilot program connecting undergraduates with community groups to do needed research and provide other services. Faculty mentors will work with the students.</p> <p>As the new coordinator for undergraduate research in the community, Wilson said she is “seeking out opportunities for students to connect to community organizations and entities to find ways that their research, their participation or their presence works for social service or social change, and benefits the community in a new way. … I look forward to mentoring students to organize and develop power with the community through collaborative action and research.”</p> <p>Although Wilson is a new graduate, she is hardly new to community service. While a UCR junior she founded a nonprofit called Child Leader Project, working to encourage education and leadership globally. </p> <p>“I wrote a proposal to do a values-based leadership program at a school run by a micro-finance institution in South India and received $10,000 from the Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation,” she wrote recently from India. “It began at one school in South India, and has now spread in a rather organic way to three different youth communities across the state of Tamil Nadu. By the end of this summer, we will have approximately 85 students in our programs in India.”</p> <p>The nonprofit also has connections at UC Riverside and at two area high schools in Riverside and the Jurupa area. “We want youth in the U.S.A. and India to expand education as a lifelong and visionary process of creativity, compassion, exploration, discovery and collaboration,” Wilson said.</p> <p>Her goals for Child Leader Project: “To bring people together and make a difference in the way we operate as a society, as communities, as schools, families, friends or individuals. We want to re-imagine our world, not simply duplicate it, its injustices, its distractions or its preoccupations within the organization. Therefore, our goal is not money and a killer resume; our goal is social change.”</p> <p>A team of UCR volunteers went to India in 2008 and taught Indian students about the opportunities of higher education along with other leadership values. “All volunteers for CLP pay to go to India on their own dime — and work very hard when they arrive,” Wilson said. “CLP is far from a vacation: late nights on public buses traveling to and from field sites, all-day programming with high school students, language barriers, heat, mosquitoes. However, the sorts of people that come on a CLP trip are really incredible people — I’d confidently say they are visionary and these sorts of challenges are more like quirky joys to them.”</p> <p>She has spent summer 2009 on her third trip to India. Two high school exchange students, one from Riverside and one from Jurupa, have also visited. Wilson hopes to leave a permanent program in place, in which Indians teach other Indians. “Children, youth, young adults, adults — people everywhere are aching for meaning and connection,” she wrote from India. “This is what CLP strives to create: a space where we collaborate, create, and connect.</p> <p>“Although I have graduated as a student, this cycle has not changed. I am still carrying around books and notes and a laptop, still e-mailing professors, still revising and changing what seems to be a lifelong thesis on these ideas,” she wrote. “And I think UCR will be a hotspot for these sorts of things in the future — hopefully the new office for research in the community will be the gathering place for that sort of creative action.” </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-39671920103737880792009-07-03T21:24:00.000-07:002009-07-03T21:44:48.414-07:00Leaving Monday... Reading List for the Summer!I'm leaving for India on Monday. Unfortunately, in the midst of preparing for departure, I've managed to become ill with "Strep Throat." Nevertheless, I've also had the opportunity to prepare my reading list and make a calendar of arrivals and departures for our team of volunteers.<br /><br />(1) "Yes Means YES! Vision of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape" by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti- Essays on rape and women's sexuality. I have been given a grant by the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation for the development of a creative work on conversations about women and organizing in India. These themes and topics of power and consent and sexuality will be useful fuel for the mental fire.<br /><br />(2)"The Color of Freedom" by Laura Coppo, an oral biography outlining the lives of two Tamil Nadu social activist-revolutionaries, S. Jagannathan and Krishnammal Jagannathan during the time of Mahatma Gandhi and Indian independence.<br /><br />(3) "Education for Critical Consciousness" and "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire. CLP grounds a lot of its operations in Freire's writings on liberating education and the power of reflection and action.<br /><br />(4) "Deschooling our Lives" edited by Matt Hern provides examples of alternatives to traditional schooling, which may unlock some creative thinking for CLP activities and pedagogies. Thanks to my mentor, Kat Norman, for lending this one (and the next one) to me!<br /><br />(5) "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" by John Gatto also provides a critical examination of the public school system, the banking system of education, and the connections between the industrialized workforce and the crippling of creativity, enthusiasm, and liberation within public education systems.<br /><br />(6) "The Revolution will not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex" edited by Incite!Women of Color Against Violence. This one is critical of traditional organizing and organizational development in "capitalist America." Thanks to Patrick for the recommendation! I just got it in the mail today-- right on time!<br /><br />Other possibilities...<br />- bell hooks, "Teaching to Transgress"<br />- A biography of Che Guevara, "A Revolutionary Life"<br />- "The Autobiography of Malcolm X"<br />- "AIDS Sutra"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-53862249896355860952009-06-21T09:48:00.000-07:002009-06-21T09:55:03.751-07:00Moving is Discovering!-- June 21, 2009Moving is a process of discovery-- I've been finding old notes, photographs, yearbooks, dried flowers, buttons, nails, pens and folders of overly-detailed class notes from four years of undergraduate education.<br /><br />I've also found a lot of CLP notes, from India to California. Some from plane rides in between the two. Some cryptic, some anthropological, some poetic.<br /><br />Some without titles. Like this one, scribbled across three sheets, ripped out and attached to a list of "Social Service Activities" compiled by the Lights of India in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu in August 2008...<br /><br />-----------------------<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Untitled, Undated Field Notes (India, August 2008)</span><br /><br />Why do we do it? Where? How? Purpose.<br />Marriage moment: Why don't you work locally? Why do we have to choose?<br />What are you doing with your life?<br />I'm unifying mind and action.<br /><br />[Thinking Florida.]<br />--> Fantasy world.<br />--> Letter from God.<br />--> As I looked beneath me, I was making the road.<br /><br />The weight of that moment-- to do international organizing the right way requires it to consume you. I want to let it consume me. Studying in endless hunger. Read till it becomes you. Stay up late... creating, becoming, developing.<br /><br />Service, activism, social justice is a full-time job. There is nothing compartmental about it.<br /><br />Flexibility. Fearlessness.<br /><br />These are real lives. Where is US where is THEM ?<br /><br />[A new definition]: Self-activism: a radical confrontation.<br />(Real social justice is transformation.)<br /><br />You should get somewhere and feel fearlessly stupid.<br />--> Humility.<br />--> FEARLESS HUMILITY.<br /><br />"You are a CRAZY American girl!"<br />--> Identity.<br />--> Foreigner.<br />--> Female.<br />--> Unmarried.<br /><br />[[Enigma]].Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4822823701766561068.post-58172620859985231232009-03-23T16:58:00.000-07:002009-03-23T17:01:33.498-07:00Higher education in India... let the market provide?<span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">An interesting article from the Economist:<br /><a href="%28http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12749787%29">(http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12749787)</a></span><br /></span><h1><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Special Report on India: Creaking, groaning</span>- <span style="font-style: italic;">Dec 11th 2008</span></span><br /></h1><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >"<span style="font-family: verdana;">Primary education is a particular worry. It is hard to teach illiterate Indian women basic hygiene. Illiterate men are not equipped for productive employment. Yet in 2001 only 65% of the population was literate, optimistically defined, compared with 90% in China, even though every Indian government for the past two decades has vowed to fix primary education. The current government is no exception. It has increased the overall education budget, but not much. Last year it represented 2.8% of GDP, about half the figure in Kenya.</span></span> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">At least almost all Indian children now go to school: a survey of 16,000 villages carried out last year by ASER, an NGO, put the enrolment rate at 96%. But it also pointed to the appalling quality of education on offer. Half of ten-year-olds could not read to the basic standard expected of six-year-olds. Over 60% could not do simple division. One reason is that, according to a World Bank study, only half of Indian teachers show up to work. Half of Indian children leave school by the age of 14.</span></p> <span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" ><a name="let_the_market_provide"></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >Let the market provide?</span> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">Or rather, many of them turn to private schools, on which poor Indians spend 2% of their incomes. Many of these are wholly unregulated, but apparently no worse for it. A study of a Hyderabad slum, by James Tooley of Britain’s Newcastle University, found that of 918 schools, 35% were government-run, 23% were private but officially approved, and 37% were informal. The private schools were better. In a standardised test the informal private schools actually came out best, with an average mark of 59.5% in English, compared with 22.4% in the government schools. </span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">Clearly the government should support the grey market in education that its own failings have given rise to. It should make it easier for private schools to get approval. Their teaching materials could then be upgraded and standardised. ASER’s survey also suggests that, with a few sensible steps, big improvements are possible even in state-run schools. By making teachers accountable to local governments, Bihar, India’s most unlettered state, roughly halved its truancy rate last year. A draft law awaiting parliamentary approval would make similar changes across India.</span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">Higher education is another candidate for reform. In the past five years the rate of enrolment in higher education has taken off, from 7% to 13% of young Indians. But the quality of teaching at India’s 348 universities and some 18,000 colleges is generally poor. NASSCOM, the IT industry’s lobby group, reckons that of the 350,000 engineering graduates who emerge each year, mostly from private colleges, 25% are unemployable without extensive further training, and half are just unemployable. </span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">In response to an urgent need, the central government has announced plans for 30 new centrally run institutions. These will not be first-rate. In a recent ranking of the world’s 500 best universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, only two were from India. But the new central institutions will be much better than most Indian public universities, which are run by state governments. In these places the teaching is mostly dreadful, syllabuses are outdated and facilities can be a health hazard. </span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">Many private establishments (which must be affiliated to a public university and cannot be run for profit) suffer the same deficiencies. With demand for higher education outstripping supply, they have little incentive to improve. Cumbersome and politicised regulators add to their woes. Getting approval to open a nursing college in India can take years even though there is a dire shortage of nurses, with only 30% of nursing jobs in rural hospitals filled. Almost the only investors who would submit themselves to this process are the politicians who control it, and indeed many of them own universities.</span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;font-family:trebuchet ms;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">In a recent paper on India’s higher education, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Devesh Kapur call it “the collateral damage of Indian politics”. For corrupt state-level rulers, a tightly regulated university system has many benefits. Politicians, or their lackeys, collect bribes for appointing faculty, admitting students and awarding good grades. They insert their supporters to run the racket. Having destroyed a public university, they then grant themselves permission to open a private one from which, illegally, they milk profits. India’s politicians would clearly be mad to reform this system."</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0