The Show Me Campaign Fellows

#Christina Crisostomo #reproductive health #advocacy

Lifting Generations

Last week I had the opportunity to collaborate with a professional filmmaker and Vittana’s Vice President of Marketing on a documentary about the students we serve. We interviewed several students and their families in four different cities throughout Paraguay. From nurses and physical therapists, to teachers and graphic designers, I noticed a common thread—all are using their education to uplift their families.

“Education doesn’t start in school. It starts in the family, with the parents.” —Francisco Rodriguez, Vittana Student. Pictured here with his father.

Take Francisco and his father Valentin, for example. From an early age, Francisco dreamed of being a soccer star—the national ~~pastime~~ obsession in Paraguay and most of Latin America. But as too often is the case, reality got in the way. Francisco began working in his father’s tire shop at the age of eight. It was hard and dangerous work, not the kind you would wish for any child—and not what Valentin wished for his son. He worked, sacrificed, and saved money to put Francisco through grade school. They couldn’t afford the private universities close to home, so he worked and saved some more to send Francisco to the capital city of Asuncion. There he could attend a more affordable public university.

With a $650 loan from Vittana, Francisco purchased the study materials he needed and finished his degree in Physical Education. He now works as a P.E. teacher for several schools in the region and as a coach for the local soccer club.

I asked him how education had changed his life. He said, “My life is different. Very different. My father has been doing manual labor for forty years… I saw the sacrifices he made since I was very young. Now it’s my turn to help them.” He went on to explain how his increased income makes it possible for him to pay his mother’s medical expenses. He is also using his income to help his siblings, nieces and nephews. I was impressed to find serving others, not himself, at the top of his priority list.

When asked what inspired him to persevere through challenges, family was the answer again. “My father is always number one because of the love he has for his family. He is a real warrior.”

Vittana aims to “Graduate A Generation Beyond Poverty.” But after speaking to Francisco and dozens of students like him, perhaps we should be speaking of generations—in plural form. When you lend to a Vittana student, you may think you’re helping an individual. And in a big way, you are. What often goes unseen, though, is the way that these students leverage their education to lift their whole family out of poverty. How’s that for a return on your investment?

Jul 19, 2012

#Jason Harrison

Advocacy Day

In my last post, I mentioned I’d been attending a series of workshops on reproductive health and advocacy co-hosted by one of Women Thrive Worldwide’s partner organizations, CHANGE (Center for Health and Gender Equity). Reproductive health isn’t one of Women Thrive’s areas of focus, but we’re all about making sure governments listen to women around the world and address their needs – which is exactly what these workshops are for.

So far this summer, CHANGE, along with SIECUS, Choice USA, and Advocates for Youth have presented informative workshops for D.C. interns on various topics related to reproductive and sexual health: reproductive justice, sexuality education in the U.S., and international reproductive health. The idea behind these workshops is to educate young people about these issues and then mobilize them to act using their newfound knowledge – which is just what we did last Tuesday for Advocacy Day!

On Advocacy Day, we were trained in advocacy skills and refreshed on important information from the workshops. Then we got to go to Capitol Hill and act as lobbyists for a day, talking to congressional staffers about the issues we’d been learning about and what the U.S. government should do about them. We advocated for two pieces of legislation, which appropriately enough deal with the two focus areas of the Show Me Campaign: education in the U.S. and international development.

The first act was the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act (S. 1782, H.R. 3324), which aims to provide information and skills young people need to make informed, responsible, and healthy decisions about their sexual health. The act sets standards for inclusive comprehensive sexuality education, prohibits programs that do not meet the bare minimum standard, and funds comprehensive sexuality education for adolescents, college students, and teacher trainings.

The second act was the Global Democracy Promotion Act (S. 1585, H.R. 2639), which overturns the Global Gag Rule. To reinstate it, it must go through the congressional process instead of being reinstated by executive order. The Global Gag Rule prevents organizations receiving U.S. foreign assistance from using their own, non-U.S. funds from providing information or services related to abortion. Currently, the Global Gag Rule is repealed or instated by executive order (presently repealed under the Obama administration). It flip-flops based on who the President is, making it extremely difficult for organizations receiving U.S. foreign assistance to provide adequate and appropriate health services.

To me, both of these acts are just common sense – the hard part, of course, is convincing Congress of the same.

I wound up as the sole representative for D.C. (we were split either by home state or where we go to school) and was grouped with participants from Tennessee. Over the course of the day, we met with congressional staffers. The day got off to an amazing start during our meeting with a staffer from D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s office. Since she’s a co-sponsor of both acts, everything was unsurprisingly smooth as we gave our thanks for her outspoken support of reproductive rights. Then the coolest thing happened – we actually got to meet her! She was only able to pop in for a second, but it was enough to greet her and briefly discuss the 20-week abortion ban in D.C. that’s currently being marked up. Way. Too. Cool.

Over the rest of the day, we met with congressional staffers from Tennessee. We were pleasantly surprised with how receptive they were. Because they were Republicans who hadn’t co-sponsored the acts, I think all of us had braced ourselves for opposition. Instead, we found ourselves having a productive dialogue with each of them. (And I got to learn a thing or two about Tennessee!)

I feel really grateful to have participated in Advocacy Day because of how much I learned from the experience. To be honest, I was totally nervous about the whole experience beforehand – but once we got into our first meeting, I realized that we were really just having conversations with people who were willing to listen and I became a lot more confident in my advocacy abilities. It was really empowering to have our voices heard! Also, I haven’t done too much work involving politics and government in the past, but Advocacy Day was exhilarating – I’m definitely considering doing more of it. Not sure if I see “Christina Crisostomo: Lobbyist” on my business card in the future…but it’s another potential open door!

Jul 17, 20122 notes

More than a Feeling

The “Brown-Bag Lunch” is one of the many perks of working at Ashoka. Not merely a chance to chow down with your do-gooder co-workers, Brown-Bags are often organized around the arrival of an esteemed Ashoka fellow to the global (DC) office. Recently, Ashokans got a particularly special treat—a conversation with fellow and Dialogue in the Dark founder Andreas Heinecke.

Andreas’s enterprise (which now has franchises all over the world) invites people to experience complete darkness as a blind guide leads them through different “real life” situations, encouraging empathy in a particularly stark way. Hearing from Andreas was particularly meaningful for me, as I had taken part in Diagoue in the Dark while living in Israel before I began college. In a long year of religious study and reflection, the trip, scheduled well in advance with a friend (Andreas’s program is quite popular in Israel and requires significant advanced booking), was meant to be an enjoyable one, a step away from the seriousness expected during much of my time in Jerusalem. Yet it turned out to be one of the deepest and most self-reflective experiences I had the entire year.

Reflecting on my own experience with Dialogue in the Dark and contextualizing it within Andreas’s description of its founding—largely influenced by his realization of Nazi atrocities against the Jews—gave me new insight into Ashoka’s work and the value in it. While I spend most of my time at Ashoka working on a program focused on growing rural talent, I am continuously drawn to and intrigued by our new Empathy initiative. To have an entire sector of the organization focused around a feeling was, at first, a bizarre concept to me. Within my first few weeks, one of my most meaningful learning experiences was the realization that Empathy’s mission—to have every child master empathy—actually made an enormous amount of sense. At Princeton, the people I met who are heading toward careers embracing social entrepreneurship, high-impact giving, and other high-level forms of practiced magnanimity have been trained and instilled with empathy. Whether by their parents, a summer experience, or otherwise, they have each realized that pursuing social causes is of utmost importance. Bestowed with intelligence and equipped with passion, they are taking the value of empathy and applying it in the most meaningful ways they can imagine.

Every fellow and employee I’ve come across in my own work at Ashoka has been equipped with this very skill—otherwise they would certainly not be doing what they’re doing. Their work is almost universally low on personal gain, and many are working in environments in which the easiest route would be to take advantage of others to move to the top. However they learned it, their mastery of empathy has allowed them to work toward a future in which previously impoverished populations can thrive.

So, taking a broad look at the work of Andreas, Ashoka, and my fellow co-workers and classmates, the lesson seems clear. In the pursuit of solutions to the world’s most dire problems, brains and drive are only useful tools—mastering empathy may indeed be the first step to a better world.

Jul 15, 2012

#Nava Friedman

The Power to Make a Difference

There is a surplus of academically talented low-income high school students not applying to our best colleges. 84% of America’s qualified low-incomes students do not even apply to one top college, and 44% do not attend a 4-year college at all. An organization I worked for last summer, the Quest Scholars Program, is helping to change that. The Quest Scholars Program recruits, develops, and supports motivated low-income students – beginning in high school through college to their first job – to be successful at America’s best colleges, graduate schools, and companies.

Although the Quest Scholars Program isn’t related to Acumen Fund, the organization I’m working for this summer, it is related to the mission of the Show Me Campaign, and so I’d like to share a bit about them.

A few weekends ago I spoke at a Quest Scholars conference for low-income rising high school seniors. The conference is called the College Admissions Conference, and is incredibly important. Many of the students who attend the conference know very little about the how to put together a strong application, what financial aid is, the benefits of attending a top-tier college, or even the reality that they could attend one. Providing students with this information, and giving them the knowledge and confidence they need to apply is critical in bridging the education gap. That’s part of the reason why the work the Quest staff does is so important.

Equally important is the work that Quest scholars do. After I had given my speech students came up to me to ask me questions, and to thank me for speaking. Some students, after hearing that it’s possible for them to attend a top-tier college despite test-scores they consider bad, or grades they don’t think are good enough, just don’t believe it. Some students, after hearing reasons they should attend a top-tier college, think it’s just fluff. But, when a student from the same background as them tells them, it makes a difference. It makes it easier to believe, and easier to understand. Students begin to accept that something that seems like a dream is in fact a reality.

The Quest Scholars Program understands this, and encourages and provides opportunities to students to get involved. Students who applied to college through the program can help out as Group Leaders at the College Admissions Conferences where they talk to students and parents about their experiences, they can give presentations at local high schools about the realities of attending top-tier colleges, they can take part in calling campaigns to spread the word. The list goes on and on.

These college students participate because they want to give back. They participate because they understand what a difference their help can make. They participate because they understand the power of student involvement.

One of the things that the Quest Scholars Program helps me to remember is that change, whether it involves ending global poverty or improving education in the U.S., is not limited to adults. We have the power to make a difference too.

Jul 12, 2012

Nature Versus Nurture?

Blackstar Project

Working and volunteering with the Blackstar Project has been a life transforming experience. When I began my volunteer session, it was at a middle school on the South Side of Chicago. In particular, I was working with tutoring one youth, who is in the third grade going into the fourth grade. He could not read or write well. He could not sound out his vowels and his pronunciation was poor. When I first met him, I became frustrated not at him, but in the situation, he was forced to be in. After working with him for about two hours, I quickly realized how intelligent this young man is. He picked up on everything I was teaching him with the speed of a genius. After working with him throughout the day I began to fall in love with this little kid. As the hours passed by he went from being “loud, swearing with inappropriate words” to a kind young man. As each hour had passed, I began to realize how much nature and nurture have an impact on the characteristics a child possesses as he is raised. If who someone was surrounded by didn’t dictate what type of person a young child comes out to be what will? Having seen such a drastic improvement in this young man within four hours, I wondered how much he could achieve if he lived with a loving and educated parent who was able to spend time with him and practice reading, writing, and math with him. After lunch, and seeing that only three students showed up for Blackstar’s free tutoring service, when there were suppose to be 20! I called some of the parents who had promised, either because their child had failed a grade or worse, had failed two grades, that we hope their child takes advantage of this summer tutoring program that is being offered. On one phone call a parent said, “I don’t feel like it” in response to bringing his child to the school for tutoring. Another parent said, “please don’t ever call again.” And most other parents showed signs that they could, sadly, care less whether their child attended summer school, despite failing or being behind multiple grades in some instances. I realized just how many children live in households where they are not only not encouraged, but in my instances, are discouraged and held back from an already late start. Many children then development the mindset that education is not important. Is not that the message that these parents are sending to their children? That education is not important? I left work that day remembering why I do the work I do, so that when a child leaves home, they can find the encouragement and support that are often denied to them at home. Hopefully this encouragement and support will enable them to develop a different mindset from the negative ones they are consumed with growing up in some of their communities. Hopefully!

Jul 8, 2012

Busy Start!

The past several weeks have been so busy, but I’ve been loving every minute of it. For roughly three of them, I have been preparing for and working at Junior Achievement of Georgia in Atlanta. Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, leadership, and financial literacy through innovative and integrated after-school programming. The Atlanta branch is the largest in the state and has programming that reaches over 150,000 children in the Metro Atlanta area. Initially inspired to this organization because of its wide reach and its critical efforts to communities I call home, I have been continually encouraged by the staff to come to work everyday and perform necessary tasks for the execution of the organization’s programs.

So far, I have been working both administratively and creatively. One big project I worked on involved coordinating with the executive directors and/or directors of development of other regional branches in the Southeast. Because Atlanta is the largest branch in the Southeast, we handle and process a lot of interregional work for the other branches. In this case, Junior Achievement partnered with Publix grocery stores to raise money to support the programs done in the community, and I was responsible for ensuring that the each Publix was connected to the corresponding Junior Achievement for disbursement of the funds.

Concretely, this meant providing the contact and address information for each Publix store to send money orders and checks to the nearest Junior Achievement. Outside of that administrative work, I spent days preparing for events and lending the helping hands to organize and move paraphernalia and sponsorship items to necessary locations for the organization. In about two weeks, the focus of my work will shift, when I will move to the Data & Evaluation Team. Here I will begin doing evaluations of the impact and growth of each of the programs as well as transforming existing programming to continue to meet the needs of local students in innovative ways. I’m really excited to get an internal look at the structure, input and impact of these programs. I think it’ll be tremendous learning experience.

I am more than thankful for the support the Show Me Foundation has shown in supporting education and social justice through my work efforts, and I can’t wait to share what the remainder of the summer has in store for me.

Please check out the website! http://georgia.ja.org

Get involved with a Junior Achievement nearby! http://ja.org/near/near_map.asp

#Everton Blair

The Beauty of Synergy

Let me begin by saying THANK YOU!

Thank you for believing in me, encouraging me and inspiring me.

Today I finished my presentation for an exciting meeting that ONE Austin has coming up next week. A collaborative meeting between individuals and non-profits that not only want to give back to the Austin community, but want to really share the importance of fighting global poverty. This synergy keeps us all encouraged, motivated and excited!

Why does it matter to work together and really strive to make a difference as one strong unit? Because when you have the efforts, time and resources of every unit, organization and individual involved- you have just created one mass movement, rather than simply a good event or conference. You have come together to really make a difference as ONE. And, that’s where the beauty comes in- not only does every organization get to shine individually, but every organization’s efforts shine together as ONE big effort, cause, belief and motivation. This is what moves mountains and what influences the press and media. This synergy and togetherness is what grabs at the attention of our elected officials, universities and general public.

AUSTIN TRAINING

The ONE Campaign Austin chapter, along with the local support of Austin chapters for: RESULTS, The Thirst Project, CARE, Oxfam, Women of Vision-WorldVision, and CTC International, (and two more exciting team additions) are pursuing a major project together. We are going to put together a collaborative TRAINING that will educate the general ATX public on WHY FIGHTING GLOBAL POVERTY is IMPORTANT. EXCITING HUH?

So what will this look like? We are going to talk about advocacy and major issues that impact global poverty. So far, this is what we have- till our first team meeting on July 10th: Keynote speaker, Advocacy 101 session, 8 breakout sessions-Clean Water & Maternal/Child Health; HIV/AIDS & Agriculture Development; Education & Fair Trade; Human Trafficking & Diversification within Non-profits- and a fun networking session to close off the training.

Our upcoming meeting will be great because this is the day when everyone will be able to meet each other, have a more extensive idea of ONE Austin’s vision for this training, and really get to start investing their ideas and suggestions into the training’s planning process. I must say we are all VERY excited for this!

ONE VOTE 2012

ALSO! Another great thing that is coming up with my work here with ONE is the ONE Vote! So as ya’ll know this is ELECTION YEAR!!! Quite an exciting one as we have noticed. And, it is important to make sure that we use this time to remind ALL CANDIDATES- no matter what party they may be a part of, no matter what ideology one may have, no matter what background someone has come from- to support the effort and the fight to eradicate and END GLOBAL POVERTY.

So Texas is an official ONE VOTE state this year- which is quite a unique thing. And, so we have some ONE VOTE parties coming up here in TX in the next few weeks. It will be an exciting time to reach out to the community and raise awareness to constituents, organizations and elected officials that fighting global poverty is a priority. So, I will be helping with the Austin party and reaching out to San Antonio Rotaries to support the San Antonio party.

AN EXCITED OUTLOOK

Needless to say- it has been an exciting past few weeks getting things ready for our AUSTIN TRAINING and now for ONE VOTE parties with the ONE Campaign. It’s a great thing to be a part of, and an even greater thing to work with others that are fighting for the same cause and mission as you are.

So, stop, listen and appreciate the Beauty around you. Embrace this beauty. And, invest into it- this beauty of SYNERGY.

INTERESTED THE ONE CAMPAIGN?

If you’d like to join us in our fight to end global poverty, feel free to sign up for ONE, and to tell your Congressman to continue supporting life-saving AIDS program PEPFAR and to fulfill our commitments to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

YOUR VOICE DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

Cheers, Paulina

#poverty #Paulina Sosa #ONE campaign #austin texas #austin #texas #global poverty #training

Hola! Vamos a Cambiar el Mundo

Every day on my way to work I pass by walls covered in graffiti. Most of the graffiti is colorful—symbols and slang that mean little to most who see it. But one message stands out from the rest. Sprayed black onto a white brick wall it reads, “Hola! Vamos a cambiar el mundo,” or, “Hello! We’re going to change the world.”

I’ve thought about the irony of this piece of graffiti. To community members, it no doubt represents a violation against their property—probably carried out by some rebellious youth. Their reaction represents a more widely held attitude about young people; too many adults have negative perceptions of youth.

For me, the graffiti represents something very different. It’s as though the anonymous artist is speaking up for his generation. “Hey! Over here! We have the potential to change the world.” He seems to be calling out for a bit of attention and an opportunity to do something great.

Vittana provides such opportunities to students (usually young people), by helping them finance higher education. In what the Economist calls a “hotbed of innovation”, Vittana is finding new ways to fund poor students in the developing world. Through our online platform, anyone can browse through our students and find one to support. With as little as $25, you can help them toward graduation. 100% of your loan goes to the students, which is then repaid as they graduate. The impact of these microloans has been astounding. 99.8% of loan recipients repay in full, increasing their income by 2.8 times on average. These numbers buck the conventional wisdom about loaning to the poor and the behavior of young people.

As a Vittana Fellow in Paraguay, I’ve had the opportunity to witness these results first-hand. Part of my job includes interviewing loan recipients in person. We talk about facts and figures of their loan amount, graduation dates, and changes in income. But I also get the opportunity to witness how access to education transforms their lives. One of my favorite examples is Claudia. After seeing the impressive work of her friend, Claudia decided she wanted to become a graphic designer. She found a good program, took out a Vittana loan, and got to work. Now that she has graduated, she’s been able to triple her income and start her own design firm.

More important than the economic benefits, however, is the dramatic improvement Claudia has experienced in her self-worth. “Before, I felt like I was nobody. Without education you don’t have many opportunities. But now I have more confidence—I’m more social….I think I’m an example to my family.”

Claudia is just one of many stories I’ve encountered during my work with Vittana. She is living proof of one of Vittana’s core beliefs: by empowering young people, we can unlock the potential of an entire generation. And with that potential, I believe that they will change the world.

#Jason Harrison

From Passion to Pragmatic Action

From Passion to Pragmatic Action. This is the theme over 1,000 student leaders engaged in development and poverty alleviation efforts will be discussing at the Millennium Campus Conference this September. It is also the theme of my journey with the Millennium Campus Network this summer.

I am interning as the Director of Conference Speaker Coordination for the Millennium Campus Network (MCN) in Boston. Like most interns, one of the first things I was taught was how to talk about the organization. This seemingly simple concept is actually a quite intriguing topic. Understanding and conveying what you do is important. But more important is understanding why you are doing it.

The Millennium Campus Network understands the significance of both of these points. I have almost perfected the ‘what’ pitch: “The MCN is a national non-profit that empowers student leaders to fight global poverty. We support the work of students through our mentorship program, grant allocations, and the annual conference. At the Millennium Campus Conference, over 1,000 student leaders convene to engage in conversations surrounding global development, attend skill-building workshops taught by thought leaders and practitioners, and network to explore collaboration and share experiences with other students. It is always a great weekend. This year it is being held September 14-15 at Northeastern University in Boston. Would you like to register? Great! Sign up at mcc2012.org!”

The ‘why’ question is a bit more challenging and does not have such a clean answer. It is also a very personal question. People care for a variety of reasons. That’s the passion part. But why do people act… or not act? What makes someone want to devote their life to a specific cause? What are the barriers that prevent passionate people from doing so?

I think in order to serve in the most honest and effective way, it is important to dig deep and ask these questions. This is something that we have actively discussed in the MCN office. Why am I engaged in this work? What role is the organization I am working with playing in the movement to end extreme poverty? There are no easy answers to these questions and we have only begun to reflect on them. But for me, my passion lies in global health. I am committed to working towards global health equity because I believe health is a human right. Health affects all other aspects of life, and the poverty and disease cycle cannot be broken without ensuring access to affordable, comprehensive, community based, and dignified healthcare. Millions of people die because they lack this care. It is a grave injustice, especially since we have the resources to treat, care for the sick, and prevent what Partners In Health’s founder Dr. Paul Farmer calls “stupid deaths”.

This summer, I am seeking to transform this passion into pragmatic action. I am part of an organization that provides community for students engaged in development. The MCN understands that working together is more effective than polarized efforts and challenges students to reflect on the work they are engaged in. My role with the MCN is to help shape the content of the fall conference by recruiting speakers to meaningfully engage and enlighten student leaders. And I am motivated to embark on this journey and explore these questions with the amazing team at the MCN office. I look forward to sharing my summer at the Millennium Campus Network with you and the Show Me Campaign!

#Amelia Angevine #Millennium Campus Network #mcc2012.org

Family. Pride. Performance.

The Student Leadership Project is a non-profit organization that “systematically develops and leverages a student led culture.” I started volunteering with them in the Fall of 2011 and the ride has been absolutely amazing. I had the opportunity to work at both of their school sites - KIPP West Philadelphia Preparatory School and Camden Freedom Academy. My role at the time was to be an implementation intern. I basically had my own group of students and worked with them as they created their own action plans to improve their schools. They learned important skills, taught by the Executive Director Paul Dean, such as running a meeting, delegating, and managing a group of people. As I watched them grow over the school year, I was amazed by how much they learned! Additionally, they were learning concepts that I started encountering during my high school years!

Here I am working with one of the 7th graders at KIPP. Her name is Rolanda. She is just one of the student leaders and really cares about making the school a better place for learning. These students from both KIPP and Camden were coming up with very complex and interesting solutions to creating an excellent learning environment. For example, KIPP student leaders came up with the idea of creating a homework tree. Each student would be assigned to a student who usually forgets to do homework and every night they would call other students to remind them about the work due tomorrow. They were able to raise homework completion by 15%! In Camden, the student leaders created a conflict mediation program, where students would come to them for basic problems - such as fights, bullying, and drama. Thanks to the program, Camden Freedom Academy was able to lower bullying and school violence by 76%! The power of students is crucial to the success of any school. After volunteering with them for one year, they definitely made me a believer.

This summer I decided to volunteer with the Student Leadership Project because I strongly believe in their mission. I wanted to help in any possible way. I believe that the Student Leadership Project will be a key component in changing the face of education. Right now, we are wrapping up the work from this past school year. I am entering the survey data from both KIPP and Camden. Soon, I will be analyzing it to make recommendations for improvement for the next school year. Simultaneously, I am doing training for my role as the Student Leader Consultant for the 2012-2013 school year. I will be able to run the SLP program for a partner school in the Fall. I’m really excited for that! In this upcoming month, I will be participating in curriculum meetings and professional development. I will also work on writing grant proposals with the President of SLP - Robert Erzen.

I am extremely excited to be working with such a talented and experienced staff. The title of my blog is Family. Pride. Performance. These are the three principles we as a staff live by. The students also know about this as well because it is the foundation to their leadership community. Family because we all must be able to trust each other and hold each other accountable. Pride because we must always be proud of what we do, celebrate successes, and work on mistakes to make them better for the future. And finally, performance because we must always set high expectations and goals for ourselves! With hard work, dedication, and patience, we execute all the objectives we set!

I love working for SLP because it motivates me to become a teacher. I absolutely love working with kids and love giving them the realization that they could do anything. Below are some more pictures from this year! I am going to post some more about what I’m doing and some of the stories I have from this year’s successes.

I look forward to sharing our journey with you all!

This is a picture of me working with my student leader group - Rolanda, Brianna, and Chanell.

And here is a picture of the Camden Student Leaders getting ready to start their Saturday meetings.

They are all an amazing group of student leaders :)

#Anthony Zarate #education #Student Leadership

Children are not “at-risk”. They’re “at-possibilities”.

Leafing through the Professional Development packet my first day at KIPP DREAM Prep, I was struck by this notion of changing around a few simple words. Being in education and working with students in urban areas, I so often hear the words “at-risk” to describe the students that I work with. Surely, in an area of Houston where the per capita income is less than $12,000, only 27% of the adults in the community are high school graduates, and only 4% have a Bachelor’s degree or higher, it’s easy to label these kids as “disadvantaged” and “at-risk”.

Has this community been neglected and underserved? Absolutely. Should educators not be concerned or not consider the special needs of this community? Of course not. It is important to acknowledge where your students are coming from in order to better serve them. It’s important to know that these kids are most likely going to be the first in their families to go to college. But what’s also important to remember is attitude and expectations. Because this community has been underserved and these students may not know they are capable of going to college does NOT mean that anyone should have lower expectations of them or a negative attitude towards their future. And I believe that is exactly why the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) works.

Despite the fact that, in most communities where KIPP serves, the average minority student has about a 7% chance of ever earning a college degree, KIPP refuses to lower their expectations of their students and their schools. KIPP still believes that 100% of KIPPsters will go to and through college. Expect any less, and that’s exactly what you’ll get. While KIPP schools haven’t quite reached their goal of 100%, they’ve gotten 85% of their students to college. Considering the demographics, some might say that 85% is good enough. But not KIPP. They’re continuously striving for 100% and never any less.

One of the reasons I have been attracted to working at KIPP is their No Excuses policy. This policy extends to teachers, students, parents, administrators, and entire schools. Being a part of KIPP’s professional development training for summer school has helped to solidify why KIPP is different. Even the little words that are so easily thrown around matter. We don’t think about our students as “possible high-school dropouts”. We think of them as “future college graduates”, possible doctors, lawyers, teachers. Surely, it will be a challenge. KIPP doesn’t call it the “mountain to college” for nothing. But that also doesn’t make it an excuse for not going at all. Not going is not an option.

Being a part of KIPP Houston’s Urban Education Experience program has already been such an amazing opportunity to have a window into the possibilities of education reform. What if all schools in all cities never expected any less of their students? What if all teachers, or even all citizens never expected any less of their schools? It seems a little crazy to think that every single student in every single city will be able to succeed. As KIPP often loves to quote: “The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who actually do.” (Steve Jobs). Maybe if we all get just a little crazier, the world will become a better place.

#Christy Castillo

Reaching out

At Women Thrive Worldwide, we believe investing in women is key to alleviating global poverty. When women are empowered politically, economically, and socially, they can become some of the most powerful agents of change, even lifting entire communities out of poverty. However, women around the world face unequal social and economic barriers that prevent them from fulfilling their potential. Women Thrive seeks to help women living in poverty overcome these barriers by listening to their stories, bringing their voices to the attention of governments here and in their home countries, and advocating for U.S. foreign assistance policies that address their needs. Pretty cool, if you ask me!

Of course, you can’t do advocacy work without supporters. We depend on the help of our supporters around the United States, women and men working together, to make our grassroots campaigns effective. As the U.S. Outreach Intern, my job is all about engaging our U.S. supporters in our mission – asking them not only to support Women Thrive’s work but also to look for other ways in which they can invest in women.

Throughout my internship, I’ve learned that Women Thrive engages its supporters in a number of ways. One of the biggest ways we do this is by building our online communities through social media. Through webinars, workshops, and the wisdom of my supervisor (and social media guru), Erin, I’ve learned a few tricks of the trade on how nonprofits can leverage social media to grow their organization’s reach. I’ve put them to use on Women Thrive’s Facebook page and Twitter, where I post from time to time – check them out! We usually post articles and alerts related to our work and our partner organizations, but we’re aiming to expand our outreach by launching an online book club this summer. We want to feature books about inspiring women around the world. I’ll keep you posted!

It’s important to reach out to our supporters offline as well. Recently, we held a happy hour/shopping fundraiser with Styleliner, a pop-up “fashion truck,” where a portion of the proceeds was donated to Women Thrive! To get locals to come to the event, I was tasked with researching D.C.-area fashion bloggers and inviting them personally. I had a lot of fun spending a few hours at work looking up fashion blogs (although I may have gotten some funny looks from my coworkers - I was working, I swear!) and was really impressed with the great response we got! A number of bloggers attended the event and many of those who couldn’t make it sent kind messages of support, asking to be updated on Women Thrive’s work.

Another way we keep supporters engaged – and gain new supporters – is by working with our coalition of U.S. partner organizations. We often pass along relevant news and action alerts to our list of supporters and vice versa. We also collaborate with our partners at events like the upcoming gender roundtable discussion next week, where our founder, Ritu Sharma, will discuss the global gender gap with representatives from our partner organizations. I’m also attending a series of workshops on reproductive health advocacy hosted by one of our partners, but maybe I’ll touch on those more in a later post.

Anyways, this is just a taste of the type of work I’ve been doing with Women Thrive Worldwide. Looking forward to the rest of the summer and sharing my experiences with you!

#Christina Crisostomo #women's rights #women's empowerment #international development #poverty #advocacy

Standing with the Poor

Acumen Fund believes in standing with the poor.

Acumen Fund believes in empathy, and listening to the base of the pyramid populations they try to serve. They believe in giving these populations choice, not charity. They believe that the best solutions come from those who truly understand the problem.

And they invest in leaders who believe this too.

One of the fellowship programs Acumen Fund offers is called the Regional Fellows Program. The program is a one-year leadership-development program that offers training, mentorship, and support on social projects the fellows work on. The program consists of 20 fellows from a specific region. The program is fairly new, and currently takes place in East Africa (although it will expand to other regions too).

One of the most significant aspects of the program is its investment in local leadership. The Regional Fellows Program helps to train local leaders who are passionate about the region they come from, and who understand the region they come from. In this sense, it is truly providing choice, not charity. It is helping to train leaders across East Africa to become leaders of the social sector, rather than simply funding them. It is helping them to solve their region’s problems, not trying to solve them itself. Furthermore, a significant part of the program’s training is training in moral imagination, communication, and empathy to help leaders to stand with the poor.

What truly differentiates the Regional Fellows Program from other programs, however, is that it builds a cohort of young leaders that encompasses all levels of income. This diverse cohort is essential to enabling honest dialogue, true understanding, and better solutions amongst the leaders who participate in the program.

As part of my internship, I am working on recruitment strategy. The Fellows Team is thinking of new ways to expand its recruitment efforts, and to focus on low-income populations and women. I am currently researching potential partners and new avenues of reaching these target populations.

Acumen Fund is working to train leaders to become architects of the social sector. They are looking for leaders who can solve the East Africa’s most pressing problems. They are looking for leaders who can understand these problems. Acumen Fund knows that those best able to understand the problems of the poor in East Africa, are the poor in East Africa. Now, more than ever, Acumen is standing with the poor.

Learning Ashokan

When I meet people here in D.C. for the first time they, as is customary, ask me what I’m doing for the summer. Here’s how the conversation usually proceeds:

“I work for Ashoka. It’s a non-profit.”

“Oh cool. What does it do?”

“It…[considers giving real answer but decides to go with more succinct one]…supports social entrepreneurship around the world.”

The truth is, describing what Ashoka does—and even describing what I do at Ashoka—is quite a challenge. Ashoka does support social entrepreneurship—they have over 3,000 fellows and counting engaged in it all over the world. And they’ve also started numerous programs which have fostered new ventures in the entrepreneurship field—from large scale citizen/business sector collaborations to a program focused solely on instilling children with empathy (it is, logically enough, called “Empathy”). Thinking even larger, they are hoping to “tip the world”’s practices, moving beyond the individual to systems-wide change that will make the the world a more friendly, profitable and beneficial place even for its most disadvantaged citizens.

These are all centered around one idea: Everyone (can be) a Changemaker.

Overwhelmed yet? I certainly was. Now, I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a cynic. When I walked into the office and started hearing the word “change” an average of five times every minute, my eyes had to train themselves to refrain from rolling. But while working here does require a bit of sipping (err…gulping) from the Kool-Aid, it doesn’t take that long to realize how satisfying—and how right—that Kool-Aid may actually be.

What grounds Ashoka (and makes it make sense), even as it reaches for outer space, is the work of its fellows. All of the new programs and ideas which come out of this organization—and its founder/CEO Bill Drayton—are based on insights gained from its thousands of fellows. Theories of “changemaking” aren’t simply whisked into existence by the power of imagination—they’re based on hard realities, and fostered by some of the brightest minds in the business. (Drayton, who coined the term “social entrepreneurship,” spent years with McKinsey, a top consulting firm).

For instance, the new program I’m working on, called “Rural Talent” is based around the growing need for contextual education and knowledge in rural areas: the necessity of turning farming and its attached occupations into profitable endeavors, and rural regions from brain-drained areas of poverty into thriving homes of enterprise. As we begin amassing fellows and assembling the platform it’s become increasingly clear—this community can (if we do it right) make a real impact, and we don’t know this from a hunch—we know it because its what the fellows are telling us.

Now does this mean I’m sure that everything Ashoka does—and every idea they have to “change systems” and “tip the world”—will come to fruition? I’m not sure. Probably not. But working here, I certainly have gained the confidence that this organization, multifaceted in its work but singular in its purpose, may getting some big—some huge—things right. And more on those to come!

#Nava Friedman

June 2012

2 posts

“Ah-ha”

On my first day of work at Acumen Fund, I sat down in the “Nelson Mandela” room for a Monday morning meeting. There were about thirty of us, and we all gathered around a large rectangular table. Each team gave an update on the work they were doing, and talked about the progress being made on the portfolio, on fundraising, and on other projects. The updates ended, and it was time for “ah-has”.

At the end of each Monday morning meeting, anyone who wants to can share an “ah-ha” – a realization they had. We went around the table, and the Acumen staff shared a plethora of insightful realizations. One of them particularly stood out to me.

“It is difficult to find truth, but sometimes it is more difficult to seek truth, because you are afraid that what you find will not be the truth you want it to be.”

The intern that shared the “ah-ha” related this realization to the work Acumen Fund does, and spoke about how we are often afraid to actually question the work we are doing. We are ready to give updates on progress, but are afraid to question the premise that the progress we are making is actually progress at all. Acumen Fund, like many other organizations, is afraid to discover that all of its efforts are a waste.

Yet, it is important to do so. There has been a growing movement toward “assessing the impact of planned social change”. Organizations have been taking steps to empirically assess whether or not they have an impact, and what that impact is. Acumen Fund is one of those organizations.

The same intern that had shared the “ah-ha” had just finished designing a metrics system that would be used to gather and assess data on the Global Fellows Program. The Global Fellows Program team believes that

“Building transformative businesses that serve the poor requires a unique pool of talent comprised of individuals who have the operational and financial skills combined with the moral imagination necessary to create innovative solutions to global poverty. Acumen Fund is addressing this need for talent in the social sector by creating leadership programs that identify, train, and connect these leaders to become architects to the social sector.”

The Global Fellows Program team wants to know if we are indeed identifying, training, and connecting leaders, and if doing so is making an impact. Right now, we aren’t sure if we are making a difference, but we’re continuing to improve the program and hopefully the world until we discover otherwise.

There are so many classes called “Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention”, or “Problems with Foreign Aid” that teach us that the approaches we take to end global poverty may be wrong. However, I don’t think we should stop what we’re doing in order to seek truth. To stop all action would be worse. It is important to plow ahead with what we do know, or else nothing will be done.

All of us at Acumen Fund are here to do good, and intent and action are as important as anything. So here’s my “ah-ha”. Even if you do not know the truth, you can continue to pursue what you believe is right. Yet, it is important to not fear the truth, and to seek it if you can, so that if your actions do not result in the truth you had wished for, maybe you can change your actions so that they do.

Jun 27, 2012