NobleHour Blog

This post was written by NobleHour Special Contributor Natasha Derezinski-Choo.

What does it take to get teenagers to come to school on a Saturday morning?  After spending approximately forty hours at school each week plus time after school doing homework, I like having Saturdays for myself, and I think most students would agree.  In the average Millennials’ world, plagued by educational inflation and constant mantras to work harder, become smarter, and test better to get into college, free time is golden.  So golden, you’d think young people would keep it all to themselves, but of course young people are also using their time to do a world of good.  Which is why on a Saturday morning students representing high schools across Guilford County woke up early and came to school to learn about service learning.  

The Guilford County Schools (GCS) Character Education Department and the GCS Service-Learning Youth Council hosted the event, held at Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, NC—just outside of Greensboro, NC—.  In Guilford County, students are strongly encouraged to engage in service learning.  If, over the course of high school, students log 100 service learning hours they receive an Exemplary Award upon graduation, and if students track 250 hours they receive a Service-Learning Diploma.  This program encourages young people to play an active role in their community.  Service-learning is not only important for these students while in high school, but also to build experience when applying to universities and living better lives after graduation. 

Saturday’s Service-Learning Ambassador Training was focused on educating students on how to be Service-Learning Ambassadors.  Of the 25+ high schools in Guilford County, each school was invited to send up to five of their most dedicated students to learn about advocating for service learning among their peers. Additionally, schools could send two students who’d already been trained as Service-Learning Ambassadors to facilitate the training and workshops.  

Students learned how to engage in service learning and how meaningful volunteerism can facilitate a more well-rounded educational experience.  Students rotated in groups to attend several workshops to help them bring service learning back to their schools.  Organizations such as the Poetry Project, Habitat for Humanity, Horsepower, and many other local non-profits met with students to tell them about exciting opportunities they can get involved with.  Students also learned about the importance of youth voice in their actions and words.  Youth empowerment was an important focus of this particular workshop, demonstrating to young people the power and change they can unleash by engaging in volunteerism.  Working together, the Character-Education Department, experienced Service-Learning Ambassadors, and NobleHour’s own Keara Ziegerer trained students in the use of NobleHour’s hour-tracking software to help them track their impact in the community and progress toward their Service-Learning Diplomas. However, the goal of the program was not only to educate students about service learning, but also for them to take this knowledge back to their schools and cultivate service programs, hence the name Service-Learning Ambassadors.  As Ambassadors, students are not only working to be active in their community for their diplomas but are also active in their schools helping other students become more aware of the importance of service.

After the seven-hour program, students were tired and exhausted, but better for it.  Students ended the day reflecting on what they’d learned.  Senior Meredith Wettach commented, “I was so inspired to see all the students that are truly dedicated to giving back to our community.”  This week all these students will return to school—though probably not on Saturday for quite some time—and try to better themselves and peers.  They will become leaders.  

Last year, when I attended the training for the first time, it was in the early beginnings of my journey of committing to volunteerism.  As I reflect on the past year, I realize I have grown the most as a person in that time, and becoming a more confident leader and better individual are definitely in part the result of my service learning projects.

I’m inspired to see so many students taking initiative not only in their communities and schools but also in their own education.  Particularly, with the political unrest over budget cuts here in North Carolina, I’m glad to see that service learning has not been forgotten, and I wish more aspects of a complete, well rounded education were preserved for our generation in the face of economic hardship.  

At the end of the day, my hope is that students did not only come out of the training with a simple understanding of service learning and how hours are tracked, but with the knowledge that their time is as good as gold and that the number of hours one puts in is immeasurable compared to committing yourself to reach your own potential.   

This post was written by NobleHour Special Contributor Natasha Derezinski-Choo.

Unity - What does it mean to you?  Can a group form cohesively without some underlying unity between them? Probably not, and they can’t bind together entirely by choice either.  Unity is the reconciliation between what is instinctual and what is intentional within a group of people. Perhaps unity comes from the natural connection between people, and becoming mutually conscious of our connections is what we call unity. Can—and do—we choose unity, or is unity something that only happens when we look into the yearnings of others and find ourselves? No matter the answer,  it is clear that unity has power.

PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center has been using the power of unity to to unite students, parents, teachers, and community members against bullying.  They started and have been celebrating National Bullying Prevention Month each October since 2006, and in 2011 created Unity Day on October 9^th. PACER (Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights) is an organization, created in 1977, dedicated to helping improve the quality of life of disabled children and helping create a support system for parents with disabled children.  In 2006 PACER created the National Bullying Prevention Center in response to concerns and fears of parents with disabled children who were bullied in school.  Today, the organization has grown and provides a host of educational materials for schools, communities, and parents to help with bullying prevention programs.  

Unity Day is celebrated both online and offline in a show of support of students struggling with the stigma of being bullied.  To participate in Unity Day, schools and communities are encouraged to wear the color orange, write UNITY somewhere visible on their person or belongings, hang banners displaying the event, and wear an orange unity ribbon.  Participants can purchase their own unity banner on the PACER website; however, to make the event more inclusive and interactive, schools could consider discussing the issue of bullying and students could create their own unity banners reflecting how they believe they can take actions.  Instructions and details about the unity ribbon and about getting involved can be found here.  

Unity Day also takes place online.  Participating in Unity Day could mean sharing it via social media because social media can spread information faster and farther than anything else.  The National Bullying Prevention Center recommends changing one’s Facebook status to “UNITY DAY, October 9^th.  Join the movement to make it orange and make it end!  If you are being bullied, you are not alone. Unite and be a champion against bullying!”  However, students could go beyond a generic phrase and harness the power of social media by posting their words of encouragement and support for October 9^th.  Joining the Unity Day Facebook event and posting picture wearing orange and creating posters are some other ways to get involved online and share the fight against bullying via social media.  With these basic activities, anyone can get involved in Unity Day and reflect upon the challenges faced by students bullied in school.

Schools can go the extra mile in celebrating Unity Day by addressing bullying with the student body.  Serious class discussions and forums could take place to get students’ feedback about how they’ve experienced bullying, what their thoughts are about it, and how it should be dealt with.  The National Bullying Prevention Center also has instructions for hosting a Unity Dance accompanied by optional music and choreography to the song “You Can’t Take That Away from Me” by Nashville musicians Tim Akers and Libby Weavers.  PACER also has an online petition for students to sign in support of students being bullied and in hope of ending bullying.  Students can also get involved by using their artistic abilities to talk about bullying and design a way to symbolically represent unity.

Additionally,  “The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin” is an accessible way to teach younger students about bullying.  The story, available in both movie and storybook format, tells about a Spookley who is a square pumpkin living in a patch of round pumpkin.  The story and its accompanying lesson plans can help teachers engage their students in a discussion about bullying by using a simple story and applying it to reality.  To fully benefit from the message and objective of embracing Unity Day, schools and students should attempt to really involve participants in the event and draw attention to both the problem and solution.  More information and resources to help spark a celebration of Unity Day can be found here.

Unity has power, and harnessing that power is the goal of Unity Day.  Uniting people online and offline is like one big petition against bullying.  People are called upon to petition their support in the colours they wear, the things they share online, the discussions they have about conflict resolution, and in the form of an actual petition to sign.  We think of the purpose of petition as a unified group compelling someone to change by a show of support for the issue.  Spreading awareness is a big part of Unity Day, but awareness is only useful if it promotes action.  Though Unity Day is an annual event, hopefully one year it will not be necessary.  

About PACER's Bullying Prevention Center

Every year 13 million kids in America are bullied. PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center unites, engages, and educates communities nationwide to prevent bullying through the use of creative, interactive resources. It has three helpful websites that offer a wide variety of free resources teachers, students, and families can use to address bullying in schools, the community, and online:

• KidsAgainstBullying.org is for elementary school children.

• TeensAgainstBullying.org is for middle school and high school students.

• PACER.org/bullying is for parents, educators, and other concerned adults.

This post was written by NobleHour Special Contributor Natasha Derezinski-Choo.

Young people aged 10-24 make up 25 percent of the world’s population (The World’s Youth 2013 Data Sheet) —that’s just fewer than two billion people.  Now, given that middle-aged people are not appearing out of thin air, increased numbers of young people signify a trend of exponential population growth worldwide.  “Youth and the State of the World, a report generated by Advocates for Youth, found that counting everyone 24 and under (including children under ten), youth make up around 40 percent of the world.   Increased population growth and a large proportion of young people is associated with developing economies where birth rates are increasing, making for larger family sizes, and death rates are decreasing.  Of course, “the world” is a little vague, and upon breaking down the geographic distribution of young people, “Youth and the State of the World” finds that “60 percent of youth live in Asia; 15 percent, in Africa; 10 percent, in Latin America and the Caribbean; and the remaining 15 percent, in developed countries and regions.”  These numbers demonstrate that though the overwhelming global trend is that of a growing youth demographic, the uneven distribution of youth over the globe makes for a number of challenges to overcome in ensuring countries’ future prosperity and livelihood held in the hands of young people. 

Young people means potential, but potential is fragile.  For countries with a large proportion of young people the future could hold success.  Take, for example India, one of the fastest largest and fastest growing populations and growing economies with 362.0 million people aged 10-24—more than all of Africa’s 344.4 million.  Danielle Rajendram’s article “The Promise and Peril of India’s Youth Bulge” in The Diplomat describes such a fragile state in India: “Provided India can act quickly on health, education and employment, this demographic dividend has the potential to inject new dynamism into its flagging economy.”  As the history of many post-industrial countries can attest, economically, a growing population means there is a surplus in labor force as well as more people for the economy to support.  To keep this balance, countries need proper investment in their youth in order to industrialize and prosper in a globalized economy.  Investment in education is vital.  Young people who are educated can get better, higher-paying jobs, live healthier lives, have a higher standard of living, and make more informed decisions.  In addition to education, young people need opportunities so countries don’t suffer from brain drain—the process where educated people go abroad for better work, thus depleting the economy of qualified workers.  For India and countries like it, the proper amount of investment in infrastructure and industry is essential to fully benefiting from changes in population demographics. 

As the title of Rajendram’s article suggests, with the potential for success comes the possibility for failure.  Improper investment in education, healthcare programs, and job-creating could mean that countries with high numbers of impoverished youth could remain impoverished.  Rather than empowering youth to advance their financial situation, a country could simply end up with more people in deeper poverty.  It’s a matter of an opportunity being present and creating opportunity for those present.  As Rajendram explains, “The failure of a number of Latin American countries with the same demographic profile as Southeast Asia to achieve similarly impressive economic outcomes is a cautionary tale for India [. . .] The relationship here is mutually reinforcing; India must harness the advantage of its youth to fulfill its economic potential, and in turn must generate growth in order to continue to support its growing population. As noted by India's former Minister of Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal, ‘it will be a dividend if we empower our young. It will be a disaster if we fail to put in place a policy and framework where they can be empowered.’”  The growing youth population is a constant factor in the equation, but the resources put into taking advantage of such an opportunity will determine young people’s future. 

A surplus of young people is like a young sapling.  Watered and cared for it will grow and with it raise a country’s wealth and standard of living.  However, neglect will result in a powerful storm that will knock the frail tree down and bring a country to a situation of poverty lower than that of the roots. 

Young people are not in a surplus everywhere though.  The before mentioned small “remaining 15 percent [aged 10-24], in developed countries and regions” live in the developed world where population is not growing, but declining.  Rather than raising large families like those of the developing world, people of post-industrial economies are having less and less children resulting in a small proportion of young people and a towering number of older people.  On the shoulders of this declining number of young people is ensuring successful enterprise to support the overwhelming retired generation.  Government programs created to curve the collapse of these economies include incentives for having children, and education reform to help students attain university education so they can later contribute more to the economy and the livelihood of older generations.  The situation is reversed from the developing world but its fragility is the same as the young sapling. 

In this brief overview of the situation of young people, it is evident that there is no simple solution to the many challenges presented.  Today there are more young people than ever, and with young people comes and immense amount of potential and responsibility for that potential.  Perhaps there is little one can do to change policy on opposite sides of the globe, but global awareness is still important everywhere, as well as understanding the significance of young people’s contribution.  In just a few paragraphs I can only touch the tip of the iceberg, but a few things seem clear.  Enriching education, infrastructure, global awareness, and investments is key to empowering youth and enabling them to face the challenges of tomorrow.  With more youth today than ever before, these are unchartered waters.  

image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yorickr/4511065370