Mar 19

Looking to the Future – Is Higher Education the right choice?

What type of higher education is best for you?

I have written countless articles that revolve around the topic of college, and the significance of a college education.  As a college student myself, I am a firm believer that education is an important tool that will benefit young people in the future.  However, the worldwide economic recession and high youth unemployment rate has brought something to my attention.  There are hundreds of young people who are looking for a way to get quick money without having to deal with going to school for four years and amassing a large debt.  It is daunting to think about going to school for so long, and facing the prospect of not immediately landing a job once graduating. Nevertheless, education should not be put on the back-burner, and it is important to look at the options and opportunities we have with this instrument in hand.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 1992 to 2009 the number of college educated workers has gone from 27 million to 44 million.  This number is not exclusive to people who have received a four-year bachelor degree.  The bureau also included individuals who have attained an associate’s degree as well as those who have gone to a technical college.  Furthermore, in 2010 the bureau released statistics that compared the median weekly earnings of young people 25 and older.  As the amount of education increased, the weekly earnings and employment increased exponentially.  For example, an individual with a doctorate had a higher salary than someone with only a bachelor’s degree, and were in an education bracket with a rather low unemployment rate.

Lately, thousands of young people are finding that they have reached a crossroad.  Should they pursue higher education during a recession, and risk not landing a job right out of school?  Should they skip the usual four-year bachelor’s degree track, and get right into the work force?  These questions come up quite often, but the fact is that by 2018 there will be a 63 percent increase of jobs that will require some kind of college degree.  The statistic does not state that a bachelor’s degree is required, but it does make it clear that an associate’s or technical college education will be needed in the future.  There are a plethora of job opportunities and career choices for young people who do not want to go down the usual path of attaining a bachelor’s degree.

The important thing for young people to keep in mind is the fact that higher education is not limited to only a bachelor’s degree.  There are community colleges, technical schools, associate’s degrees, and a myriad of post-high school degrees to look into.  Also, as daunting and frightening the recession may be, it is important to look into the future with an open-mind and optimistic outlook.  Georgetown University recently outlined that numerous job openings in sectors such as healthcare, leisure, and government will be created by 2018.  Though 2018 may seem far away at the moment, this is the time for young people to develop their skills, and figure out what type of higher education they would like to pursue.  If you think you would like to attend a technical school that focuses on a specific job type, then that is the career path you should follow.  Education is not a one-way street with a narrow road leading to only one option.  There are options to look into and explore, and there are financial resources available for those who come from a lower-income backgrounds.  Higher education, in all its forms, is a powerful tool that can help empower and strengthen young people, and there is nothing more special than knowing you have the skills to forge your way in the world.

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Mar 19

How Abortion Laws are Taking Away Women’s Rights

Women’s rights have constantly changed throughout the history of the United States. For the most part they have improved. We’ve seen voting rights, employment rights, and equal rights in general surge from movements and hard work, making women a prominent part of society. Even though it has taken so much effort to get to this point, I still think that our country deserves some credit for this progress. While unequal rights are no commendable situation, and it’s sad that the problem still exists, it is somewhat reassuring to know that progress has at least been made. However, the track record of improvement in women’s rights has recently taken a step backwards.

I’m going to talk about abortion laws in this post, but I want it to be clear that I’m not focusing on whether or not abortion is right or wrong; I want to stay out of that arena. What I want to talk about is the recent uproar about new abortion laws and amendments and how they are affecting women’s rights. What I would like to discuss, specifically, is the Kansas amendment that gives doctors the right to withhold information from women regarding the health status of their fetus.

Much debate has been going on recently regarding abortion rights, as I’m sure everyone has seen or heard. What started as a right to choose has brought on fights to require sonograms, waiting periods, and more. The battle is unending and exhausting. In the end, though- after making it through all of the added technicalities, it is still generally a woman’s right to choose whether or not she wants to have an abortion. With the amendment passed in Kansas, though, I do not necessarily think that this is the case.

What is happening now is that doctors in Kansas are protected by law if they do not give accurate and full information to women about the health of their fetus. In other words, if a doctor had information that might make a woman choose to have an abortion, that doctor could not legally be punished if they withheld that information. Say, perhaps, that a doctor found out that if a woman went through with her pregnancy, her child would have a fatal disease with no chance of surviving past its first day after birth. If the doctor sensed that this information would drive the woman to abort the fetus, there is a chance that they could withhold it. Essentially, women now have to question whether or not her doctor is fully informing her. Women are not being trusted to make their own decisions. Women do not have the right to know about something that could potentially dramatically impact their health, physical or otherwise. In this sense, women are losing rights.

In discussing this topic and solely focusing on the aspect of women’s rights, I think that this is wrong. In fact, I Continue reading

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Mar 16

Conscious Campuses

A few weeks back, I wrote an article about the importance of remembering to turn off the lights in your house when you’re not using them. This is a fantastic and easy way to do your part in helping to conserve energy. My article got me thinking, and as I walked around my university’s campus at night, I noticed the dorms were the only buildings in which nearly every light was on.

Now if you drive down a residential street at night, you will notice that some of the houses are partially lit, but very rarely will you see an entire house or a whole block of houses completely lit up like you would a dorm. In fact, when I lived in my dorm on campus I never thought twice about leaving my room with my lights and electrical appliances still on. Why is this? Is it because as you become older you become more environmentally conscious? I don’t think so. I personally do not believe that I have become more environmentally conscious since I was living in a dorm.

I also remember dashing out of my room as I rushed to get to class without stopping to think about my lights. So, does the fact that many students are rushing to get to new places have an effect on forgetting to turn off the lights? Maybe, but now I live off campus and still hurry out of my house to make my classes on time. However, living in an off-campus house, I make a conscious effort to turn off the lights before leaving.

In my opinion, the reason students living on campus are less likely to turn off their lights is because they never see the energy bills. While we would all like to think people conserve energy because of the environmental benefits, the ugly truth is that cash is king. Now that I live off campus, I have the pleasure of paying for my own energy bills. I see exactly how much my energy usage is costing me.

I propose a very easy and simple solution to this issue. Why not let students see exactly how much their energy usage is costing? Monitor each room individually, and provide prizes and incentives for students that best conserve energy.  This program will help incentivize students living in dorms to conserve energy.

The major issue that I see with this proposal is measuring individual rooms’ energy usage. In order for this plan to succeed, each room would need to be metered individually. After some research, I discovered that Swarthmore College students have proposed a similar system, but with each hall individually metered rather than each room.

I believe that the more personally targeted this plan is, the more effective it will be. If the energy usage is Continue reading

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Mar 16

Who’s In Control of Water: 6th World Water Forum

Two years ago I traveled to Peru for some volunteer work through the ProWorld organization at NYU.  The work that all of the students did there were mostly built clay stoves with chimneys leading outside the house for better breathing conditions.  But during this trip, what struck me the most besides the poor breathing conditions these people were living in was the concern for water many of the community leaders had.
Water?

Many rural (and urban!) families are lacking access to clean potable water in Peru, as in many other Latin American countries.  At that time, I had little knowledge of the water problem or the water privatization that was engulfing Latin America.  Back then, all I heard were the worried women in Cusco talk about how essential water was for the support of their families and how most aspects of their lives rely on the need of water, from supporting their families to earning their living through agriculture.  It has been a long journey since then with a lot of reflections on how water, the most essential element of life, can lack in the 21st century.

 

These indigenous women in Peru, however, are not the only ones that are concerned with this issue or with the idea that access to water is a right—a right to human life.  The World Water Council was established in 1996 in response to this increasing concern from the global community: “By providing a platform to encourage debates and exchanges of experience, the Council aims to reach a common strategic vision on water resources and water services management amongst all stakeholders in the water community”.  In that way, the World Water Council established the World Water Forum, which meets at a host country every three years with the First World Water Forum hosted in Marrakech, Morocco.  The long-term vision that was established continues to be pushed today, for the vision of Life and Environment for the 21st Century.

So how effective has this been and does the council really represent the visions of countries around the world?

In the Second World Water Forum (in the Hague, Netherlands in 2000), Medha Patkar, an Indian social activist spoke against the privatization of water.  In her speech, she spoke about how water has become a commodity that can be bought, sold, traded and invested in.  Her main argument in her speech was that water should be a right that we were all granted.  Now many of the criticisms that I’ve seen dealing with this point have to do with the fact that clean water cost money to produce, yes, like any other good.  My concern however, is not whether clean water should be free if it in fact it costs money to produce.  My concern is with the privatization of water to foreign companies in certain countries (like Peru).

First and foremost, we know that water is essential.  Second, we know that it costs money to produce clean water for survival.  However, I think that when international organizations, like the World Water Council, create projects Continue reading

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Mar 16

Mujeres Rurales:hacia el desarrollo sustentable

En las últimas dos semanas las Naciones Unidas celebró la Comisión sobre la Condición de la Mujer (CSW por sus siglas en inglés). La CSW es un cuerpo de gobierno dedicado exclusivamente a los derechos de la mujer y la igualdad de género. Esta comisión se reúne anualmente durante 10 días hábiles. El principal resultado de la comisión es el acuerdo común de los miembros (45 países con representación equitativa de cada región del mundo) en un tema prioritario específico. La conclusión contiene una lista de las mejores prácticas y recomendaciones a los gobiernos para promover a la mujer y la igualdad de género. También se alienta al sector privado y a la sociedad civil para actuar a nivel local, nacional y mundial.

Este año, el tema central ha sido la emancipación y revaloración de las mujeres rurales. Siendo un estudiante interesada en el desarrollo rural, estuve feliz al enterarme que ese sería el tema central de la CSW. Sin embargo, me pregunté por qué, en un mundo donde el 50% de la población vive en ciudades (y se espera que la fracción de la población urbana continúe creciendo), sigue siendo esencial considerar a las mujeres rurales como una prioridad.

Por un lado, parece natural que se centren en las mujeres rurales debido a que la agricultura es un importante sector en muchas partes del mundo, particularmente en el África subsahariana y Asia meridional (en el África subsahariana la agricultura ocupa alrededor del 60% para los hombres y las mujeres, en el sur de Asia la participación de las mujeres en el sector agrícola es del 60%). Por otro lado, la participación femenina en la fuerza laboral agrícola sigue aumentando, debido al aumento de las migraciones de los hombres a las zonas urbanas. Es por esto que las mujeres rurales siguen siendo los actores principales de nuestra economía global.

Las mujeres rurales tienen un potencial económico y social que es a menudo subestimado por el sector público y privado. En el camino hacia la sostenibilidad, las mujeres rurales tienen un papel importante que desempeñar. En particular, capacitar y emancipar a las mujeres rurales, crea la posibilidad de aumentar la seguridad alimentaria y la reducción de la pobreza.

Me parece que esto no será una tarea fácil. La educación es la primera dificultad a superar. La emancipación de las mujeres debe venir desde la base. Las mujeres deben ser conscientes de las desigualdades que viven y deben ser ellas mismas las que exigen más derechos. En mi experiencia, a menudo las mujeres rurales no son conscientes del importante papel que desempeñan en la sociedad: el aumento de su conciencia en un paso fundamental para su emancipación.

Además de la educación (un requisito para que las mujeres sean conscientes de su potencial), en las zonas rurales las mujeres deberían tener más poder en los procesos de toma de decisiones. Esto es porque la brecha de género en las zonas rurales es muy importante. En la mayoría de los países, la repartición de títulos de propiedad entre hombres y mujeres no es equitativa. Por ejemplo, aunque más mujeres que hombres trabajan la tierra en el África subsahariana, los hombres poseen el 80% de la tierra. Esto se debe en parte, porque muchas sociedades, las leyes y tradiciones impiden el acceso de las mujeres para que sean de heredar la tierra (y la superación de este obstáculo será necesario la educación). El hecho que las mujeres no tengan derechos de propiedad no sólo es injusto sino que también es económicamente insostenible. Ellas son los principales trabajadoras de una parcela de tierra, ellas son las que saben cómo maximizar la productividad y por lo tanto saben cómo mejor administrar las propiedades. Además, estoy convencida de que en muchas poblaciones indígenas de los conocimientos sobre la agricultura y los ciclos naturales se transfiere entre las mujeres, de generación en generación. Ya que las mujeres tienen un conocimiento especial de su tierra, es aún más importante que se conviertan en parte de los procesos de toma de decisiones (por ejemplo, qué producir y cuándo).

Finalmente, las mujeres carecen de acceso a los recursos económicos adecuados. Muchas veces, las mujeres no tienen acceso a los recursos apropiados para mantener su negocio y sus puestos de trabajo. Investigaciones muestran que la diferencia de productividad que existe entre los hombres y mujeres no existe porque las mujeres están menos capacitadas, sino porque tienen menos acceso a insumos tales como semillas mejoradas, fertilizantes y equipos.

Creo que la emancipación de las mujeres rurales será un elemento esencial, así como paso necesario, hacia el desarrollo sostenible. Para ello, tenemos que disminuir la brecha de género que existe en las áreas que he mencionado anteriormente. La seguridad alimentaria y la mitigación de la pobreza es una prioridad para los gobiernos y organizaciones internacionales. Es hora de darse cuenta de que el desarrollo rural, enfocado en las mujeres rurales, es una necesidad para lograr la salud y funcionamiento de nuestra sociedad. El hecho de que la CSW se centró en las mujeres rurales es un beneficio, pero la discusión debe conducir a una implementación de las soluciones.

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Mar 15

Holy Land Tourism

I had every intention of writing a follow-up piece to my much-discussed post on sustainable tourism in the Sinai Peninsula today, but while I was looking for news sources I came across something that I found very interesting: Holy Land tourism.  So responsible tourism in Egypt will just have to wait for a another day, I guess, because today
I’m going to discuss this type of tourism which, frankly, I had no idea existed.  My knowledge of Holy Land tour companies extends about as far as that Simpsons episode where they all go to Israel, and though of course I knew that hundreds of thousands of people have gone on pilgrimages to Jerusalem every year for centuries, that’s not quite the same as joining a tour group.

What I found interesting about this particular tourism organization that I stumbled upon, the Middle East Justice and Development Initiative (MEJDI), was that it was an attempt to combine profitable tourism with under-funded peacebuilding initiatives.  The tour guides are Israeli and Palestinian and they lead dual-narrative tours in which both guides tell stories based on their own experiences.  Now, as you surely know, Israelis and Palestinians do not historically get along, and so to have both standing side-by-side, cooperating and presenting their stories to tourists, must be a very unique experience.  The tourist group participants get to view both sides of the conflict, meeting rabbis, Palestinian officials, and Israeli politicians, and in one case Jewish visitors spent a two nights at a Palestinian refugee camp.

The MEJDI tourism company was founded by two Jewish Americans and provides a variety of tours in Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Jordan, and Egypt.  They focus on responsible tourism as well as peace-building, which is good, but overall I’m not quite sure how I feel about their business plan.  On the one hand, it is innovative, and it’s certainly beneficial to use a profitable activity like tourism to promote cross-cultural understanding and a relaxing of tensions.  It’s good business to capitalize on something you have a lot of, so if that’s conflict and war why not use that to draw in valuable tourist dollars, especially if you have the added benefit of reducing prejudice and promoting
understanding? I don’t know much about peace studies, but I do know that in many countries which have suffered through ethnic cleansings truth and reconciliation committees and the like have been established as a forum for survivors to talk about their experiences and, in doing so, begin to ease tensions and rebuild.  This seems sort of similar, and it brings in revenue for the local communities.

 

On the other hand, though, this situation could easily become exploitative.  To be clear, I am not suggesting that it is exploitative, but simply that it could be, particularly if an unscrupulous tourism company entered the market. Want to talk to a Palestinian who grew up in a refugee camp?  Sure, here’s five!  Feel like hearing an Israeli talk about terrorist attacks?  Why here’s one right now!  It can be a fine line between promoting dialogue and peace-building and exploiting vulnerable populations, particularly given our media-fueled obsession with crime and drama.

 

So now I’ll open it up to you.  What do you think of a MEJDI-type tourism company?  Do you think it’s a good way of promoting cultural understanding and reducing tensions while bringing in a much-needed infusion of cash, or do
you think it’s exploiting people who have experienced much conflict and trauma in order to make a profit from susceptible tourists?  And, if you do   And if you do think it’s exploitative, is that necessarily a bad thing?  If you had a story that people wanted to hear, would you sell it?  There are a lot of questions surrounding this issue, so let me know that you think in the comments!

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Mar 15

The Role of Language in Immigrant Health Outcomes

I recently wrote about how changing diets of immigrants can contribute to the decline in their health. There are many studies that explain how immigrants’ diets change with the inclusion and/or exclusion of foods. There are many other health barriers that immigrants can face when moving to the US. For example, they may live in less wealthy neighborhoods, with fewer doctors or clinics nearby. They may not have insurance and feel that is a barrier to health services. They may also face many other obstacles.  One of these is language.  Not being able to communicate effectively has a huge impact on health outcomes of immigrants, old and new.

This month, a study by Ariela Schachter in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior supports this idea. She found that immigrants who speak English and their native language report better health status than immigrants who speak only their native language. This is not the first time that language is explained as a barrier to health. In 2003, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that language barriers were responsible for poor health outcomes in many ways. For example, language barriers can make it difficult to find a job that offers insurance benefits. They may also make it difficult to complete insurance applications. Often times, paperwork for programs like Medicaid and SCHIP are not even available in certain other languages.

So how else does not speaking English actually lead to being less healthy? It can be challenging to effectively explain health problems to physicians. It can also be difficult to convey symptoms of a problem, issues with medical history, and other important information. Although it may seem obvious that there is a need for translators, there are disagreements about who should pay for them.  Joseph Heyman, chair of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association, believes that government is responsible for paying for translators. However, for any hospital that receives federal funding, an old civil-rights law says those hospitals are responsible for translators. Regardless of who should pay, it is clear that language can present real challenges, and can affect how immigrants try to seek out health services.

According to Schachter, while many people focus on the impact of encouraging English speaking, it is important not to “ignore the positive things that people can get from maintaining a strong ethnic culture and identity, and part of that identity is a native language.” It is possible that immigrants who speak English well are generally in a position have better jobs with better insurance benefits, and also may have enough health education and life skills knowledge to take care of themselves. Immigrants who don’t speak English well are less able to assimilate and form diverse social and support networks, and are thereby removed from mainstream medical facilities.

Some information on “best practices” has emerged, however.  The major theme is the improvement of health literacy among immigrants.  There are many ways this has been approached. The best of these practices is one that uses multitasked approaches and direct communication. For example, a health educator with native language skills of the target population and cultural sensitivity provide oral instructions of patient education materials. In addition, making use of existing social networks and other community facilitators, ensures acceptance by the target immigrant population.  This type of approach relies heavily using public spaces as hubs for interaction, and include community health centers, schools, ethnic associations, and churches and temples. Other approaches of improving health literacy involve actively engaging target communities and having individuals and groups actively involved in projects. It is also possible to have interventions that apply multiple approaches to health literacy. This is being done for several different ethno-linguistic groups in both the US and Canada – huge hubs for migration.

Although the ideas to improve health literacy are emerging, there are going to be things to keep in mind.

1)    There should be ways to evaluate programs and factors like health literacy, health outcomes, self-reported health, and other health indicators.

2)    Funding will be a constant issue. To maintain engaged community health facilitators, to maintain outreach initiatives, and to maintain awareness of health literacy programs, funding is crucial.  These programs should be subsidized, at least in part, by state or city governments. In addition, because the services directly benefit medical staff at local health facilities and are a way to support services offered by health facilities, local health care centers should try to allocate some funding towards maintaining community-based participatory projects.

3)    Finally, ensuring competent and dedicated staff with working knowledge of languages and cultures will be an important component.  These make targeted interventions more acceptable within the target immigrant populations, ensure sustainability and attendance, and are a part of supporting better health outcomes.


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Mar 14

Grading Teachers?

We can all remember when we were children on the last day of school.  In the excitement of summer vacation we ran from the school bus in the warm spring air with our backpacks on and our annual report card in our hand.  From the thrilled straight A student to the C average student, every child had a pretty clear idea of what their year’s academic successes were as decided by their school.  While to students this became an anticipated addition to every academic year, what would happen if the report cards were no longer only for students but for their teachers as well?  Most every parent believes their child’s report card to be an important and accurate account of their child’s success in school, but would they view a report of teachers with the same weight?  Would you want to know if your child’s teacher was receiving a failing grade?

A new and highly controversial report was released last month about New York City’s schoolteachers.  The New York City Education Department formulized a grading system for eighteen thousand Math and English elementary and middle school teachers.  The teachers were given scores out of 100 and their rankings were publically released.  The report aimed at making teachers’ performance (based on students’ standardized test scores) publically available to improve transparency and promote high performance.

Several flaws and criticisms surround the new method of teacher evaluations.  First, the results were based on a teaching time frame ending in 2009-2010 school year.  Therefore the teachers in the evaluation are now two school years passed the evaluation period.  Some are now even serving in different positions or different classrooms.  The methodology of this study does not provide immediate feedback to teachers to actually help them improve with the group of students whose test scores they were judged on.

Second, the evaluations have a wide margin of error.  For example, English teachers’ results have a confidence Continue reading

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Mar 14

Improving our Future by Outdating Gender Roles

My first memory of rejecting societal gender roles was when my mom sent me to school in pig tails one morning. These pig tails were bad, too. They stuck straight out from the sides of my head and had bows, and my mom insisted that I wear them. Even now, almost 20 years later, I can remember how much I pleaded and argued with my mom not to make me wear them to school. I tried explaining to her how much teasing I would receive and how much I simply despised pig tails. For some reason, though, my mom would not budge on the issue. In spite of all of my 5 year old reasoning with her, she thought they were too cute to take out.

As I grew up, I encountered many experiences like this. Wearing dresses, being covered in pink, playing with dolls, and not getting dirty at recess were just a few of the gender roles that I fought with. I never understood why I wasn’t allowed to wear what I want or play with the toys I liked. I could find no reason for not being able to compete on the all boy baseball team in elementary school, or why I had to wear a skirt to play lacrosse in middle school. Why did the YMCA want me to play softball, when I could clearly throw a hardball? Why couldn’t I wear shoulder pads and a helmet for lacrosse and play rough like my brother and his friends?

Gender roles are everywhere. They have molded and changed over time, but unfortunately have not disappeared. To make it clear, a gender role is a socially accepted norm for people of a certain sex. For example, boys play with action figures, robots, and sports equipment; girls, on the other hand, spend time brushing their doll’s hair, dressing up their Barbie, and practicing their brownie making skills with an Easy Bake oven. As boys grow into men, their role is to be a provider, maintain a tough outward appearance, and “bring home the bacon” for his family. As girls grow into women, their societal given norm is to know how to cook, take care of their children, and often times become slightly more emotional than is necessary. To reinforce these roles, take a look at yourself, perhaps, or other men and women in your life. It is safe to say that many of them likely fall into these roles, be it your mom, dad, grandparents, or siblings.

Like I said before, gender roles have changed as our culture has changed. We have more single parent households now, as well as more same-sex parents. To get by, these people have had to take on jobs and positions that traditionally fall outside of the norm. However, due to the fact that gender roles still persist, I think that it is actually harder for these families to strive in our current society. Women see unequal pay and people are afraid to express themselves as they truly see fit. Men are given separate standards and are seen as weak if Continue reading

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Mar 13

The Plight of Environmental Refugees

Last October, I wrote a blog entitled “Escaping Environmental Change” to shed some light on the plight of environmental refugees or climate migrants.

This week, we are launching a video I created on the SISGI Group’s YouTube channel to further raise awareness on the cause and start a discussion on possible solutions.

We invite you to view this 5 minute clip below and then add your comments at the bottom of this page.

To begin the dialogue, here are two questions to think about:

  • Part of the problem is that climate migrants are not recognized as traditional refugees because they are not escaping persecution. Do you think an argument can be made that they are refugees because they are being forced to leave their homes?
  • Should governments focus on addressing how climate is affecting their countries, which will then benefit the population in these environmentally torn areas; or should they address poverty within their borders, which will help people move to areas not affected by climate change?

Feel free to introduce additional thoughts or questions.  Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

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