Category: Youth

Redefining Beauty: It’s Time for a Change. It’s Time for a New Standard of Beauty.

Did you know that 80% of ten-year-old children are afraid of becoming fat? And that around 90% of 15-17 year-old girls want to change at least one aspect of their appearance? Or that girls are three times more likely than boys to have a negative body image? What’s the reason behind these startling statistics? The …

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Nine-Year-Old Blogger Changes School Lunch System

English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton once stated, “the pen is mightier than the sword”. An act as simple as writing has the power to influence people, sway opinions, and forever change the course of history. This centuries-old adage has shown itself to be true time and time again. Sometimes it is referring to something as powerful …

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Improving Rural Education in the United States

One out of every five students in the United States is enrolled in a rural school, and that number has showed a trend of growth in the past. The word “rural” in reference to education is typically defined as a school district with less than 600 students in total. To put this into perspective, my …

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Ending Human Trafficking in the Mekong Delta

I recently read a story on CNN about a community in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam that resides in and around a waste dump. Parents and their children spend hours a day, from when they wake to when they finally go to sleep, picking through trash for items that will keep them alive- food, …

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Should Wearing Anti-homophobic Shirts be Banned in Schools?

Earlier this month a high school student from Ohio was banned from wearing a t-shirt that was meant to be supportive of National Day of Silence, an event created to draw attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools. Maverick Couch is one of the only openly gay students  at his …

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International Development through Education, Women, and Social Media

If you’ve had the chance to read my most recent posts, you know that the International Development Conference was held at Harvard earlier this month. I’ve written about some of the key takeaways from the education and women in development panels, but I wanted to write something about the overall conference and what I took …

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Nkundabana in Rwanda: Love for Children

In recent years, Rwanda has become a model for many of its neighbors in terms of health indicators. For example, maternal health indicators for the Millennium Development Goals are largely on track in that country. In addition, health systems’ strengthening has been improved with new financing systems and insurance schemes.  This has made accessing health …

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Education and the International Development Conference

Harvard’s 18th annual International Development Conference was held in Cambridge on Saturday. I had the opportunity to attend and sit in on some great panels about education, women, and corruption- all related to development. Speakers from the UN, the World Bank, USAID, and even one of Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential people in the …

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Reservation for One

California community college introducing a two-tiered tuition system for a spot in class Higher education is perhaps one of the most controversial and hot button topics that come up on an almost perennial basis.  The current debate revolving around universities and colleges hones in on high tuition rates and budget cuts.  While students feel frustrated …

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Peace Through Youth

When was the first time you really understood war?  Growing up I was in love with historical fiction novels.  From the earliest conflicts with Native Americans, to the Civil War, to World War II, I learned so much about past conflicts from the stories I read, the problem that arose from this type of learning, …

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