Jul 27
I curled up in front of my television earlier this month, all set to watch the women’s gymnastic Olympic trials, when something caught my attention. At the start of the program, a promotional video began to run, flashing the names of the Olympic hopefuls. There was “Jordyn.. Gabby… McKayla… Alexandra… Kyla…” WAIT. Since when were …
Jul 25
The SISGI Group’s Alliance for Positive Youth Development is hosting the 2012 Best Practices for Youth Conference August 6-10, 2012. This great online professional development opportunity leverages technology and social media to share and connect with youth development professionals, educators and young people working on youth issues around the country. As a participant in this unique …
Jul 24
Searching For Answers in the Aurora, Colorado Shooting When something like the Aurora movie theatre massacre happens, the first question is always “why?”. Why did this happen? The brutal act of violence seems so senseless, so inexplicable. It’s hard to make sense of it all. However, the problem lays in our follow-up question- “how do …
Jul 17
Take a close look at the following numbers: 85% of murders. 90% of violent, physical assaults. 95% of domestic violence. 95% of dating violence. 95% of child sexual abuse cases. 99.8% of those in prison convicted for rape. What do all of these statistics have in common? They’re all committed by men. For too long, …
Jul 12
What the Anti-Smoking Campaign Got Right If there’s one thing that the United States has gotten right, it’s smoking. Or the lack of smoking, to be more exact. I first realized this while studying abroad in Italy last semester. While I was in Italy, I was shocked by the amount of people who smoked, and …
Jul 10
It’s not just the girls. Boys also are influenced by the images they see in the media. When you look at the numbers, it’s clear that girls’ body image in the United States is in grave danger. 42% of first, second, and third grade girls want to lose weight. More than 50% of ten-year-old girls …
Jun 29
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 …
May 31
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” ~ Kate Moss, 2009 Or at least that’s Kate Moss’ take on things. In 2009, Kate Moss was highly criticized for publicizing such a dangerous, and detrimental motto. Mainstream media and bloggers alike slammed her for setting such a poor example when it came to the body image …
May 07
Gender stereotypes constantly limit the amount of progress and development that we see in our world today. Unfortunately, they are also engraved within society as an absolute norm. This video shines light on how gender stereotypes are driven into peoples’ minds from a very young age. It is meant to educate viewers on the effect …
May 03
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 …
