Making a Difference: You Are Somebody

Have you ever sat down and wondered, ‘why am I going to school?’ Education is certainly the gateway to getting a job, making a living, and avoiding poverty. But it doesn’t end there. Education is also the key to making the world a better place.

The path that I have taken in my education and the goals I have set have all been geared towards, well, me. How can I earn the most money? How can I make my education worthwhile? I suppose I never considered that I can find a way to both support myself and use my education for doing good. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to gain an education, an opportunity not everyone has. If those who earn an education do not work towards solving social problems, who will?

I believe donors are investing in universities for a reason. They don’t want to create a mass army of individuals with brains filled with the knowledge of textbooks; they are hoping to produce innovative individuals who will contribute to society and make a difference in the world. They want to produce leaders, those who will take initiative in solving some of the world’s toughest problems.

Microsoft’s Imagine Cup certainly embodies this concept. What is the Imagine Cup? It’s a student technology competition that is inspiring students to use their knowledge and creativity to help solve some of the toughest problems in today’s world.

I think this is a great event; it communicates something important; it tells students that their education is a powerful tool that they can use to help make an impact. It’s what they do with their knowledge from school that is important.

The 2012 winners of the Imagine Cup are truly an inspiration. FlashFood is a software design that uses social media to help reduce food waste in America. By using text notifications, they are helping restaurants, grocers, and other food-service venders donate leftover food to community centers. But it doesn’t end there; they are also helping community organizations alert people who need the food. It’s all about the network, the communication. This group of entrepreneurs have recognized that too many people go to bed hungry at night and too much food is going to waste.

If we could get students to band together, identify a need in the world, and use their innovative minds and years of acquired knowledge to tackle those problems, think of how much our world could change.

We need more events like Imagine Cup and we need to inspire students to make use of their education to help the world.

Because if it’s not you, who will?

Helping Children Gain An Education Starts With Helping The Home

While exploring the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s blog, Impatient Optimists, I learned about a great program that has met with so much success, that it has caught the attention of our U.S. Deputy Secretary of HUD.

The program, called the McCarver Elementary Special Housing Program started in Tacoma, Washington where for children of the Hilltop neighborhood, maintaining a stable education is difficult. Because of family financial difficulties, it is frequent for kids to enroll in school and soon have to leave. It has been recognized that these kids cannot gain the proper education they need if they must come and go often.

Now here comes the great idea that I admire: two sectors, the Tacoma Housing Authority and Tacoma Public Schools have joined forces to combat this inconsistency in children’s education. Families who join the program are required to keep their kids enrolled in the school and work towards gaining financial stability. In return the families will be given five years of housing support.

I think this is great philanthropy. Sometimes I feel like the relationship between school and home goes unrecognized. It’s nice to see the two sectors collaborating to work towards this because school and home are inevitably intertwined. I feel like for some families to gain financial stability, all they need is to be given an opportunity and recourses to lift themselves up. A little help can go a long way.

Taking Education Outside the Classroom Yields Tremendous Benefits

If there were one thing that I could do to enrich my college education it would be to educate myself for a period of time overseas. Day after day I’ve sat in a lecture hall listening to professors tell me about the world. Learning about different cultures has certainly opened my mind to other ways of life and perspectives than my own, but I don’t think I can fully understand the concepts I’ve been taught without applying them in person in another country. College has given me only a peek of the outside world and I’m thirsty for more.

With the help of private philanthropy, many military students are awarded scholarships to do just what I dream of. While studying abroad, these scholars are given the opportunity to learn new languages, immerse themselves in the culture of the country they are visiting, and develop friendships with the people. They get to witness first hand the typical life of community members, including their struggles. Such experiences are extremely beneficial not just to the individual but also to the U.S., where cultural-competence assists in carrying out successful military operations.

Personally, I think all military students should be given the opportunity to be educated in another country. I feel like one cannot fully understand the U.S. in isolation from its surroundings because it lies in an interdependent field of other countries. In conclusion, I think private donations that help military students to study abroad should be greatly acknowledged for the tremendous benefits they yield.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Courage Promotes Substantial and Lasting Impact

The philanthropic work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has led to an abundance of news headlines. We hear about their generous donations, grants, and support for education, but what is the foundation really about and what do they do?

Based on the belief that all lives have equal value, the foundation seeks to tackle even the most difficult of social problems. Holding this no-fear attitude, it is admirable that they strive for change in areas that seem almost impossible to make a dent in. Their awareness that not all projects can succeed leads them to turn failure into gold, learning from their mistakes to alter the way they approach future endeavors.  The work of the foundation is shaped by the importance they place on optimism, collaboration, rigor and innovation. Building on such values has allowed them to make progress in overcoming problems such as hunger, poverty, and improving health, and education.

The foundation funds programs for global development, global health, the United States, and also funds non-programs grants. The ultimate goal of the Global Development Program is to help people overcome hunger and poverty. Undertaking such problems involves supporting agricultural development, offering poor people access to financial services, and improving sanitation and access to clean water to help reduce the spread of disease. The fact that the foundation targets change in areas in developing countries that are most likely spread and effect the greatest number of people is a reflection of their drive to make the largest impact.

The Global Health Program supports the development of new vaccines, medicines, and new strategies for making them accessible to people. They target diseases that are substantial contributors to the sustaining of poverty such as HIV/AIDs, malaria, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

The focus of the United States Program is to make sure that everyone is given educational opportunity. The program helps fund early learning programs, scholarships for higher education, and public access to computers and the Internet.

One crucial aspect of this foundation is that they initiate projects and follow up by measuring progress, analyzing what is working/not working and adjust their tactics accordingly. It is especially noteworthy that they communicate what they’ve learned with others, a reflection of the value they place on collaboration. Working with others allows for the development of more innovative ideas that can lead to the greatest progress.

It is my hope that the information in this post promotes greater acknowledgement and understanding of the philanthropic work this foundation pursues and the values in which their efforts are based.