#& new mexico has better funding & opportunities for education- which is great because i want to teach when i graduate..

[cryptidspaz]

i think when i finish school im gonna sell my house & move to new mexico...

[xxladylovexx]

The crusade to cancel my talk at Toronto Public Library

Meghan Murphy

October 18, 2019

This week, three Canadian writers launched a petition demanding the Toronto Public Library cancel a room rental for a sold-out event, ‘Gender Identity: What Does It Mean for Society, the Law, and Women?’ Sounds frightening, I know.

The local women organizing the event, a group called Radical Feminists Unite, asked me in June if they could bring me to Toronto to speak about gender identity legislation and women’s rights, unhappy that the debate was not being given space in their city. This is not an uncommon sentiment. The events I have been asked to participate in generally have been organized by regular women who have serious concerns about how gender identity ideology and policy could affect, and already is affecting, women’s sex-based rights. Canada in particular has been resistant to this discussion. Due to media blackouts, harassment, bullying, threats of violence, smear campaigns, censorship, and ostracization, a few brave women have had to force the conversation, at great risk.

In January, a couple women took it upon themselves to organize an event in Vancouver, ‘Gender Identity Ideology and Women’s Rights.’ These women had no budget, no public or political power, no history in activism or organizing events, and no agenda, other than to open up a conversation they feel is desperately needed. The panel, held at the Vancouver Public Library, featured me and two other longtime feminist activists with impeccable records fighting male violence against women. The organizers and I received numerous death and rape threats, were protested, and were libeled by politicians and the media. The VPL forced us to move the event after hours (to 9:30 p.m. on a weeknight), claiming that protesters posed a risk to patrons and staff. They attempted to charge us thousands in security fees in an effort to pressure us to choose another venue, surely aware we didn’t have that kind of budget. The chief librarian, Christina de Castell, issued a statement saying the library did not agree with ‘the views of Feminist Current,’ my website. Castell did not say which views the library disagreed with (protecting women’s sex-based rights or the idea that sexist gender stereotypes are not innate?), but regardless, she should not have taken a position, as a representative of a public institution meant to be neutral, nor should she have spoken on behalf of the VPL, as not everyone at the library is in agreement with her apparent opposition to both biology and women’s rights. Vancouver’s mayor labeled me ‘despicable’. Canada’s national public broadcaster, the CBC, located across the street from the library, refused to cover the event or contact me for comment, despite hosting a panel prior to the event, speculating whether panelists might say anything constituting ‘hate speech’. Of course none did. Despite protests, the event went off without a hitch and was incredibly respectful, inspiring, and galvanizing. The impassioned talks are available on YouTube for anyone to watch and see for themselves.

But why bother? Listening to words and forming an educated opinion based on said words is no longer a popular pastime.

Things have played out similarly in Toronto. The primary difference is that it is now writers leading the charge. You know, people who should be invested in reading and using words correctly.

Not only that, but writers of all people should be defending freedom of expression and a public library’s decision to uphold its mandate, which, per the TPL’s response to the petition, is to ensure meeting rooms are available to the public ‘on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use’. The statement goes on to say: ‘As a public institution, our primary obligation is to uphold the fundamental freedoms of freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.’

This response was unacceptable to the writers and thousands of Torontonians (many of whom I’m certain would consider themselves ‘progressive,’ even ‘feminist’) wanting my talk canceled. Indeed, those who have signed the petition, ‘Stop Hate Speech from Being Spread at the Toronto Public Library,’ have publicly stated I am guilty of ‘hate speech’ and compared the organizers to a ‘hate group’. The petition, authored by Alicia Elliot, Catherine Hernandez, and Carrianne Leung, reads:

‘Those who want to disseminate hate speech today know that they can misrepresent, then weaponize the phrase ‘freedom of speech’ in order to get what they want: an audience, and space to speak to and then mobilize that audience against marginalized communities. While everyone has freedom of speech, we want to once again point to the limits of those freedoms when certain acts and speech infringe on the freedom of others, particularly those in marginalized communities. We also want to point out that hate groups do not have a right to use publicly funded facilities to meet and organize. This is precisely why TPL has a community and event space policy: to determine who and who does not have the right to use its facilities. There is a difference between denying free speech—and what is known as deplatforming, which is when you refuse to allow hate speech to be disseminated in your facility. This has been an effective tactic to stop those who capitalize on spreading hate speech, such as Meghan Murphy.’

The problem is I’ve never engaged in hate speech. I have made very basic statements about biology, such as ‘men aren’t women’ and ‘male bodies and female bodies are different.’ I have also argued that some spaces should be women-only, including changing rooms, transition houses, and prisons. I have said that individuals cannot change sex through self-declaration and that a boy is not a girl because he prefers dresses to pants. I have said that women have particular rights in this world due to the fact of being born female. I have said that women have not experienced discrimination in the workplace, in the home, in universities, and in politics because of anything they feel or because they somehow ‘identify’ with feminine stereotypes. In fact, it is the desire not to be limited to gender roles that inspired feminists’ ongoing fight.

Usually, I say this all warmly. I’m not generally an angry person but quite jovial, in fact. I don’t spend much of my energy hating anyone beyond slow walkers and morning people. I’m just telling the truth.

The writers who initiated the petition say they will no longer participate in events held at the TPL unless the library cancels my talk, which is fine, I suppose. It is their prerogative if they wish to hold readings for their friends in spaces untainted by free thought. Surely the condos their parents bought them have shared rec rooms available for such gatherings? Cozy bubbles seem better suited for those needing to protect themselves from triggers such as people with different opinions and experiences, anyway.

The whole scene strikes me as nauseatingly elitist, especially the entitlement with which these ‘progressive’ people approach members of the public — in this case, women with no particular social, political, or economic power — as though they should have the power to determine what we all think or say. As though they have the right to dictate what a library, of all places, should allow to be discussed within its walls.

These protesters are primarily middle- and upper-class people who have had access to opportunities most people in this world have not. Who live in relative safety, free from state persecution — who have the privilege of freedom in a world that continues to host dictatorships and incredibly repressive regimes that quite literally jail and murder those who fail to toe the party line. They have taken a postmodernist theory invented primarily within the walls of academia — that is, the notion that material reality is determined by inner feelings — and are attempting to impose it on the general public via force. These people have taken on the position of dictator, threatening to throw those who won’t adopt their nonsensical mantras in jail. Indeed, a former politician with the NDP, Canada’s leftist party, publicly claimed the event was ‘illegal’ while her supporters said I should be jailed.

On Thursday, Toronto mayor John Tory said he had contacted the library in an attempt to have the event canceled and is ‘disappointed’ the library declined to do so. What is in fact ‘disappointing’ (indeed, appalling) is that the mayor of Toronto does not understand the TPL’s mandate as a public institution and opposes freedom of expression.

These leftists seem unaware that opposition to free speech has not treated their presumed heroes kindly. They have so easily forgotten Emma Goldman, who was imprisoned for distributing information about birth control. And Rosa Luxemburg, arrested and killed by the GKSD, a German paramilitary unit instructed to suppress the communists. Surely the suffragettes deserved to be jailed and beaten for fighting to win women the right to vote, as their ideas were deemed too ‘radical’, not only by their opponents but other feminists and abolitionists. They have apparently not paid much attention to the female activists arrested and tortured in Saudi Arabia for advocating that women be allowed to drive. Journalists continue to be murdered in Mexico for reporting on police corruption and the drug war. But no matter. Protecting free expression is clearly a relic of the past, before we had multi-billion-dollar social media companies on hand to police dangerous speech. (‘On top of that, she has been banned from Twitter for violating their Hateful Conduct Policy’, the petition reads, as though In Big Tech We Trust is an appropriate mantra for supposed social justice advocates.)

At what point in history has suppressing subversive speech benefited the marginalized? Or anyone, really?

The CBC again failed to include the organizers or myself, the speaker, in its ‘coverage’ of the event. On a segment that aired Wednesday, Gill Deacon, host of Here and Now Toronto, spoke with Elliot, who stated that I was ‘trying to take away the rights of people’, ‘preach[ing] against human rights’, and did not believe ‘transwomen should have protections’ under the Human Rights Act or Criminal Code, claiming this constituted ‘spreading hate’. That none of this is accurate was of no concern to Deacon or Elliot. The CBC sees no need to allow me to speak for myself and explain my apprehensions because, I assume, my arguments are so reasonable people might agree with me. While Elliot claimed that I was ‘lying’ when arguing that gender identity legislation could override women’s rights, this has, unfortunately, already happened, as we’ve seen men transferred to women’s prisons, where they have assaulted female prisoners; women forced to leave shelters and transition houses on account of being made to share rooms with men; women and girls made to compete with and against males in sport; women’s organizations denied funding for having a women-only policy; and of course as we’ve seen a number of estheticians dragged to the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal for declining to wax a man’s balls, because that man claimed to be female. What Elliot says there is no evidence for, there is ample evidence for. Which of course she would know, had she ever read my work, listened to my talks, or engaged in conversation with me, rather than using her platform to spout bigoted nonsense.

Ironically, if not for free speech, these individuals would not feel so safe to libel those they don’t like — which appears to be the go-to strategy of the Woke and Online. One wonders why they believe their speech should protected — even when hateful or slanderous — but not the speech of others. It is a modern hypocrisy I will never understand.

Unfortunately for these protesters and petitioners, the TPL will not be canceling the event, and I will continue to speak the truth in the face of threats, slander, harassment, ostracization, and actual hate speech. I will do this not because I have anything personally to gain from doing so but because I could not live with myself otherwise. I will not be silent while women’s rights are eroded, and I will not lie either under duress or to make friends. My integrity is worth more to me than my comfort or popularity, and yours should be too.

Meghan Murphy is a writer in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her website is Feminist Current.

[teatimewithtess]

Entry 6: Saturday, June 29, 11:33 pm

Recently in one of my past English classes I wrote my own version of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift; in the original essay, Swift chooses a daring solution to solve Ireland’s problem for bad children, hunger, and poverty: eating babies. Throughout his essay, Swift provides a plentiful amount of evidence and statistics proving that his solution is the one that no one will admit to working because no one has the audacity to propose it. Given any topic, I decided to go with the political anarchy that has divided America completely. I hope you can catch on to the satirical aspects planted throughout my work...enjoy.

..........................................................................................

A Modest Proposal

For providing the great citizens of the United States of  America with valuable, lawful choices that will aid in the development of one's’ views regarding the evolution of the future.

By Tess Butler

Unfortunately in our world today, frustrated Americans walk a road of hope and opportunity but are selfishly blocked by the doubt and ignorance from current politicians that only worry about how America can help them. From government shutdowns to never-ending debates, the American people cannot move forward, cannot move past these horrible roadblocks that cause the country to come to a halt. There has been bickering since the formation of the United States. George Washington even advised the current colonists to not create political parties because it would cause too much controversy; however, they did not heed his words. It has cost us the devolution of human reasoning in economics and politics. People argue without even obtaining the proper knowledge beforehand in order to propose a respectful argument that may lead to actual solutions. 

There is a constant debate over government, and it might never end. No matter how much all 300 million Americans try, they will never be able to work together in pure bliss, which is an unreasonable expectation anyway. Consequently, we are not using our gifts as homo sapiens, to communicate effectively and productively, but that is a future argument for a new and improved developed America. Every person has different views about each and every subject, so placing all these differentiating views in one enclosed area is not the best idea. Anarchy, protests, war, assassinations, murder, and ostracization are all consequences of opposing views; therefore, people with generally similar views should be together and share their ideas without having to worry about those frightening consequences. With similar people being together, Americans are finally united by the concept of similarity, rather than being forced together by differences. Fortunately, uniting those with common similarities is more realistic than a group of politicians actually working to better the future of the people. People would develop a more effective work ethic and become more united in a common trust of one another. Perhaps finally separating each mindset by our differences would finally allow the American people to prosper and break the bad habits we see too often in history.

As of 2019, 53% of Americans have a high level of discontent with the American economic system, 7% want a communist country, 57% of Democrats view socialism with a positive outlook; these percentages are far too high for America to continue on at its current rate. There are 327,232,426 people that live in America. If I subtract from the equation Alaska and Hawaii, which are not geographically connected to the United States and could be sold to Japan or Canada to gain some revenue, the resulting population would be 325,067,965 people. If I divided the total population into 5 different governing sections, it would equal about 65,000,000 people in each section. Even as the amount of births and deaths continue to fluctuate, it would not affect any aspect of the political districts. Therefore, each person out of the 300,000,000+ population would be finally divided for the better.

Now I will gladly propose my solution for solving differentiating views about government, even if it is denied by the current government itself, to the open minds of society. Out of the 300,000,000 people, each person will have the choice to live in one of five contrasting government sections of the “States of America.”  The five individual sections will be under the control of the following governments: democracy, republic, communism, socialism, and monarchy. The sections will be enclosed by massive Mexico funded walls that are heavily guarded by border police of that specific state; In between each of the central borders, wide channels will be created to further separate each state. Of each section, or state, the maximum population will be 65,000,000. If one might disagree with the government authority that they are born into, once reached the age of 18 they can move to a different state; however, any person can move a total of 2 times. If the population of the desired state has reached its maximum, one must go to their secondary choice. I will now introduce each specific state. State one is called “Calikota”(pronounced as kal-ih-coat-uh); it is under the ruling of a democracy and covers the area of the northern half of California to the border of Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. The democracy is in one of the largest sections geographically because it is still one of the most wanted and popular forms of government. State two is called “Arkwasin”(pronounced as ark-wah-sin) ; it is under the ruling of a socialism and covers the area from Minnesota to Louisiana, bordering Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. State three is named “South Cosas” (pronounced as south koh-sus); it is a monarchy government and contains the remaining area between Calikota and Arkwasin, which is from southern California to the border of Louisiana. State four is known as “Hiolina” (pronounced he-oh-lee-nuh), which is under the control of a republic government; this state contains the area from Florida to the border of Pennsylvania, including Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. Finally, state five is “New Sylvinland” (pronounced as new sill-vin-lend) and is under the rule of a communism; the state contains the rest of the area of America, which is from Pennsylvania to Maine. The cheated people of America will finally have a real freedom of choice. There will be one week for choosing the desired state, and if not chosen by the required deadline, will result in a random placement. With desired political views finally fulfilled, Americans have one less problem to worry about: building that wall!

As ridiculous as it may appear, long-lasting problems require long-lasting solutions; even if it means replaying history, such as segregation based on race, and modifying it to our advantage, segregation of political views. However, I advise the people to ponder over the obvious advantages it has on every separate person and every separate thing.

First, it will finally put the phrase so commonly used to a well deserved rest: “Separate but equal.” That ironic mantra was never intended to be taken seriously because of how absurd it was to the realistic world. There is no such thing as “separate but equal”; there never has been and there never will be. So might as well teach the future intelligent and truthful generations the actual truth of the world: nothing is equal.

Secondly, people with higher education will finally have the rightful choice to actually do what they want without having the negative effects of delinquents’ decisions. Because of the accumulated knowledge and intelligence some citizens have attained, they will fortunately choose some of the best states to live in because they understand the definitions and true purposes of each government. And fortunately for them, most people with a simpler or more illiterate mindset will be forced to live in one of five random states, since they never learned a valuable enough work ethic to make deadlines. A win-win situation, as they like to call it.

Thirdly, we can teach the future generations ANOTHER key concept in the development of Americans: opposites do NOT attract. Since each state is separated by government, each person now has a common similarity among one another. We can finally distinguish the 40% of ruined relationships, because of political disagreement, and gladly participate in conversations about how much better one state is compared to another. Even though we already do that in modern America, at least we have support from 64,999,999 other people in the future States of America.

Fourthly, the smaller amount of people will directly relate to a smaller amount of problems. Finally, the president of Calikota will only have to deal with problems from 65,000,000 people instead of 300,000,000. We will gladly make the remaining citizens someone else's problem: an American specialty passed down from generations of success.

Finally, the media will be heavily affected by the dramatic decrease of viewers because of the small amount of democratic watchers. News Stations will now only appeal to that specific state, so citizens of South Cosas, the monarchy, will not be forced to listen to the verbal junk that comes out of every newscasters mouth on Fox News, CNN, etc. The people will receive real news about important topics; only 65 million people have to watch a donkey and an elephant fight.

Now, the current Americans of today withhold too much ignorance and understanding to actually diffuse the political anarchy that they started. If we would have actually listened to one another from the very beginning instead of pursuing our common self-centered ways, America would actually be at ease. Now, if one might despise my ideas I offer them with a solution that might be too difficult to comprehend, especially if one is a politician or works for the government. America has the decision to change its own government. If things are not working well, the power of the democratic government can choose to change to better help the people. Unfortunately, this solution requires many long debates and indecision, which I fear is too much for the modern politician to handle. The politicians that unfortunately run this country are hard-headed and are not open to practical solutions; they tend to draw problems out past the actual deadline.  Political parties will be our demise and ironically we are the only people that can end it. If we do not try to change anything at all, like we have not been the past 200 years, our country might finally cease to exist, respectively, on a worldwide scale. I am sure many Americans are frustrated with the insults and stereotypes we receive from other countries that are actually communicating and succeeding, and to be an American is far more than supporting an elephant or a donkey. Perhaps, in one's views of America, it is not considered American if one does not do things for a resulting positive effect, but instead because one is too greedy and narcissistic to do things for the greater good.

Now, while many people with the education of an elite ivy league school might inspect my idea and announce it preposterous, my modern problem requires a modern solution. Without proposing a solution like this would only continue to hold back America's growth. This proposal might be rejected by the highest authority of America, but is not rejected by the majority. The people of America know what they want, and what they want for this country. This solution shall be proposed to the official government of America after reaching a reasonable amount of signatures, and will continue to grow as awareness is spread. Once the solution is approved and conversed about, it will become in affect the January of the following year. As I watch idly by, in my homeland of Turkey, I will see the States of America beautifully flourish because of a foreigners idea. George Washington would be proud.

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- Tesu :)

[acecademia]

What do you think has changed the most about education (besides online learning) from the time you started school to now?

Hi, nonny!

I honestly don't know. I went to seven different schools in K-12, a community college one summer, and an additional three universities for undergrad, grad school, and now my PhD, all of which were split between five different states. My frame of reference for how education in the US works is a little all over the place.

Long post, so it's under the cut!

I went from seventh grade in Virginia where we were still using overhead projectors and transparencies to eighth grade in Virginia where basically every classroom had a digital projector installed on the ceiling, which was not new for them. I had computer classes starting in first grade in Illinois, but my elementary school (where I did 4th & 5th grade) in Virginia didn't have computer classes at all. My brother and I learned D'Nealian handwriting in our New Mexico elementary school, and then he got in trouble for writing his letters "wrong" at our elementary school in Illinois because they taught print/block handwriting. There's been so much variation that it's hard to really conceptualize any changes that occur across the entire education system as compared to one single school or district. (This is all part of my larger "everything that's wrong with US public education" rant.)

Overall, I'd say technology is a major one. My brother was taught the alphabet using a keyboard when we lived in DC, but that was basically unheard of at the time (c. 1998). I had touch typing lessons in third grade in Illinois, but again, that was an outlier. Most of my classmates in Texas didn't know how to touch type or only learned in high school. I also grew up making powerpoints for school projects starting around middle school or so, and in high school, Prezi was all the rage ([insert that post about "what if powerpoint gave you motion sickness" here]). And while I was occasionally given the opportunity to make a video as my submission for a school project (which I only did maybe once), I now see this becoming more and more normalized.

There's also a lot more group work. By the time I hit high school, there was an increased push for teachers to assign group projects, and we even had partner quizzes in my AP stats class senior year. (Literally, we would do our quizzes in pairs, which basically meant I would do the whole thing and then check my answers to the half my partner was supposed to do so I could correct them.) I hated group projects in school. I only stopped hating them once I got to grad school because by then, people seemed to actually, like, give a shit about their classes and would do their part of the work.

Standardized testing is another big one. Schools really went overboard on that shit. It went from "here are benchmarks to make sure we're on track" to "literally your funding depends on these scores so your students better do well."

Quick interlude related to that: I did 95% of my freshman year on a total homebound program. A couple weeks into the year, my back got even worse, and I was in constant agony. I could not physically handle attending school or even just sitting up for too long without breaking down into tears over how much pain I was in. So after six months of my school sending teachers to my house every week to continue my education, they called my mom. Here's a fairly close outline of how that conversation went:

School: hey so we know your daughter's in a lot of pain and on a lot of drugs, but she's going to be here for TAKS testing, right?

My mom: ...no???

School: well she has to be here

My mom: does it affect her grade?

School: well, no, but--

My mom: will she be allowed to move on to the next grade?

School: well, technically, this year's scores don't affect that, but--

My mom: okay so, let me get this straight, you want my daughter, who is in constant intense pain that gets worse when she's sitting up for long periods of time, to come in and sit through multiple days of being required to sit up for hours at a time, all so she can take a series of tests that do not affect her whatsoever?

School: yes

My mom: ...

My mom: okay, so like every other week of this school year so far, she's going to be home. If you want to come and give her the tests here, we can work that out, but she's not going to the school for testing

School: we can't do the testing at your home

My mom: well, then she's not taking them

School: but she has to!!!!

My mom: you literally just told me that they don't affect her at all

School: they're a great progress measurement tool

My mom: my daughter has straight A's and was accepted to your magnet school program which required her to have a strong academic record. I think we've got a good idea of her progress. She's going to be home that week, and if you want to fight me on this, I'll give her doctor your phone number. Goodbye

And then she hung up, and I was like "holy shit my mom's a badass." Of course, I already knew that because she called my doctor's nurse and had them write me a letter saying I had an appointment that didn't exist because my middle school said that attending 8th grade celebration was mandatory, even though it was outside on the grass and involved a lot of like field-day-style activities and I was still using my wheelchair. They told me that I could sit on the sidewalk and watch. Yeah, sit on the sidewalk and watch other kids have fun all day while I was there. Alone. And bored. And attendance was mandatory??? No. My doctor and his nurse were so incredulous and outraged that they didn't even charge us for the excuse note, and I just went to Panera for lunch with my mom and my aunt that day. So like... my mom has always been a badass.

Also, we're now approaching Nicole's rant on accessibility in K-12 public education in the US, so revenons à nos moutons.

Standardized testing sucks and it's dumb and also when we switched from TAKS to STAAR tests when I was in high school, the freshmen (the first group who had to use them) at my school did so badly on them that I think about half of them (~300 students) had to do summer school. Also, there are a lot of issues with them like, y'know, the racism and classism and how they mainly exist as a form of elitist gatekeeping (side-eyeing the SAT, ACT, and especially the GRE super hard here). But that's a topic for another time.

tl;dr: there have been a lot of changes to education since I started school, but aside from a couple big ones, I couldn't tell you what they are because I went to so many different schools that I never know if changes I perceived were because of a nationwide change or just something weird at my new school ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[workfromhomeyoutuber]

You Need A Budget (YNAB): Humbly Confident Public Relations Manager

Headquarters: Salt Lake City, UT URL: https://www.youneedabudget.com/

At YNAB, we build the world’s best budgeting software. But teaching people how to get control of their money and changing lives, one budget at a time, is what gets us up in the morning. Over the years we’ve slowly gained some notoriety (the good kind!) but there are still a whole lot of people who have never heard of us, and it’s a budgeting shame. 

We’re looking for a natural storyteller, connector, and media whisperer, with years of public relations experience, to help us raise our profile. 

You have experience working with influencers and understand that bigger isn’t always better, but also, that sometimes, it is. You’re flexible like that. In fact, while reading the last two sentences, you began making a mental list of people you’d want to connect with right out of the gate. 

You see opportunities all around you and the thought of cold-calling a potential partner and pitching a potential project or campaign sounds thrilling. If you’re thinking, “Where is the challenge in that? I may even get an invite to the wedding!”, you just might be our person. 

You understand what makes a great story and what makes something media-worthy. And you love nothing more than packaging it all up and getting it in front of the right person, at the right time. 

When you look at all the awesome content the YNAB marketing team produces, you can’t help but think of 14 other ways you would promote it. Don’t be shy—we can’t wait to hear your ideas.  

If you are the right person for the job you’ll have the following experience and/or qualities: 

Experience in public relations, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, referral marketing, and/or partner marketing 

A sense of humor and the ability to think on your feet (this sounds like improv, which isn’t a requirement, but how awesome is improv?!)

Strong skills as a writer, communicator, and negotiator  

Strategic-minded planner who can execute the details without losing sight of the big picture 

An assertive, proactive personality that is energized at the prospect of building new relationships, partnerships, and programs

A natural-bridge builder that can’t help but make connections, build consensus, and invite collaboration

Excellent time management skills which make juggling multiple projects, priorities, and pitches look easy

That gives you a pretty good idea of the job and who we’re looking for, but first, you need to know if you’ll even like working with us. (Spoiler alert: We think you will.)

A Bit About Us

We build the best budgeting software around, YNAB or “You Need a Budget” if you have a lot of extra time on your hands. For more than a decade, people have been buying YNAB and then telling their friends what a difference it has made in their lives. (Google us, or read some of our reviews on the app store, and you’ll see what we mean.) We love building something that has a huge positive impact on people’s lives.

We’re profitable, bootstrapped, and growing. YNAB started in 2004 and we haven’t taken any outside funding—we’re in it for the long haul. 

We have one overarching requirement when it comes to joining our team: our Core Value Manifesto has to really click with you. If you’re nodding emphatically while reading it, you’ll probably fit right in, in which case, we can’t wait to hear from you! 

First, let’s talk about life at YNAB and then we’ll go into detail about what we’re looking for. 

Who you’d be working with:

Lindsey & The Gang aka the Marketing Team aka just a rag-tag but lovable bunch of underdogs who defy the odds—making budgeting software hilarious, emotional, and accessible—day in and day out. (Disney, are you listening?) 

We love musical theater, board games, stand-up comedy, the Enneagram, video games, and art, to varying degrees, depending on who you talk to first. (Oh, and Ryan likes sports.) Our internal Slack channel is so much fun, it has a growing fanbase of its own. 

Lindsey, our Chief Marketing Officer, will be the first to delete something very important, but also the first to celebrate your wins—big and small. Ryan, our Digital Marketing Director, will quickly become your lifeline in any type of bracketology-related emergency and even under website-launch-level-stress, he can sneak in the jokes that make you feel like, “if Dad’s OK, we’ll all be OK.” 

You’ll collaborate a lot with Rachel, who leads out on the blog, possibly from Hawaii, where she’s working from an AirBnB for a month or two, because she’s cool like that. And Janelle, who is the hilarious brain behind our social media. Of course, there is also Ashley and Hannah, who are growing our YouTube channel, and basically scream “lifestyle partnerships!” with their very existence. And then there are awesome teachers Erin, Ben, and Kelly, who are building out educational content and self-paced courses, that are begging to be discovered by the right verticals and communities… And that’s not even everybody! 

It’s a strong, creative, hilarious team that genuinely enjoys each other and their work. 

How You’ll Work at YNAB

We work really hard to make working at YNAB an amazing experience. In fact, we were recently recognized as Fortune's #4 best small company to work for in the United States! We have a team full of truly exceptional people—the kind you’ll be excited to work with. Here’s how we operate:

Live Where You Want

We’re a distributed team, so you can live and work wherever you want. Proximity doesn’t influence productivity. Taylor, our CTO, was traveling who-knows-where for a couple of years before he bought a farm. Up and move to France for a year? Sure, Todd did that. Don’t like France? How about London, where Janelle trotted off to. Tulsa Remote? Can do. Or if you just love LA or Baltimore or Buenos Aires, we’ve got people there, too.  Not all of us move around, but the fact that these folks have is totally okay because we’re all adults. Just make sure you have a reliable internet connection.

No Crazy Hours

We rarely work more than 40 hours per week. There have been a few occasions where things got a little crazy and people had to log some extra hours. But then they took some extra time off, so it all balances out. We work hard and smart but we’re in this for the long haul, no need to go crazy on the hours.

Take Vacation (Seriously)

We want you to take vacation. In fact, we have a minimum vacation policy of three weeks per year. Five weeks feels about right (plus two extra weeks for Christmas break). It’s important to get out and do something. We’ll look forward to seeing pictures of your vacation in our Slack channel, creatively named #office_wall.

The YNAB Meetup

We get the teams together once a year to catch up on spreadsheets and powerpoints in a Best Western conference room. Just kidding. So far, we’ve done Costa Rica, a gigantic cabin in the mountains, a beach house in the Outer Banks, a ranch in Montana, and most recently, Laguna Beach. We work together, play together, and reinforce the bonds we’ve made as a team and company. Every year, we leave refreshed, motivated, and excited for the year ahead together.

Up Your Game

We’re serious about helping you improve your craft. We budget for it (hey-o!). Think conferences, Lynda subscriptions, dedicated time away from work to learn something new… it’s really up to you and your manager. But we love to see our people growing.  

International is Absolutely Okay

If you are Stateside, we’ll set you up as a W2 employee. If you’re international, you’ll be set up as a contractor. Employee or contractor, it’s all the same to us. You’re part of the team. (We are spread all over the world: Switzerland, Scotland, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Canada, and all over the United States.)

If You’re Stateside…

YNAB offers fantastic health, dental, and vision insurance, where we cover 100% of the premium for you and your family. (No need to check your vision, you read that right, 100%. Although if you did need to check your vision, NBD, we’ve got you covered!)

We also have a Traditional and Roth 401k option. YNAB contributes three percent whether you choose to throw any money in there or not. It vests immediately. (Are you a personal finance junkie like our founder Jesse? He set up YNAB’s 401k to have the lowest fee structure possible, where all plan costs are paid by YNAB, not your retirement nest egg. The investment funds available are fantastic, passively-managed, ultra low-cost index funds. You’re not a PF junkie? Trust us, it’s awesome.)

Other Tidbits

Once you start, we DEMAND (in a friendly, ALL CAPS IS YELLING way) that you fill out your “Bucket List” spreadsheet with 50 items. (That’s harder than it sounds!) 

The bucket list really helps in deciding what we should give you for your birthday and the holidays.

We have a bonus plan based on profitability. You’ll be in on that from day one. YNAB wins, you win. That kind of thing.

We’re all adults. There’s no need to punch a clock, or ask for permission to take off early one afternoon to go see the doctor (health insurance premium 100% covered!). We look at what you accomplish, not how long you sit (have you tried standing?) in front of a computer.

We want you firing on all cylinders so we’ll set you up with a shiny new computer and replace it every three years.

Did I mention we make a huge, positive difference in people’s lives? You may not think that matters much, but then a few months down the road you’ll realize it’s made your job really, really enjoyable. Don’t underestimate this one!

If this sounds like your ideal environment, read on because now I want to talk about you. You will play a big, big part in helping YNAB customers achieve success. You will change lives. I’ll only say that six more times.

Now, back to you, our new Public Relations Manager...

Before “content marketing” and “word-of-mouth marketing” were buzzwords, YNAB’s marketing efforts were anchored in content and community. It’s what we do best. But we have a lot of people focused on creating the content, and very few with bandwidth to really focus on promoting the content. This is where you come in. 

You are full of ideas. There are influencers to work with, content partnerships to forge, referral strategies to execute, media stories to land! 

You see our crazy, loyal fanbase and it gets your wheels spinning—oh, the things you could do with the two families who got YNAB license plates or the couple that threw a YNAB-themed Valentines date!  

If we told you that we were getting users to opt-in to share their data anonymously so we could publish an Annual Report full of spending trends and averages, your head might explode with the media coverage potential. (Oh, the potential!!) 

You are probably a storyteller in your own right, and although we have content creators, you wouldn’t be shy about diving right in and writing content for a partnership you are working on or an influencer campaign in the works. 

You are our ideal candidate if you: 

Have at least 3-5 years of professional experience in public relations,

Agency experience

Excel at juggling multiple projects and timelines at any given moment and switching gears keeps you fresh and stimulated. 

Opportunistic and proactive about sourcing, developing, and executing potential partnerships, programs, and/or campaigns

Energized at the thought of building something from nothing

Comfortable initiating and maintaining relationships 

Understand how to pitch the right media, the right content, at the right time

Persistent. Because media. 

Make us laugh. 

Manage your time exceptionally well and are comfortable working remotely. 

Incredibly organized, flexible, and collaborative. 

Never met a deadline you didn’t love. 

Self-motivated and driven by nature, maybe even a little competitive. 

Stay laser-focused on the big picture, without losing sight of every. last. detail. 

Wildly productive and independent, but a team-player at heart. 

Bonus Points: 

You already use and love YNAB. 

YNAB is an equal opportunity employer. We believe diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences to be critical to our success and are passionate about creating a welcoming, supportive, and collaborative environment for all employees. All are encouraged to apply as we continue to grow a smart, hard-working, and diverse team who love working together to build something that matters.

How to Apply

Apply here (https://ynab.recruiterbox.com/jobs/fk0qmzk) by 11:59PM on March 12th, 2020. Firm. It’s a real deadline. The kind you love.

Attach a pdf of your cover letter. In your cover letter: 

Introduce yourself and explain why this position is of interest to you, and why you would be a great fit. Please limit this section of the cover letter to 1.5 pages. 

On a separate page of your cover letter, answer the following questions (with each response being about a paragraph in length): 

1. What attracted you to this position? (This is not about what attracted you to the software.) 

2. What criteria do you look for when searching for your next company or position? 

3. What are your favorite and least favorite parts of your current job? 

4. Tell us about a time when you had to learn something new to excel at your job. 

5. We recently launched two self-paced video courses and have two more in the works. How would you go about driving people toward those resources? 

6. Tell us about a campaign or program you built from concept to execution. 

7. With what you know about our brand and our product, share some influencers or other brands that you think could be strong potential partners, and why. 

If you have a prepared resume, attach it in PDF form. If you don’t have a resume because you aren’t even sure you’re looking to change jobs, that’s fine! An informal list of your work and education history are all we’re looking for.

Please send all attachments as PDFs. 

P.S.  If you’re not interested in or available for this position, but know someone who is, we would really appreciate it if you passed this along!

To apply: https://ynab.recruiterbox.com/jobs/fk0qmzk

from We Work Remotely: Remote jobs in design, programming, marketing and more https://ift.tt/3chu8kE from Work From Home YouTuber Job Board Blog https://ift.tt/2w8wbXY

[smalltowngirlbigadventures]

Collab chapter 1: My Friend Jesica (intro)

So my friend from college, Jesica and I have decided to do a 3-part blog collaboration since we have similar life endeavors. I will be posting probably 3 of Jesica's authored-posts about how she got into the position she is in, and in between each episode I will be posting my own semi-response. The same thing will be happening on her blog (with exclusive posts by me only on her blog) so check it out at https://welcomewanderlustblog.wordpress.com/ ... “Chapter 1 - Pre-Waterloo (aka before the Chicken Chalupas)” Hello once again to my readers and for the first time to Laura’s readers! I had thought it would be a unique idea to do a post together or in conjunction with each other as we both are in similar situations and both have about a month left until we leave our lives that we currently know. I asked Laura a little bit ago if she could write a little about her experience and thoughts, her background and moving forward how she is feeling. I had so many questions for her that it was near impossible to get into one blog post, so this will be a multi-part co-blog post sort of deal. There will be about three “installments” for each of us that go along with the other. For those of you who are either hearing about me for the first time on my or Laura’s blog, HELLO! I’m Jesica! This fall I am privileged enough to be given the opportunity to fly overseas and teach music to children from 3 years old all the way up to seniors in high school in Kazakhstan. Before I get too much into this and how I am feeling about having only about a month left here, I’m going to back up and talk a little bit about my international experience and how I decided that this is what I wanted to do since I haven’t touched on this too much. When I was growing up my family often took my younger brother and I on vacations. We did the typical family trips, at least for a midwesterner, to Wisconsin Dells, up north Minnesota, The Grand Canyon,Mount Rushmore, Badlands and Black Hills, Florida for Disney World and even Disneyland in California once too. As I got older I had even more opportunities and traveled to Chicago, Key West, New York City and Las Vegas. I can easily say that I am very fortunate and lucky for these opportunities. Through my many travels though, however, I only found ourselves out of the United States one time. We went on a cruise off of California and spent about one of those days in Mexico. No - this is not where my international story begins, as fun as it was seeing that mexican movie studio. My first real international experience wasn’t until I was twenty years old and I really took the whole “big or go home” expression to heart when I did. Through my studies at Bemidji State University I was given an opportunity to travel and tour with an electronic music group I was a part of in CHINA for ONE WHOLE MONTH. I leapt at this opportunity as everything but food and souveniers was covered by the college. The experience was surreal. I quickly made a home and other international friends as I was there. I was able to see the Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, Terracotta Warriors, Mount Taishan and Tinieman Square. This experience is something that I would never trade for anything, and it got even better… My cousin is an international music teacher (Hi, Jay!) and has taught in Venezuela, South Korea and now in Singapore. Because of his path, I really began to wonder if that was something I would be interested in as well. I had wanted to be a teacher from a very young age, so of that I was sure and the decision to pursue music education came soon after in high school when I realized how big of a part that music played in my life. Travel was a passion that I found later. I had gone on so many vacations that have given me such great memories, but after living in China for one month, my whole perspective changed. This could be my life. After staying in China for about a month touring and traveling, I was given a chance to stay an extra month and teach music, art and games at a summer camp. I immediately jumped on this opportunity, even with the skepticism of my parents and the fact that I had lost my phone in a chinese taxi. This second month was even better than the first; there really are not enough words to describe to you how life-changing and amazing that this was for me. I was able to live in a country with such vast history, travel, teach music and live my life. This was the defining factor in me deciding that this was the journey that I wanted to take my life on. Since my travels in 2013, I have not yet been overseas again. I have been able to travel with family, friends, and various bands within the continental United States. Each of these trips have given me wonderful memories, but my international travel itch was still lingering in the back of my mind. I bounced back and forth the idea of taking a self-funded trip to Europe or even student teaching overseas, neither of which were in the cards for me. After nearly four years after my trip to China, I found myself in Waterloo, Iowa staring down a densely packed exhibit hall full of unknown opportunity. to be continued...

[usaadmission]

HOW TO CHANGE H4 TO F1 OF STATUS

University registration is a major move that needs a lot of preparation. When you start to think about the legal status, it gets much more confusing. H4 dependents who want to go back to college also have two choices – Stay on H4 status in the system or change visas from H4 to F1. To learn about those choices, read this blog.

The first and most critical thing you need to do is locate a university that suits your requirements and a curriculum that matches your job objectives best. Helping an agent such as skoolville.com is a perfect place to shortlist services, find out about eligibility criteria, and submit applications.

To know about all the moves involved in obtaining a master’s degree in the USA, read this blog. And read the Best H4 Visa Holders Courses blog to know about the emerging services that are sure to give you a career after graduation.

You also need to apply to alter your immigration status from H4 to F1 visa once you receive I-20 from the university. You should either fly outside the U.S. to have the F1 visa stamped or remain back in the U.S. to ask for a status adjustment from H4 to F1.

Change of status petitions will take 3 to 9 months, depending on the support center to which the petition is submitted. Changed loading times can be found here. While your H4 to F1 status adjustment petition is pending with USCIS, you can participate in the system but you will continue to retain your H4 status until the Pos is accepted.

When the H4 visa runs the risk of expiry until the H4 to F1 COS is accepted, you will lodge another status adjustment appeal to prolong the H4 permit. In this respect you will find USCIS regulations here.

While you will start classes while waiting for COS to F1 certification, you would not be considered for OPT or CPT until the change of status petition from H4 to F1 is accepted. Remember that the status petition adjustment is just to modify your position when you’re in the US. When you are entering the country, you will visit a US consulate to have the F1 visa signed.

H4 TO F1 CHANGE OF STATUS PROCESS

The H4 to F1 transition of status petition I-539 ought to be sent electronically. The Adjustment of Rank charge as of this writing is $370. You would still have to accept a biometric charge of $85. On submission of the application, you are expected to submit to USCIS the following relevant documents:

Copy of University’s I-20

University acceptance letter that grants you entry

Print of receipt for the Sevis bill. Service charge is $200, which can be charged electronically

Copy of new I-94

Passport duplicate – contains just the first column, the second column and all parts of the visa stamps

Archive of all previous I-797A approvals if any H4 visa extensions have been submitted

Funds justification to pay fees and bills. Require the financial accounts for the past 3 months of the H1B partner. The bank balance should be greater than the sum listed on I-20

Cover letter detailing why you request for rank change from H4 to F1. Since F1 is a non-immigrant visa, while finishing your degree you must show your desire to leave to your home country.

Copy of wedding certificate

Print of the passport of H1B spouse-contain just the first page, the second page and all the sections of the visa seal

Your most current H1B spouse’s I-94

Your H1B partner ‘s last 3 pay stubs

H1B Partner cover letter saying they fund your college

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN H4 OR F1 RESEARCH VISAS?

If you’re preparing to research in the US but don’t know the visa you require or the visa is easier to use abroad, so you’ve come to the right location!

We will clarify the variations between studying on an H4 and an F1 visa, and mention the pros and cons of each one.

3 RESEARCH OPTIONS IN THE US AS A NON-RESIDENT

If you come to the U.S. intending to join a college or university, you generally have 3 choices. Those options include:

F1 visa research (meaning you ‘re moving from an H4 visa to an F1 visa)

Visa report for H4

H4 study and F1 visa study

What one you select depends upon your individual needs. If you work on an F1 visa, for example, the cost would be more costly than on an H4 visa. You must not be qualified to be a teacher’s assistant (TA), testing assistant (RA), or an optional practical experience (OPT) assistant.

So, the visa that’s best for you depends on the requirements and your wants for education. You may be able to find the right choice for you if you keep on reading.

When selecting the best visa for you, the first thing you need to remember is what your present visa status is, how will your financial condition look like and what are your potential career goals? Do you have answers in your head? You may now decide which visa is appropriate for you. We discuss the distinctions between the visas below, starting with examples about what is available on each.

THE F1 VISA

The United States helps you to get going with an H4 visa status at university or work, whether it be full time or part-time. If you don’t want to live in the US or do a CPT or Select, it may be very helpful to remain on an H4 visa, because you already have an H1B visa listed under the limit. Additionally, you can apply for an Employee Authorization Document (EAD) when you convert to H4 and then you can get a job thereby.

But, as we described above, this opportunity is not the best choice for you if you have the target to get a full-time job and an H1B opportunity. On the H4 visa, you’ll be less likely to be able to get a full-time job. There are also situations where H4 partners are not qualified to qualify for an EAD, and if you choose to operate in the states, review the H4 EAD eligibility criteria.

You may need to spend a great deal of time and money to find a job to get an H1B visa with this method.

Let’s assume you ‘re graduating in May, which implies the H1B limit is already ended in April — you’ll still have to wait until next April to apply for an H1B visa. You ‘d still have to wait until October to start functioning again. That is like a year of doing little or being constrained on what you will do in the U.S.

But this might not be the path for you if you intend to live in the U.S. Make sure you look at your visa schedule to see which choice suits the goals better.

HOW TO SWITCH VISAS FROM H4 TO F1

While it can seem strange, you may continue with an H4 and adjust it to an F1 visa afterward. How exactly does it work? If you’d like to select this option, you must start with an H4 visa and instead change it to an F1 visa after one year or more.

Be sure to address this solution first with your university’s foreign team, as every university has clear guidelines for how CPT and OPT options operate for various visas. Essentially, however, if you can apply for one of these two, you will obey strict guidelines and procedures.

The choice to go for this alternative depends on your needs and your desires. There are several options available, such as completing 2 semesters on an F1 visa to qualify for a CPT. Some other option you could recognize is to do an internship, then do your studies with an H4 visa and convert it to an F1 before graduating so you can apply for an OPT.

We agree this is all a little difficult to keep up with! However, we only want to demonstrate that through your foreign representation and attorneys there are other options that you may try out. A plus side to an H4 visa is that it would only require you to pay in-state university fees.

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS

We suggest you don’t go for the hybrid option because it could get a little too difficult to go around. Although this is still an option, we believe it could be easier and less of a headache to choose to study with either an H4 or an F1 visa.

Therefore, we suggest that you work on an F1 visa if your target is to get a job and an H1B visa.

On the other side, if you’re a spouse and your wife is moving close to having the green card, you probably will apply for an H4 visa so charging in-state tuition payments for your assets would be far smoother.

Recognize that you are not qualified for in-state tuition fees on an F1 visa; you will be required to pay out-of-state tuition if you’ve not lived in the same state for at least one year, which would not be the case for most of you.

Notes on In-state Tuition Fees

You would only be qualified for in-state tuition payments if you have been residing in one state, and only one, for at least one year. Your university will ask you to include proof of residency rules, such as filing state tax or a state driver’s license.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR H4 TO F1 VISA

As previously mentioned, changing status from H4 to F1 would only change your employment status when you’re in the US. But if you’re traveling outside the country, you’ll need to get a US consulate stamped on the F1 visa. The F1 visa interview tips blog for the F1 visa recruitment process is available for reading. But F1 Visa stamping when converting from H4 to F1 includes some extra risks. During the F1 visa test, there are two frequently asked questions: Why do you want to move from H4 to F1 classification and what do you plan to do after graduation? CPT and OPT workability are good reasons for changing status from H4 to F1. The query about post-graduation plans is intended to test your intention to eventually immigrate to the US. The possibilities of visa stamping H4 to F1 are particularly grim when the green card of your H1B spouse is already undergoing the procedure. So when you go for stamping, you need to be mindful of the risks involved. And it’s also advisable to join your home country’s F1 visa interview rather than Canada or Mexico because that will help show the ties with your home country. While H4 to F1 visa stamping is risky, if the F1 visa is rejected you can always return to the US on an H4 visa and resume your studies.

CONCLUSION

Please ensure your choice is thought about and rethought, and also have your main objective and financial position in mind because both can direct you in the choice taking phase.

Whatever you want, we wish you all the best of luck with your American studies! Please keep in mind that you should make the best decision regarding your particular situation. If you need more guidance going about the nuances of these visas, let us learn! We ‘re ready to support those contemplating coming to the USA!

from USA Admission – Study in USA , F1 Visa, Opt https://usaadmission.com/how-to-change-h4-to-f1-of-status/

[cadeau-gateau]

Many eligible families don’t use the Denver Preschool Program. The new CEO wants to change that.

Elsa Holguín, the new president and CEO of the Denver Preschool Program.

Elsa Holguín considers herself a bridge of sorts — someone who can cross divides and connect communities.

It’s something she’s done since she landed in a Denver housing project at the age of 17 after immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico with her family in 1979. Even as she witnessed poverty and hardship where she lived, her career in advocacy and philanthropy introduced her to a wildly different — and wealthier — segment of society.

Holguín, who starts her new job as president and CEO of the Denver Preschool Program on July 15, feels comfortable in both settings.

“I have lived this all my life,” she said. “I live in two worlds, I live in two languages, I live in two communities.”

Holguín is coming to the Denver Preschool Program after more than two decades working at the Denver-based Rose Community Foundation. She also co-chairs the Colorado Early Childhood Leadership Commission and serves on the boards of several organizations, including Early Milestones Colorado and Together We Count Colorado, an organization promoting an accurate 2020 census count.

Holguín will replace Jennifer Landrum, who left in January after leading the Denver Preschool Program for 5½ years.

The Denver Preschool Program, which is funded by a voter-approved sales tax, provides tuition assistance to Denver 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool. The largest subsidies go to the poorest families enrolled in the best preschools, but every family is eligible for some assistance.

Holguín said she plans to use her bridge-building abilities to make what she says is already a very successful program even stronger. One of her goals is to increase the share of Denver families who use the subsidies. Right now, about 60% of eligible families do.

Holguín also talked with Chalkbeat about how Gov. Jared Polis’ desire to provide state-funded preschool for all Colorado children would impact the Denver Preschool Program, and what she sees as the biggest challenge facing the state’s early childhood sector.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was your preschool experience like?

I grew up in Mexico, in the state of Chihuahua, in a small town. I attended both preschool and kindergarten. I was in that experimental group in Mexico because most of my family in Mexico are teachers and so they had been involved in developing the preschool. They did that a lot with me: “Let’s see how this is going to work. Let’s send her.”

Tell me more about your educational experiences.

One of my mentors and role models was my oldest aunt. Her name was Francisca and she started the first private non-religious school in the whole country when she was 19. She was an amazing woman.

In the summer, she did remediation classes and in exchange for remediation classes, which several of my siblings did, I would come and help her. I still have memories of being in sixth grade and being the assistant in her kindergarten class.

I grew up in an educational environment. My cousin was a superintendent. My other relatives have been principals and teachers. I was very lucky. We were extremely poor, but I had access to educational opportunities. I was in advanced calculus. I was in advanced classes. [My aunt] pushed and never took no for an answer because she knew this was going to change my life.

What was it like coming to the United States after high school?

By the time I came to the U.S. I was 17. I didn’t speak English … so I enrolled myself at North High School [in Denver] and went back to high school for a year.

It was challenging, but I was here with my mom and my dad and my other siblings so that was helpful. Within six months of when we arrived my dad lost his job. He refused to apply for food stamps or things of that sort … so it took me an enormous amount of time to convince him that we had to move to the housing projects [in north Denver] or we were going to be homeless. I took the role of navigator for my family.

It was an eye-opening experience to be in living at the housing projects and being in the wealthiest country in the world. I got to see multi-generational poverty, I got to see depression and I got to see people getting stuck. I also saw people who gave up because it was just too much.

How did you start your career?

While I was at the housing projects, I started working in the nonprofit sector. I started with an internship. [At the time], I was getting a degree in finance. That job led me eventually to the Women’s Foundation [of Colorado].

I got to live in this other reality of I know these very wealthy people and then I know these people in the housing projects. It was a really great way for me to understand that there was a role for me, that there was something I could do to connect these worlds. I thought, “I know how to do this.”

I feel the same way about philanthropy. I live in this world, but I can talk to the people in the housing projects. I can talk to the people in the community. They’re my relatives. I can go and say, “What’s going on and why is this not working?”

What are your top priorities for your first year on the job?

I’m going to spend six months really learning my facts, understanding the data. Let’s make sure we understand who’s been left behind and who’s not accessing the program. It may not always be low-income [families.] This is a universal program so we’re going to look at all communities.

The second thing is we now have the opportunity to start looking at 3-year-olds and we can start even earlier. Wow! That will be an amazing place to start.

Some eligible families aren’t taking advantage of the financial assistance offered by the Denver Preschool Program. How do you plan to address that?

It happens with the Colorado Preschool Program. It happens with Head Start. It happens with every single program that is reaching out to parents. I think we have the opportunity to go deeper. What’s reality for the parent? What’s going to work or not work? And if we have to do some out-of-the-box thinking, that’s exactly what we have to do.

Gov. Jared Polis has talked about his desire to provide universal preschool for all Colorado children. If that happens, would the Denver Preschool Program still be needed?

Absolutely. The cost for universal preschool statewide is enormous. Although the governor is going to have that as a goal, I think it’s going to be incremental. That gives us a window of opportunity to do it right and we have a model with the Denver Preschool Program on how to do it right. What [a statewide universal preschool initiative] will allow is for Denver Preschool Program to go deeper into 3-year-olds because [Polis] will start with 4-year-olds.

Denver Preschool Program has not only provided the funding for the actual cost [of preschool], we have done a ton of work around professional development, training and resources. So, we’ll still have the opportunity to do a lot of that work.

Looking broadly at Colorado’s early childhood landscape, what do you feel is most promising?

I’m finally seeing that early childhood has bipartisan support and it survives transitions in government, which was not always the case. You can go on a big ride with a governor that was really supportive of early childhood and be almost dead the next four years.

Even at the national level — which I’ll say very quietly — we have seen more funding for early childhood than we thought was going to be possible under this administration.

The data is there. Policy-makers and the public are starting to understand that investing in early childhood is the right thing to [do]. We have now see that we can change the system so young kids are not an afterthought but a priority.

What do you see as the greatest challenge in early childhood right now?

My concern is that we still need to focus on creating a better workforce for early childhood. How do we create the opportunity to compensate them in an appropriate manner? I’m a little bit concerned with the implementation of full-day [kindergarten] that we’re going to lose many of our teachers from preschool to better-paying positions. So we’re going to have to do a lot of work to get the workforce that we need.

Source Article

The post Many eligible families don’t use the Denver Preschool Program. The new CEO wants to change that. appeared first on CADEAU-GATEAU.

Read full post at: http://www.cadeau-gateau.com/many-eligible-families-dont-use-the-denver-preschool-program-the-new-ceo-wants-to-change-that/

[rolandfontana]

Mexico-China Economic Relations: New Administration, Same Old Shortcomings [En español tambien]

The China Daily recently interviewed Felipe Garcia, Commercial Counselor of the Mexican Embassy in Beijing regarding Mexico-China relations. The gist of the interview was that Mexico-China relations would improve under Mexico’s new federal administration because both countries want closer relations and because China knows just what is needed for such closer relations. In the China Daily’s view (and presumably that of the Chinese government as well), closer relations are a near-certainty because the first ambassador met by Mexico’s President López Obrador was from China and because China then reciprocated by inviting Mexico to the China International Import Expo (CIIE) to be held in November 2019.

The China Daily piece, titled With a New Leader, Mexico Eyes Stronger Ties with China is actually emblematic of how the Mexican government still does not understand how to generate more trade with China.

The Chinese Ambassador inviting Mexico to the CIIE says nothing regarding relations between China and Mexico’s new federal administration both because Mexico had been invited to this event long before it had even become clear that López Obrador would be Mexico’s new President — it had been promoted among Mexican business circles for almost a year before this so-called invitation.

The invitation is not that big a deal anyway. Many countries get invited to the CIEE (which is an annual event) and it is not clear Mexico has sufficient resources to promote its goods, services, tourism and investment opportunities at the CIEE. Mexico attended last year’s CIEE not so much because it was invited to do so, but because Mexico’s previous administration had a strong policy of promoting economic diversification abroad and it devoted substantial resources to do so. It is not at all clear President López Obrador shares this same economic view or the same willingness to devote resources to expanding Mexico’s global trade.

The trade numbers given by Mr. Garcia in his interview hide the true shape of Sino-Mexican economic relations (something quite convenient after fiascos in recent years, such as the Mexico City-Queretaro high speed railway fiasco or the Dragon Mart fiasco. The China Daily interview mentions that “[e]ven before the expo there had been good news in the air. Bilateral trade had climbed 11 percent to nearly $48 billion in 2017, and Mexico’s avocado exports to China in the first half of this year, a whooping 9,368 tonnes, had already overshot 2017’s total.” These numbers conveniently ignore that China exported more to Mexico than the previous year and that China’s trade deficit with China is approximately that Mexico exported less than USD$7 billion to China in 2017, while importing more than $74 billion from China in that same year for a whopping $68 billion yearly trade deficit.

The China Daily also uses a “before we had nothing” argument to highlight whatever little has been achieved in terms of Chinese investment into Mexico. The article notes that in 2017, “China’s JAC Motors, a state-owned automobile manufacturer, teamed up with Mexico’s Giant Motors to invest $200 million in an SUV auto plant in the central state of Hidalgo. And after China and Mexico decided to set up a joint investment fund of $2.4 billion, one of the fund’s first deals in 2016 was to invest $140 million in Citla Energy, a new Mexican oil company. According to a widely-cited Atlantic Council report last year, from 2014 to 2016 Mexico saw more than 40 deals valued at over $4 billion from China, a significant jump since no previous year had seen more than five.” But if you put these numbers in perspective, $4 billion is nothing compared to the value of projects currently underway between China and Chile, a Latin American country with a much more developed relationship with China. For instance, China has already invested US $3 billion in Chile according to the World Economic Forum and, as of last November, Investchile was working on “74 Chinese companies and 18 specific projects worth over US$1,800 million in areas such as energy, mining and infrastructure.” Though Chile’s economy is much smaller than Mexico’s it (along with Brazil) are China’s biggest trading partners in Latin America and Chile, at least in part because Chile has a wealth of qualified people that Chile have furthered Chile’s trade relations with China. Chile has even expressed its intention of joining the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Mr. Garcia nicely mouths the same old discourse to “win China over,” by highlighting Mexican exports of agroindustrial products that if not exported to China would almost certainly be exported to various other countries and “Mexico’s strategic location, bordering the US and a beachhead into Latin America [that] could help China’s global reach.” Or as the China Daily puts it: Mr. Garcia that “stressed the importance of bilateral trade…before ticking off in quick succession some of Mexico’s proud exports, like avocados and tequila.”

The China Daily interview irritated me for other reasons, too. Cabinet members in Mexico seem also persist with an outdated and ineffectual view on how to “approach” China. On December 20, during her first press conference as Economy Minister, Graciela Márquez Colín, issued assurances that the new Mexican government would work to make China a “very important market for this country,” as though that same plan had not been official Mexican foreign policy during past administrations. She also stated the obvious, saying that “Mexico must look for a way to insert itself into the Asian region, which is a growth locomotive for the coming years,” and that “although [evolution of Sino-Mexican] cultural and educational relations had begun since the 70s, that of trade had been slower.” But the punchline came when she pointed out that Sino-Mexican trade exchanges would teach Mexicans “how to understand this potential market” and given that “there are Mexican entrepreneurs in China…there was a “great opportunity to understand China’s technological and innovation advancements.” Sadly, I view her talking about opportunities to understand China as only confirming how little has been learned about dealing with China from either past administrations or from those Mexicans who actually have been dealing with China for the last two decades.

Mexico’s Undersecretary for Foreign Trade, Luz María de la Mora, stated (as we have heard so many times before) that “Mexico was seeking with China an agenda that responds to the interests of both countries” and that this agenda should be strengthened for Mexico’s export offerings, adding that we are “also very interested in attracting quality Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) that allowed fostering an initiative of innovative industries development [using] top-notch technology” and pointing out that the CIIE was “a very interesting fair . . . where Mexico . . . could present its products to that Asian country which displays export opportunities.”

Mexico must start thinking of Chinese FDI as more central to our economy, and not just as one of many possible ways to boost Mexican exports. Even if the new administration is putting closer economic relations with China high in its priority list, its ignorance and lack of plans regarding how to accomplish that have so far been its defining traits.

There have been many changes already under Mexico’s new federal administration, including one that will significantly impact Mexico’s economic relations with China and the rest of the world: This is the plan to shut down ProMexico a Federal Government agency tasked with promoting international trade with Mexico and foreign direct investment into Mexico. In my next post, I will discuss the legal and business implications of ProMexico’s closure and various other budget reductions of key Mexican ministries, all with a focus on China.

For more on business relations between Mexico and China, check out the following:

Improving Mexico and China Business Relations: Make it the Law

China and Mexico: The Two Amigos? Part I

China and Mexico: The Two Amigos? Part II

China and Mexico: The Two Amigos? Part III

China and Mexico: The Two Amigos? Part IV

Is Mexico Really Better Without China?

Is Mexico Really Better Without China? Part Two

  *  The above post is by Adrián Cisneros Aguilar. Adrian is the founder/CEO of Chevaya (驰亚), an Asia-Pacific internationalization services company. Adrián has a Doctor of Laws from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an LL.M. in International and Chinese Law from Wuhan University. He also is our law firm’s go-to lawyer for anything Mexico.

    El periódico “China Daily” entrevistó recientemente a Felipe García, Consejero Comercial de la Embajada de México en China, acerca de la relación bilateral con ese país. La tónica de la entrevista fue que dicha relación mejoraría en el nuevo sexenio porque ambos países desean estrechar lazos y porque China sabe exactamente lo que se necesita para que ello ocurra. En la perspectiva del “China Daily” (que, presumiblemente, es la misma del Gobierno chino), relaciones más esteechas son casi una certeza, tanto porque el primer embajador conque se reunió el entonces Presidente electo Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) fue el Embajador chino,  como porque China luego agradecería el gesto invitando a México a la Exposición Internacional de Importaciones de China (CIIE, por sus siglas en inglés), a tener lugar en noviembre de 2018.

El artículo del “China Daily”, intitulado With a New Leader, Mexico Eyes Stronger Ties with China [Con un Nuevo Mandatario, México Contempla Lazos Más Fuertes con China] resulta paradigmático en cuanto a cómo el Gobierno mexicano no acaba de entender cómo generar mayor comercio con China:

El que el Embajador de China haya invitado a México a la CIIE nada dice acerca de la relación entre ese país y el nuevo Gobierno encabezado por AMLO. México había sido invitado a la Expo desde mucho antes de que fuera evidente que AMLO sería el nuevo Presidente: el evento llevaba casi un año promocionándose en los círculos empresariales mexicanos cuando la susodicha invitación tuvo lugar.

La invitación no es la gran cosa, en todo caso. Muchos países fueron y son invitados a la CIIE, que está pensada como un evento anual y para el cual, por cierto, no está claro que México cuente con recursos suficientes para promocionar sus bienes, servicios, turismo y oportunidades de inversión. El país asistió a la Expo del año pasado no tanto porque haya recibido una invitación, sino porque la diversificación económica era una política medular del gobierno anterior, que llevo al mismo a destinar recursos considerables para su promoción. No está nada claro que AMLO comparta esta visión económica o tenga la misma disposición a destinar recursos para expandir el comercio global de México.

Las cifras proporcionadas por el Consejero García en su entrevista maquillan el verdadero estado de la relación económica bilateral (algo que resulta muy conveniente, tras fiascos como el Tren Bala CDMX-Querétaro y el Dragon Mart Cancún). El “China Daily” menciona que “incluso antes de la Expo ya había buenas noticias por ahí. El comercio bilateral había crecido 11% a casi $48 billones (sic) en 2017, mientras que las exportaciones de aguacate mexicano a China en la primera mitad [de 2018], la escandalosa cantidad de 9,368 toneladas, ya había excedido el total exportado el año anterior.” Estas cifras convenientemente ignoran que China exportó más a México que el año anterior, con lo que tenemos que México había exportado menos de $7mmdd a China a 2017, mientras que se ha alcanzado un déficit comercial acumulado de $69,363 mdd a octubre de 2018, los números más recientes publicados por la Secretaría de Economía al momento de escribir estas líneas.

El “China Daily” utiliza también un argumento de “antes no teníamos nada” para resaltar la poca inversión extranjera directa (IED) china que se haya logrado atraer a México. El artículo hace notar que, en 2017, “la empresa china JAC Motors, una paraestatal fabricante de automóviles, se asoció con Giant Motors de México, a fin de invertir $200 mdd en una planta de manufactura de SUVs en el Estado de Hidalgo. Y luego de que China y México decidieran crear un fondo conjunto por $2,400 mdd, una de las primeras transacciones para las que dicho fondo se había utilizado en 2016 había sido la inversión de $140mdd en Citla Energy, una nueva empresa petrolera mexicana. Según un informe del Atlantic Council de 2017, ampliamente citado, de 2014 a 2016 México vio más de 40 acuerdos valuados en más de $ 4 mil mdd de China, un salto significativo ya que ningún año anterior había visto más de cinco.” Ahora bien, si ponemos estas cifras en perspectiva, $4 mil mdd no son nada, especialmente si los contrastamos con, por ejemplo, le valor de los proyectos de inversión china actualmente en preparación en Chile, un país latinoamericano con una relación bilateral mucho más desarrollada que la de México. Para muestra, China ya ha invertido $3 mil mdd en China, de acuerdo con el Foro Económico Mundial y, en noviembre pasado, Investchile anunciaba que se encontraba trabajando “con 74 empresas chinas, y con proyectos específicos por más de US$1.800 millones, en rubros como energía, minería, infraestructura y otros.” Si bien la economía chilena es mucho más pequeña que la mexicana, Chile, junto con Brasil, son los principales socios comerciales de China en América Latina, lo cual se ha logrado en parte gracias a que Chile tiene una veta de personal calificado que ha fomentado las relaciones comerciales con el país asiático. Chile incluso ha expresado formalmente su intención de unirse a la Iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta (BRI, por sus siglas en inglés).

El Consejero García recita muy bien el Viejo discurso para “ganarse a China”, basado en resaltar las exportaciones de productos agroindustriales mexicanos que, si no se exportasen a China serían casi con certeza enviados a muchos otros países, así como “la ubicación estratégica de México, colindante con los EE.UU. y una puerta de entrada hacia América Latina que podría servir para apuntalar el alcance global de China.” O, como lo vio el “China Daily”, un discurso que “enfatizó la importancia del comercio bilateral…antes de palomear, en rápida sucesión, algunas de las orgullosas exportaciones mexicanas, como los aguacates y el tequila.”

La entrevista del “China Daily” también me molestó por otras razones. Los miembros del nuevo Gabinete mexicano parecen persistir en exhibir una visión desactualizada y poco efectiva acerca de cómo “acercarse” a China. El 20 de diciembre pasado, durante su primera conferencia de prensa como Secretaria de Economía, Graciela Márquez Colín, aseguró que el nuevo Gobierno mexicano trabajaría para que China se convirtiera en un mercado “muy importante” para el país, como si ese plan no hubiera sido parte de la política exterior mexicana en sexenios pasados. También hizo hincapié en lo obvio, manifestando que “México debe buscar la manera de insertarse a la región asiática, que “es una locomotora de crecimiento para los próximos años” y que “sí bien términos de intercambio cultural y educativo, inició desde los años 70’s, [la evolución de la relación bilateral] en materia comercial, ha sido más lenta.” Pero el colmo vino cuando la Secretaria señaló que “”este intercambio comercial nos tiene que dar lecciones a nosotros – a los mexicanos- para saber cómo entender este mercado potencial”, como es China” y que, dado que en la actualidad existen empresarios mexicanos en China, existía “”una gran oportunidad” para entender el avance en materia tecnológica y de innovación en China.” Lamentablemente, no puedo evitar ver su discurso acerca de oportunidades para entender a China como una mera confirmación de lo poco que se ha aprendido, ya sea de Gobiernos pasados o de empresarios que efectivamente han estado haciendo en China los últimos 20 años, acerca de cómo tratar con dicho país.

Por su parte, la Subsecretaria de Comercio Exterior, Luz María de la Mora, declaró (como tantas otras veces hemos escuchado en el pasado) que México buscaba con el país asiático una agenda “que responda a los intereses de ambos” y que dicha agenda debía reforzarse para “la oferta exportadora”, para luego agregar, “también”, que “a nosotros nos interesa mucho atraer inversión extranjera [IED] china, inversión de calidad que permite impulsar la iniciativa de un desarrollo de industrias innovadora con tecnología de punta”, señalando que la CIIE “”fue una feria muy interesante”…[donde] México…[pudo] presentar sus productos a ese país asiático donde existen posibilidades de exportar.”

A ver, México debe comenzar a pensar en la IED china como un factor más central de su economía, y no sólo como una de las muchas maneras de impulsar las exportaciones mexicanas. Incluso si en el nuevo sexenio se está dando enorme prioridad a entablar una relación económica más estrecha con China, la ignorancia y falta de estrategia acerca de cómo lograrlo son también los rasgos característicos del Gobierno hasta ahora.

Muchos cambios han tenido ya lugar dentro de la flamante Administración Pública Federal, incluido uno que impactará considerablemente las relaciones económica de México con China y el resto del mundo: el plan de desaparecer ProMéxico, el órgano especializado en la promoción del comercio y la inversión de y hacia el país. En mi próximo post, hablaré de las implicaciones políticas y de negocio de la clausura de ProMéxico, así como de aquéllas derivadas de la reducción al presupuesto de varias Secretarías clave, todo con un enfoque dirigido a China.

Para saber más acerca de la relación económica entre México y China, aquí los siguientes enlaces:

Improving Mexico and China Business Relations: Make it the Law

China and Mexico: The Two Amigos? Part I

China and Mexico: The Two Amigos? Part II

China and Mexico: The Two Amigos? Part III

China and Mexico: The Two Amigos? Part IV

Is Mexico Really Better Without China?

Is Mexico Really Better Without China? Part Two

  *  Este post fue escrito por Adrián Cisneros Aguilar. es el fundador y Director General de Chevaya (驰亚), una empresa de servicios de internacionalización para Asia-Pacífico. Adrián es Doctor en Derecho por la Universidad Jiao Tong de Shanghái y Maestro en Derecho Internacional y Chino por la Universidad de Wuhan. También es el abogado de cabecera de nuestro despacho, para todo lo referente a México.

  Mexico-China Economic Relations: New Administration, Same Old Shortcomings [En español tambien] syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[democratsunited-blog]

How 57,000 Socialists and Communists Plan to Take Over the Democratic Party

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=9551

How 57,000 Socialists and Communists Plan to Take Over the Democratic Party

News Analysis

In a move that could have major implications for American politics, the leading socialist and communist organizations in the United States have formally allied to increase their infiltration and manipulation of the Democratic Party.

Communist Party USA (CPUSA) leader John Bachtell partially explained the new strategy in the pitch for party members to attend an online webinar that was held on May 23, 2018. According to Bachtell, the webinar would feature a panel of representatives from the CPUSA, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Freedom Road Socialists Organization (FRSO), LeftRoots, and others.

The event was sponsored by a group called the Left Inside/Outside Project, which is the idea of “building power inside and outside the Democratic Party.” The organization began shortly after the 2016 elections as a response to the Presidency of Donald Trump. Bachtell claimed that CPUSA “is collaborating with several left groups and progressive activists to promote unity and coalition building in the electoral arena.”

The plan is to encourage all elements of the left to vote, which would result in “defeating the extreme right domination of government and the courts.” This “strategic imperative,” according to Bachtell, is why “building electoral coalitions with every force possible including with the Democratic Party is key.”

Inside/Outside

The Left Inside/Outside Project first announced itself in a letter, “The Left We Want to Build: Breaking Out of the Margins,” published on FRSO-aligned website Organizing Upgrade on June 9, 2017.

The letter laid out a bold plan by America’s leading communist groups to massively expand their collective influence both inside and outside the Democratic Party. In the wake of “the ascent of authoritarian white nationalism to the White House and the GOP’s headlock on 25 state governments and Congress,” the letter called for “building a left trend – an alignment of organizations and individuals – based on strategic unity.”

Further: “We believe that … Only determined, long-term, energetic efforts to break out of the margins based on a common view of how to engage in our electoral system, while also building mass protest, offer a chance to make the left a force in U.S. politics and, eventually, a contender for power.”

The letter went on to propose better coordination among America’s largest Marxist organizations, to increase infiltration of the Democratic Party and to further pressure it from without, through mass protest action:

“The fight against the far right is strongest when it is energized by an inspiring vision for economic and social justice. Campaigns for openly socialist candidates and progressive challenges to neoliberal Democrats must all be part of the political mix. And the opportunities for broadening the reach of progressive and left forces will be greatest when they both struggle within and work in tandem with the larger anti-Trump or anti-right front…”

The letter described this proposed communist/socialist alliance as a “left trend.”

“All of the organizations and networks we belong to have important strengths, but also very real limitations in terms of size, demographics, or geographic or sectoral concentration. None of them, in their current form, are capable of playing the strategic role we believe the left must play in the next period. A left trend might have that potential – the ability to reach far beyond the existing left to create a force that can move us from defense to offense.”

The letter was signed “In unity and struggle” by key leaders of America’s most powerful Marxist organizations, CPUSA, FRSO, DSA and the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS).

Potential Disaster

Broadly speaking, there are two lefts in America. One side is the anti-Democratic Party left –which consists of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Socialist Alternative, Socialist Party USA, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Party of Communists USA, and so on. On the other side are the groups willing to work inside the Democratic Party – that is, those organizations signing on to the strategy outlined above.

These organizations are not to be underestimated. Separately, all these groups are dangerous. Together, they spell potential disaster.

For example, CPUSA claims about 5,000 members, but its support base is much wider. Many Communist Party USA leaders are also Democrats. Examples include Houston Communist Party Chairman Bernard Sampson (local Democratic Party Precinct chairman) and Ohio Communist Party Chairman Rick Nagin, who serves on the Cuyahoga County Democratic Executive Committee.

The CPUSA is strong in organized labor, in Black churches and in the “peace movement.” CPUSA strongholds include New York City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Arizona, California, and Texas. The CPUSA is aligned with China, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela and the communist parties of Russia, Britain, Canada, Mexico, Iraq, and Iran.

CCDS is only a few hundred strong. It often shares members with DSA, FRSO and CPUSA. Its strongholds include Boston, New York City, Chicago, Louisville, Kentucky, and the Bay Area. CCDS has close ties to China, Vietnam, and Cuba.

FRSO is extremely secretive about membership numbers. Fewer than 100 cadre are publicly acknowledged. My estimate is around 2,000 members, but that is purely an educated guess. Dozens of front organizations of FRSO are extremely well funded through the Ford Foundation and other large leftist non-profits.

FRSO is strongest in the following areas: Boston; New York/New Jersey; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; North Carolina; Tennessee; Georgia; southern Florida; Los Angeles; and the Bay Area. FRSO also has smaller bases in Austin, Texas, New Mexico, Missouri, Vermont, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington state. FRSO supports Cuba and Vietnam. Some elements also support China and North Korea. Freedom Road focuses heavily on racial politics and is the main force behind Black Lives Matter. FRSO-aligned activists currently holding public office include Philadelphia City Councilor Helen Gym, Memphis Tennessee County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, and Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

LeftRoots “is a national organization of 250 front-line organizers and activists, committed to politically developing their members to lead social movements across the U.S.” It is essentially a project of FRSO.

DSA is the giant of the bunch. On the back of the Bernie Sanders movement, DSA has grown from 6,000 to upwards of 50,000 dues-paying members in less than two years. The organization has locals in every state but South Dakota. The larger locals include Seattle (600 members), Portland Oregon (350 members), East Bay (850 members), Los Angeles (1200 members), Chicago (1100 members), Boston (1000 members), New York (3,000+ members), Washington, DC (1200 members), Baltimore (450 members), Atlanta (500 members) and Austin, Texas (700+ members).

Thousands of DSA comrades are active in the Democratic Party and have taken hold of local Democratic County committees from Maine to Nebraska. In Iowa, DSA controls about 20 percent of the delegates to the Democratic State convention. DSA has run hundreds of members and supporters across the country on the Democratic ticket this election cycle. They include DSA members Kaniela Ing (Congressional District 1, Hawaii), Rashida Tlaib (Congressional District 13, Michigan), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Congressional District 14 New York), Zak Ringelstein (U.S. Senate, Maine), and Connie Johnson (governor, Oklahoma).

The Democratic Socialists of America is in many ways further-left than the Communist Party. In 2017, DSA voted to leave the Socialist International because it was too moderate.

Democratic Socialists of America also controls Our Revolution, the reportedly 100,000-strong nationwide organization set up to support candidates sympathetic to the Bernie Sanders movement.

Working Together

According to David Duhalde, former Deputy Director of Democratic Socialists of America and now “Senior Electoral Manager” at the activist website Truthout:

“I have been rather pleasantly surprised about how well the different post-Bernie formations have been doing and working together to keep this political revolution going. I want to give one great example, which is Our Revolution, [which] either locally or nationally endorsed all of our candidates that we endorsed nationally, as well. Not to mention tons of local races.

“We have a very good working relationship with Our Revolution. We often share information and talk about candidates. We, also, have this affiliation program where DSA chapters can be the local Our Revolution chapter, as well. That is to avoid unnecessary conflicts, duplication of efforts. So, our Knoxville chapter which helped elect two DSA members is, also, the Our Revolution chapter.”

According to John Bachtell, the CPUSA is also present in Our Revolution, as well as other “grassroots” progressive organizations:

“[CPUSA] members were involved with Bernie Sanders campaign and are continuing their activism in Our Revolution, Swing Left, Indivisible, Working Families Party, statewide groups like the New Virginia Majority and local Democratic Party groups and 2018 electoral campaigns.”

The hard-left has infiltrated the Democratic Party in virtually every state, from the largest cities to remote rural areas. From New York City and Los Angeles to North Dakota and Central Oregon. In rural areas in Republican-dominated states, the Democratic Party is often a shell, nothing more than a ballot line. It is easily conquered by disciplined socialist activists. In the big cities DSA and their friends can overwhelm local Democratic party branches by sheer weight of numbers.

The shock primary victory of 29-year-old socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over high-ranking Queens Congressman Joe Crowley is but one of many examples.

Our Revolution and the communists and socialists of the Left Inside/Outside Project are rapidly taking over the Democratic Party.

All in all, the Democratic Party-aligned U.S. left can boast about 57,000 cadre. Support organizations and affiliated unions, churches, civic groups, and non-profits would add several hundred thousand more to that total. If well organized, these numbers are than enough to solidly take over the Democratic Party.

The Party of FDR, Harry Truman, and LBJ is rapidly becoming the party of Marx, Lenin and Mao. Voters need to be acutely aware of their choices when they go to the polls in 2018, 2020, and beyond.

Read full story here

[travelguy4444]

The Students from the Victor School Return from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap!

Earlier this year, we announced our latest FLYTE partnership, with the Victor School from rural Montana. Our goal was to send a group of its high school students to Guatemala for a week and a half of learning, service, and travel.

Quick side note: If you’re new to this website, FLYTE (Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education) is the nonprofit foundation we created just over 3 years ago to send high school classes on educational and service trips overseas. Our mission at FLYTE is to empower students through transformative travel experiences.

We know the power of travel can change you – and so do the teachers we partner with. Unfortunately, lots of schools just don’t have the resources and funding to send classes overseas. That’s where FLYTE comes in. We serve underserved communities around the United States that don’t have the resources to send their students on class trips abroad. So far we have sent entire classes to Mexico, Ecuador, and Cuba.

And with your help, we did it again. We raised over $18,000 to help these students go on their school trip to Guatemala!

The students, the school, the parents, me — we all thank you for being part of this!

In late June, they landed back in Montana, so today I wanted to give you an update on their trip so you know where your help went. (I know, I know. It took a while for this update to happen. I’m a slow writer.)

Remember, Victor School is located in the small rural town of Victor, Montana that serves a total student population of 300 where 100% of the students receive free or reduced-price school lunch. The poverty rate is high in this community and many families struggle to make ends meet. Their teacher Lindsey was excited to partner with us to make sure her students had the opportunity to see a part of the world they’d never gotten to see before.

After three flights and nearly 20 hours of travel, the kids made it to Guatemala. For most, this was their first time leaving the United States, visiting a developing country, being in a place where the culture and language are starkly different than that of their hometown, and for some, it was their first time out of Montana!

FLYTE trips are not just vacations for teens. The itineraries are crafted to include various forms of learning, teaching, adventuring, interacting with local communities, and participating in activities that push themselves out of their comfort zones.

The students spent the first part of their trip in the city of Antigua, where they took Spanish lessons (which brought their language studies from Montana to life) and climbed the Pacaya volcano. That adventure impacted the students and what they thought they were capable of so much that they stopped on their way down and journaled to document their exhilaration and acknowledge themselves for what they had accomplished.

On the shores of Lake Atitlán, they experienced living communally. Part of their service learning took place at the Amigos de Santa Cruz local NGO, where they made authentic Mayan cuisine, learned about vocational training programs, and donated books they collected in Montana for the NGO’s preschool library. They also spent an afternoon connecting, playing soccer and hacky sack with the neighborhood kids.

They spent time volunteering with Konojel, a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce chronic malnutrition and endemic poverty. They helped out at the community center where undernourished children receive healthy meals and educational enrichment.

The trip to Guatemala ultimately changed their perceptions about the world outside the United States (and small-town Montana) — and what they wanted to create with their own life.

As the students reflected on their trip, we heard a few common themes.

The first was the realization that what they heard on the news is not always actually accurate. They now understand how powerful and important it is to see and experience things for yourself. It’s a sad reality that we see on the news is not the whole picture and that all too often if it bleeds, it leads. Just check out what the students had to say about their shift in how they viewed Guatemala once they experienced it first-hand:

“I wasn’t going to go to Guatemala because of all the stuff I heard others saying about it, like that I would be kidnapped, or that it was poor, or that I would get lost. But I’m very happy I did, because that wasn’t true at all,” said Zoe. “I’ve never had people smile at me randomly, but these people in Guatemala did.”

Or as Sam R. said, “A lot of [my] family said Guatemala was a dangerous place and gave it a bad reputation without ever being there, but when I went, everyone was super friendly and I was comfortable.”

And even though these students come from an economically-deprived, more rural part of the United States, traveling overseas made many of them realize how lucky they have it compared to others. This is one of the key things I realized when I went on my first trip overseas. It’s what got me out of my head and made me realize that I had a lot more opportunities that I thought when I was living back at home.

Sam thought that “(being from a family with no money) I had nothing, yet there are places with even less than us. It makes me more grateful for all of the little things we have, like hot water.”

Ellyse couldn’t believe that “little things to us — like school and clean water and toilet paper — are such a privilege and we abuse it” after seeing how rare those were on the trip. “I thought Victor needed a lot of work and that it was rural, but it’s not [that] bad.” Most of the students came back from Guatemala much more grateful teens. They shifted their perspective in a way that had them looking at how many opportunities they actually have, rather than focusing on what they don’t have.

This was also echoed by Sophie, who said, “We realized how much we take for granted, like toilet paper, clean water, and free education.” For Emma, “it made me more grateful for what we have, like good water, garbage/recycling services, etc. I am so lucky to live where I do and I am so grateful for all I have.”

Sam wants to work harder in school “because I now know what kind of opportunity I have.”

Summer observed, “We are so spoiled. We have so much more than some people in Guatemala could even dream of.” Sam S. said, “that although Victor is considered poor by American standards, we still have it very easy.” Madison felt that she had “a personal experience of how the real world works, how different countries are truly so different. It made me appreciate my home so much more.”

The students had other epiphanies as well. Gracie realized that “everyone has their own way of living, and mine is no better than anyone else’s.” Emma said, “It’s easy to forget that there’s so much outside of your little bubble and bigger issues in the world that we don’t see or experience in the U.S.”

Many realized they could push themselves beyond their comfort zone and do things that they never thought they could do.

Sadie “tried many different foods and tried to enjoy things that would normally scare me,” and Emma said “I achieved my goals by putting myself really out of my comfort zone. I learned that even in rough times, I can do what I need to make myself feel better.” Gracie really liked the shared hostels (two thumbs up from me!) even though she had never experienced anything like that before.

This trip inspired them to travel more too!

Zoe wants to go to Hawaii and also possibly back to Guatemala (“and bring my family with me so they can see it’s not dangerous, just adventurous”). Ellyse would like to go to Sydney, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Summer also wants to visit Australia. Julia wants to study abroad in Spain. Audrey wants to go to Greece, Norway, France, Spain, “and so many more countries.” Sam would love to go to Guatemala again to see other areas. Madison has been inspired to travel “everywhere!”

Sophie plans on traveling, and this trip “helped teach me not to have any presumptions about a place I’m going and to just allow myself to learn there.”

These lessons that the students learned are why I created FLYTE — and why it’s so great that so many of you support the mission too.

With the division, lack of understanding, and fear of “the other” that’s permeating our culture today, this is exactly what makes it all worth it. The fundraising, the coordinating of group travel logistics, and the challenges of running a nonprofit — worth it. These students left their comfort zones and had experiences that created a shift in their perspective.

Will this single trip of Guatemala change the world? Maybe, maybe not. But what it does is put these kids on a path toward success, toward growth, and toward thinking bigger! And we never know the ripple effect that occurs once we’ve thrown that first single pebble. By cracking open the door, we allow other things to get through that will only widen it with time.

Thank you again for helping us raise money for the school and making an impact on these teens and the future generation of globally-minded citizens!

***Three final thoughts:

First, if you or someone you know is an educator in an under-resourced school and wants to have an experience like Victor School’s, you can let us know here and we can contact you when applications are open again.

Second, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it took an entire community to send these students to Guatemala. Thank you to all our partners for making it possible for students to experience new cultures and countries and to broaden their worldviews! We are forever grateful to these sponsors:

World Nomads, our travel insurance provider, which donated coverage for all our students and chaperones. A very big thank you to them for helping out and ensuring our students were protected!

MYGHT Travel, which managed all our airline bookings and donated eye masks so the students could get some shut-eye on their flights.

Om the Go, which donated Asana pillows for the entire group. The kids practiced yoga daily and loved that they all had their own personal yoga mats to stretch out and sweat on.

Our team of FLYTE Champion blogger fundraisers, who created their own fundraising pages and helped us fund this trip: Carol (Wayfaring Views), Kristen (Kids Are a Trip), Gabi (Dream of Travel Writing), Anisa (Two Traveling Texans), Nicole (Wandering with a Dromomaniac), Amelia (Passports from the Heart), and Maggie (The World Was Here First).

Path’s Crossing, a travel card game that prompted questions that made the group both laugh hysterically and cry with gratitude. The company donated a game to Victor School and a percentage of all its sales to FLYTE.

Mahadevi Ashram, which housed the group at Lake Atitlán and provided them with daily yoga and meditation at a discounted rate.

Lastly, infinite thanks to our individual donors. We know that there are many worthy organizations out there, and we’re honored that you chose to donate to FLYTE. You made this trip happen and we can’t thank you enough!

The post The Students from the Victor School Return from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap! appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

source https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/victor-school-flyte-recap/

[jeffreyclinard]

The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap!

Earlier this year, we announced our latest FLYTE partnership, with the Victor School from rural Montana. Our goal was to send a group of its high school students to Guatemala for a week and a half of learning, service, and travel.

Quick side note: If you’re new to this website, FLYTE (Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education) is the nonprofit foundation we created just over 3 years ago to send high school classes on educational and service trips overseas. Our mission at FLYTE is to empower students through transformative travel experiences.

We know the power of travel to change you – and so do the teachers we partner with. That’s where FLYTE comes in. We serve underserved communities around the United States that don’t have the resources to send their kids abroad. So far we have sent classes to Mexico, Ecuador, and Cuba.

And with your help, we did it again. We raised over $18,000 to help these students go on their school trip to Guatemala.

The students, the school, the parents, me — we all thank you for being part of this!

In late June, they landed back in Montana, so today I wanted to give you an update on their trip so you know where your help went. (I know, I know. It took a while for this update to happen. I’m a slow writer.)

The school is located in the small rural town of Victor, Montana that serves a total student population of 300 where 100% of the students receive free or reduced-price school lunch. The poverty rate is high in this community and many families struggle to make ends meet.

After three flights and nearly 20 hours of travel, the kids made it to Guatemala. For most, this was their first time leaving the United States, visiting a developing country, being in a place where the culture and language are starkly different than that of their hometown, and for some, it was their first time out of Montana!

FLYTE trips are not just vacations for teens. The itineraries are crafted to include various forms of learning, teaching, adventures, interacting with local communities, and activities that push themselves out of their comfort zones.

The students spent the first part of their trip in the city of Antigua, where they took Spanish lessons and climbed the Pacaya volcano. That adventurous experience impacted the students and what they thought they were capable of so much that they stopped on their way down and took out their journals to document their exhilaration and acknowledge themselves.

On the shores of Lake Atitlán, they experienced living communally. Part of their service learning took place at the Amigos de Santa Cruz local NGO, where they made authentic Mayan cuisine, learned about vocational training programs, and donated books they collected in Montana for the NGO’s preschool library. They spent the afternoon playing soccer and hacky sack with the other neighborhood kids. (Most of the kids said this was their favorite

Additionally, they spend time volunteering with Konojel, a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce chronic malnutrition and endemic poverty. They helped out at the community center where undernourished children receive healthy meals and educational enrichment.

The trip to Guatemala ultimately changed their perceptions about the world outside the United States (and small-town Montana!) — and what they wanted to create with their own life.

As the students reflected on their trip, we heard a few common themes:

The first was the realization that what they heard on the news is not always actually accurate. And they really understand now how powerful and important it is to see and experience things for yourself to build your own understanding. It’s a sad reality that we see on the news is not the whole picture and “if it bleeds, it leads. Just check out what the students had to say about their shift in how they viewed Guatemala once they experienced it first-hand:

“I wasn’t going to go to Guatemala because of all the stuff I heard others saying about it, like that I would be kidnapped, or that it was poor, or that I would get lost. But I’m very happy I did, because that wasn’t true at all,” said Zoe. “I’ve never had people smile at me randomly, but these people in Guatemala did.”

Or as Sam R. said, “A lot of [my] family said Guatemala was a dangerous place and gave it a bad reputation without ever being there, but when I went, everyone was super friendly and I was comfortable.”

And even though these students come from an economically-deprived, more rural part of the United States, traveling overseas made many of them realize how lucky they have it compared to others. This is one of the key things I realized when I went on my first trip overseas. It’s what got me out of my head and made me realize that I had a lot more opportunities that I thought when I was living back at home.

Sam thought that “(being from a family with no money) I had nothing, yet there are places with even less than us. It makes me more grateful for all of the little things we have, like hot water.”

Ellyse couldn’t believe that “little things to us — like school and clean water and toilet paper — are such a privilege and we abuse it” after seeing how rare those were on the trip. “I thought Victor needed a lot of work and that it was rural, but it’s not [that] bad.” Most of the students came back from Guatemala much more grateful teens with new perspectives on how many opportunities they have, rather than what they don’t have.

This was also echoed by Sophie, who said, “We realized how much we take for granted, like toilet paper, clean water, and free education.” For Emma, “it made me more grateful for what we have, like good water, garbage/recycling services, etc. I am so lucky to live where I do and I am so grateful for all I have.”

Sam wants to work harder in school “because I now know what kind of opportunity I have.”

Summer observed, “We are so spoiled. We have so much more than some people in Guatemala could even dream of.” Sam S. said, “that although Victor is considered poor by American standards, we still have it very easy.” Madison felt that she had “a personal experience of how the real world works, how different countries are truly so different. It made me appreciate my home so much more.”

The students had other epiphanies as well. Gracie realized that “everyone has their own way of living, and mine is no better than anyone else’s.” Emma said, “It’s easy to forget that there’s so much outside of your little bubble and bigger issues in the world that we don’t see or experience in the U.S.”

Many realized they could push themselves beyond their comfort zone and do things that they never thought they could do.

Sadie “tried many different foods and tried to enjoy things that would normally scare me,” and Emma said “I achieved my goals by putting myself really out of my comfort zone. I learned that even in rough times, I can do what I need to make myself feel better.” Gracie really liked the shared hostels (two thumbs up from me!) even though she had never experienced anything like that before.

This trip inspired them to travel more too!

Zoe wants to go to Hawaii and also possibly back to Guatemala (“and bring my family with me so they can see it’s not dangerous, just adventurous”). Ellyse would like to go to Sydney, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Summer also wants to visit Australia. Julia wants to study abroad in Spain. Audrey wants to go to Greece, Norway, France, Spain, “and so many more countries.” Sam would love to go to Guatemala again to see other areas. Madison has been inspired to travel “everywhere!”

Sophie plans on traveling, and this trip “helped teach me not to have any presumptions about a place I’m going and to just allow myself to learn there.”

These lessons that the students learned are why I created FLYTE — and why it’s so great that so many of you support the mission too.

With the division, lack of understanding, and fear of “the other” that’s permeating our culture today, this is exactly what makes it all worth it. The fundraising, coordinating group travel logistics, and the challenges of running a nonprofit — worth it. These students left their comfort zones and had experiences that created a shift in their perspective.

Will this single trip of Guatemala change the world? Maybe, maybe not. But what it does is put these kids on a path toward success, toward growth, and toward thinking bigger! And we never know the ripple effect that occurs once we’ve thrown that first single pebble. By cracking open the door, we allow other things to get through that will only widen it with time.

Thank you again for helping us raise money for the school and making an impact on these teens!

***Three final thoughts:

First, we’ve already started the search for our 2019 partner school. If you or someone you know is an educator in an under-resourced school and wants to have an experience like the Victor School’s, we’d love for you to apply.

Second, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it took an entire community to send these students to Guatemala. Thank you to all our partners for making it possible for students to experience new cultures and countries and to broaden their worldviews! We are forever grateful to these sponsors:

World Nomads, our travel insurance provider, which donated coverage for all our students and chaperones. A very big thank you to them for helping out and ensuring our students were protected!

MYGHT Travel, which managed all our airline bookings and donated eye masks so the students could get some shut-eye on their flights.

Om the Go, which donated Asana pillows for the entire group. The kids practiced yoga daily and loved that they all had their own personal yoga mats to stretch out and sweat on.

Our team of FLYTE Champion blogger fundraisers, who created their own fundraising pages and helped us fund this trip: Carol (Wayfaring Views), Kristen (Kids Are a Trip), Gabi (Dream of Travel Writing), Anisa (Two Traveling Texans), Nicole (Wandering with a Dromomaniac), Amelia (Passports from the Heart), and Maggie (The World Was Here First).

Path’s Crossing, a travel card game that prompted questions that made the group both laugh hysterically and cry with gratitude. The company donated a game to Victor School and a percentage of all its sales to FLYTE.

Mahadevi Ashram, which housed the group at Lake Atitlán and provided them with daily yoga and meditation at a discounted rate.

Lastly, infinite thanks to our individual donors. We know that there are many worthy organizations out there, and we’re honored that you chose to donate to FLYTE. You made this trip happen and we can’t thank you enough!

The post The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap! appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/victor-school-flyte-recap/

[melissagarcia8]

The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap!

Earlier this year, we announced our latest FLYTE partnership, with the Victor School from rural Montana. Our goal was to send a group of its high school students to Guatemala for a week and a half of learning, service, and travel.

Quick side note: If you’re new to this website, FLYTE (Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education) is the nonprofit foundation we created just over 3 years ago to send high school classes on educational and service trips overseas. Our mission at FLYTE is to empower students through transformative travel experiences.

We know the power of travel to change you – and so do the teachers we partner with. That’s where FLYTE comes in. We serve underserved communities around the United States that don’t have the resources to send their kids abroad. So far we have sent classes to Mexico, Ecuador, and Cuba.

And with your help, we did it again. We raised over $18,000 to help these students go on their school trip to Guatemala.

The students, the school, the parents, me — we all thank you for being part of this!

In late June, they landed back in Montana, so today I wanted to give you an update on their trip so you know where your help went. (I know, I know. It took a while for this update to happen. I’m a slow writer.)

The school is located in the small rural town of Victor, Montana that serves a total student population of 300 where 100% of the students receive free or reduced-price school lunch. The poverty rate is high in this community and many families struggle to make ends meet.

After three flights and nearly 20 hours of travel, the kids made it to Guatemala. For most, this was their first time leaving the United States, visiting a developing country, being in a place where the culture and language are starkly different than that of their hometown, and for some, it was their first time out of Montana!

FLYTE trips are not just vacations for teens. The itineraries are crafted to include various forms of learning, teaching, adventures, interacting with local communities, and activities that push themselves out of their comfort zones.

The students spent the first part of their trip in the city of Antigua, where they took Spanish lessons and climbed the Pacaya volcano. That adventurous experience impacted the students and what they thought they were capable of so much that they stopped on their way down and took out their journals to document their exhilaration and acknowledge themselves.

On the shores of Lake Atitlán, they experienced living communally. Part of their service learning took place at the Amigos de Santa Cruz local NGO, where they made authentic Mayan cuisine, learned about vocational training programs, and donated books they collected in Montana for the NGO’s preschool library. They spent the afternoon playing soccer and hacky sack with the other neighborhood kids. (Most of the kids said this was their favorite

Additionally, they spend time volunteering with Konojel, a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce chronic malnutrition and endemic poverty. They helped out at the community center where undernourished children receive healthy meals and educational enrichment.

The trip to Guatemala ultimately changed their perceptions about the world outside the United States (and small-town Montana!) — and what they wanted to create with their own life.

As the students reflected on their trip, we heard a few common themes:

The first was the realization that what they heard on the news is not always actually accurate. And they really understand now how powerful and important it is to see and experience things for yourself to build your own understanding. It’s a sad reality that we see on the news is not the whole picture and “if it bleeds, it leads. Just check out what the students had to say about their shift in how they viewed Guatemala once they experienced it first-hand:

“I wasn’t going to go to Guatemala because of all the stuff I heard others saying about it, like that I would be kidnapped, or that it was poor, or that I would get lost. But I’m very happy I did, because that wasn’t true at all,” said Zoe. “I’ve never had people smile at me randomly, but these people in Guatemala did.”

Or as Sam R. said, “A lot of [my] family said Guatemala was a dangerous place and gave it a bad reputation without ever being there, but when I went, everyone was super friendly and I was comfortable.”

And even though these students come from an economically-deprived, more rural part of the United States, traveling overseas made many of them realize how lucky they have it compared to others. This is one of the key things I realized when I went on my first trip overseas. It’s what got me out of my head and made me realize that I had a lot more opportunities that I thought when I was living back at home.

Sam thought that “(being from a family with no money) I had nothing, yet there are places with even less than us. It makes me more grateful for all of the little things we have, like hot water.”

Ellyse couldn’t believe that “little things to us — like school and clean water and toilet paper — are such a privilege and we abuse it” after seeing how rare those were on the trip. “I thought Victor needed a lot of work and that it was rural, but it’s not [that] bad.” Most of the students came back from Guatemala much more grateful teens with new perspectives on how many opportunities they have, rather than what they don’t have.

This was also echoed by Sophie, who said, “We realized how much we take for granted, like toilet paper, clean water, and free education.” For Emma, “it made me more grateful for what we have, like good water, garbage/recycling services, etc. I am so lucky to live where I do and I am so grateful for all I have.”

Sam wants to work harder in school “because I now know what kind of opportunity I have.”

Summer observed, “We are so spoiled. We have so much more than some people in Guatemala could even dream of.” Sam S. said, “that although Victor is considered poor by American standards, we still have it very easy.” Madison felt that she had “a personal experience of how the real world works, how different countries are truly so different. It made me appreciate my home so much more.”

The students had other epiphanies as well. Gracie realized that “everyone has their own way of living, and mine is no better than anyone else’s.” Emma said, “It’s easy to forget that there’s so much outside of your little bubble and bigger issues in the world that we don’t see or experience in the U.S.”

Many realized they could push themselves beyond their comfort zone and do things that they never thought they could do.

Sadie “tried many different foods and tried to enjoy things that would normally scare me,” and Emma said “I achieved my goals by putting myself really out of my comfort zone. I learned that even in rough times, I can do what I need to make myself feel better.” Gracie really liked the shared hostels (two thumbs up from me!) even though she had never experienced anything like that before.

This trip inspired them to travel more too!

Zoe wants to go to Hawaii and also possibly back to Guatemala (“and bring my family with me so they can see it’s not dangerous, just adventurous”). Ellyse would like to go to Sydney, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Summer also wants to visit Australia. Julia wants to study abroad in Spain. Audrey wants to go to Greece, Norway, France, Spain, “and so many more countries.” Sam would love to go to Guatemala again to see other areas. Madison has been inspired to travel “everywhere!”

Sophie plans on traveling, and this trip “helped teach me not to have any presumptions about a place I’m going and to just allow myself to learn there.”

These lessons that the students learned are why I created FLYTE — and why it’s so great that so many of you support the mission too.

With the division, lack of understanding, and fear of “the other” that’s permeating our culture today, this is exactly what makes it all worth it. The fundraising, coordinating group travel logistics, and the challenges of running a nonprofit — worth it. These students left their comfort zones and had experiences that created a shift in their perspective.

Will this single trip of Guatemala change the world? Maybe, maybe not. But what it does is put these kids on a path toward success, toward growth, and toward thinking bigger! And we never know the ripple effect that occurs once we’ve thrown that first single pebble. By cracking open the door, we allow other things to get through that will only widen it with time.

Thank you again for helping us raise money for the school and making an impact on these teens!

***Three final thoughts:

First, we’ve already started the search for our 2019 partner school. If you or someone you know is an educator in an under-resourced school and wants to have an experience like the Victor School’s, we’d love for you to apply.

Second, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it took an entire community to send these students to Guatemala. Thank you to all our partners for making it possible for students to experience new cultures and countries and to broaden their worldviews! We are forever grateful to these sponsors:

World Nomads, our travel insurance provider, which donated coverage for all our students and chaperones. A very big thank you to them for helping out and ensuring our students were protected!

MYGHT Travel, which managed all our airline bookings and donated eye masks so the students could get some shut-eye on their flights.

Om the Go, which donated Asana pillows for the entire group. The kids practiced yoga daily and loved that they all had their own personal yoga mats to stretch out and sweat on.

Our team of FLYTE Champion blogger fundraisers, who created their own fundraising pages and helped us fund this trip: Carol (Wayfaring Views), Kristen (Kids Are a Trip), Gabi (Dream of Travel Writing), Anisa (Two Traveling Texans), Nicole (Wandering with a Dromomaniac), Amelia (Passports from the Heart), and Maggie (The World Was Here First).

Path’s Crossing, a travel card game that prompted questions that made the group both laugh hysterically and cry with gratitude. The company donated a game to Victor School and a percentage of all its sales to FLYTE.

Mahadevi Ashram, which housed the group at Lake Atitlán and provided them with daily yoga and meditation at a discounted rate.

Lastly, infinite thanks to our individual donors. We know that there are many worthy organizations out there, and we’re honored that you chose to donate to FLYTE. You made this trip happen and we can’t thank you enough!

The post The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap! appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/victor-school-flyte-recap/

[vidovicart]

The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap!

Earlier this year, we announced our latest FLYTE partnership, with the Victor School from rural Montana. Our goal was to send a group of its high school students to Guatemala for a week and a half of learning, service, and travel.

Quick side note: If you’re new to this website, FLYTE (Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education) is the nonprofit foundation we created just over 3 years ago to send high school classes on educational and service trips overseas. Our mission at FLYTE is to empower students through transformative travel experiences.

We know the power of travel to change you – and so do the teachers we partner with. That’s where FLYTE comes in. We serve underserved communities around the United States that don’t have the resources to send their kids abroad. So far we have sent classes to Mexico, Ecuador, and Cuba.

And with your help, we did it again. We raised over $18,000 to help these students go on their school trip to Guatemala.

The students, the school, the parents, me — we all thank you for being part of this!

In late June, they landed back in Montana, so today I wanted to give you an update on their trip so you know where your help went. (I know, I know. It took a while for this update to happen. I’m a slow writer.)

The school is located in the small rural town of Victor, Montana that serves a total student population of 300 where 100% of the students receive free or reduced-price school lunch. The poverty rate is high in this community and many families struggle to make ends meet.

After three flights and nearly 20 hours of travel, the kids made it to Guatemala. For most, this was their first time leaving the United States, visiting a developing country, being in a place where the culture and language are starkly different than that of their hometown, and for some, it was their first time out of Montana!

FLYTE trips are not just vacations for teens. The itineraries are crafted to include various forms of learning, teaching, adventures, interacting with local communities, and activities that push themselves out of their comfort zones.

The students spent the first part of their trip in the city of Antigua, where they took Spanish lessons and climbed the Pacaya volcano. That adventurous experience impacted the students and what they thought they were capable of so much that they stopped on their way down and took out their journals to document their exhilaration and acknowledge themselves.

On the shores of Lake Atitlán, they experienced living communally. Part of their service learning took place at the Amigos de Santa Cruz local NGO, where they made authentic Mayan cuisine, learned about vocational training programs, and donated books they collected in Montana for the NGO’s preschool library. They spent the afternoon playing soccer and hacky sack with the other neighborhood kids. (Most of the kids said this was their favorite

Additionally, they spend time volunteering with Konojel, a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce chronic malnutrition and endemic poverty. They helped out at the community center where undernourished children receive healthy meals and educational enrichment.

The trip to Guatemala ultimately changed their perceptions about the world outside the United States (and small-town Montana!) — and what they wanted to create with their own life.

As the students reflected on their trip, we heard a few common themes:

The first was the realization that what they heard on the news is not always actually accurate. And they really understand now how powerful and important it is to see and experience things for yourself to build your own understanding. It’s a sad reality that we see on the news is not the whole picture and “if it bleeds, it leads. Just check out what the students had to say about their shift in how they viewed Guatemala once they experienced it first-hand:

“I wasn’t going to go to Guatemala because of all the stuff I heard others saying about it, like that I would be kidnapped, or that it was poor, or that I would get lost. But I’m very happy I did, because that wasn’t true at all,” said Zoe. “I’ve never had people smile at me randomly, but these people in Guatemala did.”

Or as Sam R. said, “A lot of [my] family said Guatemala was a dangerous place and gave it a bad reputation without ever being there, but when I went, everyone was super friendly and I was comfortable.”

And even though these students come from an economically-deprived, more rural part of the United States, traveling overseas made many of them realize how lucky they have it compared to others. This is one of the key things I realized when I went on my first trip overseas. It’s what got me out of my head and made me realize that I had a lot more opportunities that I thought when I was living back at home.

Sam thought that “(being from a family with no money) I had nothing, yet there are places with even less than us. It makes me more grateful for all of the little things we have, like hot water.”

Ellyse couldn’t believe that “little things to us — like school and clean water and toilet paper — are such a privilege and we abuse it” after seeing how rare those were on the trip. “I thought Victor needed a lot of work and that it was rural, but it’s not [that] bad.” Most of the students came back from Guatemala much more grateful teens with new perspectives on how many opportunities they have, rather than what they don’t have.

This was also echoed by Sophie, who said, “We realized how much we take for granted, like toilet paper, clean water, and free education.” For Emma, “it made me more grateful for what we have, like good water, garbage/recycling services, etc. I am so lucky to live where I do and I am so grateful for all I have.”

Sam wants to work harder in school “because I now know what kind of opportunity I have.”

Summer observed, “We are so spoiled. We have so much more than some people in Guatemala could even dream of.” Sam S. said, “that although Victor is considered poor by American standards, we still have it very easy.” Madison felt that she had “a personal experience of how the real world works, how different countries are truly so different. It made me appreciate my home so much more.”

The students had other epiphanies as well. Gracie realized that “everyone has their own way of living, and mine is no better than anyone else’s.” Emma said, “It’s easy to forget that there’s so much outside of your little bubble and bigger issues in the world that we don’t see or experience in the U.S.”

Many realized they could push themselves beyond their comfort zone and do things that they never thought they could do.

Sadie “tried many different foods and tried to enjoy things that would normally scare me,” and Emma said “I achieved my goals by putting myself really out of my comfort zone. I learned that even in rough times, I can do what I need to make myself feel better.” Gracie really liked the shared hostels (two thumbs up from me!) even though she had never experienced anything like that before.

This trip inspired them to travel more too!

Zoe wants to go to Hawaii and also possibly back to Guatemala (“and bring my family with me so they can see it’s not dangerous, just adventurous”). Ellyse would like to go to Sydney, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Summer also wants to visit Australia. Julia wants to study abroad in Spain. Audrey wants to go to Greece, Norway, France, Spain, “and so many more countries.” Sam would love to go to Guatemala again to see other areas. Madison has been inspired to travel “everywhere!”

Sophie plans on traveling, and this trip “helped teach me not to have any presumptions about a place I’m going and to just allow myself to learn there.”

These lessons that the students learned are why I created FLYTE — and why it’s so great that so many of you support the mission too.

With the division, lack of understanding, and fear of “the other” that’s permeating our culture today, this is exactly what makes it all worth it. The fundraising, coordinating group travel logistics, and the challenges of running a nonprofit — worth it. These students left their comfort zones and had experiences that created a shift in their perspective.

Will this single trip of Guatemala change the world? Maybe, maybe not. But what it does is put these kids on a path toward success, toward growth, and toward thinking bigger! And we never know the ripple effect that occurs once we’ve thrown that first single pebble. By cracking open the door, we allow other things to get through that will only widen it with time.

Thank you again for helping us raise money for the school and making an impact on these teens!

***Three final thoughts:

First, we’ve already started the search for our 2019 partner school. If you or someone you know is an educator in an under-resourced school and wants to have an experience like the Victor School’s, we’d love for you to apply.

Second, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it took an entire community to send these students to Guatemala. Thank you to all our partners for making it possible for students to experience new cultures and countries and to broaden their worldviews! We are forever grateful to these sponsors:

World Nomads, our travel insurance provider, which donated coverage for all our students and chaperones. A very big thank you to them for helping out and ensuring our students were protected!

MYGHT Travel, which managed all our airline bookings and donated eye masks so the students could get some shut-eye on their flights.

Om the Go, which donated Asana pillows for the entire group. The kids practiced yoga daily and loved that they all had their own personal yoga mats to stretch out and sweat on.

Our team of FLYTE Champion blogger fundraisers, who created their own fundraising pages and helped us fund this trip: Carol (Wayfaring Views), Kristen (Kids Are a Trip), Gabi (Dream of Travel Writing), Anisa (Two Traveling Texans), Nicole (Wandering with a Dromomaniac), Amelia (Passports from the Heart), and Maggie (The World Was Here First).

Path’s Crossing, a travel card game that prompted questions that made the group both laugh hysterically and cry with gratitude. The company donated a game to Victor School and a percentage of all its sales to FLYTE.

Mahadevi Ashram, which housed the group at Lake Atitlán and provided them with daily yoga and meditation at a discounted rate.

Lastly, infinite thanks to our individual donors. We know that there are many worthy organizations out there, and we’re honored that you chose to donate to FLYTE. You made this trip happen and we can’t thank you enough!

The post The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap! appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

[joshuamshea84]

The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap!

Earlier this year, we announced our latest FLYTE partnership, with the Victor School from rural Montana. Our goal was to send a group of its high school students to Guatemala for a week and a half of learning, service, and travel.

Quick side note: If you’re new to this website, FLYTE (Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education) is the nonprofit foundation we created just over 3 years ago to send high school classes on educational and service trips overseas. Our mission at FLYTE is to empower students through transformative travel experiences.

We know the power of travel to change you – and so do the teachers we partner with. That’s where FLYTE comes in. We serve underserved communities around the United States that don’t have the resources to send their kids abroad. So far we have sent classes to Mexico, Ecuador, and Cuba.

And with your help, we did it again. We raised over $18,000 to help these students go on their school trip to Guatemala.

The students, the school, the parents, me — we all thank you for being part of this!

In late June, they landed back in Montana, so today I wanted to give you an update on their trip so you know where your help went. (I know, I know. It took a while for this update to happen. I’m a slow writer.)

The school is located in the small rural town of Victor, Montana that serves a total student population of 300 where 100% of the students receive free or reduced-price school lunch. The poverty rate is high in this community and many families struggle to make ends meet.

After three flights and nearly 20 hours of travel, the kids made it to Guatemala. For most, this was their first time leaving the United States, visiting a developing country, being in a place where the culture and language are starkly different than that of their hometown, and for some, it was their first time out of Montana!

FLYTE trips are not just vacations for teens. The itineraries are crafted to include various forms of learning, teaching, adventures, interacting with local communities, and activities that push themselves out of their comfort zones.

The students spent the first part of their trip in the city of Antigua, where they took Spanish lessons and climbed the Pacaya volcano. That adventurous experience impacted the students and what they thought they were capable of so much that they stopped on their way down and took out their journals to document their exhilaration and acknowledge themselves.

On the shores of Lake Atitlán, they experienced living communally. Part of their service learning took place at the Amigos de Santa Cruz local NGO, where they made authentic Mayan cuisine, learned about vocational training programs, and donated books they collected in Montana for the NGO’s preschool library. They spent the afternoon playing soccer and hacky sack with the other neighborhood kids. (Most of the kids said this was their favorite

Additionally, they spend time volunteering with Konojel, a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce chronic malnutrition and endemic poverty. They helped out at the community center where undernourished children receive healthy meals and educational enrichment.

The trip to Guatemala ultimately changed their perceptions about the world outside the United States (and small-town Montana!) — and what they wanted to create with their own life.

As the students reflected on their trip, we heard a few common themes:

The first was the realization that what they heard on the news is not always actually accurate. And they really understand now how powerful and important it is to see and experience things for yourself to build your own understanding. It’s a sad reality that we see on the news is not the whole picture and “if it bleeds, it leads. Just check out what the students had to say about their shift in how they viewed Guatemala once they experienced it first-hand:

“I wasn’t going to go to Guatemala because of all the stuff I heard others saying about it, like that I would be kidnapped, or that it was poor, or that I would get lost. But I’m very happy I did, because that wasn’t true at all,” said Zoe. “I’ve never had people smile at me randomly, but these people in Guatemala did.”

Or as Sam R. said, “A lot of [my] family said Guatemala was a dangerous place and gave it a bad reputation without ever being there, but when I went, everyone was super friendly and I was comfortable.”

And even though these students come from an economically-deprived, more rural part of the United States, traveling overseas made many of them realize how lucky they have it compared to others. This is one of the key things I realized when I went on my first trip overseas. It’s what got me out of my head and made me realize that I had a lot more opportunities that I thought when I was living back at home.

Sam thought that “(being from a family with no money) I had nothing, yet there are places with even less than us. It makes me more grateful for all of the little things we have, like hot water.”

Ellyse couldn’t believe that “little things to us — like school and clean water and toilet paper — are such a privilege and we abuse it” after seeing how rare those were on the trip. “I thought Victor needed a lot of work and that it was rural, but it’s not [that] bad.” Most of the students came back from Guatemala much more grateful teens with new perspectives on how many opportunities they have, rather than what they don’t have.

This was also echoed by Sophie, who said, “We realized how much we take for granted, like toilet paper, clean water, and free education.” For Emma, “it made me more grateful for what we have, like good water, garbage/recycling services, etc. I am so lucky to live where I do and I am so grateful for all I have.”

Sam wants to work harder in school “because I now know what kind of opportunity I have.”

Summer observed, “We are so spoiled. We have so much more than some people in Guatemala could even dream of.” Sam S. said, “that although Victor is considered poor by American standards, we still have it very easy.” Madison felt that she had “a personal experience of how the real world works, how different countries are truly so different. It made me appreciate my home so much more.”

The students had other epiphanies as well. Gracie realized that “everyone has their own way of living, and mine is no better than anyone else’s.” Emma said, “It’s easy to forget that there’s so much outside of your little bubble and bigger issues in the world that we don’t see or experience in the U.S.”

Many realized they could push themselves beyond their comfort zone and do things that they never thought they could do.

Sadie “tried many different foods and tried to enjoy things that would normally scare me,” and Emma said “I achieved my goals by putting myself really out of my comfort zone. I learned that even in rough times, I can do what I need to make myself feel better.” Gracie really liked the shared hostels (two thumbs up from me!) even though she had never experienced anything like that before.

This trip inspired them to travel more too!

Zoe wants to go to Hawaii and also possibly back to Guatemala (“and bring my family with me so they can see it’s not dangerous, just adventurous”). Ellyse would like to go to Sydney, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Summer also wants to visit Australia. Julia wants to study abroad in Spain. Audrey wants to go to Greece, Norway, France, Spain, “and so many more countries.” Sam would love to go to Guatemala again to see other areas. Madison has been inspired to travel “everywhere!”

Sophie plans on traveling, and this trip “helped teach me not to have any presumptions about a place I’m going and to just allow myself to learn there.”

These lessons that the students learned are why I created FLYTE — and why it’s so great that so many of you support the mission too.

With the division, lack of understanding, and fear of “the other” that’s permeating our culture today, this is exactly what makes it all worth it. The fundraising, coordinating group travel logistics, and the challenges of running a nonprofit — worth it. These students left their comfort zones and had experiences that created a shift in their perspective.

Will this single trip of Guatemala change the world? Maybe, maybe not. But what it does is put these kids on a path toward success, toward growth, and toward thinking bigger! And we never know the ripple effect that occurs once we’ve thrown that first single pebble. By cracking open the door, we allow other things to get through that will only widen it with time.

Thank you again for helping us raise money for the school and making an impact on these teens!

***Three final thoughts:

First, we’ve already started the search for our 2019 partner school. If you or someone you know is an educator in an under-resourced school and wants to have an experience like the Victor School’s, we’d love for you to apply.

Second, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it took an entire community to send these students to Guatemala. Thank you to all our partners for making it possible for students to experience new cultures and countries and to broaden their worldviews! We are forever grateful to these sponsors:

World Nomads, our travel insurance provider, which donated coverage for all our students and chaperones. A very big thank you to them for helping out and ensuring our students were protected!

MYGHT Travel, which managed all our airline bookings and donated eye masks so the students could get some shut-eye on their flights.

Om the Go, which donated Asana pillows for the entire group. The kids practiced yoga daily and loved that they all had their own personal yoga mats to stretch out and sweat on.

Our team of FLYTE Champion blogger fundraisers, who created their own fundraising pages and helped us fund this trip: Carol (Wayfaring Views), Kristen (Kids Are a Trip), Gabi (Dream of Travel Writing), Anisa (Two Traveling Texans), Nicole (Wandering with a Dromomaniac), Amelia (Passports from the Heart), and Maggie (The World Was Here First).

Path’s Crossing, a travel card game that prompted questions that made the group both laugh hysterically and cry with gratitude. The company donated a game to Victor School and a percentage of all its sales to FLYTE.

Mahadevi Ashram, which housed the group at Lake Atitlán and provided them with daily yoga and meditation at a discounted rate.

Lastly, infinite thanks to our individual donors. We know that there are many worthy organizations out there, and we’re honored that you chose to donate to FLYTE. You made this trip happen and we can’t thank you enough!

The post The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap! appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Traveling News https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/victor-school-flyte-recap/

[tamboradventure]

The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap!

Earlier this year, we announced our latest FLYTE partnership, with the Victor School from rural Montana. Our goal was to send a group of its high school students to Guatemala for a week and a half of learning, service, and travel.

Quick side note: If you’re new to this website, FLYTE (Foundation for Learning and Youth Travel Education) is the nonprofit foundation we created just over 3 years ago to send high school classes on educational and service trips overseas. Our mission at FLYTE is to empower students through transformative travel experiences.

We know the power of travel to change you – and so do the teachers we partner with. That’s where FLYTE comes in. We serve underserved communities around the United States that don’t have the resources to send their kids abroad. So far we have sent classes to Mexico, Ecuador, and Cuba.

And with your help, we did it again. We raised over $18,000 to help these students go on their school trip to Guatemala.

The students, the school, the parents, me — we all thank you for being part of this!

In late June, they landed back in Montana, so today I wanted to give you an update on their trip so you know where your help went. (I know, I know. It took a while for this update to happen. I’m a slow writer.)

The school is located in the small rural town of Victor, Montana that serves a total student population of 300 where 100% of the students receive free or reduced-price school lunch. The poverty rate is high in this community and many families struggle to make ends meet.

After three flights and nearly 20 hours of travel, the kids made it to Guatemala. For most, this was their first time leaving the United States, visiting a developing country, being in a place where the culture and language are starkly different than that of their hometown, and for some, it was their first time out of Montana!

FLYTE trips are not just vacations for teens. The itineraries are crafted to include various forms of learning, teaching, adventures, interacting with local communities, and activities that push themselves out of their comfort zones.

The students spent the first part of their trip in the city of Antigua, where they took Spanish lessons and climbed the Pacaya volcano. That adventurous experience impacted the students and what they thought they were capable of so much that they stopped on their way down and took out their journals to document their exhilaration and acknowledge themselves.

On the shores of Lake Atitlán, they experienced living communally. Part of their service learning took place at the Amigos de Santa Cruz local NGO, where they made authentic Mayan cuisine, learned about vocational training programs, and donated books they collected in Montana for the NGO’s preschool library. They spent the afternoon playing soccer and hacky sack with the other neighborhood kids. (Most of the kids said this was their favorite

Additionally, they spend time volunteering with Konojel, a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce chronic malnutrition and endemic poverty. They helped out at the community center where undernourished children receive healthy meals and educational enrichment.

The trip to Guatemala ultimately changed their perceptions about the world outside the United States (and small-town Montana!) — and what they wanted to create with their own life.

As the students reflected on their trip, we heard a few common themes:

The first was the realization that what they heard on the news is not always actually accurate. And they really understand now how powerful and important it is to see and experience things for yourself to build your own understanding. It’s a sad reality that we see on the news is not the whole picture and “if it bleeds, it leads. Just check out what the students had to say about their shift in how they viewed Guatemala once they experienced it first-hand:

“I wasn’t going to go to Guatemala because of all the stuff I heard others saying about it, like that I would be kidnapped, or that it was poor, or that I would get lost. But I’m very happy I did, because that wasn’t true at all,” said Zoe. “I’ve never had people smile at me randomly, but these people in Guatemala did.”

Or as Sam R. said, “A lot of [my] family said Guatemala was a dangerous place and gave it a bad reputation without ever being there, but when I went, everyone was super friendly and I was comfortable.”

And even though these students come from an economically-deprived, more rural part of the United States, traveling overseas made many of them realize how lucky they have it compared to others. This is one of the key things I realized when I went on my first trip overseas. It’s what got me out of my head and made me realize that I had a lot more opportunities that I thought when I was living back at home.

Sam thought that “(being from a family with no money) I had nothing, yet there are places with even less than us. It makes me more grateful for all of the little things we have, like hot water.”

Ellyse couldn’t believe that “little things to us — like school and clean water and toilet paper — are such a privilege and we abuse it” after seeing how rare those were on the trip. “I thought Victor needed a lot of work and that it was rural, but it’s not [that] bad.” Most of the students came back from Guatemala much more grateful teens with new perspectives on how many opportunities they have, rather than what they don’t have.

This was also echoed by Sophie, who said, “We realized how much we take for granted, like toilet paper, clean water, and free education.” For Emma, “it made me more grateful for what we have, like good water, garbage/recycling services, etc. I am so lucky to live where I do and I am so grateful for all I have.”

Sam wants to work harder in school “because I now know what kind of opportunity I have.”

Summer observed, “We are so spoiled. We have so much more than some people in Guatemala could even dream of.” Sam S. said, “that although Victor is considered poor by American standards, we still have it very easy.” Madison felt that she had “a personal experience of how the real world works, how different countries are truly so different. It made me appreciate my home so much more.”

The students had other epiphanies as well. Gracie realized that “everyone has their own way of living, and mine is no better than anyone else’s.” Emma said, “It’s easy to forget that there’s so much outside of your little bubble and bigger issues in the world that we don’t see or experience in the U.S.”

Many realized they could push themselves beyond their comfort zone and do things that they never thought they could do.

Sadie “tried many different foods and tried to enjoy things that would normally scare me,” and Emma said “I achieved my goals by putting myself really out of my comfort zone. I learned that even in rough times, I can do what I need to make myself feel better.” Gracie really liked the shared hostels (two thumbs up from me!) even though she had never experienced anything like that before.

This trip inspired them to travel more too!

Zoe wants to go to Hawaii and also possibly back to Guatemala (“and bring my family with me so they can see it’s not dangerous, just adventurous”). Ellyse would like to go to Sydney, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Summer also wants to visit Australia. Julia wants to study abroad in Spain. Audrey wants to go to Greece, Norway, France, Spain, “and so many more countries.” Sam would love to go to Guatemala again to see other areas. Madison has been inspired to travel “everywhere!”

Sophie plans on traveling, and this trip “helped teach me not to have any presumptions about a place I’m going and to just allow myself to learn there.”

These lessons that the students learned are why I created FLYTE — and why it’s so great that so many of you support the mission too.

With the division, lack of understanding, and fear of “the other” that’s permeating our culture today, this is exactly what makes it all worth it. The fundraising, coordinating group travel logistics, and the challenges of running a nonprofit — worth it. These students left their comfort zones and had experiences that created a shift in their perspective.

Will this single trip of Guatemala change the world? Maybe, maybe not. But what it does is put these kids on a path toward success, toward growth, and toward thinking bigger! And we never know the ripple effect that occurs once we’ve thrown that first single pebble. By cracking open the door, we allow other things to get through that will only widen it with time.

Thank you again for helping us raise money for the school and making an impact on these teens!

***Three final thoughts:

First, we’ve already started the search for our 2019 partner school. If you or someone you know is an educator in an under-resourced school and wants to have an experience like the Victor School’s, we’d love for you to apply.

Second, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it took an entire community to send these students to Guatemala. Thank you to all our partners for making it possible for students to experience new cultures and countries and to broaden their worldviews! We are forever grateful to these sponsors:

World Nomads, our travel insurance provider, which donated coverage for all our students and chaperones. A very big thank you to them for helping out and ensuring our students were protected!

MYGHT Travel, which managed all our airline bookings and donated eye masks so the students could get some shut-eye on their flights.

Om the Go, which donated Asana pillows for the entire group. The kids practiced yoga daily and loved that they all had their own personal yoga mats to stretch out and sweat on.

Our team of FLYTE Champion blogger fundraisers, who created their own fundraising pages and helped us fund this trip: Carol (Wayfaring Views), Kristen (Kids Are a Trip), Gabi (Dream of Travel Writing), Anisa (Two Traveling Texans), Nicole (Wandering with a Dromomaniac), Amelia (Passports from the Heart), and Maggie (The World Was Here First).

Path’s Crossing, a travel card game that prompted questions that made the group both laugh hysterically and cry with gratitude. The company donated a game to Victor School and a percentage of all its sales to FLYTE.

Mahadevi Ashram, which housed the group at Lake Atitlán and provided them with daily yoga and meditation at a discounted rate.

Lastly, infinite thanks to our individual donors. We know that there are many worthy organizations out there, and we’re honored that you chose to donate to FLYTE. You made this trip happen and we can’t thank you enough!

The post The Kids from the Victor School Returns from Guatemala. Here’s the Recap! appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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