Emelin and her friend Elba helped establish programs for girls in their Guatemalan community. Photo: Commonhope.org

When 15-year-old Emelin was invited to the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, she spoke on behalf of Let Girls Lead, a nonprofit. The program allowed Emelin to secure education and health funding for girls in her Guatemalan hometown.

Emelin may seem like an average teenage girl, but she is more than meets the eye. At the gathering, she stood alongside U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and humanitarian Melinda Gates as an advocate for the girls of her community, who struggle with a number of obstacles.

Emelin spoke about the girls in her area that are overcome with rising numbers of rape, early pregnancy, maternal loss, and lack of education or health care. Like Emelin, a majority of indigenous girls in the rural regions of her country are not being educated.

In 2012, Emelin and her friend Elba helped implement policies to address some of these issues by getting in touch with the Mayor of Concepción Chiquirichapa, Guatemala. In the following months, they met with many government officials, and even spoke on youth radio programs to get the word out about the movement.

After developing a detailed proposal to present to the mayor, they were initially met with laughter. That didn’t stop them though. They fought for what they believed was right, and eventually, people started to realize the power behind what these girls were trying to accomplish.

With local government behind them, the programs began to pick up steam. Before the end of their first year, the girls got funding approved to construct the Municipal Office of Childhood and Adolescence. It will provide support services for girls to access counseling, political engagement, and legal guidance for victims of rape, assault and domestic violence.

“It is important that we as adolescent girls are empowered to defend ourselves and not to be tokenized or utilized,” Emelin said in her speech. “So now as a leader in my community, I have decided to fight for my rights, because the rights of girls and women are human rights.”

With the help of the Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy & Leadership Initiative’s Juany Garcia Perez, Emelin was able to create positive change with community organization and public speaking. She was able to promote gender equality in Guatemala, but her message spanned globally.

“I want all leaders with decision-making power to act on behalf of girls around the world so they can have opportunities,” she said in her speech. “You have the responsibility to ensure girls’ happiness.”

Together with StubHub and Dr. Martens, indie band “Portugal. The Man” is helping to raise $1 million to go to schools with underfunded musical programs.

The money is being raised for the purchase of musical instruments, in hopes that they will inspire a new generation of artists and musicians. The program is wired to donate to schools all across the country, focusing specifically on institutions that are underfunded.

It has been set up in partnership with MHOF (Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation), which is dedicated to musical education. There are many schools that are not able to provide an artistic outlet for their youth.

This program intends to help kids stay off the streets and give them a healthy creative focus, which many of them do not get the opportunity to discover. Many schools are not able to provide this type of expression for their pupils, in an environment that is conductive to their spirit and individuality.

The first city to benefit from the project will be Austin, Texas. Austin is home of SXSW, the South by Southwest music, film, and interactive festival- where the project was introduced earlier this week. Two schools in Austin will be some of the first, receiving more than $80,000 worth of musical instruments this year.

In a recent press release, Felice Mancini (President and CEO of MHOF) said, “Sadly, due to the high cost of musical instruments, school music programs around the country are struggling, even when the will to keep them alive is strong.”

They plan to add more sponsors and artists to the cause, as the project continues into the year. This outreach is the beginning. With a little effort, people can help support causes like this to further the youth’s potential for creativity and aspiration. If you know a school in need, or want to get more info, go to the MHOF website or share this post.

AIDS has been one of the leading medical crusades for many years and part of that program has been education and research. According to a UN report released this week, the entire program has actually been very successful since 2001 as the number of AIDS infections has fallen by over 50% in just over 10 years. This is a huge step in the right direction and is absolutely great news, plus doctors are incredibly hopeful that this will continue for years to come.

Not only is the number of new AIDS infections down dramatically, the amount of AIDS related deaths has also dropped by 30% in the same time period. Both of these statistics are absolutely fantastic news and everyone around the world is celebrating the success of various education and treatment programs that have become common around the world. The UN is planning to continue with their current AIDS related efforts as well as adding multiple new programs for countries that need additional help, overall they are hopeful that the next decade will be even more effective. While a medical breakthrough to cure or prevent AIDS has not yet been achieved this is absolutely the biggest step in the right direction ever regarding AIDS.

Dreams can be realized when communities work hand in hand with government to achieve them. Uganda is achieving dreams and opening doors to more with its Building Tomorrow Academies.

The “academies” are schools with seven classrooms that can accommodate 325 elementary school children. There are currently eight such academies in Uganda thanks to American founder George Srour and Joseph Kalisa, the country director of Uganda and a number of international organizations who have leant their support.

What makes this model different is that the community comes together to help in the construction of the academy with the understanding that the government will take over the cost of maintenance and teacher salaries once construction is completed.

Srour graduated from William and Mary College in 2005 and launched Building Tomorrow that same year. His inspiration developed after a trip to Uganda and a subsequent fundraising over the holidays during his senior year in college. That fundraising effort reaped in excess of $45,000 and funded the first school in the capital city of Kampala. With a 50% of its population under the age of 15, Srour realized that building schools alone was not going to be enough.

The school in Gita was the result of a collaboration with the undergraduate architecture and engineering students from the University of Virginia’s Architecture Studio reCOVER and its Engineering in Context Capstone Design Program. Included in the design were office spaces, a library, seven classrooms, outdoor play areas including sports areas and a garden.

Then the other students of the University of Virginia raised money to turn the plans into a reality. One of the fundraisers was a “stationary bike ride across Uganda” in which pedaled over 7,500 miles. Their time on the bikes raised $60,000 to build and buy supplies for the academy.

Even with the financial part coming from donations, it was the people of Gita who supplied that labor to actually build the school. Parents and grandparents of the future students volunteered more than 20,000 to make the school come to life.

Once built, the government selects the teachers and pays for the ongoing operations of the academies. The Ugandan government has taken a firm role in this, realizing it is their duty to provide an education for their people, even if they need a little help getting the academies built. It is a new approach to helping disadvantaged countries turn their educational challenges into opportunities.

With eight schools running and six more nearly finished, the project is a real success. More than 25 colleges and universities in the U.S. have helped by designing or contributing time and money to the project. The impact? More than 1800 Ugandan children receive a better education and a shot at a future.

Rakey Drammeh was attending 7^th grade at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem when she first heard of the sport of squash. The staff from Street Squash was there to invite kids to participate in a new afterschool program that combined playing the game with tutoring assistance in pursuit of academic excellence.

At first Drammeh was put off by the idea but her father encouraged her to give it a try. She accepted her first racquet and safety glasses and embarked on a journey that not only taught her to love the game but took her from a B- minus average to nearly straight A’s.

Now, 6 years later, she is sophomore at Bates College in Maine where she majors in environmental studies. She has returned to the squash court to play with other alumni from the program. She credits the program with helping her improve as a student and helping her make lots of new friends.

Though the program began in Harlem, it has since spread to other urban centers such as Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Diego. In each city, the goal is still to drive academic excellence. High school level students in the program can even get assistance with SAT preparations.

The National Urban Squash Education Association claims that 93 percent of its urban squash graduates have gone on from the program to earn college degrees. To its credit, every student that has participated has graduated from high school. Of those graduates that choose to go on to college, 85 percent are on track to graduate on time. That speaks volumes for the success of the program.

The Street Squash program was started in 1999 by George Polsky, who used to play squash in his day at Harvard. Admittedly, getting kids excited about squash initially wasn’t easy. The first year saw only 28 participants where today the Harlem program has 150. Some of these kids go on to play squash on their college teams. Now that’s rewarding.

Jay-Z is a leader in the music industry and this week he announced that he would be holding a couple of very special events this spring. The events are set to be charity events which will benefit a specific scholarship fund in New York to help support kids desires to continue with their education.

Jay-Z reportedly decided to hold these charity events because of his personal battles with education and school. Jay-Z has admitted in the past that he did not ever finish high school and he has made it quite clear that he is bothered by that fact and this is exactly why he has become such a huge spokesperson for school and education for children. Through all of his work he has begun promoting education and these concerts are just the biggest and best step thus far which will hopefully raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for a very deserving charity in New York.

The two concerts are going to take place at Carnegie Hall in early February and like most charity events it will not be open for general public sale. Tickets are expected to range from $500 to thousands of dollars per seat which will definitely help raise some serious money; of course the performance will not be completely private as public tickets may end up becoming available at a later date depending on how high of demand the concert brings in. Either way the charity event from Jay-Z is great news for education advocates everywhere.

Grandfather and Grandson Complete GED Together--Credit: wcfcourier.com

70 year old Bob Speed will be officially receiving his GED this week over 50 years after he dropped out of school as a young boy. The best part of the story however is that Speed completed his GED along with his 21 year old grandson, Danny Johnson.

Speed and Johnson reportedly began working on their GEDs are the same time because they felt it would be good to have a partner throughout the entire process. They both agree that having each other for support and encouragement helped a lot and that just makes their graduation even more special.

According to both men the idea actually came about when Speed’s wife, Johnson’s grandmother, suggested that the two of them work on their GEDs during the winter since they wouldn’t be busy. The two men apparently liked the idea and began working on the GED program together.

Members of the GED class the two were in say that they were basically inseparable during the entire class and some even joked that they were twins who were simply separated in age by a few decades. In the end both Bob and Danny say the experience was a great bonding experience and it brought the much closer together; they are both happy to have taken on the challenge and successfully earned their GEDs despite having dropped out of school at one point or another. This just goes to show that anything is possible if you work hard for what you want.

Kathy Vitzthum had been enrolled in an accounting program at Iowa State University for seven years, propelled by the promise of a promotion and tuition reimbursement by her boss. She had completed the courses her boss had requested and was thinking of dropping out of the college program, diverted by the pressures of marriage, a full time job and parenthood.

But her father made a request as he lay dying of cancer eleven years ago, and it made her think twice about her life and her future. He made Kathy promise to finish school and he in turn made a promise to her. One of two children, she and her sibling were to receive a valuable present upon graduation from college. For Kathy, her eye was on an antique curio cabinet she had admired but could not afford.

Her parents bought her the cabinet she wanted so badly after she promised them that she would graduate at all costs. With every day that passed since then, she would look at the cabinet and remember her promise. In between an incredibly busy schedule as wife mother and full time employee, she managed, taking one course every semester, to finally graduate summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in accounting at the age of 48.

She persisted and prevailed, proving it is never too late to learn and achieve. While that childhood dream of wishing on a star to make it so may not be true, working hard with an eye on your goal reaps success and that is no fairy tale.

Kudos, Kathy!