2012-05-13 14:43:58 | Tags: givology frontpage givology news

[b]What does education give?[/b]
[b] From May 13, 2012 to August 30, 2012[/b], [b]we’re looking for your response! Send a photo of your answer to @Givology on Facebook and Twitter, and we get 25c from a sponsor for every picture that we receive online[/b]. We’ll then add your responses to our flickr photostream – our goal is to get 10,000 responses! [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/givology]Check out our archive of photos to see the ruminations of hundreds of people from all ages and backgrounds thus far[/url].
We wanted to ask this question since often times, we take education for granted. For me, [b]education gives empowerment[/b] – made me feel like I could start an organization like Givology, to take economic and personal risks without fear, and to understand and fully engage the world. In this hyper connected world, it’s now so easy to give the gift of education to students around the world, and to raise awareness locally for an impact globally.
To kick off the campaign, the NYC chapter headed out to Battery Park on May 12th to spread public awareness about Givology and our education gives campaign. Admittedly, accosting strangers is not a terribly comfortable thing to do (especially in NYC…as you can imagine, people tend to be skeptical). Regardless, with the beautiful weather and spring around the corner, we encountered some truly terrific people who contributed thoughtful answers. We gave out candy and Givology bracelets, had live music from a fantastic violinist (thanks Joe!), and overall, had a great time chatting to both residents and tourists alike.
We got some truly interesting responses, from a funny guy who wrote “education gives…snarky answers” to a precocious child who wrote “education gives…me confidence in knowing something that my friends don’t”. Overall, it was nice being outside to share Givology’s mission and our “education gives” campaign. Through the two days outside canvassing, we estimate that we probably raised about ~$200 – not much funding in aggregate, but we had a chance to speak with hundreds of people and bond together as a chapter.
Anyway, we’re going to be outside one more time in June at Castle Clinton in Battery Park City, this time as a joint campaign with 10x10. Even if you’re not in the NYC area, you can still help us reach out 10k target by sending us a photo response of your answer to “education gives”.
Check out this video to see an archive of the last event.

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2012-05-13 13:12:56 | Tags: givology frontpage givology news

On a bright morning on April 14, [b]Givology volunteers gathered at Merchant’s Gate, on the southwest corner of Central Park[/b], and erected a simple stand next to the hawkers and street vendors peddling walking tours, bike rides, horse-drawn carriage excursions and other entertainment for those entering the park. Rather than pitching wares, Givology wanted to ask passers-by: [b]What did education mean to them?[/b] Throughout the day, tourists, runners and others wrote their answers, which ranged from the straightforward (“power” and “opportunity”) to optimistic (“hope” and “a better job”) to simply heartwarming (“friends and a good future” and “humanism”). We collected well over 150 responses in a variety of languages—including Arabic, French, Korean and Portuguese—and a contribution from a sponsor for each response. [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/givology/sets/72157629446824202/]One can see pictures of many of our respondents on our flickr page[/url].

[img]/images/user/5_13603402846831945466.jpg[/img]

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2012-05-05 12:29:57 | Tags: givology frontpage givology news

All around the world, teachers change lives. As many of us from the Givology team are students, we are truly grateful for the support our teachers have given us, from encouraging us to find new solutions to challenging global problems to instilling a lifelong passion for learning & continuous improvement.
[b]In celebration of Teachers’ Appreciation Week (May 7th – 12th, 2012), Givology will give out free $20 gift certificates to give to your favorite teacher[/b]. To participate, send us a video response to the video below, telling us about your favorite teacher and why. As Givology gift certificates can be redeemed to support grassroots education projects and student scholarships around the world, you’ll be giving your teacher a “gift that keeps on giving”.
Happy Teachers’ Appreciation Week from the Givology team!

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2012-05-01 18:18:04 | Tags: andrew garza early education ghana givology frontpage givology news northern ghana titagya schools

Could you ever imagine yourself making an impact on an entire nation? Andrew Garza, founding partner and chairman of the board of directors of [url=http://titagyaschools.org/wordpress/]Titagya Schools[/url], a social enterprise that is transforming the landscape of early education in northern Ghana, has set out to do just that. In this interview with Garza, learn about his incredible journey from interning in the northern Ghanian village of Dalun to breaking ground on early education schools for 120 students—with plans to expand. [img]/images/user/1752_17240364590398931195.jpg[/img]
[i]Interview by Genna Weiss[/i]
[b]Please tell us about Titagya and its overall mission.[/b]
Titagya Schools is a social enterprise focused on expanding the quality and availability of early education in rural northern Ghana. We currently operate a pre-school and a kindergarten for 120 students whose English-language and math skills are 3 years more advanced than those of public school students in the region. 50% of our students are female. We’re also partnering with the Ghanaian government to make early education less rote memorization-heavy and more reliant on interactive reading and learning exercises. Northern Ghana is a culturally and entrepreneurially vibrant area, the population of which subsists on an average of less than $1 per day. There are about 4 million people in northern Ghana.
[b]How did you decide to tackle such a major issue in this part of the world. [/b]
The long answer starts with a high school class on different religious, philosophical, and other belief systems that people throughout the past few hundred years have used to think about life. Buddhism particularly resonated with me, in terms of the emphasis on showing compassion for all people and recognizing that to a large extent we all want and fear the same things. My family also has a long tradition of Christian volunteerism and service, which has been a big influence.
These lenses led me to think about what the best way would be to spend my hopefully 80 years here, and I came to the conclusion that it would be to increase happiness by reducing extreme poverty. I read [i]The End of Poverty[/i] by Jeffrey Sachs the summer after my freshman year, and that got me interested in doing development work in sub-Saharan Africa, since it was the region with the highest concentration of extreme poverty. When I got back to school, I took a course on African history and decided that Ghana would be a great place to do an internship since it is English-speaking, had cultures and a political history that I wanted to learn more about, and had plenty of need.
The following summer I interned with a microfinance institution in a village called Dalun in northern Ghana. While I was there, I had conversations with a lot of people about what their biggest challenges were, and one of the key problems was students’ lack of preparedness for the formal education system. People grow up speaking Dagbani, which is the main local language in that part of the country. Children would often start primary school at the age of 10 and speak very little English, so many of them would fall behind and become demotivated from the very beginning. Then they would drop out of the system entirely to work on the farm.
The second, related problem was that teenage girls often had to stay home to watch their younger siblings, since the young children had nowhere to go during the day and most parents had to farm. Two young men – including our Managing Director, Manzah Habib – from the community and I decided to start a school in Dalun that would address both of those problems. We wanted to give kids a strong early start, the momentum from which would propel them through their educational careers. That success would enable them to become entrepreneurs who start businesses that employ people, principled political leaders, scientists who develop new medicines, and educators who build their country.
Helping to provide education for people also means a lot to me for personal reasons. My parents grew up in very supportive but economically humble conditions in Iowa and Mexico. The opportunities their top educations provided are what enabled them to support a comfortable life for our family and my experiences around the world that have changed how I see life. My own education has taught me to think critically, introduced me to my closest friends, and given me the confidence to start ambitious projects. I want everyone who is willing to work hard for it to have similar educational opportunities. My partners and I think it’s unacceptable that children who are born in rural, economically-poor areas systematically lack access to good early education, and we aim to change that.
[img]/images/user/1752_12680265503570686917.jpg[/img]
[b]How did you go about establishing Titagya? How have you managed to ensure that the organization would receive the support it needed to achieve its mission?[/b]
Titagya Schools started with several emails back and forth between my partners and me in 2006, when we decided that we would take action. As we were trying to assess how impactful it would be to start a pre-school, I remember reading a study that said early education could lead to $17 in social impact (largely through increased income) for every $1 invested in it. I was surprised by the 1,700% return and even more so because it seemed likely that the percentage of income gains from education would be higher in rural Ghana than in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where the study was conducted. We started with a vision for a 50-student pre-school in Dalun.
We chose the name “Titagya,” which means “we have changed” or “we have grown” in Dagbani, to signify the transformative nature of formal education. Next, we researched the educational landscape in Ghana, and we realized that most of the challenges we faced in Dalun were similar in other parts of the region and the country. We also learned that teaching in Ghana was reliant on rote-memorization techniques, an approach to teaching that was a holdover from past times when the colonial leaders didn’t want Ghanaians to become critical thinkers. After that, we researched various approaches to teaching from around the world and found out about how young children tend to learn most effectively when they are actively engaged in the learning process. We worked with the Bryn Mawr / Haverford College Education Program and other partners to design a curriculum that would teach our students math, English, and Dagbani, and above all foster in them a love of learning.
I learned how to incorporate a non-profit and get 501(c)(3) status from online resources and friends at a social entrepreneurship training program called StartingBloc, and then did that.
In order to fund our work, we have partnered with many generous individuals and organizations. In the beginning, I raised funds from friends and family, and we got some supplies from a Danish organization that partners with non-profits in northern Ghana. Our first institutional donor was a non-profit organization called Hands On the World Global, and our support base expanded to include more individual donors, college student groups, and organizations such as the Segal Family Foundation, Givology, Falcon Investment Advisors, Project Redwood, Friends of Ghana, and the Kiwanis Club. We’re profoundly grateful to all of our backers.
[b]What are the services that these children receive? What is the classroom experience like for them? [/b]
Our students attend our pre-school for a year and then the kindergarten for another year. The main service that they receive is outstanding preparation for primary school and beyond. We give them great pre-reading skills, including the ability to recognize basic words. They also practice speaking English with their classmates (or “colleagues,” as they call each other) during various role-playing and discussion activities. After one of our teachers has read a story, the children talk about what the characters were feeling and doing and why in different situations. This process increases their self-esteem, starts to develop their critical thinking skills, and rewards creativity. We also teach our children about the importance of sharing and putting yourself in your classmate’s shoes even if you both want to use the same toy. Empathy is an attitude that’s developed through habit, and we want our students to have high moral character to go along with their hard and soft skills.
We also give our students a strong foundation in math that is inspired by the “Singapore Math” approach, which helps children to understand the basics of what numbers mean. For instance, zero is a sophisticated concept, and it takes a while to get an intuitive sense of what it means. By using Legos to teach numbers, addition, subtraction, and even basic multiplication and division to the fastest-moving students, our children develop a strong understanding of what numbers mean. This is a critical foundation for what they will do throughout the rest of their academic careers.
[img]/images/user/1752_18003862983722088282.jpg[/img]
[b]Any personal stories you can share to highlight the impact of Titagya on the lives of students?[/b]
One former student of ours named Rahina came in as a shy 4-year old who knew very little English. She became one of our strongest students and loved to show off her basic multiplication skills. I was impressed to see her do that because she was a couple of years ahead of where I was at her age. I also loved seeing the outgoing, energetic side of a student who we initially thought was shy, and her family commented on how much more confident she had become. It’s great seeing our students at an age when their personalities are starting to develop. Rahina wants to eventually become a nurse so that she can help sick people get well, and we’re confident she’ll get there. We’re eager to keep supporting our students as they get older and see the various ways that they have impact in their communities.
[b]Where do you see the direction of Titagya heading in the next few years?[/b]
First, we will continue to build and operate more schools. This year we want to build one to two more schools and by 2017 we hope to operate 30 schools throughout half of the school districts in northern Ghana. This will enable us to directly serve more children, as well as to show that our model of interactive early education works in a variety of contexts and use parts of it as a platform for scaling up of public early education in the region.
Also, we plan to offer scholarships to “alumni” of our schools and to other needy and talented primary school students. In addition, we will stay in touch with our students even after they graduate from our schools, in order to keep supporting them and their families along the way. Having a community of successful and ambitious peers around you is a great motivator, and we want our students to have that as they get older.
Next, we see the government as one of our most valuable partners and plan to keep expanding our work together. We have learned a lot from the government’s educational successes and failures. For instance, we are impressed by many of the educational techniques that the Ghana Education Service (GES) has developed at its model school in Accra and implemented at kindergartens and primary schools in the Greater Accra area. We want to help the GES achieve its plan of making sure that every primary school in northern Ghana has its own kindergarten and collaborate with the government on making the classroom experience more interactive.
Finally, organizations often find that as they grow they have a hard time maintaining the quality of service that made them good in the first place. We make it an explicit goal to not only keep teaching well, but also to keep getting better and learning from our successes and mistakes over time.
[i]For more information about Titagya Schools' partnership with Givology, [url=http://www.givology.org/~tschools/]click here[/url].[/i]
[i]To learn more about Titagya Schools, [url=http://titagyaschools.org/wordpress/]click here[/url]. [/i]

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2012-04-01 17:15:18 | Tags: Givology Frontpage Givology News

With the mission to create sustainable, grassroots development projects through student exchanges, the Global Peace Exchange has a two-fold effect: local communities would receive benefit at the grassroots level and students would also be exposed to opportunities in the humanitarian field. The hope is that students achieve a shared understanding of the common human struggle to survive, a moral and ethical education about the issues affecting a particular area or culture, and the hope to aid in the building of a new “civilization” of humanity. I was able to get some insight from the Global Peace Exchange's director Alison Giest regarding her involvement with the organization and what it means to give



What is your role in the organization and how long have you been involved? What are your responsibilities?
For this academic year August 2011 till now I have been co-Director. This is my third year with the organization. Currently, I:
oversee a 15 student-volunteer board to manage our finances and on-campus activity, coordinate with partners in developing countries (this year Uganda, Rwanda, Nepal) so that we can implement our projects, manage and train16 students in research and intern positions so they are ready for their exchange, as well as develop alumni and faculty networks.

Why did you get involved with the Global Peace Exchange? What was your inspiration?
I have always been interested in international issues, and in college, I began to become interested in 'development'. GPE providesa critical approach to understanding humanitarian issues and foreign aid in terms of their sensitivity and concern for sustainability.

How does the organization measure its impact?
This year we are initiating a monitoring and evaluation research project to qualitatively and quantitatively review our projects. This will entail talking to different community members/students and looking at improvements in test scores and or attendance.

What makes the Global Peace Exchange different from other organizations with student exchange service projects?
GPE gives students the opportunity to to engage directly with a community in project design and throughout implementation. Our exchanges are also longer than typical student service projects (2-3 months) and we attempt to return to the same locations year after year, demonstrating commitment and dedication to specific communities. We aim to provide sustainable solutions to communities that empower them to make change in their own lives after we leave.

In your experience with the Global Peace Exchange, what was the best advice that you received or lesson that you learned along the way?
I have learned to admit failure and when something is beyond our capacity. This is difficult when you are attempting to 'sell' your projects to donors, but this recognition is the only way to truly improve and grow your work.

What’s the greatest challenge that the organization faces today?
As a student organization and student continually graduating, it is difficult to ensure consistent leadership. We are working on institutionalizing the student within our university as well as developing specific guidelines for future leaders to follow in terms of position roles, contacts, timelines to follow and advice. Passing on the things we learn along the way tends to be difficult.

Five years from now, where do you envision the Global Peace Exchange? What legacy do you want to leave?
I hope that GPE will grow in scale, implementing more projects with all the contacts we have gained and providing more students the opportunity to have this experience. I believe that solidifying our large alumni network is a means to doing this and securing funds, as our alumni continue in the development field making their own contacts.

Could you share with us a memorable story or experience you've gained from your time with GPE?
Being able to give students the opportunities to have these service experience is extremely rewarding. One student particularly, we had trouble placing at first. After several months we found a perfect location fit given her interest and experience. She is ecstatic and this opportunity has driven her to integrate service into many areas her life: her blogging and artwork. Knowing that these experiences will change the way the students look at the world and interact with it, is one of the most incredible feelings.

How can one person make a difference in the world?
One person can make a difference by telling his or her story and all that he or she has learned to as many people as possible.

What advice do you give to other potential social entrepreneurs?
Learning how to communicate effectively with the people you work with, ensuring that your vision is the same is critical. This allows you to communicate a consistent message as many people as possible.

On a personal level, what does giving mean to you?
Giving means empowering. It is important to give things that make sustainable change. Thus you can give and share a skill, a story, or an experience.

Click here to donate to the Global Peace Exchange!

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