Recently, through a particularly enlightening conversation with a friend, I realized that there are, essentially, two pathways or methods of thinking about social change and development approaches. There is the “capitalistic” mode of thinking, and the “social justice” mode of thinking. While this is, essentially, the split that so starkly separates the Democrats from the…
Today, more and more young people are finding service-oriented careers attractive. Indeed, there is a seismic generational shift underway. Generation Y is breaking with the tradition of paying one’s dues and climbing the corporate ladder; instead, Millennials seek to find work that they are passionate about, that reflects their values, and that brings deep meaning…
When everyone else is obsessing over “building the next generation of leaders” and encouraging Gen Yers to become social entrepreneurs and social change innovators, one organization out there is quietly redefining the careers and lives of the Boomers. Civic Ventures, founded in 1998 by Marc Freedman, is working to engage our country’s millions of baby…
I recently ran across an excellent post by Rosetta Thurman, in which she writes about the importance of developing a personal mission statement. I absolutely loved the idea; organizations and companies all have mission statements – why can’t individuals? A mission statement is intended to ensure that non-profits always stay true to their original goals…
Recently, I met up with an old friend and we were swapping stories about our current career interests. Of course I started talking about my hopes of becoming a public interest attorney, and she responded by saying “Wow…that is so cliche!” She felt like this whole idea of wanting to “save the world” or “help…
I recently read Half the Sky, by Nick Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn. To be quite honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of the book. But I think that the organizations he highlighted were impressive and innovative, and were able to tackle big challenges through their own innovative approaches. He was able to highlight some effective…
I know I haven’t done Feature Friday in a really long time, but I’m planning to start again; there are so many amazing organizations and people I keep running across that I’d really like to highlight. This week, I’m going to be talking about Youth Represent. According to the website, Youth Represent’s mission is: to…
At my internship last summer, what I really took away was the importance of pioneering a new approach to human rights. The 20th century approach to human rights was in defining human rights standards – like the International Covenants on Civil & Political Rights, and Economic, Social, & Cultural rights. I’m sure you know how…
Dear readers: Thank you all so much for the outpouring of support and incredibly kind, intelligent, and valuable thoughts you provided in response to my previous post. I think, however, I may have given off the wrong impression to all of you. I’m not going to stop blogging – not now, and most likely, not…
There is a lot of talk of personal branding these days: is it good or bad? How can you build a network of people who respect your personal brand? How can you join a group of people with the same interests to help you make professional connections? But while we are busy trying to carve…