the future belongs to educated girls

This post is part of the blog series, “Her Goals: Our Future,” which highlights the connections between girls and women and the Sustainable Development Goals. It originally appeared on the UN Foundation Blog. 

March marks five years since the conflict in Syria began, the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. Half of the population has been forced to flee their homes, with 6.6 million people displaced inside Syria and another 4.7 million refugees seeking safety and assistance in neighboring countries and Europe. Children are among the most vulnerable of all, bearing the brunt of the war. They are being bombed, facing starvation, and dying from preventable illnesses.

For those who manage to escape and find safety in neighboring countries, they can’t escape the psychological trauma. To ensure we don’t lose an entire generation to the effects of war, Save the Children is running schools, distributing healthy foods, and providing support to the war’s youngest survivors. Our team has collected stories of children in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt.

For some of these children, war is all they know.

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how storytelling can grow a business

The business world is always looking for that great new idea, but what if the next big thing was something as old as humanity?

Great storytelling has been around for eons, but prowess in that skill can propel growth in a company or brand, attract new talent and boost employee morale. Carmine Gallo tells this story in his new book, The Storyteller’s Secret: From TED Speakers to Business Legends, Why Some Ideas Catch On and Others Don’t, on the Knowledge@Wharton show on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM channel 111.

An edited transcript of the conversation appears below.

Knowledge@Wharton: What was it that got you started on this path?

Carmine Gallo: I’ve been studying communication for 25 years, and I was a journalist. I was a CNN journalist for quite a while. Today, I still write for Forbes and Entrepreneur, and a bunch of other outlets. And I’ve appeared at Wharton and Stanford and other business schools as well.

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how the flint water crisis reveals a rupture in our democracy

This article was written by Maria Hernandez and originally published by The Environmentalist, a place for breaking news and commentary by Greenpeace. 

The Flint water crisis was neither inevitable nor accidental — it was the failure of a broken democracy.

At first, the crowd outside the March 6 Democratic Debate in Flint was exactly what you’d expect: cheering throngs chanting for their candidates of choice.

But then came the sound of drums approaching from a distance. And then came the activists. From around the country, they came together not to rally for candidates, but to bring attention to the rupture of democracy in Flint that led to the poisoning of an entire city.

In the flood of information now coming out about the Flint water crisis, a clear pattern has emerged. The governmental decisions that both created and covered up this public health disaster were neither inevitable nor accidental.

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the strength of the single mom

Image via hanssie.com

The last time I wrote, I spoke about the powerful collection of essays featured in a picture is worth…, a compilation of stories from  students at the I-LEAD Charter School in Reading, Pennsylvania. I was struck by how the lessons learned by these young people are ones that take a lifetime for many to realize. The trials, challenges, and strength brought forth by the teenagers who shared their stories in these pages affirm the resilience and hopefulness inherent in our youth.

Lucy Casimiro presents a heartbreaking tale of teenage motherhood. She falls in love with Anthony, and once pregnant the two were committed to raising the child together. One day during her pregnancy, however, Lucy’s mother shares the gut-wrenching news: Anthony has died. While carrying her child, Lucy must come to terms with the fact that the baby’s father will never get to meet the joy that he helped created.

The hardest thing I have done to date would be raising my child,” she observed. “Kids are a handful, especially when you are a single parent.”

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america for president

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With the presidential primary elections in full swing, I cannot help but reflect on what these campaigns, taglines and pleas for a new leader imply and reflect about our society and its needs. Particularly, I have been thinking about this in light of David Castro's book Genership 1.0: Beyond Leadership Toward Liberating the Creative Soul.

Genership "describes the practice in which humans collaborate with one another in generative processes - activities that foster creativity. Genership enables productivity; it brings into existence the desired materials, services, technologies, and energies that benefit the group as a whole."

Does that sound like how our present government works? Does that sound like how Donald Trump wants things to work? (#makedonalddrumpfagain)

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