Activism

Corneille Ewango was born into a family of poachers and hunters in the Congo Basin forest. Although his family poached animals, his future would turn him against such actions.

After various attempts at being accepted into a university, Ewango eventually succeeded and became a botanist. Even more so, he became a strong advocate of protecting the life of the Congo Basin forest from poachers, miners, hunters, and soldiers.

Although born into a family that was slowly taking resources from the region, Ewango eventually became and still is one of the biggest protectors of the life-plant and animal alike-in the Congo Basin Forest.

Watch this TED Talk to learn how Ewango transcended the traditions of his family and became a strong advocate for the preservation of this region:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRmW03Rd8xM

The following is a guest post by Patrick Lebedinski, an up-and-coming writer and social activist.

There are countless places where young people are working for social change. One spot in particular is near-and-dear to me because it's located in my hometown, Santee, CA. This past May, at West Hills High School, members of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) organized a Day of Silence to spread a message – a demand even – that social equality must include people of all sexual orientations.

Found through Youth Venture, AASHE and its newsletter, Conference Alerts, and Americans for Informed Democracy

HMF International Film/Media Festival and Conference

Are you an avid bottled water drinker? Do your H2O drinking habits have you go to the grocery store or put change into a vending machine? If so, you should stop and rethink the way you are getting your source of water. Bottled water takes a tremendous toll on the environment – the manufacturing and transporting of plastic bottles burn up oil, create pollution, and emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Not to mention, all the plastic waste they will end up becoming!

The War in Darfur began five years ago in western Sudan, and today, there is still no end in sight. Hundreds of thousands of people have died from violence and disease, with millions more being displaced from their homes. McCain and Obama have both pledged to pursue peace in Darfur once elected as President.

While on the subject, the two U.S. presidential candidates praised “young people” for their dedication toward curbing the Darfur Genocide. Here is what they have to say:

Last Christmas was Michelle Finholdt’s worst. Shortly before the 2007th anniversary of Christ’s birth, Minnesota’s Supreme Court ruled that Finholdt’s nonprofit agency was too much like a for-profit business, meaning that come April 15th, she would be expected to cough up $16,000 in property taxes for the first time since founding the Under the Rainbow Child Care Center in 1994. She probably prayed for a holiday miracle, but even St. Nick isn’t foolish enough to go flying around with that much cash on hand.

As the New York Times dutifully reported last week, nonprofits are becoming increasingly business-like across the country, and the questions are piling up like dorm room laundry. Are these agencies doing anything for the pubic good? For the ones who are not, should they really be given a considerable tax-exemption for doing so? And festering underneath the questions is growing pressure for some non-profits to start anteing up.

Although I don’t think the Girl Scouts are going to be selling boxes of CFL lightbulbs instead of cookies any time soon—why change a good and delicious thing?--groups of other stripes are always looking for creative ways to raise money for their organizations. Now your group can choose to sell recycled paper goods, green home cleaners, energy-efficient showerheads, and yes, low-energy lightbulbs through several Web-based green fundraising organizations.

Focus The Nation is an educational initiative on global warming solutions for America occurring at more than 1,000 universities, colleges, high schools, middle schools, places of worship, civic organizations, and businesses, in all 50 states on Jan. 31, 2008.

The teach-in has two goals: to formulate policy solutions that can be implemented immediately; and to explore a new model of collaborative, interdisciplinary education on a national scale, needed to tackle the interconnected social, environmental, and political issues of climate change.

MonsterTRAK, an online career and recruitment Web site, wants to help you out with that major decision. It has developed GreenCareers, a site for college students and recent graduates listing environmentally responsible jobs and internships. GreenCareers includes entry-level, part-time, volunteer, and internship opportunities at organizations of all sizes that positively impact the environment. These are both "green jobs" and jobs at "green companies." The site also features career advice and articles on living green, green activism, and related news.

March 7-9, 2008
Northeastern University, Boston, MA

We are pleased to inform you that registration for the IMPACT Conference is officially open!

Join college students, administrators, faculty, national nonprofit organizations, socially-responsible companies and many others this spring in Boston, MA for the historically largest national convening of campus community members involved in service, activism, politics, advocacy, and other socially responsible work across philosophical and ideological lines.