Active Citizenship
GlobeMed at Tufts University
Posted by Amelia Cohen in Active Citizenship, International, Student Experience, Students on March 11, 2013
GlobeMed at Tufts is a group dedicated to building a movement of people who believe in health and justice for all. They partner with Nyaya Health, a U.S. non-profit that works to provide free healthcare to the people of Achham, Nepal.
In 2012, Nyaya Health treated more than 30,000 patients as they began to implement a sustainable healthcare system in the region. Tufts GlobeMed is proud to be a partner of this dynamic organization.
Check out GlobeMed’s new promo video:
The Innovation Catalog
Posted by Amelia Cohen in Active Citizenship, Blogs, Students on March 6, 2013
Tufts student Shriya Nevatia, A14, writes about educational technology and the future of learning in her blog The Innovation Catalog. Shriya looks at everything through the context of her own background as an individual interested in education, mathematics, computer science, philosophy, technology, culture/media and the visual & performing arts. She interacts with a range of issues in the educational field including the affects of race, gender and class.
Here’s an excerpt from a post she wrote entitled “Risk-Taking and Feminism: The Limited Entrepreneurial Education of Girls”:
We need to cultivate a culture that tells girls to take risks just as much as it tells boys to, and reinforces the idea that a failed business or underground activity in their young years will not turn into a scary mark on their permanent record or a trip to juvie. Many of the entrepreneurs that the Western world worships (George Foreman, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Richard Branson, Simon Cowell to name a few) were rebellious risk-takers in their young years. They were also all male. The women who are prominent entrepreneurs and self-made millionaires/billionaires went through more traditional paths.
Fletcher Summer Institute
Posted by Amelia Cohen in Active Citizenship, International, Students, The Fletcher School, Video on March 4, 2013
Applications are now available for the Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict (FSI). This is the only executive education program in the interdisciplinary study of nonviolent conflict, taught by leading scholars and practitioners of strategic nonviolent action and authorities from related fields. This program offers a certificate in the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict that draws upon its multidisciplinary approach to global affairs.
Since the program was founded in 2005, more than 300 individuals from more than 50 different countries have come together during this week-long seminar and shared their experiences. They have learned all about non-violent conflict, which is under-recognized in most history books and contemporary news media, as well as the fact that many hold widespread misconceptions about its use.
Watch the video below to get an overview of what this program encompasses.
For more information, visit the program website.
Crisis Mapper – Patrick Meier
Posted by Amelia Cohen in Active Citizenship, International, Students, Technology, The Fletcher School, Video on February 25, 2013
Patrick Meier, a Ph.D. candidate at The Fletcher School, recently starred in a video inspired by the work of the Standby Volunteer Task Force (SBTF).
SBTF group includes 1000+ digital humanitarians in more than 80 countries around the world. They are responsible for some of the important live crisis mapping operations that support humanitarian and human rights organizations. Crisis mapping involves monitoring use of information communications in conflict and disaster areas in order to improve response. SBTF is committed to rapid learning and innovation as well as creative uses of technology due to their dedicated volunteers, Mapsters.
Check out this short video about Meier and SBTF that first aired on National Geographic Television Channel.
For more information visit Meier’s blog here.
TuftsRecycles! Sends Shoes to Africa
Posted by Amelia Cohen in Active Citizenship, Environment, International, Students on January 28, 2013
Last semester, the TuftsRecyles! Team put a recycling bin for shoes in the Tisch Sports Center. The project was a partnership with Rerun Shoes, a full-service footwear recycling company, that aims to remove usable shoes from waste lots in North America while supporting sustainable microbusinesses in the African Tropics.
TuftsRecycles! recently updated their blog announcing that the are sending their first full box of shoes to secondhand shoe vendors in Mali, Guinea and Liberia. Check out the photo below and visit their blog for more details.
Winter Break Abroad
Posted by Kimberly Moniz in Active Citizenship, International, Photos, Students on January 14, 2013
This winter break, students involved with the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) traveled across the globe to conduct research. IGL at Tufts focuses on teaching students to be effective and ethical leaders, “ready to act as global citizens in addressing international and national issues across cultures.”
Students traveled to Cambodia, Colombia, India, Kosovo, New Orleans, Nepal, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Turkey and Uganda this winter break and the IGL Facebook page posted some great photos from their travels. Check out these below and more on their Facebook page!
Fletcher Students: “It Only Takes Ten”
Posted by Carly Machlis in Active Citizenship, Community, International, Student Experience, Students, The Fletcher School, Video on November 7, 2012
The Educate Lanka Foundation is running a campaign called “It Only Takes Ten” in an effort to expand access to educational resources in Sri Lanka. The campaign encourages people to donate $10, volunteer 10 minutes out of their day, or tell 10 people about the cause, as a means to raise global awareness while also generating funds.
Students at The Fletcher School are doing their part to spread the word: in this recently released video, you’ll meet a multilingual group of students who announce the campaign in several different languages. Watch the video below, and learn more about the campaign here:
Alum Creates New Words With Friends
Posted by Veronica Richter in Active Citizenship, Alumni, Technology, Web on November 6, 2012
It’s been about two weeks since Loren Brichter, E06, launched his first-ever mobile game, Letterpress, and it has already reached the ranks of #14 most popular app and #1 most popular Word Game in App Store charts. Before launching Letterpress, Brichter created the Twitter iPhone app we know and love today before it was officially Twitter’s.
His new game revolves around taking turns with a friend spelling words on a 5×5 grid of letters. Each time you use a letter, you claim its tile, but if your friend uses the letter in his or her word, he or she can steal the tile back. The game has been called “the next Words with Friends“ and was recently featured in the New York Times’s Business of Technology, BITS, blog. The game has been so well-received it has inspired a new form of poetry and off-line game for those addicted but without power during Hurricane Sandy.
Brichter has also found a way to give back to his loyal customers: he is donating all sales of his Letterpress t-shirt to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy relief. To follow his work, check out his website.
Annie Leonard: The Story of Stuff
Posted by Carly Machlis in Active Citizenship, School of Arts and Sciences, Student Experience, Students, Video on October 31, 2012
Annie Leonard, a passionate supporter of sustainability and author of The Story of Stuff, came to speak at Tufts on October 24. Her book explains “how our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health,” and is accompanied by an informative animated video narrated by Leonard. As the Common Reading Book for the Class of 2016, The Story of Stuff was given to incoming freshmen in an effort to encourage community-wide discussions throughout the fall semester. The book also accompanies Tufts’ vision for a more sustainable campus, as this school year has also seen the implementation of President Monaco’s new Sustainability Council.
Check out a segment from Annie Leonard’s lecture, filmed by Dan Jubelirer, A15, and listen for her shout-out to Tufts’ campaign to divest from fossil fuels! For more info on the campaign, visit Divest For Our Future.
Student Research Trip to Burma
Posted by Carly Machlis in Active Citizenship, International, Research, School of Arts and Sciences, Student Experience, Students, Video on October 8, 2012
This summer, a few students from the Institute for Global Leadership’s program for Narrative and Documentary Practice traveled to Burma for 10 days. There, they worked with photojournalists Gary Knight and Philip Blenkinsop to put their learning and research into practice.
In this Tufts Daily video, you’ll meet a group of ambitious undergraduates who used the opportunity to interact closely with the Burmese people and carry out unique research projects. They also share some stunning photographs of the city, daily interactions, rituals, food, and nightlife they encountered throughout their travels.