The Young Leader

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Prepping Your Application for College Admission

College Prep Tips for Perfecting Your High School Resume

From soccer game bruises to eternal study sessions to slushy-slinging bullies, high school can be intense. The cool news is that you can transform the intensity of your high school years into stuff that matters on a global scale. To do that you have to think of high school in terms of a resume.

As you engage in project partnerships, various academic clubs and sports, consider the experiences you’re collecting as resume highlights. This infographic offers tips for categorizing those experiences to build a solid high school resume. You’ll also find tips on how to match your HS resume highlights with the right college. You’ll even see how volunteering abroad can give you a foundation for future leadership.

So, yeah, the sports scrapes and the pop quizzes aren’t soft and cuddly. But they may just help you build a perspective that will inspire your community and your world to make positive changes. And that’s definitely a good payoff.

Prepping Your Application for College AdmissionGraphic brought to you by Experience GLA.


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Future Benefits of Learning Spanish in High School


Foreign Language Requirements

Many high schools and some colleges and universities require a minimum number of foreign language credits. For some students, it seems like a terrible imposition — “I don’t plan on living anywhere else but here!” Others truly struggle to learn a new language. Individuals vary tremendously in their abilities to learn languages, and it may seem unfair that one individual just seems to learn it naturally while another labors to learn his latest list of vocabulary words. But there’s a host of benefits to learning Spanish in high school, not the least of which is the frequency with which you’ll probably run across the opportunity to practice it without leaving your state. Why? After English, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the United States. Its slang has become mainstream, as have many Latino musicians. Comedians alternate between English and Spanish during their stand-up acts, and network TV audiences hear Spanish phrases so often now that it fails to register to them.

The Benefits of Speaking Spanish and Learning the Language in High School

If you didn’t learn Spanish as a young child, then high school can be the next best thing. After all, teens are the age group most closely in tune with popular culture, and American popular culture is full of Spanish words, phrases and slang. Other real benefits include:

Studying Spanish can improve your English vocabulary and help you on the English portion of your SAT test. How? Spanish is a Latin language, and many of the common words of the language are still very closely connected to their Latin roots. English also has many words of Latin derivation, so learning everyday Spanish can actually help you figure out the meaning of an entirely unknown English word.

  • Learning a new language changes the anatomy of the brain and carves new neural pathways throughout it. These changes have been linked to a decreased chance of developing memory problems such as age-related dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. The new neural pathways also make it easier for you to learn any new information, and a second language helps you develop critical thinking skills as you learn to puzzle out the meaning of new words.
  • Compared to other languages — Asian languages, German and English — learning to pronounce and read Spanish is relatively easy. The easier you find the language, the more encouraged you’ll be to study.
  • Being fluent in both Spanish and English increases your value as an employee in any field you might pursue. If you become fluent enough, your career might just become one of being a translator between doctors and patients, judges and witnesses or customers and store managers, for example.
  •  In addition to making you more marketable, knowing how to speak Spanish can make you more popular. You’ll be able to meet new people just by helping to translate or explain for someone.
  •  Finally, in general, most Spanish speakers are remarkably friendly to individuals new to their language so you can usually count on help whenever words fail you.

Learning a foreign language like Spanish is more than just a good way to earn high school language credits–it’s also a great way to prepare for your future.

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Overseas Volunteering: Who Should Go With You?

Volunteering Companions

Many people want the adventure of volunteering abroad but are hesitant to embark on such a journey alone. If the volunteer opportunity is in an unfamiliar country and the prospective volunteer isn’t yet fluent with the language, they can have more concerns than a case of the travel jitters. New to international travel, they may not yet realize that any traveler from the US, Canada, the UK or Australia will arrive at their destination and undoubtedly meet an “ex-pat” from one of these countries within days, if not hours. Nevertheless, one should never forego the opportunity simply because they prefer to travel with a companion. There are a number of options available for those who prefer this type of travel, including enrolling in a program with a friend, joining a church volunteer mission or persuading your family to accompany you on your volunteer mission.

Enrolling With a Friend

If you have a close friend who shares your beliefs in volunteering and community service, enroll in a program together. The type of program, program regulations and your differing skills will help determine how closely you will be able to be together. In some vacation trips combined with some volunteer service, you and your friend might be roommates and be able to remain together during service assignments and recreational opportunities. Other programs may allow you to room together but prefer to assign you according to your specific skills. Make a point to remain open to making new friends even if you are traveling with a companion. One of the skills a traveler learns to master is that of establishing a life, a home and friends in a new place. Don’t turn down those opportunities when offered.

Joining a Church Service Group

Another way to travel with the benefit of something familiar is to join a volunteer service group sponsored by your church, denomination or parish. Even if you are temporarily unacquainted with your companions, you still share the tenets of your belief system and similar means in which to demonstrate your faith. You’ll have the opportunity to meet new friends of the same faith and similar backgrounds, partially alleviating some of the anxiety natural in such circumstances.

Enlisting the Whole Family

The option to travel with one’s family as companions and co-volunteers has long been a popular one in some religious denominations. Recently, private organizations have begun to offer a combination vacation and service trip designed for the entire family. Shorter in duration than other journeys, these trips are routinely offered during school breaks such as the New Year’s Holiday so that school-aged children may attend without missing part of their schooling at home. Naturally, families reside together although they may have to share accommodations with another family in some programs. All aspects of the trip — service and recreation — are scheduled and designed so that a family with children of various ages can travel and participate.

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Featured Essay: Ruby Tucker, Ghana 2010. “A Silent Slideshow”

Their faces run through my mind like a silent slideshow that never stops. Whenever there is a gap or quiet moment in the day, I see their exuberant faces, and actually feel their incredible optimism. It is hard to believe that a little school and clinic in Ghana can change a person as much as it changed me, but it did. One of the most transforming experiences of my life was visiting and working in an impoverished school and clinic in Ghana where most of the children are orphaned and have AIDS. As I write, I realize it is a challenge just to express in words how deeply this experience affected me.

As I stepped out of the air-conditioned van and into the hot African sun, I was greeted by a hundred smiling children, all waving at me. I took a deep breath of the dense and heavy air, waving back as the school’s principal and clinic director led me on a tour of the clinic and the school. As I walked through the small stuffy clinic, I saw two nurses standing in the doorway. They were the only staff members on duty. The clinic was hot and dark, with barely any light in the main entrance area. We entered a room with only four small beds, one without a mattress. The clinic director told us a story about a mother who died recently on that mattress-less bed from AIDS. As we moved into another room filled with children lying on hospital beds, I tried hard to control my emotions, but had to turn away before they could see my tears. I saw children lying helpless and sick, without parents or comfort of any kind. The image of two little girls sharing one bed, both looking deep into my eyes as I stood there, remains vivid in my mind.

We stepped outside onto the dark red dirt that led to the school next door. It was lunchtime, and I helped serve the children their meals. Entering one of the dark classrooms holding bowls of rice, I saw there were no desks inside, only chairs. All the children were sitting in a circle, quietly waiting to be fed. I sat on the concrete floor of the classroom, just watching them eat. Nobody spoke; the only sound was the scraping of their spoons against the bowls as they devoured every last grain sticking to the sides of their bowls. I tried to ask for their names in their local language, but they did not understand my poor attempt. Instead, our exchange of smiles became our mutual language. When lunchtime was almost finished, I saw a little girl trying to steal more rice from a classmate.  Another little boy begged his teacher for more water. The room grew louder, and finally all the children began to play. One little girl clung to me. I asked what her name was, but couldn’t hear her mumbled response, so I just smiled and told her I was Ruby. Now friends, she held my hand and we danced and laughed as other children started to surround us. They each begged for my attention.  They grabbed at me, gesturing for me to pick them up and hold them. As I hugged the first one, and then another, I stared deep into all of their eyes and I saw the warmth there, despite their meager circumstances. That image, of their big bright smiles and their eyes filled with love, holds a place of honor in my heart.

The impact of this experience on the person that I am today is profound. This journey showed me two sides of life. On the one hand, I witnessed how unfair life can be. Yet on the other hand, I saw children playing and enjoying life despite very serious hardships. I am still inspired by the love these children found in their hearts for a complete stranger. I came to help and teach them, but they taught me to search for that same inner peace and joy no matter what challenge I may face. This was the greatest lesson of all.

I feel proud and fortunate to have taken this unusual journey, to have had this meaningful experience at my age. It has so far, been one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. Without taking this journey with Global Leadership Adventures as a high school volunteer, I would not have had this incredible opportunity. This experience allowed me to really test my boundaries, make new friends, see a whole other side of the world, and make a difference in someone’s life. The incredible journey I had is, and always will be, a part of me.

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“Why We Wander” by Carla Sameth

Jews and Global Community Service Trips

At age 23, my mom was allowed to leave home in the Bronx to go help her sister, my aunt Charlotte, with her new baby in Seattle. But the Jewish guys in Seattle met all the new girls “fresh off the boat” and she was quickly snatched up by my dad. When my mom decided to marry him soon afterwards and stay in Seattle, her father, my Grandpa Sam, put a curse on her saying her children would “scatter across the globe”.

This was strangely prophetic because my siblings and I somehow ended up living in countries as diverse as Israel, France, Sri Lanka, Mexico, and Japan.  Like so many other Jewish youth, we also sought out international travel and community service as young adults.  For me this was combined with a deep interest in Jewish culture abroad and a fascination for those stories involving Jewish families starting in one country with one generation, say Iraq, then the family moving to India and ending up in Berkeley or going from Syria to Argentina to Israel and ending up with names like Yoko Birnbaum, Ester Rabkin or Uri Santos.   Clearly the phrase “Wandering Jew” did not apply only to a plant species.

While we were “cursed” (or “blessed”) to wander, also in our destiny was political awareness and activism, sniffing out injustice in the world and giving to the community.  The obligation, as a previously oppressed people to fight injustice as opposed to contribute to it, was intrinsically part of the values I grew up with and certainly the brand of Judaism I was exposed to at Habonim Camp – Machaneh Miriam on Gabriola Island in Canada.   I was part of a “Chavarah” heading for Kibbutz and following a set trajectory: camp, leadership-training and then “workshop”– a year on Kibbutz.  Learning to “give what you can and take what you need” and the belief in a kind of socialism went hand-in-hand with the protest marches I went on with my parents.   I was not surprised, therefore, to find that international programs for high school students, emphasizing community service and leadership training, such as the one we went on this winter break in the Dominican Republic with Global Leadership Adventures (GLA www.experiencegla.com) are heavily attended by Jewish youth.

My son, Gabe and I traveled to the Dominican Republic to assist with rebuilding a home in one of the worst slums in the area and visited a Haitian refugee camp, playing soccer with the kids there. I spent a day after everyone left, bent on visiting Sosua, where a Jewish community—one of the only groups let in from Germany—settled by invitation of Trujillo, one of the worst dictators of all times. There are various theories as to why Trujillo did this, chief among them was he wanted to bring intellectuals and scientists to the country or that he wanted to make the Dominicanos lighter and believed that all Jews were these things — white, scientists and intellectuals.  While there, they formed a community similar to a kibbutz.

After this recent adventure, when Gabe left the Haitian refugee camp telling me “this is the most amazing experience I’ve ever had” I’m quite certain that more such trips will be in his future.  (At present, hormones coursing through his 15 year old body, his current priority is girls and friends at home.)   However, it made me think about what it is that leads so many young Jewish students to sign up to study and volunteer abroad?  Global Leadership Adventures  reports that close to 25% of its participants identify themselves as Jewish. Considering that Jews make up 3% of the national population, this number is worth analyzing. Is it a commitment to Tikkun Olam, social justice—repairing the world or community service that drives this high rate of participation? Is it Jewish families’ international orientation that sends them traveling and volunteering in less fortunate communities abroad? Or does it simply reflect a wider trend of summer camp attendance that is common among Jewish kids?

One student told me it felt natural for him as the trilingual son of a Cuban (convert to Judaism) mother and American Jewish father to travel around the world and do community work.   Similarly, he feels an obligation to contribute at home in the Jewish community as well as with other organizations serving those in need.   This also happens to be a primary emphasis with GLA – to learn leadership skills, find out what is needed from local leaders, bring those skills back home and apply them to their own community.

Over and over I have heard repeated alternatively a sense of belonging and finding community around the world by virtue of being Jewish from China to Brazil. At the same time, for most of my life I have been asked what country I was from, unidentifiable as being one nationality or another. “They just want to know if you are Jewish” my mom would insist.

As for my son, Gabe, who is an “Afro-Jew” (African American and Jewish, two cultures that by their very history invite a confusing answer to “what country are you REALLY from?”) with a lesbian mom and a Latina step-sister from an “unblended marriage”, he never felt like he belonged as much as at his recent bar-mitzvah. He stood in front of a crowd of around 200 family, community and friends, many who were African American and Latino; a number of his classmates asked to have their own “bro-mitzvahs.”  He read poetry and in his sermon, and as I did with my Torah portion many years ago, pulled out a message imbued with social justice. In my case, I called out for an end to the Vietnam War and peace in the Middle East.  In Gabe’s case he took a brutal Torah passage about what to do when your wife is unfaithful and distilled messages of trust and vulnerability for his sermon, talking about teen prostitution and Bernie Maddoff.

A reporter from La Opinion (http://www.hispanicla.com/gabriel-el-de-los-angeles-2633), who attended with his stepson, wrote a column about “the real LA” which included a family like ours (and like his).  He was born in Argentina, spent part of his childhood on a kibbutz, has a blended family that includes a son in Italy, two with a Chilean mom raised in the US and a stepson with an American Jewish woman whose biological dad is from El Salvador. A typical Jewish family.

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