The Young Leader

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5 Ways to Get a Head Start on a Career in Education

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You don’t just want a career; you want to educate and inspire others to learn. This is often a daunting thought, but don’t let all the information about education careers overwhelm you. Here are five ways that will motivate you to get a head start in your future in education!

1) Learn about your passion. You can’t become a doctor and know nothing about medicine. It’s the same for a career in education, so study up on your dream profession! Research what you’re interested in; learn about what it takes to enter that job. Discover what your state’s requirements are to become a teacher. From lecturing on molecular biology to inspiring first-graders, there is a specialized path for you, so dive in and learn about what you love. And don’t forget to keep working hard in your current studies, too!

2) Become a tutor. Tutoring is a fantastic way to gain some teaching experience. If you’re interested in tutoring, check to see if your school can help get you started. Eventually, you could even branch out into your own small tutoring business. You’ll be helping others, and getting some great on-the-job experience.

3) Audit or watch a class. Many teachers/professors will be excited that you are interested in education as a career, and several schools have ways for you to become a teacher’s aide and audit a class. You’ll get to experience different teaching methods, classroom procedures, and you may even get to assist the professor in grading and lecturing. Needless to say, this kind of experience will be promising for your future career.

4) Help with summer education programs. Volunteer at your library and read stories to children. Or become a camp sponsor at a fun summer camp! Try to find one that has educational programs you’re interested in, like an arts and music camp or a science camp. You will get to work with what you’re passionate about, and have some summer fun along the way.

5) Volunteer abroad. Traveling will immensely broaden your knowledge about education and teaching. Global Leadership Adventures has an awesome opportunity that will whisk you to Costa Rica. You’ll discover the wonderful Costa Rican culture and participate in several activities that involve education, from teaching to serving and learning how the children study at their schools. And you will leave with a deeper appreciation for education and first-hand experiences with educational activities.

A career in education may sound difficult to enter at first, but you can get a head-start in it. So stay passionate about your dream and let it motivate you to educate! What about you? What ways have you pursued to start your career journey? Tell us in the comments below!

Contributed by Addie Davis

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10 Items You Never Want to Forget Before You Travel

“I forgot my______!” A phrase I’m sure we’ve all caught ourselves yelling out after hours and hours of travel. Nothing is more valuable than your time and comfort, especially when on the move. So, to save you some valuable time and comfort during travel; here’s a list of ten items you never want to forget before traveling.

  1. Portable USB battery – It’s easy to get caught up in the sights and culture of the areas you’re traveling to and forget to charge your electronics. A USB battery is perfect for travel as it adapts to almost any charger base and can fit easily into a front pocket or backpack.
  2. Destination List – Listing your destinations and their distances can help you efficiently group your excursions, saving you both time and money as traveling any distance can run up the toll on your time abroad.
  3. Carry-on clothing – You never know when the airlines are going to make that monumental mistake and loose your luggage. Plan ahead and pack a few outfits in your carry-on.
  4. Exercise clothing – Be sure to bring your exercise clothing if you plan on getting some reps in at the hotel gym or getting a few miles under your belt before hitting your destinations.
  5. Toiletry bag – Having a toiletry bag not only keeps all your toiletries in the same place, but also keeps them from getting all over your other luggage. Just don’t forget to watch out for the limits on those liquids when carrying them on board.
  6. Power Converter – Most of us don’t consider living standards in other countries, even when traveling to them. You’re going to need a power converter almost anywhere outside of the United States.
  7. A Book – It never hurts to pack some light reading material to pass the time on your flights. Stuff happens, especially to our technology. It always helps to have a non-electronic form of entertainment to rely on when your tech dies and you’re stranded.
  8. Phone – Most people are so used to having their phone on them that they automatically assume they have it. Always double check for your phone before leaving for the airport. Who knows when you’ll realize it’s missing?
  9. Headphones – everyone loves music, but you can’t exactly blast you phone speakers for clear, high definition music at the airport. Never forget your headphones, unless you enjoy background noise at the airport.
  10. Glasses (both) – If there’s one thing you don’t want to forget when traveling, it’s your ability to take in the beautiful sights of the amazing countries you are visiting. Even if vision correction isn’t necessary for you, don’t forget those sunglasses.

Contributed by Joshua Schwartz

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Teachers Making a Difference – 5 You Won’t Forget

As you make your way through school, you’ll learn from several teachers in the process. However, some of them will leave lasting impressions in your mind that will stick for years to come.

These 5 teachers have received recognition in the news for their positive impacts:

David Menasche: After receiving the traumatic news that he had developed untreatable brain cancer, this English teacher didn’t let his disappointing diagnosis get the best of him. When he was too weak to continue teaching, the brave educator from Florida set off on a journey to 31 cities across the country to reunite with 75 of his former students. They described him as a beloved teacher who made a tremendous effort to be present in the lives of his students.

Cheryl Tolbert: As a dedicated middle school music teacher, Cheryl has been touching the lives of her students for 46 years. For the past 9 years of her career, she has been guiding some of the most troublesome students at Crawford Middle School in Kentucky. With her strict, disciplinary teaching style, Cheryl has taught these kids how to succeed and achieve their goals. Most importantly, she has shown her students that music can help you get through the tough times in life.

Anne White: This high school Spanish teacher from Wisconsin uses highly creative strategies to keep her students engaged and ensure that they never forget the language. She spices up her teaching routines by adding in a few fun and unique activities, ranging from Spanish lip-sync battles to Latino line dancing sessions. Anne also likes to send her students on special academic trips that enable them to study abroad and embrace the Spanish culture. Many of her former students still keep in touch via email and Facebook, and some even stop by to visit on occasion.

Derrick Griffith: This 42-year-old educator from New York managed to make a lasting impact on all of his students before he was killed in the recent Amtrak train accident in Philadelphia. He devoted much of his career to assisting underprivileged students in inner-city schools. With the help of a few colleagues, he founded the Teaching and Learning Institute at East High School in Rochester. He is remembered as an extremely caring teacher and dedicated mentor.

Jennifer Brown: This applied physical science teacher was named Alabama’s Teacher of the Year for 2015-16. After teaching her 10th grade students for 16 years, she realized the true impact that teachers have on shaping future generations. Jennifer helps her students excel by making them active participants in the classroom. She wants to inspire other teachers to follow this trend.

Contributed by Nedda Grady

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Teens Making a Difference – Boyan Slat

“If you want to do something, do it as soon as possible.” -Boyan Slat

The Dutch born Boyan Slat doesn’t just say inspiration quotes, he lives them. At age 13, Slat set the Guinness World Record for most water rockets launched at the same time. From there, his ambition took off like one of those rockets leading him to become the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup project by age 20.

Slat’s journey to becoming the founder of one of the largest clean-up projects in history began while diving in Greece at the age of 16. He noticed there were more plastic bags than fish in the ocean, which gave him an idea. Slat developed a science project that consisted of several floating barriers, connected to the seabed, that could capture and gather plastics littering the ocean surface, so they could be collected and recycled. The design uses the Ocean currents to do all of the dirty work, as they push the litter into the collection barriers, a task that would take humans thousands of years and billions of dollars. Seeing that the project had something special to it, Delft University of Technology awarded it with the Best Technical Design.

Slat continued to develop his project after the competition, eventually giving a Ted Talk on how it could work. The talk resonated with people around the world, going viral in the process. Slat started a Kickstarter campaign to make the project a reality, which easily reach it’s goal. Now two years later, Slat has a team of over 100 people working on implementing the project while also spinning the technology off to work on cleaning up rivers and streams as well. According to a 2014 study, the system could remove up to half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 10 years.

Boyan Slat didn’t let his age get in the way of his big idea. Because of his decision to not delay, and pursue his vision and passion as soon as possible, the world could become a better pace to live in a shorter amount of time. Who knows what kind of good could be done if more teens followed Slat’s example and listened to his words: ”If you want to do something, do it as soon as possible.”

Contributed by Alex Anderson

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7 Ways Sports Can Bridge Cultures

Humans have practiced and participated in sports for thousands of years. Because sports have existed for so long and can be found in some form everywhere on Earth, they are a great way to join different societies and bring people together. Here are 7 of the ways sports can bridge cultures.

-Shared Communication

Not speaking the same language as someone can seem like an impossible hurdle to overcome when trying to communicate. One way to bridge this gap is to engage in some shared physical activity. After only a few minutes of either learning a local sport or participating in a shared one, you will start to see the non-verbal forms of communication you use to speak. This communication can be used off the field as well.

-Bring Peace

The passion individuals have for sports is so strong that it can overcome cultural tension. There are several instances of peace through sports, but one of the most famous happened in 1995 when Nelson Mandela helped South Africans differing cultures avoid a civil war through their shared passion for Rugby.

-Put Big and Small Societies on an Even Playing Field

Sometimes the hardest cultural gap to overcome is one of size. Sports solve this problem by taking two different countries and cultures and putting them on a level playing field, allowing each player and team just as good of a chance of as anyone else. It’s how Trinidad and Tobago, a country with a population of just over 1.3 million can play in the same tournament as China, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, which is what happened in the 2006 World Cup.

-Allow You to Travel Abroad and Be Immersed in a Different Culture

Programs like GLA’s Costa Rica: Sports Service Adventure(1) uses teens shared passion for soccer and sports to learn and connect with local communities. The program gives teens an opportunity to live on a coastal village while creating new friendships with local youths all through a shared passion for sports.

-Share History

Sharing the history of anthers culture can be a huge stepping stone to better understanding each other and how societal differences originally started. Learning about why certain rules in shared sports are different between cultures and how that came to be is a great way to jump start the conversation.

-Build Friendships

Branching out and getting to know people from other cultures can be difficult if you share nothing in common. Playing sports together is a great way to get to know people of all cultures and build life-long friendships.

-Teach Rules to Live By

One of the biggest rules that you learn with sports is that of sportsmanship and respecting and admiring your opponents and teammates alike. When you take this outlook and apply it to the world, it allows you to see different cultures and people as equals, no matter their background or education. Athletic activity can build a foundation to live by, and one that can shape the world in positive ways as it brings all cultures together with the shared passion of sports.

Contributed by Alex Anderson

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