Latest Posts - Part 24

December 1, 2015 by Brett Scuiletti

Fulbright Scholar in the Dominican Republic – GLA Alum Returns for Research Project

“There is a whole process to development and education that is very important to partake in to have real impact.”

–Alex Moscovitz

Name: Alex Moscovitz
Hometown: Guilford, CT
Education: Fulbright Scholar
Passions and Interests: Cooking, reading and spending time outdoors, in the woods or on trails.
Transformational Experience: Dominican Republic: Building a Sustainable World™
Making an Impact: Fulbright Scholar studying food insecurity with an NGO in the Dominican Republic

Identifying problems seems easy, but it takes a keen mind and a lot of research to dig beneath the surface issues and find the root of the problem you’re trying to solve. For GLA alum Alex Moscovitz, digging deep is part of her daily life.

As a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, Alex is spending 10 months with a local NGO in the Dominican Republic studying food insecurity. Her research will help determine the differences in food security as experienced by urban vs. rural populations. This research may be used in the future to help NGOs and organizations better tackle how food insecurity affects populations differently, since a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works on a large scale.

To Alex, the research is important because the work it affects after matters. The wrong approach, if ill-informed, can not only have no net gains, but could possibly have a negative impact on a community.

I’ve seen how important development work can be. I’ve also seen how damaging it can be if not done right.”

Part of Alex’s interest in this work began with GLA in the Dominican Republic, while on the 21-day Building a Sustainable World™ program. GLA partners with a local organization in the Dominican – 7 Elements – which teaches student volunteers about the cross-section of sustainability, human security and education through instruction and real-world examples. It was here that Alex was introduced to issues of food insecurity, environmental degradation, pollution and more.

Alex took her trip right after she graduated from high school, and her experience with GLA in the DR helped inform her educational goals. She graduated from college with a dual degree in sociology and environmental science, and Alex intends to go to graduate school to earn her Masters degree in environmental urban planning so that she can “work on projects that solve problems in how our human systems (food, water, etc.) affect the environment, and make steps towards socially inclusive, ecologically friendly cities.”

While in the DR with GLA, staff took groups, including Alex, through small development projects working to correct harms caused on the environment by people. She began to learn – and take interest in – to what extent people have an effect on their environment, and vice versa.

I am moved to dedicate my time to work in topics of social and environmental justice because I believe that we should work to build communities that improve the environmental health, function sustainably and do not foster inequality.”

Alex’s concern, which she hopes to address through her Fulbright research, is that people in many communities are unable to eat their staple foods due to the uniformity of what they grow for income production. “There’s a lack of diversity in the food being grown here,” she said, and her research into food issues at households, markets, and farms may help to pinpoint where the gaps in the system are occurring.

These are complicated problems with potentially complicated solutions, but when it comes to her insights on making a meaningful impact, Alex’s advice is simple.

Leave more behind than you take.”

Alex is currently a Fulbright scholar doing research in the Dominican Republic. She plans to attend graduate school after, where she’ll study environmental planning and public health.

Program Alex attended:

GLA Dominican Republic: Building a Sustainable World™

Curious about exploring your own GLA adventure? Check these out:

November 30, 2015 by The Young Leader

Elephants, Tortoises, Cats, & Dogs: Why Each of These Animals Are Important to Save

Everyone has a favorite type of animal and almost everyone owns a dog or a cat as a pet; and if you don’t, you surely know someone who does. Well we’ve compiled a list of a few animals that are especially important to the world and to help save.

1. Elephants

They help the environment with land.

They help communities by bringing in tourism.

In tropical forests, elephants create gaps in canopies of trees and bushes while in the savannas they help remove bush cover, which creates an environment helpful to other animals. Elephants are also a popular sight for tourists bringing in money to areas that they live in like Africa. By saving elephants we help to keep their habitat safe, support communities that thrive off of them, and make sure natural resources are available for years to come.

Fun fact: Elephants are the largest mammals on earth, some weighing up to eight tons!

2. Tortoises

They help the environment by creating places to live for other animals.

They help people by being a rarity to see.

Desert tortoises live in burrows that they create during most of the year. These little holes are helpful to other animals like birds and reptiles that use them as shelter. Tortoises are also a rare occasion to see and some actually have helped people cope with injuries and disabilities.

Fun fact: Adult desert tortoises can spend a year or even more without access to water!

3. Dogs

They help the environment by protecting other animals.

They help people in many ways besides being a “man’s best friend.”

By digging up soil to burry items dogs are actually helping to renew the environment and some dogs actually help protect other animals in different locations around the world. There are also dogs that help people out with jobs from Seeing Eye dogs to firefighter rescue dogs.

Fun fact: Dogs only sweat through the palms of their feet!

4. Cats

They help the environment by preying on animals that help keep the ecosystem stable.

They help people with health.

Cats prey on animals like rats and rabbits that actually help to keep their population consistent and in turn keep the ecosystem on track. For people, owning a cat can reduce the chance of having a heart attack or stroke by one third. So saving cats not only helps the world but also selfishly us!

Fun fact: Cats have more than 20 muscles that control their ears!

Contributed by Samantha Watkins

November 30, 2015 by Brett Scuiletti

Radiate Market Co-Founder Interview – GLA Alum Connects Artists and Conscious Consumers

“Tourist industry income is sporadic and not stable at all. Radiate is the solution.”

–Alyssa Rose

Name: Alyssa Rose
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
Education: Fordham University
Passions and Interests: Hiking, spending time with family & friends and drinking too much coffee
Transformational Experience: Dominican Republic: Beachside Service Adventure
Making an Impact: Co-founded a microfinance venture that empowers artists in developing regions

In many developing regions of the world, tourism is a critical source of income for families working to make ends meet (and often only barely). Yet income from tourism is sporadic and unpredictable. A worldwide economic downturn like the one that began in 2008 can have especially severe consequences as consumers in wealthier countries cut back extraneous spending. Except that what is ‘extraneous’ to someone from the United States may be the money a family in a developing country depends on.

Fortunately, there are new and exciting ideas coming to fruition that are looking to overcome these issues, and provide families in these regions with reliable income sources that can be counted on long-term. And Alyssa Rose is one of the people making it happen.

As a co-founder of Radiate Market, Alyssa is working to “empower artists in developing regions by providing an online platform which will allow these creators to access a larger and more consistent market.”

The benefits are twofold: artists are able to find buyers with resources who can support their art, thereby letting local art flourish in places like the Dominican Republic, while also providing a steadier income to artists who participate, so they can better provide for their own families.

Alyssa started her road to founding Radiate several years back. One early, eye-opening experience was her trip to the Dominican Republic through GLA’s Beachside Service Adventure program. Her passion for global health influenced her initial decision to go on the program. She said that public health “is a core human right that is often overlooked.” However, after her time in the DR, she’s now more interested in the “social construction of health.”

Since then, she’s put her new passion to action.

My group of [GLA] returnees raised $17,000 to go towards medical clinics in the DR. Radiate’s initial Indiegogo campaign for seed money raised $1,800, and all of that and more has been invested directly into our 7 artisans. I’ve spent over 6 months abroad (in total) doing various service projects since GLA.”

Since her experience with GLA, Alyssa has kept herself busy. She went on immersion trips to Ecuador and Nicaragua, led a medical outreach excursion to Guatemala, and will be leading her second medical outreach trip over winter break from college to Albania. Alyssa has also returned to the DR to work with GLA’s local partner organization, 7 Elements, for the past two summers.She credits her extended time in the Dominican Republic for helping her form the idea for Radiate, which she started in collaboration with her friend, Kiera Maloney.

It’s really great to be able to use what I learned on my GLA project and be able to directly apply that to the situations of some of the people I got to meet there. When you go on a trip like GLA, I think you’re often left feeling so passionate about the causes you just learned.”

Radiate Market is working with a number of artists and co-operatives in the Dominican Republic right now. Artists are supported on their “journey towards growth and sustainability by Radiate.” This is accomplished by selling and promoting artists’ products on Radiate’s online marketplace, which is targeted towards consumers and supports who are socially-minded.

By purchasing the goods available on Radiate, consumers are supporting artisans as they “develop a sense of financial security, a position of respect within their community, and an opportunity to radiate their true self.”

As for the continued growth of Radiate and her next steps, Alyssa is open to what the future has to bring. Regardless, she’s committed to making a difference, no matter what form it happens to be.

I don’t know that I have an ultimate goal for service. I don’t think there’s any benchmark that would be good enough for me to reach that I could say “Okay, I’m done now.” It’s more of a lifestyle choice. Volunteering, traveling and experiencing different cultures is what excites me. If I can continue to do that and live a life that’s dedicated to experiencing all that the world has to offer, and hopefully helping to make it a more fair and equal place, that would be the goal!”

Alyssa is currently attending the Fordham University in New York. Her advice for meaningful life? “Find that thing that sets you on fire and jump in head first. The best thing you can do for the world is be passionate.”

If you’d like to help support participants in Radiate Market, you can do so here.

Program Alyssa attended:

GLA Dominican Republic: Beachside Service Adventure

Curious about exploring your own GLA adventure? Check these out:

November 30, 2015 by Brett Scuiletti

Triumph of Vision – GLA Alum Raises $7,500 for Water Filter Project through Her School

“You can solve the water quality problem, but if you can’t solve the water access problem, then what does it mean for those people?”

–Liv Evans

Name: Liv Evans
Hometown: Downington, PA
Education: Tulane University
Passions and Interests: Reading, writing, club softball and intramural soccer. Philadelphia sports fan (as she says, “despite their luck”)
Transformational Experience: Guatemala: Children of the Maya™ and Dominican Republic: Building a Sustainable World™
Making an Impact: Raised $7,500 through the help of her high school student council for a water filter project and provided 169 filters to Dominican families

When Liv Evans was elected to serve as co-president of her student council back in high school, she didn’t take the ordinary course most people think of when it comes to student council initiatives. Through committed efforts at building awareness through her school’s homecoming and powderpuff football events, which were attended by over half the student population, and by petitioning her student council to act, she was able to raise nearly $7,500 for a project close to her heart: providing water filters to families in-need in the Dominican Republic.

After attending Global Leadership Adventures’ Building a Sustainable World™ program in the Dominican Republic, Liv has been driven to provide access to clean water to those without.

After my DR program, I started seeing the relevance of human security issues to all of my school subjects, and I found myself looking at the world through this new lens. Because of GLA, I have a burning passion for public health and development.”

Liv began her journey before the Dominican Republic by attending GLA’s Children of the Maya™ program in Guatemala back in 2013. At the time, she didn’t know what her real motivation was to attend the program beyond the desire to gain a broader perspective of the world. As she recalls though, it was GLA staff member Jesse Barber on her Guatemala program that said to her something that inspired her to continue traveling and doing service work beyond one program:

It’s amazing, really. When you’re at home all the people you know put you into this little box. They expect you to be and act a certain way. When you travel by yourself, though, you can break out of that box. You can choose the things you want to keep about yourself and the things you want to change to become the person you want to be. If you’re lucky, you get to take some of that new person home with you.”

This prompted Liv to return with Global Leadership Adventures the following summer, where she had the opportunity to spend weeks learning about the seven elements of human security, as taught by 7 Elements founder and GLA local director, Dr. Dave Addison. She says “7 Elements really practices what it preaches,” and from everything Liv’s accomplished, she’s done the same.

Following her first of several trips to the Dominican Republic, Liv raised the funds to provide 169 families with new water filters. She used a needs analysis to determine what could be done, and attributes “the strength of the intervention” through water filter distribution to what she says is the families’ willingness to help themselves.

And giving back to those in need of support has given back Liv much in return, even if that wasn’t her goal or expectation. She received a scholarship providing full college tuition from Tulane University, where she now attends, based on a video project about her experience with GLA in the Dominican Republic. She hopes to work in the field of global health with a special focus on water quality, clean water access, and/or infectious disease control.

On her reason for continuing to pursue widespread, effective change, Liv demonstrates that setting out to try is the most important part:

I seek to understand an unexplainable world and take on problems that are perhaps unsolvable, but I would lose my sense of humanity if I didn’t try. It is to be passionate, to stand for something greater than yourself, to gain undying empathy for humankind, that you have truly lived.”

Liv is currently attending Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, where she is involved in its Public Health Society and ONE, a foreign aid advocacy group.

Programs Liv attended:

GLA Guatemala: Children of the Maya™ & Dominican Republic: Building a Sustainable World™

Curious about exploring your own GLA adventure? Check these out:

November 25, 2015 by Brett Scuiletti

Make (More of) an Impact: GLA Multi-Programs

Just as our 21-day GLA Flagship programs offer the most in-depth immersion within a single community, our multi-programs provide an incredible breadth of experiences across multiple communities around the world.

By linking programs together, you can extend your volunteer abroad experience this summer beyond the three-week maximum provided by any single one of our programs. Or you can combine two shorter programs together to customize an experience that fits your unique interests and very busy summer schedule!

For example, if you’re moved by GLA’s mission and think the African continent is the place to make your impact, you can extend your stay in Africa with Global Leadership Adventures beyond 21 days. And even then, your options are flexible. Option #1, for those inspired by working with Children, is participating in our Ghana: Children of Africa™ Flagship program in Anlgoa first, and then capping it off with another two weeks in Ghana at our other Children of Africa™ site at Krobo. Or Option #2, if you’re more interested in making Ghana your home away from home, and want to mix up your service options, allows you to combine that Children flagship program with another two weeks during sports-based service at Ghana: Sports Service Adventure. Finally, Option #3 expands your horizons beyond just Ghana, as you can link one of our Ghana programs with Maasai warriors and Mount Kilimanjaro on our Tanzania: Heart & Soul of Africa program.

So many options! And the best part? All tuition prices for Multi-Programs reflect a 10% discount from regular program tuition costs.

Each of these linked programs range from four to six weeks, and they represent the peak of the Global Leadership Adventures experience. As highlighted in the Africa examples alone above, these programs give students the opportunity to experience two different countries, or two unique communities within the same country. Our staff members on each program engage students in discussion to link common themes woven throughout the linked program. Through these juxtapositions, students can contextualize the issues facing each community – both common and unique – in ways that build upon the depth of experience on each program.

If you’re interested in exploring our multi-program offerings, check out our listings here. Or, you can always speak to an enrollment advisor and attend two GLA trips at separate times throughout the summer, if that works best for your schedule.