Welcome to Katie's Travel Blog. This is really Jenny-doesn't-get-to-travel blog where I (mom) keep track of Katie's adventures so I can have some vicarious enjoyment! Here's a look at what one globally-aware kid from little Santa Cruz, California gets to do these days if her mom's willing to keep working!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

PTPI GYF 2013: Let's Get This [Education] Conference Started!

Am I too intense? 
Just like that, she's in Washington D.C. for a week(end) of conferencing and learning.

She spent the night with Sandra, a close family friend, and together they got up at 4am and got it together and out the door to SFO. The flight left at 8am but of course they had to get there early.

I thought I would see not having to worry about driving them, but no. I fretted. Sent this text to Sandra at 4am. Thankfully she messaged back and I tried to return to sleep. I really didn't relax until I saw the pic of Katie at the airport - thank god, they would get on the plane. My work here was done.

They arrived just before 4pm and now things will really get started. Sandra peeled off to go visit an old friend and Katie headed to the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel in Virginia. The conference hits the ground running so of course I haven't heard from her - don't expect to frankly. Tomorrow they start the workshops and then spend the afternoon touring DC - hopefully that storm below won't him them too hard [hilarious, just Googled "big storm to hit DC" and all I get is links to Chris Christie! Let the politics begin!]

Love FlightAware.com. Flight got in early; I think that Jet Stream is kicking in!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013
04:00     Welcome & Orientation
04:30     Delegation Groups - Introductions and Discussion on Importance of Education
06:00     Dinner
07:00     Opening Ceremony
08:30     Delegation Group Discussion: Barriers to Education

Thursday, November 7, 2013
08:30     Global Education Workshops
10:00     Delegation Group Discussion: Workshop Sharing
12:00     Lunch
01:00     D.C. Sightseeing Tours
06:00     Dinner
07:00     Keynote Speaker: Carol Bellamy, former Executive Director of UNICEF
08:30     Delegation Group Discussion: How to Achieve Global Education

Friday, November 8, 2013
08:00     Service Projects in D.C. Area
12:00     Off-site Lunch
01:30     Delegation Group Discussion: How to Achieve Global Education (continued)
04:00     Wrap4Smile Presentation and Project
06:00     Dinner
07:00     Culture 101 Workshops
09:00     Delegation Group Discussion: Preparing your Global Education Action Plan

Saturday, November 9, 2013
09:00     Delegation Group Discussion: Final Preparation of Action Plans
11:00     Delegation Group Presentations
12:00     Lunch
01:00     Presentation and Open Mic Session
04:00     Final Delegation Group Meeting: Reflection and Taking Action
06:30     Closing Dinner, Awards Ceremony, and Dance

Sunday, November 10, 2013           Departures

Sunday, November 3, 2013

PTPI GYF 2013: Washington DC Here She Comes!

Katie's getting ready to head out for this year's PTPI Global Youth Forum leadership conference in our nation's capital. She leaves early Wednesday morning for the four-day event.

From the agenda:
Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” We believe that, through your GYF experience, you will return home having a better understanding of the importance of global education, existing barriers to education throughout the world, and strategies to make education a reality for every child, everywhere. The theme of the event is Global Education:  Providing a Vision for the Future!
I'm excited about her looking at education from a global perspective. I'm hoping she discovers how good she has it and at the same time how we are behind.Typically they have students there from other countries and I think they will bring a unique perspective - that of gratitude - for the gift of education which might open my child's eyes a bit. Last time she went, it was a life-changing event for her. I am crossing my fingers it will be similarly moving for her this time.

The prep materials are jammed packed with information and factoids. I'm posting the information here because it's so good and can be used for a reference if you ever want to dig a little into global education. Here's what she's reviewing to prepare. More tomorrow about the agenda.

The Value of Education
Information from Global Partnership for Education
Girls and boys who learn to read, write and count will provide a better future for their families and countries. With improved education, so many other areas are positively affected. In short, education has the power to make the world a better place. Education is more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. It is one of the most important investments a country can make in its people and its future and is critical to reducing poverty and inequality:

·        Education gives people critical skills and tools to help them better provide for themselves and their children

·       
Education helps people work better and can create opportunities for sustainable and viable economic growth now and into the future

·       
Education helps fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, reduces mother and child mortality and helps improve health

·       
Education encourages transparency, good governance, stability and helps fight against corruption.

The impact of investment in education is profound: education results in raising income, improving health, promoting gender equality, mitigating climate change, and reducing poverty.


Here is a breakdown of the impact of education on people’s lives.

Income & Growth Education is the key to unlocking a country's potential for economic growth:
·        If all students in low income countries left school with basic reading skills 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty. This is equal to a 12% cut in global poverty. (EFA GMR, UNESCO)
·        One extra year of schooling increases an individual's earnings by up to 10%. (EFA GMR, UNESCO)
·        Wages, agricultural income and productivity – all critical for reducing poverty – are higher where women involved in agriculture receive a better education. (EFA GMR, UNESCO )
·        Each additional year of schooling raises average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 0.37%. (EFA GMR, UNESCO)
·        An increase of one standard deviation in student scores on international assessments of literacy and mathematics is associated with a 2% increase in annual GDP per capita growth. (World Bank)
Health The most effective investment for achieving long-term health benefits is educating girls and women. Girls' education is often the single most powerful factor affecting health outcomes such as infant mortality, maternal mortality, the propensity of mothers to seek modern birth options, the availability of those options because more and better trained birth attendants are available, the rate of risky teenage births, and the number of children she will have.
·        Each extra year of a mother's schooling reduces the probability of infant mortality by 5% to 10%. (EFA GMR, UNESCO)
·        A child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past age 5. (EFA GMR, UNESCO)
·        Over the past four decades, the global increase in women's education has prevented more than 4 million child deaths. (Lancet Study)
·        In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 1.8 million children's lives could be saved if their mothers had at least secondary education. (EFA GMR 2011, UNESCO)
·        Chronically malnourished children are 20 % less literate (Save the Children Report)

Gender Equality Education is key to women's rights, self-expression and civic engagement:
·        One additional year of school reduces the probability of becoming a mother by 7.3 % for women who have completed at least primary education. (World Bank)
·        Investing in girls education could boost sub-Saharan Africa agricultural output by 25%. (IFPRI)
·        One additional school year can increase a woman's earnings by 10% to 20%. (World Bank)
·        Increasing the number of women with secondary education by 1% can increase annual per capita economic growth by 0.3%. (World Bank)
·        Some countries lose more than $1 billion a year by failing to educate girls to the same level as boys (Plan International. "Paying the price. The economic cost of failing to educate girls")
Other Education has an impact on many other areas such as:
Peace and Democracy

·        If the enrollment rate for secondary schooling is 10 percentage points higher than the average, the risk of war is reduced by about 3 percentage points (World Bank, Understanding Civil War)
·        Literate people are more likely to participate in the democratic process and exercise their civil rights. (UNESCO)
·        Education has been identified as one of the indicators or conditions for determining peace within societies. (UNESCO)

Agricultural Outputs
·        Investing in girls education could boost sub-Saharan Africa agricultural output by 25%. (IFPRI)
·        Wages, agricultural income and productivity – all critical for reducing poverty – are higher where women involved in agriculture receive a better education. (EFA GMR, UNESCO)

The Millennium Declaration & Development Goals: A Blueprint for Progress
Source: www.un.org/millenniumgoals
In September of 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in human history gathered for the Millennium Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York. In that pivotal year, representatives from 189 Member States of the United Nations met to reflect on their common destiny. The nations were interconnected as never before, with increased globalization promising faster growth, higher living standards and new opportunities.
Yet their citizens’ lives were starkly disparate.  As some States looked ahead to prosperity and global cooperation, many barely had a future, being mired in miserable, unending conditions of poverty, conflict and a degraded environment. Some 1.1 billion people were – and still are – forced to live on less than $1 a day, and 30 per cent of these are children. Even in the world’s richest countries, one in every six children still lives below the national poverty line.
A further look at humanity’s challenges: Almost 11 million children, more than 29,000 a day, die before the age of five, mostly from preventable causes. Those that survive suffer other consequences: malnutrition leading to stunting and disability, a lack of access to health care and education, and an increased risk of suffering from exploitation, violence and HIV/AIDS.
A UNICEF-sponsored study by the University of Bristol and the London School of Economics concluded that over 1 billion children –more than half the children in developing countries – suffer from at least one form of severe deprivation. Such as:
·        One in every three children in the developing world – over 500 million children – has no access whatsoever to sanitation facilities; one in five has no access to safe water. 

·        Over 140 million children in developing countries – 13 per cent of those aged 7 to 18 years – have never attended school. This rate is 32 per cent among girls in sub-Saharan Africa, where 27 per cent of boys also miss out on schooling, and 33 per cent among rural children in the Middle East and North Africa.

·        AIDS has killed one or both parents of an estimated 15 million children worldwide; 12 million of these are in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of orphaned children is projected to exceed 25 million by the end of the decade. (UNAIDS, July 2004)
To begin addressing these crises back in 2000, the convened leaders set down the Millennium Declaration, a series of collective priorities for peace and security, poverty reduction, the environment and human rights – essential steps for the advancement of humankind, as well as for the immediate survival for a significant portion of it. Human development, they agreed, is the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, as well as contributing to global security. 
But how would the world community achieve these priorities? Following further meetings with many world agencies, the delegation also drew up a blueprint for a better future: the Millennium Development Goals. By 2015, the leaders pledged, the world would achieve measurable improvements in the most critical areas of human development. The goals establish yardsticks for measuring these results, not just for developing countries but for countries that help to fund development programmes and for the multilateral institutions, like the World Bank or the United Nations Development Programme, that help countries implement them.
The Millennium Development Goals Set Priorities for Children
Though the Goals are for all humankind, they are primarily about children. Why:
·        Because six of the eight goals relate directly to children. Meeting the last two will also make critical improvements in their lives.

·        Because meeting the Goals is most critical for children. Children are most vulnerable when people lack essentials like food, water, sanitation and health care. They are the first to die when basic needs are not met.

·        Because children have rights. Each child is born with the right to survival, food and nutrition, health and shelter, an education, and to participation, equality and protection – rights agreed to, among others, in the 1989 international human rights treaty, the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The Convention has been ratified by 192 states, every country in the world except two. The Millennium Development Goals must be met for these basic human rights to be realized.

·        Because reducing poverty starts with children. Helping children reach their full potential is also investing in the very progress of humanity. For it is in the crucial first years that interventions make the biggest difference in a child’s physical, intellectual and emotional development. And investing in children means achieving development goals faster, as children constitute a large percentage of the world’s poor.

Barriers to Education
Children all over the world are prevented from receiving an education. During one of your first sessions at the GYF, you will be discussing the Barriers to Education. Be prepared to share your thoughts on the below. Some of the barriers that exist include (see graphic). 



Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Day 4: Wrapping Things Up with Presentations and JSA Graduation (and a Little Nostalgia)

Heard briefly from Katie last night. They were scrambling on their projects. I asked for a photo and the clever child sent me a picture of nothing. Yeah. Apparently they hadn't gotten very far. I told her to make Emelia do the talking but she said Emelia was on another team. Hopefully Em had a better project - maybe something photo-worthy.

Today the running around will be kept to a minimum.

No travel to Sacramento but they will be finishing their projects and presenting to one another. I wonder if Emelia will be a speaker! She's such an introvert (so's Katie but she can bite the bullet and get by - especially if she knows her content).

UC Davis - this place is the bomb.
I love that they have to walk over to Wellman every day. In the photo above, the yellow arrow near the top is the dorm, Bixby and the dining commons is just below that. The yellow arrow in the middle is Wellman. That's near the Quad and takes them into the heart of the campus. I don't know if it was intentional, but it sure must have made it feel more like they were college students.

Let's be clear, as a liberal arts undergrad, this is the only part of campus that mattered. All my classes were either in Olson or Young - both off the Quad. Sure there are some science buildings lying around and viticulture is way up by Mrak Hall now, but as long as you had the dorms, Quad, Coffee House and the MU (where hours of All My Children and General Hospital were watched in a dark basement TV room with at least a hundred viewers watching Jenny and Greg, Jessie and Angie and Luke and Laura), you were set. That's food, sun, drama, parties and sleep. Was there more going on in college?

Oh crap, but this isn't about me!

I pick them up around 2ish. I wonder if they made some new friends!?

The agenda for today:

Time
Activity
8:00 am
Check Out – Your floor
8:30 am – 9:00 am
Breakfast – Segundo Dining Commons
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Work on Group Project – Bixby Lounge
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Presentation of Group Projects – Wellman 106
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Pizza Lunch – Wellman 106
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Evaluations / Thank You Letters – Wellman 106
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
Closing Session – Wellman 106

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Day 3: Media Training, Starbucks, JSA Secret Rules and Sin Taxes - They ARE Junior Politicians

KNM: Kill Me Now!
I did hear from Katie last night. She was sitting in her last session getting media training. Apparently they were talking social media which nearly sent her over the edge since she gets to hear about this nearly every day from her dear mother! You'll appreciate her text.

She also said it had been a super great day and that all the kids there were scary-smart. She was working to keep up (I love it) and trying to learn as fast as they were throwing new information at her. I guess they are also doing projects so they are up late at night working.

She has forged a new relationship with some franchise called Starbucks which can only mean bad things for me (I don't think we own stock, I've never ever had even one cup of coffee). I don't think they can use their meal card there. Bummer.

Katie's also learning more about JSA. It's a pretty interesting organization but I guess there's also a dark subculture. With gambling and point-seeking. I don't know who shared this inside scoop with Katie, but she was on it, trying to figure out the rules.

At some point on Monday, they learned about Cintaxes - which kind of makes sense if you are only hearing the word - that eventually turned into Sin Taxes (as opposed to syntax which is a tax I often try to dodge). The kids were supposed to figure out their position on them and if they agreed, what then should be taxed.

A good question for you dear reader: discuss.

Today will be a juxtaposition of street and the high life and they move from "Man on the Street Interviews" (I can only hope they mean both genders) to the Governor's Conference Room which at least sounds like it is sort of posh; unless it really means the press room which suddenly sounds much less posh and more like a corral.
Yeah, the hashtag was just to
provoke her!

The day wraps with a set on polling which could be really good since polling was so interesting in the last Presidential election and dictates how so many politicians decide to get dressed in the morning.

A bit more tomorrow and then they graduate around 2pm. Will they be leadershipy? We'll see!




The agenda for today:

Time
Activity
7:45 am – 8:45 am
Breakfast – Segundo Dining Commons
9:00 am
LOAD BUSES to Sacramento
10:00 am – 11:00 am
State Capitol Building
Man on the Street Interviews
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Debrief on public interviews – Steps of Capitol Building
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Lunch
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Paula Villescaz, Legislative Aid in Office of Assembly Member Joan Buchanan – Governorʼs Conference Room
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
John Vigna, Press Secretary to the Speaker of the Assembly – Governor's Conference Room
3:15 pm
LOAD BUSES to Davis
4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
UC Davis
Dinner – Segundo Dining Commons
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Presentation on Polling with Ruth Bernstein from EMC Research – Wellman 106
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Free time/Work on Group Projects
10:00 pm
Floor Meeting
11:00 pm
Curfew

Monday, August 12, 2013

Day 2: Crime, Prisons, Budgets and PR - A Typical Day in California Politics

I didn't hear a thing from the kid last night.

That either means she was having fun or they had exhausted her and there was no life left in her fingers to text. Since I have never, ever seen her unable to text, I'm guessing it's going well.

Today they start with the Third Appellate District Court where they will likely be discussing crime and punishment. I didn't realize we have six appellate courts in California, broken out by the counties they cover and are located all over the state. The Third is in Sacramento.

First they will be with Ellen Eggers, a State Public Defender who is known for her anti-death penalty work. She has a lot of experience in working with complex cases and should be a very interesting speaker.

Then they meet Kent Scheidegger from the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. Talk about a smart guy - he started out as a physicist and served for six years in the United States Air Force as a Nuclear Research Officer and then went back and got his law degree. The wrap the morning with a debate.

In the afternoon, they will be at the Capitol meeting with legislators - who are back today from their summer break. This is their final month in session and according to the news, they have a lot on their plate in the next four weeks

The kids will also get to do a budget simulation (you can do it here) which we make we want to end the day with Happy Hour but alas, they are too young. So they go back to campus to eat dinner and get some PR training with media specialists (now we're talking - this is getting interesting!).

Hopefully I'll get at least a selfie photo at some point. Bah, who knows. What a Monday!

The agenda for today:

Time
Activity
7:45 am – 8:45 am
Breakfast – Segundo Dining Commons
9:00 am
LOAD BUSES to Sacramento
10:00 am – 11:00 am
Third Appellate District Court
Ellen Eggers – State Public Defender
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Kent Scheidegger – Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
JSA Debate
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Lunch
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
State Capitol Building
Meet with Your Legislators – Capitol Building
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Next 10 CA Budget Simulation with Sarah Henry – Room 112
5:00 pm
LOAD BUSES back to Davis
5:30 pm – 6:15 pm
UC Davis
Dinner – Segundo Dining Commons
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Public Relations Training with Media Specialist Brian Green & Veronica Rodriguez – Wellman 106
8:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Free Time/Work on Group Project
10:00 pm
Floor Meeting
11:00 pm
Curfew

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Something Different: Junior Statesmen California Institute on Leadership and Politics

Did I mention, that's my old dorm!?!
Katie and Emelia started a new adventure today.

This is the first time, ever, that Katie has gone on one of these adventures with a friend. Emelia is actually a neighborhood friend who lives close and is nearly the same age as Katie (her birthday is the day after Katie's) so they mesh together really nicely.

The Institute is at UC Davis, my old alma mater, and they are staying in the Bixby dorms - my old dorm! It was awesome going back to the building and watching them get all excited about setting up their temporary home. 

The dorms, built in 1962 (ironically the year I was born) look the same with a few tiny upgrades (or distractions depending on how you look at it - they really messed up how the beds fit in the rooms with the addition of new heaters in front of the windows). 

Unbeknownst to me, Katie packed dorm decorations and a fan ("In case it gets hot mom") and so she had plenty to do upon arrival. I got them there nice and early so they had plenty of time to nest.


I don't know, do they look happy?
I hope they have a terrific time. It's going to go pretty quickly; I pick them up on Wednesday afternoon. If they have a good JSA experience, they can join local clubs at their high schools and attend more events in the future. Not familiar with JSA? From their website:
     The mission of the Junior State of America and the Junior Statesmen Foundation (JSA) is to strengthen American democracy by educating and preparing high school students for life-long involvement and responsible leadership in a democratic society. 
  In the student-run Junior State and at JSA summer schools and summer institutes, participants learn statesmanship as they engage in political discourse. They cultivate democratic leadership skills, challenge one another to think critically, advocate their own opinions, develop respect for opposing views and learn to rise above self-interest to promote the public good.
Here's the day's agenda: 

Time
Activity
9:00 am – 11:30 am
Registration – Segundo Service Center
11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Opening Session - Wellman 106
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Lunch – Segundo Dining Commons
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Project Citizen Workshop – Bixby Hall Lounge
3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Group Project Planning – Bixby Hall Lounge
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Dinner – Segundo Dining Commons
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Documentary/Discussion – Wellman 106
9:00pm - 10:00 pm
Free time / Work on Group Project
10:00 pm
Floor Meeting
11:00 pm
Curfew

Katie already decorating in her mind.
Emelia looking for the bathroom.