Civically active Millennials in California, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania are invited to crowdsource their ideas for the Mobilize.org Millennial Civic Engagement Competition using the GOOD Maker platform. The semi-finalists who receive the most votes through this online competition will be invited to attend the Millennial Civic Engagement Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina on August 24 –26, 2012, where they will work collaboratively with their peers to further develop sustainable, community-based solutions.

During the summit, semi-finalists will have the opportunity to present their work to their Millennials peers, who will select the top 5 ideas through the use of interactive keypad voting technology. The winning groups will receive Mobilize.org Awards – financial investments from Mobilize.org and expert support from our staff and extensive partner network.

With the backdrop of the Presidential Election, Millennials accepted to the summit will discuss the most challenging issues facing our generation, engage with elected officials on the local, state and federal level and propose civic entrepreneurial strategies they can use and implement to address problems on their campuses and in their communities.

All selected Millennial Civic Engagement Competition semi-finalists and participants will receive FREE roundtrip travel, two-night hotel accommodations, and meals provided by Mobilize.org. Interested in attending? Visit www.Mobilize.org/MCESummit to learn more and participate in the competition.

As Millennials pursue educational opportunities and possible career paths, these factors influence their decisions. Mentors impact Millennials in a profound way, and seek to make life more understandable throughout this confusing period for many young people. According to the Harvard Business Review’s research back in 2010, Millennials not only expect a lot out of their mentors and employers, but of themselves as well.

See, most young people at universities and entering the workforce have been working their butts off since birth, knowing that they must overachieve academically and often socially in order to attain a spot in top universities and companies. For Millennials, having a strong work ethic and setting achievable goals is just a way of life, an adjustment to the reality of stiff competition for higher education and jobs.

When talking to a longtime counselor of Millennials at Clark High School in Plano, Texas, these qualities were proven true by an experienced educator who wished to stay anonymous. During our conversation, she told me, “high school students entering the real world are aware of the economic situation they’re going to experience as young adults. Older generations don’t give young people a lot of credit as far as being aware of their surroundings.” By paying attention to the trends of the political and economic climate, Millennials can better prepare themselves for the future.

When asked what the most difficult part of mentoring young people was, my counselor replied, “Definitely sparking their interest and then having the sense to cultivate it in a positive way. Some kids are inspired but then feel like they don’t have the work ethic to forge their own path. I tell them, ‘You’ve already proven to me that you’re capable of seeking out what you want. Why else would you ask me to mentor you?’”

It’s evident that many Millennials have enough confidence to pursue their interests to a certain extent, yet seek encouragement when it comes to taking the next step towards higher education or a potential career path. The challenge of so many mentors is to individualize the way they coach their students and recognize the limitations of their younger counterpart.

With Millennials, it’s allowing them to make their own decisions while patiently advising them to consider the options that may improve their education and job prospects as they grow older. The more experiences I collect through both successful and not so successful endeavors, the more this notion rings true. Having an understanding mentor who inspires you to aspire is essential to success in education, the workplace, the world. Utilizing the wisdom and advice of those that came before us is a tool that Millennials must use if we seek to make the positive impact that our planet so desperately craves.

Haley Samsel is a Featured Blogger for Mobilize.org’s The Millennial Report. She is a high school freshman in Plano, Texas where she is involved with Partner’s PE, a program that allows students to help special needs kids to earn their PE credit while making friends and gaining confidence in themselves.

There is a definite need for youth, especially Millennials, to take control of their communities. The youth have the fresh voice that communities often need to help drive the necessary change that propels societies forward. This is why I am challenging the youth of the country to put their creative, action-driven foot forward and put together a project of their own, a project that addresses the problems in their communities with the hyperlocal approach that is solving many of the problems across the country.

In my last blog, I talked about setting up a well thought out and effective service project to tackle an issue that is affecting your community. If you haven’t read it yet, start there before starting this blog. But, if you have read that one (firstly, thank-you, because I know it was a lot to get through. I’m wordy; I know), then you’re in the right place. Because, almost as important as starting a good plan, and getting your idea rolling, is having the funds and execution to get it done.

So, when you start, it’s important to ask yourself how you are going to accomplish the following things:

1. How will people be made aware of your project?
2. How will you pay for what you need to?
3. How do you not go crazy in the process?

Let’s start at the beginning (a very good place to start) and hit these one by one.

First, How will people be made aware of your project? The best way to make people aware about small projects is, oddly enough, not huge media coverage. Don’t get me wrong, the local news (or national news if there is someone in heaven smiling on you and your project) can only help your cause, and will greatly. But with projects like these, you can have equally successful awareness from a simple grassroots campaign. If you’re not on Twitter, get on it. If you are on it, use it. This is a place where you can reach people with very specific niches, and with 500 million people on it, you are guaranteed to find a small community of people interested in your project. Make simple fliers and put them in places that people who would be interested in your project go (coffeehouses, grocery stores, libraries, town centers, etc.).

Next, How will you pay for what you need to? This is the aspect that is often overlooked, and the one that is often dreaded the most. There is a common misconception, especially among those planning their first project, that an organization needs a well funded bank account to put on a project. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Many organizations, like GenerationOn, United Way, and others provide assistance or grant money, with special emphasis on youth and local efforts. Volunteen Nation has a great list of resources (and is also a great place to register and find volunteer opportunities) that can be used to fund a project.

And finally, How do you not go crazy in the process? The secret here is to find some friends who can help you out. Don’t try to take this all on yourself. A good project coordinator and leader isn’t the one who does it all by themself, rather the one who can get a group of people they can trust, then delegate to. On the day of, make sure you outline the various aspects of your project that will need guidance, and stick people on that area.

Once you have these things figured out, all you have to do is execute on the big day. But, the key is to love what you are doing. A good project is organized in the ways above, but it also has passion behind it. A project with some panache is one that feels like it accomplishes something, without driving the person who planned it off the cliff in the process.

Kevin Beerman is a Featured Blogger for Mobilize.org’s The Millennial Report. Beerman is a senior at Francis Howell North High School in St. Louis. He has worked with several organizations in the past, including the Red Cross, Salvation Army, The Mission Continues and other local organizations. In college, he plans on studying law and political science, and wants to pursue a career in politics when he is older.

“Mobilize.org believes that Millennial community college students have the unique experiences and innovative ideas that will change the future of education in our communities and our country,” Mobilize.org CEO Maya Enista Smith said. “This meetup is an opportunity for those college completion ideas to become a reality with an investment from Mobilize.org that will make an impact on student success.”

The Millennial Meetup for Innovation in Education is the fourth in a series of Target 2020 California Millennial Meetups; conversations and workshops that engage community college students, school faculty, staff, stakeholders and community members in dialogue about barriers to completing their education and develop new partnerships and leadership skills to collaborate on student success.  Participants in this one-day meetup will work with Millennial experts including Lena Carew, Organizing Coordinator for Students Making A Change (SMAC); Shaila Ramos, Representative of Integral Movement for AB540 Student Success (IMASS); and Caleb Westberg, Program Coordinator for Berkeley City College Service Community.

Discussions at the Meetup will focus on why student success is important and the impact college completion has on our communities and our economy. Students will also have a dialogue on what steps are needed to increase college completion on their campus and how policy makers; college administration, faculty and staff; as well as Millennials themselves can become leaders of innovative change.

Sponsors for the Mobilize.org Millennial Meetup for Young Leaders include the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the Lumina Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the John and James L. Knight Foundation.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, please visit www.Mobilize.org/MeetupCA or contact Mobilize.org Program Manager, Amber Cruz, at Amber@Mobilize.org.

We know how it goes; the three events that mark one’s entrance into the ‘real’ world, that is: High School, College, Graduation. After we finally leave our formal educations behind us, it’s time to use what we’ve learned to make a living, and maybe one day even make a difference in the world around us using our knowledge.

That’s all well and good, but in the steps to reach the real world, many of us face the challenge of deciding what we actually want to do and what we want to focus our educations on. Although high school is only the brink of what will be the rest of our lives, many students question what kind of education they should pursue and what they should start dedicating their time to. What I find unfortunate, however, is that the tough economy has induced a kind of negativity towards the humanities. Compared to the sciences, humanities jobs seem to pay less (unless you’re the best of the best at what you do, of course) and just seem less practical overall. For example, a post I saw recently on Facebook induced both a laugh and a nod of sympathy from me:

Mom’s Co-Worker: “So what are you interested in doing after completing college?”
Me: “I want to listen to, make, & play music all day. All day every day.”
Mom’s Co-Worker: “No I mean like, as in a job or something.”

Money does dictate how you may live your life, but it doesn’t mean how happy you are if you don’t let it. It’s seems unreasonable to want to have a job along the lines of an artist, musician, or even a historian. Many will challenge you: What will you do, being an performer? How can you survive in such a competitive field? But it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen, and it most never means that there is only one kind of occupation that suits your skills.

It’s amazing for me to see what students at schools like Orange Country High School of the Arts and the San Diego School of the Creative and Performing Arts do. Students in these schools are creating a different type of happiness, that comes from hard work and doing something that they love. Getting an education during the economic downturn produces an understandable attitude of caution towards jobs and subjects like the performing arts or journalism; after all, what would you do if you spent years on an education that couldn’t get you a job? It’s a risk to make, but I still believe that if there’s something that you are truly passionate about, it’s a risk worth making.

Another recent article that piqued my interest was this “The 13 Most Useless Majors” on the Daily Beast.

Is it a coincidence that most of the jobs on that list are all humanities related? No. Is it ironic that this piece was written by a journalist? Sadly, yes.

All I have to say is that students should choose what makes them happiest doing. If they don’t choose to pick a job out of love, but choose a job that they can do well and prosper from, I have no reason to protest. Everybody has their own choice to make between the humanities and sciences, and there is no sense in saying that one is better than the other.

What’s important is to not force yourself to do anything you don’t want to. As Steve Jobs said, your occupation is a “matter of the heart”.  It’s not wrong to not want to be a doctor and make concrete discoveries or create immediately tangible work in your occupation. Although the economy seems daunting now, I don’t believe it’s too idealistic to say that wealth of the soul trumps wealth in the bank any day.

Susan Lin is a Featured Blogger for Mobilize.org’s The Millennial Report. Although she was born in Brooklyn, New York, she’s an all California girl. Currently on her journey through high school, Susan wants to become more involved with the world and community around her while pursuing her dreams of journalism and design.

And a week ago, so was my grandpa.

Cancer is waking up with the anxious question of whether or not my dad will be okay today. Cancer is seeing him with his head in his hands when we received the news about grandpa. But in the years since I first heard the word, I’ve learned cancer also means a strange kind of  hope. A hope that we can fight cancer and win, and we can help educate people on how to protect themselves from it. There is so much support in the race towards curing cancer that we have overcome great obstacles to improve treatment and have actually lowered US cancer (according to this Huntington Post blog )

What is at the heart of the matter, however, is the fact that Millennials are destined to inherit the responsibility of looking for the cure to cancer. As one of the most educated and tech-savvy generations yet, it’s probable that we have the capabilities and ideas to make the next stride in addressing the disease. Despite the enormity of this eventual goal, however, I would like to say that it’s the small things that build to become the big ones.

Who’s to say that as students without the influence of a medical professional cannot fight cancer? As a student, I’ve discovered that there are countless opportunities to join the fight. If not donating money to organizations like the American Red Cross or the American Cancer Society, young Millennials can choose to dedicate their time to join or start school chapters under these two same organizations. Another great opportunity for Millennials to take their first steps toward the cure would be at a local Relay for Life Event.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of our lives, every student has the opportunity to become a part of something that is something bigger than themselves. Fight against cancer is one of those causes that I’ve actually seen taking effect in my life: the efforts, the donations, the prayers are all apart of a tangible cure. Do you want to make a difference? Start with saving lives, start with saving lives here, in your community, in your country.

Susan Lin is a Featured Blogger for Mobilize.org’s The Millennial Report. Although she was born in Brooklyn, New York, she’s an all California girl. Currently on her journey through high school, Susan wants to become more involved with the world and community around her while pursuing her dreams of journalism and design.

According to the study, concern for others and interest in helping the environment have largely declined since the Baby Boomer Generation. Perhaps these findings have a legitimate base, perhaps not. At the very least, it looks like Millennials will have to do more to prove to the world that our generation is capable of creating meaningful change and that young adults are just as dedicated to vitally important causes as past generations. By investing in impactful charities from a young age, this generation can begin to build for the future.  One particularly useful tool for Millennial Philanthropy is Charity Navigator.

CharityNavigator.org takes away the risk of donating to a charity only to find the money misspent on various “administrative costs.” By giving out free charity ratings and detailing the spending habits of almost all charities out there, Charity Navigator is a great tool when researching potential organizations to invest time and money into. One con of donating without doing a background check on charities is losing faith in giving back to the collective community and completely abandoning the concept of charity, choosing to spend money in a way that benefits the individual instead of helping those who can’t help themselves.

Taking on this state of mind can have decapitating consequences, resulting in the gradual degradation of the community due to the perceived selfishness of the current generation. Dr. Twenge’s conclusions put civically active Millennials in a corner with many attending college on scholarships and student loans and not much money to spare. Understandably, this puts many Millennials at a disadvantage when it comes to available money to donate to causes outside of their immediate control. Yet that shouldn’t limit a Millennial’s ability to contribute to the community. Volunteering time and chipping in a few dollars a month to your local charity sounds more doable than saving the world with one fell swoop, am I right?

Dr. Jean Twenge claims that Millennials are more focused on fame and money than anything else, that giving back to our communities and helping the environment is the last thing on our minds. In a technology ruled era such as ours, becoming dedicated to a cause is simultaneously made all the easier and all the more difficult. YouTube and the global media make witnessing the problems plaguing the planet as they happen possible. But the sensationalism of these issues doesn’t allow young adults to make the necessary commitment and instead use the viral quality of the cause (i.e. Kony 2012) as an excuse to abandon it. Millennials must prove individuals like Dr. Twenge wrong before the masses become convinced that they are leaving the future of the United States in the wrong hands.

Haley Samsel is a Featured Blogger for Mobilize.org’s The Millennial Report. She is a high school freshman in Plano, Texas where she is involved with Partner’s PE, a program that allows students to help special needs kids to earn their PE credit while making friends and gaining confidence in themselves.

What You Will Do:

• Support our Program Team in preparations for Target 2020 Florida Summit including updating / creating printed materials, and gathering, organizing and shipping supplies.

• Assist in direct correspondence with participants and advisors to provide and answer all logistical information
• Mobilize excitement for online viewing of the Summit through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Be a critical player in the Mobilize.org team

Qualifications:

• Ability to work proficiently with Microsoft Excel + Word

• Excellent organizational, project management and time-management skills

• Proactive, entrepreneurial style with the ability to take initiative, recognize opportunities, develop and implement focused plans for executing on those opportunities

• Strong team player, with a willingness to be hands-on and do whatever it takes to support the success of Mobilize.org.

To Apply:

Please submit the following to careers@mobilize.org.

1. Resume

2. Paragraph on why you want to volunteer with Mobilize.org

Volunteer opportunities will be available from May 1^st through June 2^nd ideally giving 5 – 20 hours a week

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted”- Aesop. 

Most of us have heard this quote, but have we ever applied it to the idea of the environment? I mean, have you ever considered the need to apply the “Golden Rule” to nature?

This is the idea that most of my actions (and writing) are based on. To expand on the idea, remember what the Earth gives to us: food, air, water, and, of course, life. When approaching this from an Environmental Science perspective, one may also consider the planet a producer and humans consumers, which already sounds like a one-sided relationship.

With energy usage at an all time high and fossil fuels contributing 90% of this energy, our impact on the environment is becoming more and more apparent. According to the University of Omaha, the US consumes 25% of the world’s fossil fuels with a staggering 19.6 million barrels of oil per day. What does this say to you about the way we’re doing things?

I would like to propose a way of becoming less of a consumer and giving back to an environment that provides us with comfort and life. It’s actually very simple and easy: return the love. After all that we gain from the environment, it would be detrimental to our survival to ignore the deterioration of something so vital.

These are the basic ideals and values I uphold regarding the environment and would like to use this blog to encourage others to do the same. But, we’re all in this together, right?

So while I’ll be giving monthly information on ways to reduce your carbon footprint, become more eco-friendly, and how to improve your health and well-being, I will also be practicing the ideas discussed and I hope you feel compelled to do the same.

With so many amazing ways to “return the love”, where does one even begin to start? From personal experience I believe the best way to start is small; as they say, baby steps. If you don’t already recycle, that is a great way to reduce your production of waste. Landfills are filling up, but if we can use materials for something else instead of throwing things away, then there will be less waste entering these areas.

Most think that recycling is simply putting your plastic, paper, and other recyclable items into the proper bin. This is true, but the idea of recycling is much more than that. Recycling also involves the reduction of consumption through the reuse of formerly owned products, if not formerly used by others, then used by yourself. Personally, whenever I purchase something in a jar, I reuse the jar as a drinking glass or as a way to transport soup to school or work. I will also spend a little extra money in order to gain a glass jar instead of a plastic bottle that can’t be recycled; it benefits you and the environment!

Clothes may be recycled, too. I sell my clothes at Crossroads Trading Company and in turn, purchase clothes from Crossroads and other thrift stores like Buffalo Exchange. This ensures that minimum fossil fuels, if any, are used to deliver your items. It also means that more resources were not used to make an entirely new piece of clothing. It reduces your carbon footprint and makes you less of a consumer in several ways at once.

I urge everyone to consider reusing something before purchasing something new that required several vital resources to both produce and deliver. It’s our responsibility, as Millennials, to change the way things are being done in order to ensure a happy and healthy future for ourselves, our families, and our planet. I assure you, every little can helps.

Brianna Cartoni is a Featured Blogger for Mobilize.org’s The Millennial Report. After moving to several cities, Brianna has finally arrived back in her hometown of San Jose, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area. Though each place had its interesting quirks and perks, she quickly discovered that there was truly, “No place like home”. The valuable lessons and amazing people she met formed her strong ideals and presented her responsibility to preserve the environment through education, communication, and personal lifestyle.

In the last years more and more people (Including me) are taking action about the care of the environment. So since I live close to the university I decided to go by bike in order to reduce the carbon dioxin emission, not only because I’m not driving a car, motor bike or anything like that, but to reduce the use of buses and taxis, as these buses and taxis are incredibly dangerous for the environment in my hometown.

The traffic chaos brings dire consequences for the environment. Lima, City of Kings, is one of the five cities with the worst air pollution in Latin America and also has a noise pollution.

The buses can be really helpful for lot of people not just because they can take them for long distances but because it’s cheaper; also most of the people can’t afford a car, so when people have an emergency or just for commodity they decide to take a taxi. The root of the problem is lack of education, even when illiteracy in Peru was reduced from 12% to 7.1% last national census reveals.  What I mean is that most of the bus and taxi drivers barely have ended educational background if they have any education, so they don’t know how to drive or maintain their vehicles! Drivers, in addition, are working in difficult and highly competitive leading to a race to death for the picking up of passengers.  I swear they drive like they were playing “crazy taxi”.

The vehicular chaos has caused to pedestrian and carriers suffer from serious conditions such as stress, alcoholism, impulsivity among others that affect vial behavior. This is due to an oversupply of transport; it has led the Working Hours disorder ranging from 8 to 12 hours per day.

Every day more than 411 toxins can enter into our body because pollution. This huge disaster on our health is due to contamination of cars, almost all second hand. Another way is the noise pollution, which causes irreparable damage to both psychological and physical. These serious problems affect almost the entire population of Lima, where the most affected are children, who have suffered severe lung damage, a clear example is the increase in geometric proportions of asthma.

Taking into account all these points, I am proposing an easy solution, ride a bike. Riding a bike not only make you exercise your body, but to reduce stress, reduce pollution, save the planet.

What I do is very simple, I just ride my bike and tell people to do the same; also I go to cycling gear in order to ask the major of the city built more bike paths in Lima.

After riding a bike to the university for three years I’ve inspired more students to follow my steps, now the university has increased five times the bike park, which is good.

To summarize, it’s a complicated issue so I wouldn’t assign blame solely to the driver. The best way to counter the problem is to ride a bike, not just because is safe or cheaper but because is healthier. We can make this planet a better place to live in for everybody. We can be the change.

Ingrid Dulanto Bernuy is a Featured Blogger for Mobilize.org’s The Millennial Report. She lives in Lima, Perund has lived there most of her life. Ingrid describes herself as loyal, responsible, and stubborn. She thinks that love is the answer to most problems and that a positive mindset and hope can change the world. She is a 7th semester student in Industrial Engineering and has been involved in many organizations such as A Roof for My Country, Cycle Action, and ASU. She also promotes a movement entitled “In 2 Wheels Because I want You Green” which promotes people to use a bicycle as transportation in order to reduce pollution and traffic incidents..