Dale J. Stephens is quite a character. He is young and ambitious, not an uncommon combination for a person in their twenties. When Stephens was a teenager, he came home from school one day and declared to his parents that he was going to quit college. It was not for the characteristics of adolescent rebellion, dabbling with the wrong crowd or to obtain more videogame play time, rather, he was on a mission “not to let his schooling interfere with his education,” as Mark Twain once put it.

Fast forward a couple of years, Stephens has become a Thiel Fellow, started the ‘Uncollege’ movement, travelled around the world for various speaking engagements, and has a book due for publishing early this year by Penguin.

Stephens’ Rationale

Stephens’ mantra is the failed economics of college fees, commercialization of universities, having to take courses that do not apply to your field, and the recent emergence of available free online courses. In Stephens’ words: “I lead a social movement to change the notion that college is a prerequisite to success.”

In essence, ‘Uncollege’ is Stephens’ response to the current education system, which he considers broken. It is a movement, a call to change mindsets about college, and a platform for like-minded people to think, “Hey, I’m not the only one who feels this way about college.” The movement’s main initiatives are the ‘Hackademic Camp’ and the ‘Gap Year Program’. The former has a program that facilitates self-building and challenges participants to craft ways to improve the current education system. The latter is a yearlong program costing some $12,000 to participate. It looks like a longer version of the ‘Hackademic Camp’, boasting an opportunity to live abroad for 3 months, engage listeners in a conference, create an enviable resume and enhance your work experience.

How successful has Stephens been? There have been both likeminded thinkers and critics. Nevertheless, amidst the support and criticism, it cannot be denied that he has achieved a lot for his age. It can be attributed back to his personality; this young fellow knows who he is, what he is doing, and how to communicate that to the world.

Should I Quit College Then?

Quitting college to pursue better opportunities – is this model a befitting response to all education systems worldwide? Is it one that can be universally accepted, regardless of culture? Does the notion apply to every academic, regardless of type of course study? These questions are open-ended, and have been a great cause for debate in recent years.

Stephens’ curriculum does open up networking possibilities and the chance to travel, both of which are appealing to the fresh high school graduate. But then again, college is also a place to network, organize events, create startups and journey on self-discovery. Rachel Alexander nicely sums up why she’d rather stay in college here.

Rather than limit your response to either a narrow minded retort or gullible support, consider Stephens’ point of view, and come up with your own conclusions. Go through his ‘Uncollege Manifesto,’ his resources, his ideas. You may not be in full favor of implementing the ‘no college’ idea yourself, but by just going through his material you’d start to think, ”What could I actually do to enhance my learning as a college student?” You’d start to take notice of student opportunities and student-based organizations. You’d value your education more; to not merely see education as classroom grades, but as a livelong process, absorbing what you can wherever you go.

To end, here are Stephens’ twelve steps to self-directed lifelong learning:

Image Courtesy : UnCollege

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Las Cruces, U.S.A. — Parents know that knowledge is power, and reading is the key to this power. However, many parents struggle to find ways to make their kids be avid readers. Children are more likely to read if parents let them decide what they read, however parents can give them directions and offer support, Scholastic suggests.

“… it’s your [the parents'] job–not the schools’–to find books to get your kids reading and to make sure they read them,” CNN suggests.

“Parents are powerful instruments when it comes to setting the tone for whether or not a child will be a reader, and certainly what their children read,” says L.A. Miller, the author of the new science-fiction and fantasy YA book series Quests of Shadowind, which includes “Sky Shifter,” “The Grounding Stone,” and “Veil.”

“Quests of Shadowind” is the story of a group of kids who are abducted to an alien world called Shadowind, which is inhabited by ghostly creatures, cyborg animals, and virtual humans–a land where anything is possible, including being downloaded into a cryptic, evil, role-playing game. In order to survive, the teens band together as they search for a way back home.

“Freedom of choice is key to getting them motivated and excited. Vampire sagas, comics, manga, books of sports statistics–terrific–as long as kids are reading,” says James Patterson, a father and a “New York Times” best-selling author. “Should they read on e-tablets? Sure, why not? How about rereading a book? Definitely. And don’t tell them a book is too hard or too easy.”

Learning to read does not always come naturally. This is a skill that must be taught, and it takes some work. Parents should show their children that reading can be fun and help to incorporate reading as part of the everyday activities the whole family enjoys.

“In many ways parents’ attitudes can inspire their children to love reading,” says L.A. Miller. “It’s important to create reading environments in and outside of the home, and to stick to it. I believe parents are good reading role models. If your child sees you and other family members reading, it’s more likely that he or she will pick up a book.”

The National Education Association offers some tips for choosing books for children:

• For beginning readers, select books that match their skill level.
• Find colorful books.
• Pick books based on the child’s interests (hobbies, nature, science).
• Let the child make his or her own choices.
• Support every book choice.
• Ask librarians and teachers for book suggestions.
• Encourage your child to try different kinds of books.

“Reading is one of the most important skills that parents can help to develop in their children,” says Mr. Miller. “It’s a fundamental skill that will help children to be as academically successful as possible.”

For more information, visit www.QuestsofShadowind.com.

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Dallas, U.S.A. — In response to new data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showing 9,878 drunk driving fatalities in 2011, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is celebrating an historic milestone in the nation’s fight against drunk driving; the first time drunk driving fatalities have fallen below 10,000.

“This drop in deaths is an important milestone in our nation’s ongoing fight against drunk driving and is further validation that MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving is working,” said MADD National President Jan Withers. “MADD urges state lawmakers to take advantage of recently passed federal funds available for states requiring all convicted drunk drivers to use an ignition interlock device.”

Not only did the number of people killed in drunk driving crashes in 2011 (9,878) drop by 2.5 percent from the number killed in 2010 (10,136), but this decline outpaced the 1.9 percent decrease in overall highway deaths. “Our efforts are paying off in lives saved and injuries prevented,” added Withers.

Since MADD was founded in 1980, more than 300,000 lives have been saved as a result of efforts to strengthen drunk driving laws and raise awareness about this 100 percent preventable crime. In addition, since MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving was launched in 2006, we’ve seen an almost 27 percent decrease in drunk driving fatalities. The campaign includes three important components: 1) supporting high-visibility law enforcement efforts, such as sobriety checkpoints and NHTSA’s nationwide ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over’ campaign; 2) requiring ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers; and 3) supporting the development of technology to automatically determine whether a driver is at or above the legal limit of .08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC).

“While we have much to celebrate today, we are also reminded of the 9,878 precious lives lost to drunk driving in 2011 and the countless loved ones left behind to pick up the pieces,” said Withers. “In addition, we know that preliminary numbers indicate an overall increase for highway deaths in 2012, so MADD is reminding people across the country to remain vigilant in always planning ahead for a sober designated driver during the holidays and year-round.”

For more information on MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving, visit www.madd.org/campaign.

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The job market for college grads is extremely competitive, so much so that many graduates do not get a job in their field. Gail MarksJarvis’ article in the Chicago Tribune goes into detail about what can be expected for recent and future college graduates.  According to research by the Pew Research Center, a third of Americans between 25 and 29 have college degrees and the hope of a better future is pulling in students from every demographic. “College completion is now at record levels for men and women, blacks, whites and Hispanics and foreign-born and native-born Americans,” Pew researchers Richard Fry and Kim Parker said in a recent study.

This increase in people obtaining a higher education would be extremely beneficial to society as a whole, but it is causing many students to move back into their parents’ house with their degree in hand and begin hunting for a job that requires absolutely no education.  In fact, according to MarksJarvis’ article, “Government data suggest that about half of the students who have finished college lately are either unemployed or underemployed — working in restaurants, stores or other jobs that don’t use their education. With more than $26,600 in student loans held on average by those who borrowed for college, a low-level job after college is a harsh reality.”

So why are these bright, college graduates not getting jobs related to their field? A large reason is due to the competition of other college graduates, but perhaps an even bigger factor is the economy itself. Gone are the days when a kid can get a great job straight out of high school or college, which says nothing of the student’s ability.  Despite the fact that the economy is in shambles, the push for college education has increased drastically. “In 1978, Pew found Americans were widely divided over whether a college education was necessary to get ahead in life. Yet, in 2009, 73 percent of American adults said college was a necessity. A Gallup Poll in 2010 found similar results — 75 percent thought college was necessary.”

While society believes college is necessary, the harsh reality shows that a college degree is not the golden ticket to success as it once was.  A college degree may be beneficial to some, but others will never actually use their degree in their field of choice because of the broken economy and the fact that they must take any job to start paying back their thousands of dollars in student loans.

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Higher education institutions are struggling to evolve from a limited market of international student recruitment. Right now, almost one in two international students in the United States is from either China, India, or South Korea. This is because these countries provide an existing market for recruitment, making it easier, quicker, and cheaper to gain diversity through these countries rather than reaching out to other locations. The problem with such a narrow spectrum for higher education diversity is that the economic growth of both China and India is decelerating, which could impact enrollment of international students.

World Education Services (WES),  a non-profit organization and the leading source of international education intelligence, has released a new research report, “Beyond More of the Same: The Top Four Emerging Markets for International Student Recruitment.” As many institutions are attempting to diversify their student bodies by seeking international students from a broader range of countries, WES provides suggestions for which countries are the most promising and how to begin recruiting internationally. The report discusses the top four countries in which the higher education institutions (or HEIs) in the United States would benefit. In order of importance, they are Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Turkey.

According to Rahul Choudaha, Director of Research and Advisory Services of WES, “Emerging markets in this report are characterized by their growth potential to send international students overseas. This is a function of at least two primary variables–economic growth which fuels aspirations of upward mobility and ability to afford foreign education; and second, size and growth of college-ready education pipeline.”

Recruiting international students is competitive and complex. According to the report, institutions are expected to “recruit quality students, while ensuring diversity within the shortest span of time and with limited financial resources.” This makes it difficult to recruit from other locations, though it would be wise to look into other markets. “Working with emerging markets, however, is a double-edged sword. While it presents potential rewards, there are also challenges to achieving international student enrollment goals, particularly in finding academically prepared and self-funded students,” states the report.

Choudaha told Toonari Post that over-reliance on just a couple source countries can make total enrollment of international students at HEIs sensitive to uncertainties in these countries. “For example, economic uncertainty in China and India could adversely influence not only overall international student enrollment but also diversity of international student body.”

China, India, and South Korea are still expected to retain a high number of prospective students, but the United States should cultivate emerging markets to expand diversity. WES used the Delphi method to gather predictions and opinions from experts of higher education to identify possible growth markets.

The full report can be viewed here.

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Guaynabo, Puerto Rico – National University College, a U.S. stakeholder in educating Hispanics by offering courses online and in Spanish, announced on November 9, that it is adding nine degree programs.

Students can begin enrolling today in accredited programs that include four degrees focused in business, four degrees in criminal justice, and a bachelor’s of science in nursing. The new degrees prepare students to be forensic investigators, information systems analysts, human resources specialists, nurses and other high-demand jobs in line with the workforce needs of employers across the country.

“Our mission is to help Hispanics be more competitive in the labor market so they can continue to improve their contributions to their families, their neighborhoods, their cities and ultimately their country,” said Jonathan Morris, Executive Vice President of National University College – Online Division. “Education is pivotal to achieve any of these.”

Many students, Morris said, are motivated to enroll by the 24/7 class schedule flexibility, the expansive options of degrees, and the ability to enroll in classes taught in Spanish.

“A good number of our students have full time jobs but want better careers. Or perhaps they never finished their college education and now their busy lives include caring for family. Our programs have proven to be ideal for them,” said Morris, who has directed the expansion of National University College – Online to reach Hispanic students in 44 states since 2011.

The new programs are:

• Associate Degree in Business Administration
• Bachelor of Business Administration with a Major in General Business
• Bachelor of Business Administration with a Major in Human Resources
• Bachelor of Business Administration with a Major in Business Intelligence
• Bachelor in Criminal Justice with a Major in Homeland Security
• Bachelor in Criminal Justice with a Major in Forensic Investigation
• Bachelor in Criminal Justice with a Major in Human Services
• Bachelor in Criminal Justice with a Major in Cyber Crimes
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN)

For more information about National University College – Online offerings and enrollment, go to online.nuc.edu.

National University College – Online is a division of National University College, which has offered accredited degree programs and training for more than 30 years in Puerto Rico. National UniversityCollege is a member of the Eduk Group, the largest private postsecondary education company in Puerto Rico uniquely focused on offering career-oriented programs to students in Spanish.

“Educational attainment is very important for Hispanics,” said Dolymari Garcia Davila, Dean of Academic Affairs for the Online Division. “We have found that by providing programs online, with classes and all student services offered fully in Spanish, we can give them the greatest opportunity for success and take a step at closing the gap both in education and viable employment.”

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New York, U.S.A. — National education nonprofit CFY announced on November 5, that it has received a $1 million grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to further develop, implement, and study blended learning instruction in a whole school/community model.

This whole school/community model leverages CFY’s groundbreaking free K-12 learning platform, PowerMyLearning.com, which helps K-12 students, teachers, and parents locate and use high-quality online digital learning activities—videos, simulations, academic games, and more—to propel student achievement. The platform has received over $7 million in funding from the Gates, Broad, and Kellogg foundations.

The model also includes support for school leaders, professional development for educators, innovative family learning workshops, and home technology support for families. With this grant, CFY will implement the model in four schools in New York and Los Angeles and study its effect on math achievement.

“CFY’s success in enabling out-of-school learning will be used to inform school design that enables next generation learning,” said Leah Hamilton, Program Director, Urban Education at Carnegie Corporation of New York. “Their record of using digital learning to improve educational outcomes makes CFY an ideal organization to develop and study blended personalized approaches that result in anytime, anywhere learning and better academic outcomes for all students.”

“This investment will allow CFY to demonstrate the impact of blended learning in multiple schools in the two largest school districts in the country,” said Elisabeth Stock, CEO and co-founder of CFY. “We are grateful for this grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York, which is a national leader in supporting innovations in education.”

The grant will fund CFY’s work in four schools, two each in New York and Los Angeles, over a two-year period and will fund research on the impact of the work. Services for the schools include teacher coaching on using digital learning to differentiate instruction; support for school leaders; family learning workshops where parents attend with their children to learn about PowerMyLearning and how to create a stronger home learning environment; and home technology support for families including a free internet-ready home computer and 24×7 bilingual help desk support.

Image Courtesy : Dmitry Berkut / Shutterstock.com

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Ann Arbor, U.S.A. — ProQuest and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) are calling for applicants for the ProQuest Support Staff Scholarships that will send eight library professionals to the 2013 ACRL Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 10-13, 2013. The scholarships are designed for academic and research library support staff and will provide a rich professional development experience, with the opportunity to update their skills, attend informative educational sessions and interact with colleagues.

“Underwriting by ProQuest for support staff scholarships makes it possible for us to broaden the scope of attendance and attract library staff who value exploring innovative methods for driving the transformation of libraries, learning and research,” said ACRL 2013 conference chair Erika Linke, Associate Dean of University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon University. “Support staff are key members of the library team and can benefit greatly from this conference, but often there are limited budgets to support sending them. These scholarships help to correct that.”

The ProQuest Support Staff scholarships enhance support staff members’ abilities to provide excellent services to constituent groups. Further, the scholarships build more avenues for interaction with and participation in the Association for these key library staff members – a goal that ACRL has been working toward.

The application deadline is November 9, 2012. To be considered for the scholarship, candidates must complete the online application, which includes an overview of their job responsibilities, as well as an essay on how attending the ACRL conference will support their long-term goals.

Image Courtesy : Jpellgen / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

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New York, U.S.A. — Kiwi Crate, the creativity company that delivers fun hands-on learning and activities to kids ages 3-7, has partnered with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute to create a “Making Music” crate designed to introduce young children to the joy of music.

The “Making Music” crate features two hands-on projects—one that invites kids to make a xylophone, the second to make rhythm bells.  These projects were designed to encourage creativity and expression.

• With My Xylophone, children create their own xylophone with bamboo slats, rubber bands, beads, and wooden sticks and then play it, exploring and learning about music composition. Additionally, kids can easily convert the xylophone into a stringed instrument.
• With My Rhythm Bells, children create musical cuffs out of the wooden beads that they can decorate and string together with bells. Children are encouraged to learn about dance and rhythm.

Also included is a set of Music & Sound experiment cards, designed with Carnegie Hall. The cards encourage kids to continue making music by thinking creatively and utilizing different objects in their homes. Each card describes how an instrument is made and played, and includes an activity related to the instrument for the child to explore. For example, the violin card teaches kids how to make sounds similar to a violin by using a paper clip, long string, and a plastic or paper cup. The flute card has instructions on how to make a pan flute with drinking straws.

The “Making Music” crate will be delivered to existing Kiwi Crate subscribers in November, and new customers can subscribe beginning October 17 through November 17 to receive this crate.  Please visit www.kiwicrate.com/music for further details. Kiwi Crate is also donating crates to Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute for use in its music education and community programs.

“Since many of us at Kiwi Crate have grown up appreciating and playing music, we fell in love with the idea of creating a music-themed crate. We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Carnegie Hall’s team of educators to bring this to life,” said Sandra Oh Lin, CEO and founder of Kiwi Crate. “With their expertise, insights, and creativity, this crate is designed to get young children excited about making music; it offers fun and enriching activities that both parents and children will love!”

“We are excited to collaborate with an organization that approaches music-making activities for young children with the same engaging, thoughtful, and authentic approach we try to build into all of our educational work at Carnegie Hall,” said Sarah Johnson, Director of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. “We are thrilled to be working with Kiwi Crate on this project as a way of supporting the growth and creativity of young musicians everywhere.”

Projects from Kiwi Crate are complete with all the materials, instructions and inspiration for children and parents to create, discover and explore the arts, science, crafts and more. Every month, a different theme is introduced, like Ocean Exploration, Colors, and Dinosaurs. Packages are delivered to subscribers monthly so parents can spend quality time with kids without the stress of pre-planning or shopping for materials.

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Washington, U.S.A. — Jacob York Presents, one of the nation’s premier nightlife brands, recently announced their celebrity line-up for the 2012 Howard University Homecoming festivities. Geared to be one of the biggest weekends to hit the DC area, guest appearances will include hip-hop heavyweights Diddy, T.I., Gucci Mane and Model/Actress Sheneka Adams.

Themed as “Legendary: The Essence of Icons,” the 2012 Howard University Homecoming nightlife events will not fall short of expectations. Jacob York Presents will kick-off the weekend with Gucci Mane’s mixtape release party hosted by model/actress Sheneka Adams. Superstar and Howard University graduate Diddy will return to celebrate his 20th anniversary by hosting the official yard fest after party on Friday, October 19 at Ibiza Nightclub. Grand Hustle’s King, T.I., will close out the weekend on Saturday, October 20 with a special appearance at Fur Nightclub.

Jacob York, President and Founder of Jacob York Presents, states, “Howard University has proven over and over again to be one of the biggest and most anticipated homecoming events for the urban community. Everyone from Ludacris to Atlanta’s own Mayor Kasim Reed frequent this event yearly.” York continues, “As a premier nightlife brand, it was very important to us to continue the legacy by hosting three of hip-hop’s chart-topping artists at this year’s festivities … one with whom got his start at Howard.”

Event Details:

Thursday, October 18, 2012
Gucci Mane Mixtape Release hosted by Sheneka Adams
Howard’s Homecoming Kick-off PartY
Stadium Club | 2127 Queens Chapel Road NE | Washington, DC 20018

Friday, October 19, 2012
Diddy Howard Homecoming Yardfest After Party
Ibiza | 1222 1st Street NE | Washington, DC 20002

Saturday, October 20, 2012
T.I. hosts Howard Homecoming After Party
Fur | 33 Patterson Street Northeast | Washington, DC 20002

Advanced tickets are available for purchase. To purchase tickets, please visit http://www.jacobyorkpresents.com.

Image Courtesy of  Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

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Sacramento, U.S.A. — On October 15, the 20 Million Minds Foundation announced the launch of 20 Million Minds Mix – a custom-textbook platform which allows faculty to remix, revise, and repurpose open content to deliver more affordable learning materials to students.

Powered by AcademicPub, 20MMix fulfills the Open Educational Resources (OER) promise to provide instructors with the ability to access, revise, remix, repurpose, and deliver open content all in one place. With over 5 million units of material available from the country’s largest OER repository – Connexions – and over 140 academic publishers, educators can now create custom textbooks using the web, self-generated works, and the site’s extensive library.

The platform allows faculty to effortlessly search and select content from a variety of sources. With 20MMix textbooks can be quickly composed, priced, and directly delivered to students in digital or print formats. The added convenience of real-time copyright-clearance for web articles and self-generated works further streamlines the development of these custom textbooks.

“Our foundation is dedicated to providing high-quality low cost materials for students, at the same time we recognize the importance of academic freedom,” said Dean Florez, former Senate Majority Leader and President of the 20 Million Minds Foundation. “20MMix gives faculty the ability to create custom low cost textbooks for their students, it’s about putting  faculty back in the driver’s seat and giving them control over the content.”

In addition to giving faculty more control over course materials 20MMix hosts a live running total feature that allows instructors to track the cost of their book as it is being developed. “We strongly believe that giving educators a space that provides an abundance of resources and the flexibility for building low cost textbooks is the perfect recipe for making substantive change in the textbook industry,” said Dean Florez.

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October 6, 2012 marked the first Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas Girl Expo 2012 at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas. This significant event was a day-long celebration of the year of the girl and everything great about being one. The Girl Expo featured thousands of confident girls of all ages accompanied by women and leaders who stand behind them to reach their full potential.

The Girl Scout Mission, “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place,” positively puts that mission into practice with opportunities that will make them stronger through education. One Girl Scout’s shirt read: “Who needs boys I can win by myself.” It shows that the message of confidence and no limitations has been reached.

Along with providing girls with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and art activities, outdoor experiences, healthy living, and career exploration, the Girl Expo featured astronaut, Dr. Shannon Walker, Girl Scout southwest top cookie seller and entrepreneur Hannah Richardson, and girl duo Jonnie and Brookie in concert to celebrate 100 years of Girl Scouts.

Astronaut Shannon Walker, Ph.D., recalled that there are more opportunities for girls and women today. She began her professional career with the Rockwell Space Operations Company the Johnson Space Center in 1987 as a robotics flight controller for the Space Shuttle Program. Dr. Walker launched and served as flight engineer (co-pilot) of Russian Soyuz spacecraft, TMA-19, on June 15, 2010 for a long duration mission aboard the International Space Station. She again served as a Flight Engineer during landing, which occurred November 25, 2010. The entire mission lasted 163 days, 161 of them aboard the Station

Back when Dr. Walker was a girl, Title IX was into force. Girls couldn’t play sports and study certain fields because they weren’t open to them.  Walker recollects one of her professor’s from alma mater, Rice University, “She wasn’t allowed to study physics, so she studied math instead.”

Walker said, “Girls can realize the possibilities, not to limit themselves and to follow your passion and your dreams because you never know where it will take you.”

Walker didn’t recall any struggles as her journey to an astronaut. Perhaps, she was “extra fortunate,” she said. “My parents never put any strains or expectations. When I said I wanted to be an astronaut, they said ‘OK’. They let me be who I was and that was the biggest gift.”

Girl Scout delegate and top cookie entrepreneur, Hannah Richardson, is a spunky 15 year-old who introduced herself as “I’m Hannah, and I’m amazing.” She hadn’t always been so forward with confidence but after selling 3,258 boxes of Girl Scout cookies her first year and close to 6,000 boxes her second year, she had to be nothing but.

Richardson said no one wants to buy Girl Scout cookies from someone who is timid. “Having confidence really gets you out of your shell,” she said. “To sell more cookies, you have to be. Confidence is important.”

“One day I just said ‘I’d sell the most cookies’ because no one would’ve thought I’d do it,” she said. “I was inspired [and] I had a business plan.” Richardson went to many businesses and asked if they would purchase 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. From the companies that did, 2 of them donated 800 boxes to the USO- San Antonio and the San Antonio Food Bank.

Part of the Girl Expo is showing girls that if they dream it, they wish it, then they can do it. And that’s just what delegate Richardson did. She went from ordinary to extraordinary as a young entrepreneur who gave me a business card and a magnet out of her over-sized purse that fit her personality.  “I’m always prepared,” she said.

For Richardson, being the top cookie seller in the southwest region has opened doors for her to expand her leadership as a Girl Scout delegate. “Being a delegate is like being in the politics of Girl Scouts,” she said. “I help make little decisions like what food for camp, and give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for little decisions.”

Richardson is a leader and a representative to all girls in her region and gives them a voice in decision-making. “It gives girls a chance to say what they like and don’t like [about Girl Scouts] and an opportunity to change things.”

Richardson was the youngest of 12 people chosen to be featured in Oprah’s O Magazine in the “Politics Unusual” feature for her entrepreneurship, cookie sales, and leadership.

Richardson has also been featured in Forbes, San Antonio Women, and San Antonio-Express News. Her appearances include Great Day S.A., Good Morning America, Fox TV, and KBBT News. “Girl Scouts for me has been the biggest impact of my life,” she said. “I wouldn’t be in O Magazine if it wasn’t.”

Jonnie and Brookie Allen are sisters in a band, Jonnie and Brookie, that was voted Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing in 2009, and chosen to be a part of the Disney Channel’s Summer at Sea Concert series. This duo performs to crowds anywhere to demonstrate that it’s cool to help others and to never compromise yourself which makes a difference. Jonnie and Brookie like to display that in the music industry, showing the right things and being role models counts for something.

“It’s worth it in the long run to keep your values and your morals,” said Brookie.“Keep your head straight and rise above.”

Being a girl today has so many challenges. In tenth grade, Brookie left a traditional high school education and became home-schooled. She said there were many obstacles from staying confident when you have girls around you comparing themselves to each other.

“Sometimes you don’t feel good enough,” Brookie said. She added that even with boys, “You may not have a whole line of them and that’s OK, because they’ll know what you’re about.”

When Jonnie and Brookie were moving up the industry and appearances with Disney started, “[School mates] would say ‘Oh you’re Disney,” as if they were less of artists for being a part of a label that didn’t compromise what they stood for.

As Brookie passed through the crowds of young scouts to meet her Jonnie backstage, her mother reminds her to make sure they pray. Her mother has always instilled in them that even as they are making a name for themselves as young women in music, to never forget their true self and how they were brought up.

“If you keep your morals and values, you’ll save yourself from pain,” said Brookie. “You’ll realize that when you keep [your] morals, it’s such a difference and people will respect you at a higher level.”

Image Courtesy of  Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas

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Alexander Laszlo is co-founder and President of Syntony Quest and former Director of the Doctoral Program in Management at the Graduate School of Business Administration and Leadership (EGADE- ITESM) located in Mexico. He was recently elected President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). He has also worked at UNESCO and for the U.S. Department of Education. He has been Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and the European University Institute. In addition to being the author of multiple book and journal articles, he is also a 5th Degree Black Belt in Korean Karate. This is part two of an exclusive Toonari Post interview, find the first part here.

TP: How do you believe that virtual education is transforming the world?                               

AL: I believe that universities and educational systems which do not keep up to date with current technology enhanced Interactive systems will be left behind. Education should encourage a dynamic play with creating knowledge and not only memorizing what is already known, because memorizing what we already know is not going to provide solutions to the current challenges faced by humanity. These challenges require a new paradigm, a new way of understanding. It’s not about learning and applying the models of last century; we have seen that these models do not work; we need people to develop their own response to their realities in which they live.

This is the purpose of Giordano Bruno; to create perspective. Take Facebook, for example. People use it but mainly for social pursuits. How can we create an education system that works like Facebook in which students share their learning with others and with a group of friends, and so among them discuss, comment, share extra resources and in this way go into an enriching conversation of shared understand on any particular topic?

So really, it’s like creating an education system based on this type of model, which is today one of the most widely used type of interaction. As I say, education systems that don’t use it will stay stuck in the past.

TP: What is the holistic paradigm?

AL: The idea of the holistic paradigm is not seeing the world in a fragmented way. For example, here in California, where I live, I need to see how to get clean water, the same as anyone anywhere else in the world. One solution would be to use all the water that falls from the mountains for irrigation, or we could also get it from our aquifers.

Now, if we don’t proceed with a perspective that considers the impacts of using water-intensive agricultural practices, then we are acting badly. We need to create a solution that allows the aquifers to be restored and regenerated. That’s the holistic way of understanding the secondary and tertiary impacts, and more so to really understand the interdependence of all living systems as the non-living systems, that also sustain life, as is the case of climatic water cycles.

This is the perspective and sensitivity that we want to foster among students, because once we understand that everything is interconnected, we see that nothing is only a problem from a technical perspective, as this type of thinking usually creates more problems [than] it resolves. So the idea is to create a system of solutions, not just a one-dimensional solution that could be purely technological or economic. Really, a set of solutions involves seeing and understanding dynamic and interactive patterns; once you understand a little bit and have developed sensitivity for seeing how these complex adaptive systems are intertwined with each other, you can start creating a new dialogue with nature, society, future generations, our ancestors and yourself. In this way, we create a flow of abundance without making the mistake of trying to maximize our return on investment, which is a way of addressing a context in only a myopic way.

TP: Recently you have been elected President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). What are your expectations in this new position?

AL: This organization was founded in 1954 and now has had a total of 56 annual conferences. My job as President is to create an international event that represents the emerging direction of systems science, which also includes human science.

I have chosen a theme for this year which is aimed at moving toward a systemic consciousness that heightens and draws upon relational intelligence. So my purpose is to stimulate a more dedicated development of relational intelligence, which must not only be empathetic and compassionate to others, but also embody ways of being interactive and interconnected with all living systems on this planet.

TP: How can you handle so many projects at the same time?

AL: I have several clones (laughs). My secret is that I have excellent teams, and this is what I want to bring to both the Giordano Bruno University and the ISSS. In both cases, we want to create a thrivable world of collaborative communities. Alone, I just can’t achieve all these goals, but luckily the people I work with are much competent than me, which ensures the success of all these projects.

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Alexander Laszlo is co-founder and President of Syntony Quest and former Director of the Doctoral Program in Management at the Graduate School of Business Administration and Leadership (EGADE- ITESM) located in Mexico. He was recently elected President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS). He has also worked at UNESCO and for the U.S. Department of Education. He has been Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and the European University Institute. In addition to being the author of multiple book and journal articles, he is also a 5^th Degree Black Belt in Korean Karate.

Toonari Post (TP): You are well known for being the co-founder and President of Syntony Quest. Could you explain to us a little bit about this organization?

Alexander Laszlo (AL): Syntony Quest is an educational non-profit organization whose purpose is to serve as a bridge between academia and the business world on topics of sustainability. Many NGOs are focused on working with the problems of people; however, they often lack a more strategic platform from the point of view of theoretical and scientific progress on sustainability issues.

In our organization we conduct interactive research on socio environmental issues with a, participatory approach that is informed by the emerging context. This is the main purpose of Syntony Quest, to be a bridge that fosters self-directed sustainable development in case-specific contexts.

Sustainability means not exceeding the carrying capacity of our planet- trying to maintain a certain balance. But the goal of Syntony Quest is to help create a prosperous world, one that goes beyond mere sustainability to true thrivability, fostering an economy of abundance.

We must create an economy based on nature and not on abstract economic concepts, which are very common in the current economic system.

TP: On the other side, one year ago Giordano Bruno University was opened, where you have the role of Director of Learning and Curriculum Innovation. Tell us, what is the pedagogical model used?

AL: Giordano Bruno University does not seek to impose models that are not relevant to the current context. We are against the subordination of ideas. We want to develop a process of change in the narrative presented by the instructor in which the student has to memorize theory in the most efficient manner possible. Normally, the student has only to learn and repeat the narrative presented by the teacher in order to get the best score, trying to be as faithful to the original narrative as possible.

We want to move beyond this approach, to a second and then to a third point. The second part consists in a change of the teacher’s narrative. The narratives become based in simulations, which allow students to be an actor in a narrative, such as an interactive game like Buckminster Fuller’s World Game or the Model UN experience offered at the high school level for students to simulate a Conference of the United Nations. A simulation like this allows students to experiment, and see how to practice playing different roles.

This second option is good but, what is the intention of Giordano Bruno? It’s not only about the first model that consists of repeating the teacher’s narrative, and it is even beyond the second, which is to live in a designed narrative experience of it, which is still provided by the teacher.

The third model consists of the students creating their own narratives around the learning themes being focused on in the course. This is a process in which students are given the opportunity to live the topics of the course into their own narrative experience, making the course material relevant to their own situation and their own environment in a global context.

TP: Could you tell us a little bit about the instructors and the academic community?

AL: The Giordano Bruno model is very interesting, because the goal is to create an international cultural community of students from many parts of the world based on study groups of 21 students. These groups function as cells in a structure that can have from 10,000 to 300,000 students in a single course. Nevertheless, we are always focused on the groups of 21 students.

This model allows us to significantly reduce the costs while at the same time increasing accessibility, thereby potentially reaching students in any part of the world. Of course, they need to have access to Internet. Once there, they can interact with the other students of their group.

In this process, there is an instructor who designs the course. The course has certain parameters that allow for the use of technology in ways that are rapidly becoming more common in education these days. We want ideas and information to arise through a collegial process among students.

Thus, the learning challenges and the instructions for how to find the resources are designed by the instructor. However, the model for understanding the lesson arises through the cell interaction among students.

We seek to encourage interactions, for students to do two things: the first is to take the lessons and discuss them with their family and community, and the second is to report their results, perspectives and outcomes with their group of 21. All this helps the student to know the global context of the challenges of being an evolutionary change in the world while at the same time learn to be sensitive to the needs of their locality.

The teachers that we have are people of advanced preparation in their chosen field; as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), they design courses of large-scale and scope, which are then managed by a team of facilitators. However, the professor is mainly a designer of the course and responds only to questions that assistants can’t respond to. Primarily, we are looking to help students learn to answer their own questions and solve their own problems.

Read part two here.

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Washington, U.S.A — Funded on a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), a task force comprised of representatives of leading national organizations in online and e-learning in higher education, has issued a report on the future of online learning in higher education.

The Task Force includes representatives from the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC), the Association of Continuing Higher Education (ACHE), EDUCAUSE, the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), UPCEA and the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET).

The Summit on the Future of Online Learning held in Chicago in September 2011 addressed many of the issues facing online learning in higher education today. An outcome of the Summit was a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to convene an Inter-Organizational Task Force on Online Learning.

“Each of these organizations is deeply engaged in the development, delivery and support of high quality online education,” said Robert Hansen, CEO of UPCEA. ”This report lays the foundation for working together with the goal of advancing the interests of the students and institutions we serve through quality online learning.”

The report, issued October 3, 2012, calls for several action steps to achieve that goal:

“This is a unique initiative among the leading national associations in online and e-learning in higher education,” said Ray Schroeder, Chair of the Task Force and Associate Vice Chancellor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. ”In the rapidly evolving online environment, it is important that we draw upon the knowledge and experience of those who represent the colleges and universities who have demonstrated their commitment to quality and innovation in this field.”

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Los Angeles, U.S.A — Harmony Project announced the launch of the Harmony Project Academy to provide enhanced music training to 98 music students from low-income homes who show exceptional promise, through a $249,918 ”Widening the Stage” grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.  The award is renewable annually for the next three years.

“Musical talent exists in all communities,” said Dr. Lawrence Kutner, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation executive director, “but not all communities have the financial resources to nurture that talent to its fullest potential. As young, exceptional musicians progress, private lessons, quality instruments, ensembles and summer institutes become critical, but are often financially out of reach for low-income students.”

Harmony Project helps low-income students living in or near LA’s gang reduction zones to develop the habits of mind they need to lead successful lives by connecting them with professional musician mentors from elementary or middle school through high school graduation. Music lessons and instruments are provided after school hours at no charge. School enrollment is required. Students rehearse year-round in orchestras, choirs and other ensembles that Harmony Project builds in the students’ neighborhoods.

Exceptional students selected for the Harmony Project Academy will receive quality instruments and additional opportunities including private lessons, chamber music coaching, music theory classes, participation in summer music institutes, field trips and support with college planning. Academy students, in turn, will help boost the rest of Harmony Project’s 1500+ students as they will also participate in leadership development as peer mentors or teaching assistants.

Harmony Project was founded in 2001 by Margaret Martin, a doctor of public health from UCLA. “The idea wasn’t to make musicians,” says Martin. ”The idea was to use the discipline and joy of ensemble music making to help kids develop the habits of mind they need to lead successful lives and become responsible citizens. The Harmony Project Academy will enable us to provide better support to those students who show exceptional musical promise. ”

Harmony Project enrollment has grown from 36 students in 2001 to 1500 with a waiting of 400. Students participate in dozens of youth orchestras, bands and smaller ensembles. Harmony Project students have performed at the Hollywood Bowl, Disney and Royce Hall, on the Tonight Show and with artists such asGustavo Dudamel, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir James Galway, Stevie Wonder and Rickey Minor.

Harmony Project operates in neighborhoods where dropout rates exceed 50%, but over the past five years more than 95% of Harmony Project high school seniors have graduated in four years and have gone on to college. This spring, a Harmony Project alum became the first to receive a Fulbright Scholarship.

Harmony Project is participating in a research project led by Dr. Nina Kraus of Northwestern University to explore the neurological basis for the impact of Harmony Project participation on students’ academic performance. Financial support for this research has been provided by the Knowles Foundation. See http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/brainvolts/.

Harmony Project programs have also launched in Miami, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Ventura, California. Additional programs are being developed in communities throughout the country.

For more information about Harmony Project visit www.harmony-project.org.

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Vienna, U.S.A — On September 27, Following a successful first year, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts and Northrop Grumman Foundation announced their partnership renewal in continuance of a national Early Childhood STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Learning Through the Arts initiative for preschool and Kindergarten children, their teachers, parents, and caregivers at ten locations around the country.

This unique program integrates elements of the performing arts into existing school curriculum to teach STEM concepts and skills to children ages 3-5 years. Wolf Trap’s approach has been the subject of independent research that documents the positive impact of arts-based learning strategies on children’s cognitive and social development and school readiness in areas including math and logic.

The program features multi-session classroom residencies; professional development workshops for administrators, teachers, and specialists; and family involvement workshops for parents and caregivers. In each of these sessions, Wolf Trap Teaching Artists will provide instruction and collaborate with participants on ways to engage children in active STEM learning.

“The Northrop Grumman Foundation is committed to providing unique educational experiences related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for students and teachers.” said Sandra Evers-Manly, vice president of corporate responsibility and president of the Northrop Grumman Foundation.

“We have seen great success with the many STEM programs we support around the country for middle and high school students and teachers. We are pleased to once again partner with Wolf Trap on this program to reach children even earlier in their education, tapping into their natural interest in the arts, to encourage interest and curiosity in the topics of STEM.”

The second year of this Northrop Grumman-sponsored program will be offered in schools in Waldorf, MD;Cambridge, MD; Redondo Beach, CA; Melbourne, FL; Fairfax, VA; Hopewell, VA; Petersburg, VA;Lawton, OK; Colorado Springs, CO; and Irving, TX.

The Wolf Trap Early Childhood STEM Learning Through the Arts program was launched in 2010 in the metro D.C. region, building upon Wolf Trap’s 30-year history developing and delivering early childhood arts education programs in public schools and Head Start centers.

“We appreciate Northrop Grumman’s continued support and partnership on this Wolf Trap mission-critical program helping to prepare teachers, and to provide the next generation of students with the crucial skills they will need to fully round out their intellectual development,” said Terrence Jones, president and CEO of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.

The Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts is an internationally respected program that provides innovative arts-based teaching strategies and services in more than 1,000 classrooms serving 35,000 young children, their parents, educators, and teaching artists each year.

Since 1981, the Wolf Trap Institute has been integrating the arts—including music, movement, story-telling, and drama—into preschool and Kindergarten curriculum to enhance language, literacy, math, and science learning. By adding this latest initiative to its core services, Wolf Trap brings over three decades of experience in early childhood arts education to enhance STEM learning using its proven techniques and teaching models.

To learn more about Wolf Trap’s Early STEM/Arts program, visit www.wolftrap.org/stem.

About Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts

Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded by Catherine Filene Shouse (1896-1994), produces and presents a full range of performance and education programs in the Greater Washington area, as well as nationally and internationally. Wolf Trap’s education programs include the nationally acclaimed Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, a diverse array of arts education classes, grants, and a nationally recognized internship program that was included in Bloomberg Business Week’s 2009 List of “Best Places to Intern.” Visit the Wolf Trap Web site at www.wolftrap.org for more information.

About the Northrop Grumman Foundation

The Northrop Grumman Foundation supports diverse and sustainable programs for students and teachers. These programs create innovative education experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. For more information please visit www.northropgrumman.com/foundation.

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Besides the tall skyscrapers, the crowds and the Mac Store, 59th street 5th avenue in Manhattan this past summer has had a new addition added. Posters, chants, clipboards and horse costumes. NYCLASS has hit the streets hard this summer to stop the abuse in the horse carriage industry.

NYCLASS, New Yorkers for Clean Livable And Safe Streets, is a nonprofit animal welfare and advocacy group started in 2009 committed to improving the quality of life for residents and animals of New York City.

NYCLASS has been along the west side of central park every Saturday afternoon throughout this summer with over a hundred volunteers to protest, sign petitions and educate people on how unsafe and unhealthy it is for the horses to work on New York’s busy polluted streets, dodging traffic and sleeping in stables that do not allow the horses to rest properly for the next day.

There is an estimate of 220 carriage horses,293 drivers and 68 licensed carriages. The unexpected NYC working horse residents work nine hours a day seven days a week in rain, sunshine, blistering cold and in the scolding heat. Unlike us: when we work an eight or nine hour shift we have breaks in-between. NYCLASS and others have seen the horses work nonstop with no well deserved breaks or rest.

Recently, the public’s eyes were open further. In the past three months, two horse drawn carriage accidents took place injuring the horses, the drivers and the tourists who were on the carriages.

Today, NYCLASS has well over 93,996 supporters and hopes the city will soon pass Intro.86 to ban the horse carriages and replace them with eco-friendly electric cars. Unlike the carriages, the electric vehicles will comply with government safety regulations and will be registered with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. All drivers must obtain driver’s licenses and become licensed tour guides in order to operate the new electric vehicles. Currently, only 50% of the carriage drivers have valid licenses.

The eco-friendly cars will carry liability insurance equivalent to the insurance carried by taxis, black cars, and pedicabs. Horse-drawn carriages are only required to carry $20,000 per carriage in insurance, compared to the $2 million for each pedicab company and the $200,000 for each pedicab. Also, the cars can hold seven passengers at a time, are able to travel up to 10 hours on a single charge, has raised stadium seating, a heating system for the winter months and a convertible top for the spring/summer seasons.

If the transition happens, the horses themselves would be transported to the ASPCA so they can find permanent homes in sanctuaries, farms and private adopters rather than the usual: being sent to slaughter.

But the horse carriage drivers have no smiles on their face when it comes to this alternative, and fear most will lose their jobs.

Allie Feldman, lead organizer of NYCLASS, believes it is more than just the drivers who are afraid they will lose their jobs. She said, “change is scary for these guys, and using cash only they are allowed to charge more for their rides, and with the cars they need to also pay proper taxes, so there is no hiding.”

Indeed the horse carriage industry is a cash only business that also does not use meters. NYCLASS claims on their website that the carriage drivers routinely charge residents and tourists higher rates then what they are requisite. This in turn causes the city to lose revenue and the city already pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to monitor the horses and repair the city streets the carriages damage.

When asked to answer a few questions about the horses and their treatment, several drivers said they wish to not speak. Only one new young female driver, who just started working two months ago, answered some questions. She preferred to be anonymous, but said she was against getting rid of the horses: “I don’t think it would be the same. Would lose business because the children and people love the horses.” She also said she is not aware if the horses receive veterinary care, that only the owner would know. The horses get water every 30 minutes and food three times during the nine hours.

But a lot of bystanders support the movement. On the days the volunteers have protested, many New Yorkers have said to the volunteers they can tell by the horses’ eyes and body language they are not happy.

It is still an ongoing debate and NYCLASS hopes to continue the fight through this coming fall season.

For more information visit www.nyclass.org or www.aspca.org.

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Having a college degree is not as helpful as it once was. In today’s economy, graduates are struggling to get jobs after they finish school, and many employers will only hire people who have degrees in the field they need. However, many jobs do not require a specific degree. For example, plumbing, truck driving, and electrician jobs do not require higher education. People are asking, is a college degree necessary or worth it in today’s job market? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Annual average unemployment rate, of civilian labor force 16 years and over, has risen from 4% to 8.9% in the past 11 years.

Some people think a college degree is not necessary and not as important as networking and experience in today’s job market. Huge successes like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Richard Branson are all successful people who either dropped out of high school or did not finish college. Although stories like theirs are not very abundant in our economy,  there are other jobs that are unlikely to be outsourced that can be done without having a degree.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers, a forecaster of employers’ hiring plans and other employment issues, details what majors are in-demand, and how important a college degree is in this job market. Year after year, they inform the public that employers look to hire graduates in certain fields, such as business, engineering, and the computer sciences. While some industries hire by degree in order to have an educated employee, there are some skills that are not learned in the classroom.

The N-A-C-E research job outlook for 2012 says that there are other important qualities for students who make the GPA cutoff. Major is obviously important when hiring for specific skill sets, and employers are also highly influenced by a candidate’s leadership experience.”

Another important part of the no-degree side is opportunity cost. The Library of Economics and Liberty defines opportunity cost as “the value of the next-highest-valued alternative use of that resource.” If a student put money away in a mutual fund, the money could increase to more money than he or she would be making and spending while in school.

However, there is the pro-degree side. Some jobs require a certain degree in order to get a job in that industry. Majors with the lowest unemployment, according to “The college solution” blog, are medical technology technicians, nursing, and treatment therapy professions, which all require some type of degree specifically in those fields. Students who select more marketable college majors are going to increase their chances of landing a job.

It is important to note the difference between a liberal arts degree and a technical one. In an article from CNBC called “Is the Four-Year, Liberal-Arts Education Model Dead?” Richard K. Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and professor of economics at Ohio University, says we graduate more people from college than we have jobs for and that a college diploma doesn’t really cut it anymore as a sure path to success. He says, “Nowadays, you need a masters degree or an MBA.”

Another factor of the pro-degree debate would be student loan reform. According to the Obama administration, in a speech made in Colorado, students may be less worried about paying for their degree because of lower interest rates.

With the rise in tuition, student loan debt, and increasing unemployment rates for recent graduates, pursuing a college degree may not be worth it. However, the type of degree one attains and the field they enter can make the investment and years of studying worth their while. So many graduates are finding themselves in trouble after college, and some are doing just fine. It all depends on what one wants to do, and how they prepare themselves for it.

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San Francisco, U.S.A.– Back-to-school time is just about here. The rush is on to get those last-minute school supplies, pack up the car, and shove off to each student’s college or university. College textbooks may be an afterthought until students arrive on campus and start unpacking their belongings and preparing for classes to start. According to the research, conducted by the 20 Million Minds Foundation, textbooks have increased in cost by four times the national rate of inflation over the past four years, with the average annual cost of textbooks coming in at $1,260 per student.

With this exorbitant cost in mind, the deals and money-saving website Coupon Snapshot is proud to offer numerous deals and discounts on college textbooks and alternatives for students this year. Thankfully, students are not forced into making their textbook purchases at the university bookstore.

“College textbooks seem to be one of the most costly expenses of going to school these days,” says Coupon Snapshot’s marketing director. “It is hard to believe how the costs keep climbing for school books each year, but they still do. We are glad to do anything we can to help students and parents defray the cost of textbooks by providing a variety of coupon codes and special sales for textbooks, e-textbooks, and related services.”

Coupon Snapshot’s dedicated deal-finding team gathered up as many textbook deals as they could find in order to help students and parents escape some of the high costs of going to college. Some of the top companies offering deals on school books include Textbooks.com, AbeBooks, Amazon, Chegg, and CourseSmart, to name a few.

The following are some of the top deals on textbooks, e-textbooks, and related services:

• AbeBooks – 50– 90% off list price
• Buy.com – Back to School Store: Up to 86% off
• Chegg – Up to 80% off textbooks
• CourseSmart –Free Trial on e-textbooks, up to 60% off one e-textbook reading, and more
• Textbooks.com — 10% bonus buyback, Free shipping on orders over $25, and Save up to 90% every day on the biggest selection of used and new textbooks

Many students buy used textbooks from the school bookstore or even on Amazon.com. Saving money by purchasing textbooks online can truly help the overall cost of each college semester while also making those funds available for other things such as participation in school athletics, activities, and maybe even a few tanks of gas so that students can come home to visit once in a while.

In addition to textbook deals at Coupon Snapshot, parents and students should also check out the website’s Back-to-School Deals page. Deals are available on back-to-school clothing, shoes, accessories, school supplies, and so much more.

“The start of a new school year is an exciting time for parents and students alike,” says Coupon Snapshot’s CEO. “We know college isn’t cheap, and it is a big lifestyle change – and sometimes a big move – for many young men and women. It is our great pleasure to bring together these wonderful deals and discounts on college textbooks, e-textbooks, and all kinds of back-to-school items to help alleviate the financial burden many families feel when sending kids off to college.”

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New York, U.S.A. — International students seeking to attend an American higher education institution differ by academic preparedness and financial resources. These differences impact their preferences and information-seeking behavior during college search according to a new report from World Education Services (WES)–a New York-based non-profit with over 35 years of experience in international education research and credential evaluation.

The publication of ”Not All International Students Are the Same: Understanding Segments, Mapping Behavior” presents findings from a survey of international students in the process of applying to U.S. colleges and universities. The survey, which was administered from October 2011 to March 2012, received responses from nearly 1,600 prospective international students from 115 countries.

The report identified four distinct international student segments based on academic preparedness and financial resources: Strivers, Strugglers, Explorers and Highfliers.

Strivers form the traditional segment of students coming to the U.S. They are highly prepared for academic work and expect to receive financial aid from their host institution. In contrast, Explorers form an emerging segment of students who can cover tuition fees but are not fully prepared for college-level coursework, indicating their need for academic support, particularly in English language training.

Highfliers are the most sought after as they are academically prepared and financially able. However, their attraction to a narrow circle of top-ranked institutions makes it difficult for lower ranked institutions to compete for them. Strugglers are less selective about their college choice, but they require additional pre- and post-enrollment assistance and have less access to financial resources.

The study found that just one-sixth of the survey respondents reported that they had used an recruitment agent during their college search. Student segments with lower academic preparedness—Explorers and Strugglers—were found to be more likely to use agent services.

“Segment-based information makes higher education institutions more aware that choice of recruitment and information channels should be mapped with the student segment they are interested in recruiting. This also means that the debate of using or not using commission-based recruitment agents should be grounded in an understanding of the agent-using student segments and an assessment of its implications on institutional capacities and priorities,” says Dr. Rahul Choudaha, director of WES Research & Advisory Services and author of the study.

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Pennsylvania, U.S.A. — As college students return to campus to begin the new academic year, Insurance Commissioner Mike Consedine reminds families to create a “dorm room inventory” for insurance purposes.

“Many college students head to campus hauling a costly array of personal possessions,” said Consedine. “You need to itemize what they are taking with them. Also, while homeowners insurance coverage for some valuables does travel with the student, policies may limit coverage for a student’s off-premises belongings. It is important to learn your policy’s specific coverages.”

Having an up-to-date inventory will help determine how much insurance is necessary and may also help in settling the claim if there is a loss. Expensive computer and electronic equipment may also be subject to coverage limits. If the limits seem too low, parents may consider buying a special personal property floater, or an endorsement, for these items.

The student’s possessions would be covered for the same disasters that are found in a standard homeowners policy. This would include fire, theft, vandalism and natural disasters such as a hurricane. The student would not be covered for typical college mishaps such as accidentally spilling coffee on an expensive electronic device.

Parents may want to look into stand-alone policies for desktop computers, laptops, tablets and iPads, and other electronics. These policies may provide coverage against accidental damage, liquid spills and other events not included under a standard homeowners policy.

Also, students who live in off-campus housing may not be covered by their parents’ homeowners policy and may need to purchase separate renters insurance. Parents should contact their insurance agent or company representative to see if their homeowners or renters policy extends to off-campus living situations.

Consumers with questions should visit the Insurance Department online at www.insurance.pa.gov.

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New York, U.S.A. — The following is being released by Rick Dalton, president and CEO, College For Every Student:

In July, more than 100 philanthropic leaders, many from America’s largest corporations, gathered in Orlando to talk about a movement that could revolutionize American education.

That effort, launched in 2009 by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, would ensure uniformity in what’s taught in every classroom and what’s expected of every student nationwide. The Common Core State Standards mean the same classroom goals for all students at each grade level instead of the current educational chaos — thousands of different goals and curricula for America’s students.

Without clear, consistent standards, America’s schools will remain adrift and many of its students lost at sea. Consider the example shared at the GE Foundation Business and Education Summit in Orlando. A few years back, a Kentucky school district had 167 different mathematics curricula being taught in its 152 schools. Instead of clear goals and consistent content, there was a mathematical free-for-all. That’s what’s been happening in too many of our country’s schools for far too long.

Some argue that the Common Core Standards would discourage teacher creativity and dumb down requirements. I disagree. Identifying a set of requirements that all students could count on attaining would instead strengthen accountability and provide a clear educational map for all students.

So far 46 states have signed on and standards have already been developed for language arts and mathematics. This is a propitious moment. The nation’s two largest school unions — the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association – as well as Republicans and Democrats at the national, state and local level have pledged their support for the Common Core.

Democracy is like herding cats. We need to act while the cats are all in the same room.

Consider the consequences of not acting and maintaining the status quo. Since 1980, the educational gap between low-income students and their higher income peers has grown wider every year, as measured by standardized test scores, high school graduation, college-going and college graduation rates. Continuing on this course is the equivalent of “national suicide” as David Brooks put it in a New York Times op-ed in early July.

The Common Core Standards would level the playing field and show that low-income children matter. Those Kentucky students — and children from thousands of other school systems nationwide — would all be taught the same content in algebra and calculus, and even better, they would built the foundation in earlier grades for algebra, considered a gateway to academic rigor and college success.

When we insist on the same educational attainment from kids who grow up in our poorest communities as their peers in suburbs like Greenwich, CT, Highland Park, TX and Winnetka, IL, we usher in the New American Dream.

Consider the impact of raising scores or increasing the proportion of U.S. citizens with college degrees.  AStanford University study projected that an average increase of five percent in PISA (International Student Assessment) scores would lead to a gain of nearly a trillion dollars annually in the U.S. economy.  Significant increases in college attainment would have similar economic impact.

“We have a once in a generation opportunity to get this right — to adopt the Common Core in all of America’s schools,” said Bob Corcoran, president and chairman of the GE Foundation, at the Orlandosummit.

Let’s not miss the moment. The Common Core has been adopted at the macro level by chief school officers, governors and other legislators.  Let’s turn our attention to teachers, parents and other community leaders and get the buy-in needed at the micro level.

We all can play a role in making this happen.  Here’s what you can do:

• Learn about the Common Core Standards.  Go online.  Follow what’s happening. http://www.corestandards.org/.
• Create some buzz in your community.  Tell your school board, teachers, and neighbors how the Common Core can help our children compete with their global peers.
• Ask your school leaders to offer a forum – online or in person—on the Common Core so that you and your community learn where your district is with the Common Core.

As the leader of a nonprofit that works with 20,000 low-income students in 24 states, almost every one of whom will go to college, I am committed to making sure that our children, their families and teachers are aware of the Common Core movement and the profound impact it can have on them, their schools and their communities.  This New American Dream requires the support of every one of us.

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California, U.S.A. — The Lanier Law Firm is pleased to announce that two attorneys from the firm’s Palo Alto, Calif., office have earned spots on the 2012 Northern California Rising Stars listing.

This marks the second year that firm attorney Christopher Banys has earned a spot among northern California’s top young lawyers and represents the first selection for Richard Lin. Both lawyers are recognized for their work handling intellectual property litigation for a variety of businesses and individual inventors.

Rising Stars honorees are the top lawyers age 40 or younger, or those who have been licensed for less than 10 years. To develop the annual listing, researchers with Thomson Reuters’ Legal division solicit nominations from attorneys across the state, and no more than 2.5 percent of eligible lawyers earn the distinction each year.

The complete listing is published online at www.superlawyers.com, and appears in both the August edition of San Francisco magazine and the recently published Northern California Super Lawyers magazine.

“Chris and Richard are outstanding lawyers and leaders in the intellectual property arena,” says firm founder Mark Lanier. “We are proud that they have earned this honor, and I feel it exemplifies the level of excellence of every attorney at our firm.”

Mr. Banys leads The Lanier Law Firm’s Palo Alto office and heads the firm’s nationwide intellectual property practice. He represents clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to individual inventors in intellectual property disputes. He earned his law degree from the Boston University School of Law, and his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

A registered patent attorney, Mr. Lin represents clients in patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, antitrust and other complex litigation. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School, and his undergraduate degrees in biology and psychology from Stanford University.

With offices in Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and Palo Alto, The Lanier Law Firm is committed to addressing client concerns with effective and innovative solutions in courtrooms across the country. The firm is composed of outstanding trial attorneys with decades of experience handling cases involving pharmaceutical liability, asbestos exposure, intellectual property, business litigation, product liability, maritime law, bad faith insurance claims and sports and entertainment law.

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Washington, U.S.A. — As summer draws to a close and the classroom bell rings in the new school year, 55 million children across the United States will head back to school. With 13 percent of those school children typically walking or biking to school, AAA warns drivers to be especially vigilant for pedestrians during before- and after-school hours.

The afternoon hours are particularly dangerous for walking children – over the last decade, nearly one-third of child pedestrian fatalities occurred between 3 and 7 p.m.

“More than 1,200 children lost their lives during these after-school hours between 2000 and 2010,” cautioned Jennifer Huebner-Davidson, manager, Traffic Safety Advocacy, “and although we’ve seen a steady decrease in the number of tragedies each year, it’s important to remember that one death is one too many.”

AAA offers six ways to keep kids safe this school year:

AAA’s “School’s Open – Drive Carefully” awareness campaign was launched in 1946 in an effort to prevent school-related child pedestrian traffic crashes—helping kids to live fulfilling, injury-free lives.

In addition to the campaign, AAA has teamed up with Richard Scarry’s “Busytown Mysteries” to help keep children safe. Download coloring pages, play games and watch car seat safety videos at SafeSeats4Kids.AAA.com.

As North America’s largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 53 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. AAA clubs can be visited on the Internet at AAA.com.

AAA news releases, high resolution images, broadcast-quality video, fact sheets and podcasts are available at NewsRoom.AAA.com

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Los Angeles, U.S.A. — The Home For Good Funders Collaborative announced an unprecedented commitment of over $105 million in resources allocated in coordination across public and private systems to help end chronic homelessness.

These resources will provide permanent supportive housing to over 1,000 chronically homeless individuals throughout the Los Angeles region, including veterans, individuals, youth, and families. The $105 million in resources include housing vouchers (calculated over 15 years), capital funds and health, mental health and substance abuse services.

“This is the Home For Good blueprint come to life,” says Jerry Neuman, Co-Chair of the Home For Good Task Force. “Foundations and businesses provided new funds, those funds were leveraged with new and existing public resources and the combined resources are carefully focused on the greatest need, moving chronically homeless people from streets to homes. And the process will generate significant savings for our systems.”

Research has demonstrated substantial cost savings permanent supportive housing yields. Studies consistently find that placing chronically homeless people in permanent supportive housing creates a cost savings of over 40%. The 2012 Los Angeles County evaluation of Project 50 concluded that for each chronically homeless person placed in permanent supportive housing, there are savings of $4,774 over two years measured against the costs of leaving those people on the streets.

The awarded funds will provide housing and services for chronically homeless people using existing permanent supportive units as current tenants move on to other housing, working with landlords to use Section 8 vouchers in market-rate housing, and developing new units of permanent supportive housing. The awards will generate this housing across the Los Angeles region, including the San Fernando and Antelope Valleys, Hollywood, South Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles.

Elise Buik, President & CEO of United Way of Greater Los Angeles, which leads the Collaborative and with the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce created the Business Leaders Task Force on Homelessness, says, “The Collaborative reaches dozens of communities throughout the region working to end homelessness because its members exercised extraordinary diligence and focused on measureable results.

Their work is a clear signal to the Los Angeles community that investing in an end to chronic and veteran homelessness is good for our communities in every respect – it not only reduces the strain on severely limited government resources, it makes our metropolitan area significantly more desirable as a place to live and work and spend.

“The remarkable partnership between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors created through this Collaborative is exactly the kind of innovation and collaboration we need to realize this goal. We look forward to broadening the Collaborative to welcome additional corporate, public and private funders in years to come.”

The Home For Good Funders Collaborative is the first of its kind in Los Angeles. A partnership of 24 public and private funders, the Collaborative began with a seed grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. In this, its first year, the Collaborative pooled and aligned $5 million in donated philanthropic and business funds. These $5 million in private funds leveraged public sector commitments of over $55 million, with an additional $45 million in public funds from the City and County of Los Angeles and the City of Pasadena.

All the funds were made available through an innovative new application process. The Collaborative enabled dozens of organizations addressing homelessness to submit a single application rather than several. Where multiple applications to create housing with services often result in agency-by-agency waiting periods which can extend to years, the Collaborative award process took just over 7 months.

Steven M. Hilton, President and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, says, “We applaud our partners from the private and public sectors for coming together to combine our collective resources and efforts to help those most in need. Homelessness is a problem too big for each of us to solve on our own; only together can we hope to improve the situation in Los Angeles.

“The remarkable partnership between the public, private, and nonprofit sectors created through this Collaborative is exactly the kind of innovation and collaboration we need to realize this goal. We look forward to broadening the Collaborative to welcome additional corporate, public and private funders in years to come.”

Collaborative partners from both City and County agencies praise the coordinated approach the Home For Good enterprise has taken.

Doug Guthrie, President & CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, says, “The Home For Good collaborative represents the best public-private partnership around our common goal of housing the chronically homeless. It takes careful alignment of all of our resources – Housing Authority subsidies, County health services and private foundation funding for critical gaps – to successfully house this population, and Home For Good provides Los Angeles with a common framework to get the job done.”

Mitch Katz, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, says, “Through participation in the Collaborative the health department has been able to align resources with other funders and greatly expand access to permanent supportive housing for patients who have a chronic illness or disability and are homeless. Housing these patients has been shown to reduce public costs, especially in health care.”

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Washington, U.S.A. — Generation Opportunity, one of the largest groups in America engaging and mobilizing young adults, or Millennials, on the important economic issues facing the nation in 2012 and beyond, has unveiled its newest social media platform.

The Facebook page, “We Like Small Government,” fosters debate on the appropriate size and scope of government, the impact high taxes and more regulations have on job creation, and the importance of economic opportunity and individual freedom. The page has already amassed over 400,000 fans and surges Generation Opportunity’s total fan base to well over 4 million young adults.

“Every day, young Americans search for meaningful, full-time jobs in a career of their choice and, instead, experience first-hand the stark reality imposed by the poor economy – high unemployment and overall lack of economic opportunity. Rather than resorting to pessimism, however, young adults are taking a harder look at who and what is creating barriers to economic opportunity.

“Increasingly, they identify elected officials and policies that result in more government interference with employers and overreach in the private sector and small businesses as a prime source of the lack of economic opportunity. As they continue to deal with the highest sustained unemployment since World War II, Millennials have definitely concluded that government intervention in the economy is the problem, not the solution,” said Paul T. Conway, president of Generation Opportunity and former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Labor.

“In an effort to change the status quo, young adults are determined to organize and mobilize themselves on the principle that people, not government, are the creative source of opportunity and that America needs to be placed on a better path forward.”

Earlier this month, Generation Opportunity released the non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) unemployment data for Millennials for July 2012:

• The youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds specifically for July 2012 is 12.7 percent (NSA).
• The youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year old African-Americans for July 2012 is 22.3 percent(NSA); the youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year old Hispanics for July 2012 is 14.0 percent(NSA); and the youth unemployment rate for 18–29 year old women for July 2012 is 12.6 percent(NSA).
• The declining labor participation rate has created an additional 1.715 million young adults that are not counted as “unemployed” by U.S. Department of Labor (BLS) because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs.
• If the labor force participation rate were factored into the 18-29 youth unemployment calculation, the actual 18-29-unemployment rate would rise to  16.7 percent (NSA).

Generation Opportunity commissioned a poll with the polling company, inc./WomanTrend (April 16 – 22, 2011, +/- 4% margin of error) and a highlighted result for all young Americans ages 18-29 appears below:

Millennials – Economic Growth and Government:

• Only 31% of those 18-29 approve of Obama’s handling of the youth unemployment.
• 53% believe lowering business taxes increase hiring.
• 59% believe the economy grows when people are allowed to create business without government interference.
• 69% of 18-29 year-olds prefer reducing federal spending over raising personal taxes to balance the budget

Millennials – Delayed Dreams from a Poor Economy and the Lack of Opportunity:

• 77% of young people ages 18-29 either have or will delay a major life change or purchase due to economic factors:

• 44% delay buying a home;
• 28% delay saving for retirement;
• 27% delay paying off student loans or other debt;
• 27% delay going back to school/getting more education or training;
• 26% delay changing jobs/cities;
• 23% delay starting a family;
• 18% delay getting married.

About Generation Opportunity
Generation Opportunity is a non-profit, non-partisan 501 (c)(4) organization that seeks to engage everyone from young adults, to early career professionals, college students, young mothers and fathers, construction workers, current service men and women, veterans, entrepreneurs, and all Americans who find themselves dissatisfied with the status quo and willing to create a better tomorrow.

Generation Opportunity operates on a strategy that combines advanced social media tactics with proven field tactics to reach Americans 18-29. The organization’s social media platforms – “Being American by GO,” “The Constitution by GO,” “Gas Prices Are Too Damn High,” “Lower Taxes by GO,” “Keep Texas Awesome,” “Jersey Proud,” and “We Like Small Government” on Facebook – have amassed a total fan base of more than 4 million.

The pages post links to relevant articles and reports from sources ranging from the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO), to The New York Times , The Washington Post, The Brookings Institution, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and The Heritage Foundation.

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Sacramento, U.S.A. – 20 Million Minds Foundation (20MM) and Highlighter.com, dedicated to reducing the cost of textbooks while increasing student engagement in the classroom, have partnered to produce a book for the upcoming Fall term.

Introduction to Sociology, the first student-faculty interactive textbook enhances student learning, allows students to highlight, annotate, comment, share and save portions of text for note-taking and referencing. The tool also allows faculty to publish free textbooks and other course materials through the HTML5 Reader while receiving analyses of the student learning experience with Highlighter.com’s tracking feature, showing which sections students find most interesting or where students might need further explanation and assistance.

“We are thrilled about this collaboration. By implementing Highlighter’s publishing platform in ourIntroduction to Sociology textbook students can enjoy the “social highlighting” experience with the capability to comment, question, share, and interact with the materials in a virtual classroom forum,” said Dean Florez, former California State Senator and President of the 20 Million Minds Foundation. “Students can also be grouped into smaller study groups which allows for greater peer interaction. The simplicity of Highlighter functions make it easy to use with all comments contextualized around the content.”

Highlights and comments can be made on PDF, ePUB, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. Instant messaging and posts on Facebook and Twitter show how many students are “talking to each other” and 20MM recognizes that embedding these discussions into one learning environment will provide for a better experience for both students and instructors.

“Instructors alike will be able to engage with ‘real time’ student commentary and evaluate student engagement,” said Josh Mullineaux, CEO and co-founder of Highlighter.com.

“Each instructor’s Highlighter account will allow them to view student progress using a range of course analytic tools to promote increased student comprehension, including quantifying student commentary and responses. We are excited to partner with a company that fully understands the cost crisis in higher education, as well as the quality crisis with OER textbooks. With the integration of Highlighter into 20MM‘s high-quality Sociology book, faculty and students will enjoy enhanced-OER teaching and learning experiences.”

The adoption of the Highlighter interactive social tool by faculty at institutions including Clemson University, California State University at Northridge, Highline Community College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Syracuse University, University of Berkeley, University of Notre Dame, andUniversity of Colorado, has resulted in enhanced and improved student experiences and learning outcomes.

“Highlighter has been a great addition to our teaching and learning materials,” said Melanie Cooper, a chemistry professor at Clemson University. “The ability to have students read and comment on the text and answer each other’s questions is invaluable.”

“Students are engaging with the course material in a way that is different than before. Since I implemented Highlighter Groups into my curriculum, students are coming to class knowing more than they knew previously,” said Michael Klymkowsky, a Biofundamentals Professor at the University of Colorado’s Bioscience Department.

Since the Introduction to Sociology book was made available on OpenStax College, it has been viewed more by more than 10,000 users.

Access the free 20MM Highlighter-ready book: www.20mm.org/OER.html.

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Arkansas, U.S.A. — Walmart have announced a donation of up to $4.5 million to help 90,000 teachers in the U.S. purchase much-needed classroom supplies. In its fourth year, the Teacher Rewards program will help offset the cost of classroom expenses for teachers across the country. These funds come at a critical time, as U.S. teachers going back to school will often spend their own money to ensure their students have the supplies they need to learn throughout the school year.

Also today, in addition to the Teacher Rewards program, Walmart is sponsoring the “Teachers Rock” benefit concert that will take place tonight at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles and air on August 17 on CBS at 8:00 p.m. ET. Proceeds from the concert will benefit DonorsChoose.org, Feeding America and Teach for America.

“Each year teachers across the country provide their time, talents and often their own money to ensure students have what they need to be successful in the classroom,” said Michelle Gilliard, senior director of giving at Walmart. “Through our Teacher Rewards program we will once again send our nation’s teachers back to school with the support and resources they need to continue educating the future leaders of our country.”

Through the Teacher Rewards program, more than 4,600 U.S. Walmart stores, Distribution Centers and Sam’s Club locations are eligible to select one local kindergarten through eighth grade public school and provide $50 reward cards to 20 teachers. Winning teachers can use the funds to purchase essential items for their classrooms such as paper, folders, binders, clipboards, pens, pencils, crayons and markers. Local stores will begin selecting schools to participate in late August.

The Teacher Rewards program is an example of Walmart’s ongoing support of education initiatives that help students prepare for their future. In 2011, Walmart and its Foundation donated more than $50 million to fund education programs across the country.

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Researchers at Texas A&M University are reconstructing the ancient ship La Belle in an effort that has never been attempted at this scale.

The French ship was part of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle’s plan to colonize Texas. La Salle gave up the expedition when the ship, one of four he used while exploring the territory, sank in present-day Matagorda Bay. This left Spain free to swoop in and claim Texas. More than 300 years old, the La Belle marks a missed opportunity in history.

The La Belle was first discovered in 1995, buried under 12 feet of water. Excavation work has taken place since: a dam was meticulously constructed around the ship, water was pumped out and workers from the Texas Historical Commission dug through six feet of mud to get to the bottom of the ship. But the reward was high: the 55-foot ship was almost completely intact and several artifacts like cannons, swords, trading beads and the skeleton of a crew member were discovered.

All are on their way to being carefully restored. The ship was disassembled and moved to Bryan Air Force Base in Texas, where a freeze-drying process removed all moisture from the discovered wood. Then, the wood was placed in a chemical solution in a Texas A&M lab, which preserved its solid shape and allowed researchers to make molds of the original wood.

Peter Fix, conservator at the school’s Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation, explained that the wood would break down without these steps, “If we were to take any piece of wood, say it’s been in the water for 300 years, and pull it out, it would shrink, crack, warp within a couple of days. The physical stress on wood would essentially cause it to fall apart and crumble and powder into pieces.”

He added, “It’s a slow, controlled process and depending on the thickness of material, over four to six or seven months, we know that timber has lost most of its bound water and it’s safe to bring out.”

When the ship is completely rebuilt, it will become the central attraction for the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas. Jim Bruseth, who led the excavation, said, “It’s just fantastic to see this project reach the point where we’ll actually be reassembling the ship as a permanent installation.”

Putting together the pieces of the ship’s remains will give historians a clue to how France envisioned the new world. The Texas Historical Commission hopes that the find will demonstrate methods of survival for explorers.

If successful, researchers will use the same process in restoring for a much longer medieval ship discovered in 2002 in Newport, South Wales.

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