Introducing the Ecuador Gap Semester

In This Issue

TBB Website Updates

Thoughts from India: "My camel driver..." from TBB Student Eirann Cohen

The Honicans' Sustainable Food Challenge by TBB Student Lauren Honican

We're So Close, But Time Is Short: Progress toward the $35,000 Challenge Grant

Video: Strawberries in January

Book Review: Half the Sky

TBB Website Updates

We've updated our homepage with a new flash, incorporated more student-created videos highlighting the program experience, and more.

Thoughts from India

"My camel driver, Nanu, was a little boy-he couldn't have been older than seven years old. And it made me feel horrible. I'm sure he wasn't attending school. But I've been debating with myself whether or not this is a good thing. An education would prepare him for the world and his future, possibly giving his family a boost in the poverty struggle. But is his job now sustaining his family? If he's not making money now, will it take a meal away from a baby brother or sister? I've been struggling with questions like this lately as I see people living in extreme poverty along the sides of the roads. Either way, it was hard for me to sit on the camel while he walked through the dust, holding the lead rope."

~ TBB Student Eirann Cohen

(Excerpt from Eirann's blog Over the Hump)

Camel

Congratulations to TBB students Lauren and Maddie on finishing the half marathon in Jaipur, India!

Find a Gap Year Fair near you and explore your options!

Thinking Beyond Borders is now accepting applications for the 2011-2012 Programs. Apply early as space is limited.

Translations January 2011

Greetings!

This month we are thrilled to announce the addition of an Ecuador Gap Semester to TBB's program offerings. This new alternative is perfect for students seeking a shorter option or students deferring fall semester.

We're also excited about sustainable agriculture this month, as it is the topic of study for TBB students currently in India. Inspired by what she is learning, Lauren Honican is posing a challenge to her family. Read more about what this challenge is and why she feels it important below. Would you and your family be willing to take the same challenge? How many of us in the TBB community will commit to trying Lauren's challenge? The TBB co-founders and our US support team are all committing to giving the challenge our best effort! Will you join us?

Introducing the Ecuador Gap Semester

In addition to our 8-month Global Gap Year, Thinking Beyond Borders is now offering an Ecuador Gap Semester! Encounter the development needs and efforts to create change in three diverse communities of Ecuador. Live with home stay families and work with development experts addressing Public Health in the Andes Mountains, Natural Resources and the Environment in the Cloud Forests, and Education in the Coastal Low Lands. You'll be immersed in intensive Spanish language study through classroom learning and living in host communities. See the natural beauty and rich cultural history through group and independent travel. Culmination in the USA brings the learning and growth together through meetings with policy makers at the World Bank, IMF, and US Congress. The program concludes with exciting opportunities to share your learning and create change.
Explore the Program

The Honicans' Sustainable Food Challenge
by TBB student Lauren Honican

I would like to start by defining "sustainable" food, as there are multiple interpretations. To me, sustainable food is whole food that is seasonal, produced locally, grown organically, and raised responsibly. Throughout my discussions with my peers on Thinking Beyond Borders, I have learned the importance of "voting with your dollars" on the food you purchase in the grocery store. By supporting local farmers, you will give a greater incentive to local farmers to grow organically, while simultaneously removing your support of the destructive industrial agriculture system.
Read More about the Honican's Sustainable Food Challenge

We're So Close, But Time Is Short!

Have you contributed yet? With 6 days to go, we're only $5,000 away from meeting the $35,000 fundraising challenge from the Rounds Family Foundation! If you help us meet this goal by January 31st, the foundation will contribute $35,000 toward TBB during this crucial period of growth. So, what are you waiting for?
Donate Now
Learn More about the Challenge

Strawberries in January

Seeing as the current TBB students are learning about sustainable agriculture, and it is January, this video seems very fitting. Emily Ausubel and Alexis Kidd created it to explore the intricacies of our food system. The song was written by Alexis and performed with Emily. The photos are Emily's, taken during their stay with TBB in the rural village of Huay Hee, Thailand.
Watch Video

Book Review:
Half the Sky
by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

Women are oppressed. Let there be no doubt - that is an exceptionally charged statement. The emotional charge of it is most directly rooted in the horrific realities faced by many millions of women and girls around the globe every day. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's Half the Sky is an effort to illustrate some of those circumstances and explore the socio-political, economic, and cultural reasons for them. Here are a few examples: kidnapping of young girls and women into sex slavery (the annual international slave trade is currently far larger than during the peak of the kidnapping and trading of African slaves by Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries); use of sexual violence against women as a tool of war causing emotional, cultural, and psychological trauma; and gender bias in health care resulting in high maternal death rates and infant mortality rates for girls. While Kristof and WuDunn do explore the complex web of influences that create these realities, it is nearly impossible to argue, even on a theoretical level, that any of these can be justified by claims of cultural relativism.
Read More

As you can see, we're busy as usual on all fronts. We're excited about the projects current students are working hard to complete, the new Ecuador Gap Semester, the applications we're receiving for next year's programs, and how the TBB community is coming together to help us meet the challenge grant to help ensure all this excitement and progress towards change continues.

Wishing you all a wonderful start to 2011!

Sincerely,

Sandy Pendoley

Co-Founder
Thinking Beyond Borders
www.thinkingbeyondborders.org

Thinking Beyond Borders is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.