Like the previous day, today started out with lectures by guests, but this time, not one but two speakers address the assembled conference.
The first speaker was a rather eloquent Australian by the name of Thom Woodroofe. He is a political writer for numerous prestigious publications and an adviser to all manner of political mucky-mucks as well as the founder of the first non-partisan, youth think tank, Left-Right, in Australia. Last year, he was voted one of the 100 most important people in Australia and this year he turns 21.
Though his ego seemed more than a bit inflated (his presentation was very me, me, me oriented), he also really seemed to be deserving of it. Living in a house with no power, gas, or running water until he was 17, Woodroofe attacked the world of politics with a brash vigour altogether uncommon in today’s society, simply pushing and pushing and refusing to give in to defeat, even though it apparently did rear its ugly head from time and time again.
Based on his experiences, Woodroofe spent a good deal of his time talking about what he had learned and his ‘ten step plan’ for project implementation, which I personally found fascinating and while fairly intuitive, a really useful list of talking points.
The second speaker was a recent Boston University graduate and TYA alum named Sid Efromovich who spoke about the one successfully implemented TYA group project Hug Don’t Hate, which he started during his time year at BU. Over his student career, Hug Don't Hate grew from simply one guy with an idea to a huge organisation with many branches that sponsors hundreds of events every year.
While Efromovich and Woodroofe were both successful in similar ways (if not scales) there presentations couldn't have been more different. Efromovich or Sid as he liked to be called spent most of his hour and a half pressing into us the importance of being happy and how people truly happy seldom to bad. He also was extremely high energy and just bounced around the entire time, seemingly barely restrained by his clothes.
After both of the speakers, the participants could barely wait to start on the projects and so we delved right in. We immediately returned to the list of projects that we had come up with the day before and continued adding to it from the new ideas that the participants had garnered from the speakers in the morning.
Once the metaphorical well of ideas had run dry, my participants headed to the computer lab to do some research. Their task was, based on all the brainstorming that we had done thus far, to look up some aspect of gender issues in their country that could be wanted to do their project about.
After about an hour the participants came back and each did a short presentation about what they had wanted to research, what they had found, and what ideas that they had for their project. After everyone had a chance to speak, we then a short discussion about the project ideas that people had and then set them to work, which they did dilligently until it was time to leave.
What I really like about my committee is that they are always positive and upbeat, something I really appreciate. When we were listening to some of the speakers, there were a few participants from other committees who were being a bit obnoxious and trying to steal the 'spotlight' for themselves, but my participants were always receptive, respectiful, and representative of what real togetherness and cooperation is like
The first speaker was a rather eloquent Australian by the name of Thom Woodroofe. He is a political writer for numerous prestigious publications and an adviser to all manner of political mucky-mucks as well as the founder of the first non-partisan, youth think tank, Left-Right, in Australia. Last year, he was voted one of the 100 most important people in Australia and this year he turns 21.
Though his ego seemed more than a bit inflated (his presentation was very me, me, me oriented), he also really seemed to be deserving of it. Living in a house with no power, gas, or running water until he was 17, Woodroofe attacked the world of politics with a brash vigour altogether uncommon in today’s society, simply pushing and pushing and refusing to give in to defeat, even though it apparently did rear its ugly head from time and time again.
Based on his experiences, Woodroofe spent a good deal of his time talking about what he had learned and his ‘ten step plan’ for project implementation, which I personally found fascinating and while fairly intuitive, a really useful list of talking points.
The second speaker was a recent Boston University graduate and TYA alum named Sid Efromovich who spoke about the one successfully implemented TYA group project Hug Don’t Hate, which he started during his time year at BU. Over his student career, Hug Don't Hate grew from simply one guy with an idea to a huge organisation with many branches that sponsors hundreds of events every year.
While Efromovich and Woodroofe were both successful in similar ways (if not scales) there presentations couldn't have been more different. Efromovich or Sid as he liked to be called spent most of his hour and a half pressing into us the importance of being happy and how people truly happy seldom to bad. He also was extremely high energy and just bounced around the entire time, seemingly barely restrained by his clothes.
After both of the speakers, the participants could barely wait to start on the projects and so we delved right in. We immediately returned to the list of projects that we had come up with the day before and continued adding to it from the new ideas that the participants had garnered from the speakers in the morning.
Once the metaphorical well of ideas had run dry, my participants headed to the computer lab to do some research. Their task was, based on all the brainstorming that we had done thus far, to look up some aspect of gender issues in their country that could be wanted to do their project about.
After about an hour the participants came back and each did a short presentation about what they had wanted to research, what they had found, and what ideas that they had for their project. After everyone had a chance to speak, we then a short discussion about the project ideas that people had and then set them to work, which they did dilligently until it was time to leave.
What I really like about my committee is that they are always positive and upbeat, something I really appreciate. When we were listening to some of the speakers, there were a few participants from other committees who were being a bit obnoxious and trying to steal the 'spotlight' for themselves, but my participants were always receptive, respectiful, and representative of what real togetherness and cooperation is like
