by RitaGoldenGelman on February 2, 2010
I’ve been overwhelmed. Last week I was in NY meeting with the PR and marketing people at Crown. My anthology, “Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World,” will be out in June and we’re planning a PR and marketing campaign. The people who are working on this are wonderfully enthusiastic. It’s exciting. (All royalties will go to send poor kids in India to vocational schools.) I still have to proof the galleys….they’re that 6″ pile of pages here on my desk!
I’m also pushing to get a Let’s Get Global website up before the National School Conference on International School Exchange that CSIET is sponsoring. I will be talking about my life and introducing the LGG project to local high school students and to the schools that will be attending from all over the country. The conference is in Charlotte, North Carolina on the 19th and 20th of February.
Ashley Tacub sat next to me on the bus from NY to DC. We talked a lot on the five-hour trip, and she’s now helping me with the LGG website, researching gap year programs. Sarah LaRosa, a Peace Corps alumna, is working on the parent section. There is so much enthusiasm for LGG. It seems that anyone who hears about it wants to help. I love the new people I’m meeting through this. I know we’re going to succeed!
Be back soon. Rita
by RitaGoldenGelman on January 25, 2010
I just put up a post on Facebook and within twenty minutes I had tons of comments. How come those of you who stop by here aren’t offering your comments?
Here’s the gist of the Facebook post…I’d love to have more thoughts. I’m focusing in on how Let’s Get Global can make that international Gap Year (or six months or even three weeks!) available to kids who can’t afford it. It’s always been done by the rich….I want it to happen for the middle class and the poor as well. And I very much want to collect ideas from all you people out there. Please give it some thought and send me your comments….here, for everyone to see and to my e-mail address as well…femalenomad@ritagoldengelman.com
And you might want to see some of the comments on my Facebook page, Rita Golden Gelman. Thanks. Love, Rita
by RitaGoldenGelman on January 17, 2010
We’re still at it, almost non-stop. Yesterday I sat with a woman (friend of a friend) from the Peace Corps office here in DC, along with two PC alumnae who are helping me. She talked to us about strategies for popularizing the Gap Year in the US. (A reminder: Let’s Get Global is not a program; we are a movement that is determined to make the Gap Year a common practice in the US. There are already lots of programs and more will appear when the idea takes hold. Our website will link to the programs that are out there and to the many articles that talk about how significant a GapYear can be.)
We’d love to hear your ideas too. What’s the best way to reach the kids, counselors, general public?
While we are working on the macro level, we are also looking for schools across the country to be part of our pilot program. We want about five or ten schools from different geographical areas and from all levels along the economic spectrum. We’re convinced that local philanthropists, family foundations, corporations, and community businesses will help to fund those kids who need funding help. And we will also provide ideas for the young people to raise part of the money themselves.
Some of our ideas: the creation of a couple of products that the kids can sell to earn money (like a t-shirt that says in the front, I love my country and in the back But we really should be seeing other people), help in putting on events that will earn money, a Let’s Get Global club in each school where they learn about some of the challenges of stepping into other cultures, and more (we’ll help with the content), an exchange of work for a donation to the worker’s Gap Year from places like Home Depot or Target.
But first we need you to suggest schools that are willing to present the Gap Year alternative. We’re thinking that those of you who have a school you think might be want to be part of our pilot project should find a pal and take on the challenge of introducing LGG to that school. It’s not a huge job…especially if you do it as a team: talk to the principal and guidance counselor, work with us to get someone to talk to the kids…and then to the parents. We will have a website (hopefully very soon!), we will suggest people to do the talking, and we will work together to create a plan to get the community behind us.
Crossing cultures creates leaders, develops self-esteem, teaches respect and understanding for all people. It is the best possible preparation for a successful college career…and life in general. I keep reading that 30% of college freshmen drop out…what an incredible waste of money and talent. That’s not the outcome among young people who have matured and developed perspective during that Gap Year. Those kids go into college motivated! They come home knowing and respecting themselves… and focused. I’m hoping you’ll help Let’s Get Global make the Gap Year a cultural norm in the US.
Do think about it. We’ll support you all the way. How about a goal of 1% of the pilot schools’ graduating classes by 2013? When the first group returns, the program will expand dramatically. We can do it with your help! Write me at: info@letsgetglobal.org It will change the kids, the community, the country…..and down the line, the world.
If you found yourself nodding as you read this, write and add your name to our volunteer list. And tell me where you live.
On a personal/professional note: I’m meeting today with illustrator, Mort Gerberg. We’ve put together a book called, Winky, Thinky, Stinky, A Book of Silly Rhymes. I’ve written more than 70 children’s book and this is the first time I’ve ever worked with the illustrator. Mort illustrated More Spaghetti, I Say, which has sold millions of copies. Until now, it’s always been the editor who found and worked with the illustrator. We’ll be sending it out next week in search of a publisher.
I’ll also be in NY on the 28th to meet with Heather Lazare, the editor at Crown who is publishing the anthology, Female Nomad and Friends: Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World. It will be out in June. All royalties will go to providing scholarships for slum kids in New Delhi to vocational schools. It’s a great read, with 40 authors telling their tales; I have seven stories in the book. I’ll be taking the cheap bus from DC on the 27th and heading back to work more on LGG after our meeting. Life is good!
Best, Rita
by RitaGoldenGelman on January 13, 2010
I’m back at my desk and excited to be working again. Not that it wasn’t fun to catch a four-foot dorado with my grandson! But it’s time to get that website up.
The best news is that a reader from New Hampshire wrote that she was going to be in DC for a while and she asked if she could help. You bet. Jessie Shepard has been my brainstorming partner for two days now and I’ve accomplished ten times more than I would have if she weren’t sitting next to me. I am so much a team person! She’s a former Peace Corps volunteer (Tonga) and is as excited as I am about LGG . We are very much on the same wave length and she’s coming back tomorrow! Hooray!
Content for the website is our main focus at the moment. I’m determined to have it under control in the next two weeks. We’re still looking for pictures of teens interacting in other cultures. So please, if you have any, send them. As soon as the content is in order, it will all go to Dave Chase who is putting it together for us. Send them to: femalenomad@ritagoldengelman.com.
Have a look at my speaking engagements in February…one in Charlotte, NC , at the International Study Abroad Fair and another at Scripps College in CA. Details to come when I have them, just in case you happen to be in the area.
Yay. It’s great to be making visible progress.
I am still compiling a list of high schools who might want to be among our pilot group of twelve. We’re looking for schools that represent a broad spectrum of the public school population in the country, schools with counselors and principals who like the idea of kids doing a gap year. (We are suggesting that the students apply to colleges while still in their senior year, get accepted, and ask for a deferral so they can do their gap year.)
By the way, a gap year does not have to be a year. The students can work for, say, six months, so they can contribute to their international programs. I ran into an Australian program yesterday that trains kids to teach English and then places them in schools in China. In the end, the expense would be just getting to Australia, which is under $1,000.
There are a lot of creative ways to do a gap year that make it a possibility for everyone. Can you imagine a country where all the seniors are talking about their upcoming gap year?
See you later. Rita
by RitaGoldenGelman on January 6, 2010
I will be in DC late tomorrow night, ready and eager to get back to Let’s Get Global full time. While in Mexico, I’ve written to a lot of you on Facebook and by e-mail, that I would love to talk with or meet you. I’m hoping to get my act together over the next few days. To those of you who have my phone number, do call. I’m excited that so many of you want to help out… there are many of you who have far more experience than I do in education, PR, non-profits. I need you on the team.
And I should mention, I’m very much a team player. I need people to brainstorm with, others to contribute your expertise, and others to do research, and more to tell me about the schools in your community that you think might be good for our pilot group. We need you, your knowledge, your testimonials………..and if any of you are organizers who can keep lists and do some Excel sheets of our volunteers, we need you too.
Join us in a very important mission. And do read Rose’s comments below the previous post. I like what she has to say! You will too.
Thanks, Rita
by RitaGoldenGelman on January 1, 2010
So everyone (my son, Mitch, his wife, Melissa, and five-year-old Cris went off for the afternoon to La Paz, about an hour from here (Todos Santos). I opted to stay home where the quiet is wonderful. F0r the last hour I’ve been reading articles on The Gap Year, some from the US, some from England. I’m hoping to link to a whole bunch of them on the Let’s Get Global website (the one that I’m still working on). It doesn’t make sense for me to restate what has many times been so eloquently and passionately expressed.
I may take a couple of sentences from each article and then put in the link.
The hardest arguments to present are the ones that are based on statistics. There really are none. Oh, there’s the one that says young people who do a gap year are more likely to stay in college and graduate. And there’s the one often cited that 30% of college students drop out. Others say between 20 and 30%. And some go lower and some higher. In making an argument for funding, statistics are crucial. And no one has statistics, even about how many gappers there are. It’s kind of sticky to quote statistics if there are none that are official.
Last night over dinner, Mitch suggested, Think big, start small. I’m thinking he’s right. Maybe Let’s Get Global should start with, say twelve schools from different segments of the population and diverse geographical locations. Together we could create and initiate a plan, tweak it for the different populations, but basically keep it the same. After a few years we will have statistics of our own that we can present to a lot more schools around the country. And each year we could expand the number of schools involved.
I’d love comments and perhaps some suggestions of schools that you think would be good test communities. We’d like to take the test across economic, racial, urban, rural boundaries so we can come up with a strong picture of what happens when we bring our ideas into different areas. Our campaign in each community would be designed to include guidance counselors, student clubs, events, local fundraising ideas (for scholarships), and fundraising projects for the students, etc.
Would any of you reading this like to get involved in making this happen in a school in your community? It would be pretty exciting to be a part of the initial twelve. Please write to me at: info@letsgetglobal.org And feel free to comment here as well. Thanks, Rita
by RitaGoldenGelman on December 30, 2009
Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, has done this before. It’s a fantastic opportunity for someone. Just thought I’d mention it. rg
Nicholas D. Kristof For those of you who are in university, remember to apply for my Win-a-Trip contest: http://bit.ly/8vi8lb . And for the rest of you, please suggest places to go (probably in Africa) and topics to cover.
bit.ly
Announcing the 2010 Win-a-Trip Contest
by RitaGoldenGelman on December 28, 2009
The teepee became a Christmas tree, no leaves. Just a bamboo structure with lights. We all love it. Check it out on my Facebook site. I built it from scratch….bamboo poles from a throwaway pile on the lot next door, tied together in teepee shape with leaves from a banana tree on our property (my son’s house in Todos Santos, Mexico). The family loves it. And we assume Santa did too since he was very generous to five-year-old Cris.
After a long absence, I am thinking again about the website and the fundraising for Let”s Get Global. I spent a portion of today studying something called a LogFrame. It’s a carefully worked out logical way to present our project to foundations. I need a couple more days to live with the structure. Logic has never been my strength. But I can see how clear and sensible the logframe is….and I want to go after that funding soon with the best presentation I can create. Once I get it down, I will be working with the US office of Servas, our fiscal sponsor. Most important at this point is to get the website up, the applications for funding out there, and a coordinator to work with. I am so totally a team worker and I can’t wait until we can hire a staff, not just a coordinator but a couple of others to handle things like the social networking, major PR, and volunteer coordination. It’ll happen. Just not as quickly as I’d like. Happy New Year.
d ris.
by RitaGoldenGelman on December 24, 2009
I just came from facebook where I had two conversations simultaneously….one with Wayan in Bali (I wrote about him in the nomad book and we are still good friends. He’s a great guide if any of you are headed to Bali or if you are a tour company looking for a local guide. His English is excellent and he plays guitar and sings as well…and he just got married and is serious about employment. www.wayansukerta@yahoo.com). He’s the one who said I was “unbalanced” when I kept falling in the mud in the rice fields at night. The other conversation was with a reader, Anne Marie. I just kept clicking back and forth. Far out. I often don’t do chats on Facebook….but this time the timing was right.
I’m still in Todos Santos, Mexico. Today I set about building a Christmas tree. I figured i needed a frame….so I made a teepee with thrown away bamboo. I even put horizontal twigs to hold it together. The next step will be to attach small branches of leaves and create a tree we can decorate. But all those branches! All that tying. I’m thinking it will be a lot easier to make a teepee with a sheet. My creation may never reach treedom!
Grandson Cris arrives tomorrow. This is his vacation home. He’d probably like a teepee better than a Christmas tree anyhow!! Ciao.
by RitaGoldenGelman on December 22, 2009
I applaud the health care vote that just happened in my backyard in DC, and I especially love reading about it while living in a beautiful casita in Todos Santos, Mexico. Tonight the sky was fuscia….really, I couldn’t call it pink. It was much too alive and bursting with brilliant color to be called pink. And of course, the ocean was fuscia as well. What a beautiful spot.
I haven’t done much because I’ve been hanging out here waiting for the plumber who was supposed to have come today. It’s 6:30 and I doubt he will show up now. I suspect the cartridge wasn’t available in TS and he had to go to the big city, La Paz to the north or one of the Cabos to the south. I do hope he gets here tomorrow. My little house has no water. I go to the other casita for the shower or toilet. It’s not a big deal and I do remember hundreds of places I’ve lived in without water all the time, not just when something breaks. Also a water main broke this morning and no one in the area had water. I think they fixed it, but I have to go to the other house to find out.
I have no phone…it’s one of the things I have to do in town. Buy a sim card and get a local number for the phone my neighbor loaned me. I have a Magic Jack which allows me to call the US via computer, and a Skype account, but they get me to the US and not to the plumber. Funny this technology.
Mitch, Melissa, and Cris arrive on the 24th. I haven’t seen them since August. Grandson Cris is five; I especially can’t wait to see him. I’ll write again on Christmas day after dinner at a Cafe/Restaurant Santa Fe on Christmas Eve.
Hope there are lots of good things under the tree on Christmas morning.
