December 2012
42 posts
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Designers in Demand
We discussed the importance of design and a number of designers so far on Youth Take Action. The reason is simple, we need more designers! Products, businesses, websites, videos, politics are all being influenced by designers. The demand for designers, especially good ones, is far greater than the supply, which shifts the power more to the designer. However, as the demand and power of designers...
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The Minerva Project Takes Aim At Elite Colleges
Making the claim to become the first elite University founded in 100 years is grandiose, but is exactly the plan of The Minerva Project. Founded by Ben Nelson, the aim is to create an online university to compete with the Ivy League (instead of the University of Phoenix) by providing a top-tier education to those thousands of applicants who don’t receive admission to the country’s top...
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Life of the Stotans
Since 2004, the Fayetteville-Manlius cross country teams have been a dominate fixture on the national running scene. The girls team has won 6 consecutive Nike Cross Nationals (NXN), and the boys have been multiple time NY State Federation Champions and runners-up for NXN twice. Some may say that they are led by a “crazy” coach and are pushed too hard with mileage, but what it really...
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Mobile is Massive: The Potential in Your Pocket
Last year marked a significant point for smartphones, for the first time ever global smartphone sales eclipsed PC sales. Add in tablets, and the numbers look even stronger for mobile devices. With this shift comes the question, how do we use these advances in technology to add value to our lives? Within the next 10 years, our phones will transform into more and more functional pieces of our lives,...
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Athletes Tackling Environmental Issues
People involved in environmental conservation and the sustainability fields all come with various motives. Some are interested in the preservation and conservation of fragile natural environments, while others see it as an opportunity to get involved in a new business venture that is more than just profits. There are also those who get involved because their livelihood depends on our environment.
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Beauty of the Process
The process of building something has changed dramatically over the past century. Transforming from hands, to machines, to robots. When our world is full of goods made as cheap as possible, it’s nice to see companies devoting themselves to making things the long, hard, stupid way. Committing to make and build things in a slower, more intimate way is difficult to communicate concisely through...
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Is A Traditional Resume Enough?
In order to stand out in a crowd of job applicants, being creative with your resume can be a great advantage or is demanded. Often, a one-page, typed out resume may not express you or your work in the best way, and having an alternative resume may help you match the corporate culture you’re seeking. Here are some alternatives to a traditional one-page printed resume that you may find...
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Are School's Stealing Our Dreams?
In Seth Godin’s latest manifesto, “Stop Stealing Dreams,”he argues that top-down industrialized schooling is threatened just like mass media, newspapers, and other industries that have been disrupted over the past decade. Our economy has changed, but our schools haven’t. Everyone wants higher performing schools, but instead of trying to solve the problem within the current system, we...
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YouthTrade Summit: Emerging Social Entrepreneurs
Following in the steps of the Fair Trade model, YouthTrade is a new product designation launched by YES (Young Entrepreneurship and Sustainability) in partnership with the Conscious Capitalism Institute (CCI) to encourage mission driven youth entrepreneurship. YouthTrade is “built on a simple yet game changing idea—-providing markets for goods of young American entrepreneurs under the...
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Stop Waiting and Start Creating
What is stopping you from creating what you want? Who is telling you to wait? When I first heard about the Teen Art Gallery from Fred Wilson, I was impressed with their initative and drive. The Teen Art Gallery (T.A.G) was founded in 2010 by 17-year-old Audrey Banks when she realized that herself and other young artist had a desire to showcase work in their own gallery. What started as a personal...
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2012: The Year of Lifestyle Tracking
There is a growing desire to track everything that you do in order to make your life more efficient. Apps on phones, popular websites like Lifehacker and the books of Tim Ferris have made lifestyle design a hugely popular industry and companies are trying to make it easier for you. 2012 seems to be the year that lifestyle tracking will ramp up and have a large adaption rate. These electronic...
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Reaction to Kony 2012
You have either heard about, or seen, the “Kony 2012” video by Invisible Children that went viral earlier this week. If not, here is how Invisible Children describe their campaign: “Kony 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international...
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WatchWhen working on a project, it is easy to just focus on the end goal. It may be a business, a paper, a painting, a meal. The end result is often what you’re truly passionate about, but what about the journey to get there? Leadership is often thought of as making plans and leading a team to execute. However, when working to find a solution to a problem, often you may not know what the end...
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Business Books for the Connected Era
The need for entrepreneurship and innovative businesses to bolster our economy has never been greater. The industrial era of business is coming to an end, and we must recognize the shift to business in the connected era. Businesses will need to provide increased value to our society, reduce waste (of natural resources, time, and human potential), account for a growing global middle-class, and...
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5 Ways to Limit Your Plastic Waste
Many young people and parents are changing their habits because they want to lower their impact, not just “go green.” Environmental stewardship and advocacy has risen greatly over the last few years as people became more aware of the human impact upon the Earth.
I personally connected to the movement when I realized my favorite activities were at great risk to the increased pollution...
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Profile: Area 6
In the constantly evolving music industry, we have seen the rise of independent musicians make use of technology to showcase their latest music and projects. Today, we take a look into the work of a young producer/DJ from Providence, RI and get an in-depth look into what goes on behind-the-music and the growing pains of a new producer.
Area 6
Name: Ryan Glassman
Location: Providence, RI
...
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6 Reasons to Use Twitter
Twitter is still a conundrum to many people, young and old. Early on, it was known as a place where people shared useless information about what they were doing. Now, it has become the main online presence of many people. With Facebook trying to take over your life, Twitter is an option for a more open and controllable experience. Here are 6 reasons for you to use Twitter.
1. Get A Real-Time News...
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Collaboration Tools for Group Projects
Whether you are a student or in the working world, at some point you will need to work on a group project and collaborate with others. The most challenging part about group projects is usually not the assignment, but working with others in an efficient manner and not getting stuck in useless meetings. So here are some free cloud-based tools to make your projects more efficient and productive. All...
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The Influence of Corporate Recruiters: What We Can...
Recruiting on college campuses has been the most effective way for companies to attract new talent. A recent article from Ezra Klein takes a hard look at the top universities, and why their top students are going into finance. Instead of persuading people not to go into finance, perhaps other industries should step up and replicate what has worked to attract top talent.
Building A Team
Trying to...
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Hard Graft: A Look at Sustainable Design
After Christmas, I broke down and finally got a kindle, and have loved it ever since. I began looking for a case to give it some protection, and I came across this little company based out of Vienna, Austria called Hard Graft. They produce beautiful hand-crafted bags and cases out of wool and leather for all your tech accessories.
From their website:
A few years back we introduced the...
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4 Things You Can Learn From Jeremy Lin
The rise of Jeremy Lin over the past two weeks has been amazing, especially as a Knicks fan who grew up with the team of the mid-90’s (Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason, etc). Plenty of “experts” have addressed Jeremy Lin’s performance on the court, but we’re going to look at how common his situation is to recent college graduates struggling to find their career...
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Stop Looking Through The Rearview Mirror
Have you ever taken a glimpse into the rearview mirror while driving only to realize that you had a cop behind you? The cop doesn’t have their lights on (yet) but you go into a state of anxiety and fear.
Was I driving too fast? Did I forget to use my blinker when I changed lanes?
All these crazy ideas go into your head. You find yourself constantly looking into the rearview mirror to...
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Old & Busted vs. New Hotness: Use Your Tools
Our society always tries to label computer people as nerds, and point out their lack of social skills. However, with the shift in power to those with the technical skills (Mark Zuckerberg vs. Winklevoss Twins), you should stop labelling and start learning.
“I’m really good at excel”-Random person who works in an office
The Beginning
The words computer and nerd went together for...
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Can You Kick It?
Can you imagine raising $1 million? Can you imagine raising $1 million for something that solved a problem for you and others? While it may sound crazy, this is just part of the story of Kickstarter’s 24 hours. If you haven’t heard of Kickstarter, it’s an online funding platform for creative projects. Anything from an album to a teen art gallery. Kickstarter is a great platform...
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The Work Disconnect
What Are You Doing…What Do You Want To Do…What Needs To Be Done?
Recently, life after college has been a challenge for a large majority of our nation’s youth. Many have criticized our youth for complaining about their situation, but blame cannot be placed on the youth alone. Our economy is going through a dramatic shift, and those with the least power and work experience have it...
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Step Up: Be Ready To Fight
Every single day you have to have to wake up knowing there is work to do. Not a job, but work. The idea that America has to get back to work may be getting a little repetitive to some, but it is a message worth hearing repeatedly. We have to start fighting like our lives depend on it, because they do. Fighting against yourself, tiredness, laziness, apathy, the status quo. We haven’t been...
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WatchNo matter where you are or what you do, take a second in your day to acknowledge how small you are.
Our lives can be overwhelming and confusing at times, but by taking the time to reflect on this simple fact, we can make more sense of our lives and value all the things we have. While working on this project, I often was overwhelmed by what it was going to be and instead of just getting it...
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Alphabet Success
As a recent college graduate, I found myself in the middle of a recession and the worst job market in decades. Myself and many of my peers struggled to get jobs, at least good ones, and many decided to go back to graduate school. While the economy was sinking, there was a spike in applications to graduate school programs, signifying the desire to stand out amongst a competitive job market....
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Who are you teaching?
Education is a high-priority issue in America, and is in serious need of reform. Recent research and commentary shows how much of an impact teachers have in our lives, and the need to identify and engage with great teachers in our schools. While education in our schools is a very serious issue, I believe we also need to address the lack of further education in our daily lives outside of school....
The Human Web: Embracing Our Social Networks
I grew up interacting on an anonymous web by actively following my interest on various web communities: newschoolers.com for skiing, dyestat.com for running, sailinganarchy.com for sailing. Most of these sites only had basic front pages, but had active online communities in their forums. However, with the emergence of social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn, there has been a shift to a more...
The Audacity of Dreams
Seth Godin’s education manifesto,Stop Stealing Dreams, is not something that should be read, it’s something that needs to be read. Whether you are a student, teacher, parent, or taxpayer you have a vested interest in the education of our youth. In “Stop Stealing Dreams” Godin explores and explains how our education system is broken and instead of producing a new generation of leaders and thinkers,...
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The Trust Deficit
The lack of trust that we are experiencing in our country is tearing us apart, and preventing people young and old from tackling our most pressing problems. In the past few decades, we have slowly seen trust fade away in the many institutions that built our society. Our corporations, which led us to become the most advanced and powerful country in the world have become so focused on profit and...
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Take Action: Shift From Consuming To Producing
Most of our lives are spent doing one of two things: producing or consuming. Day after day we do each, but which one dominates in your life? For years I was a heavy consumer of information, whether it be online or in books. I wanted to learn, so I read, explored and observed. I finally got to the point where I realized I needed to start producing myself and make the shift to being more of a...
Welcome
Youth Take Action is a site committed to engaging and encouraging leadership and innovation from our youth. As our country moves through tumultuous times, the reaction from our youth has primarily been displayed through protest that have spread across our country. This site aims to encourage support of our youth who seek leadership and action, and provide a glimpse into the work that is being done...
May 2012
21 posts
Twilio's Nine Values →
Twilio showcases the importance of culture at their company with their Nine Values.
WatchThe first in a series of videos from the New York Tech Meetup called #startupstories. View the rest here.
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just tristan.: two years ago, today.... →
This technique may not work for everyone, but it showcases the work and hustle that should go into job searching.
tristanwalker:
today marks two years since i sent my very first email to dennis and naveen (wow i was such a nerd! ha). naveen sent a reminder to team foursquare today and i thought i’d share it on my blog. Man, how times have changed:
Hey Dennis and Naveen How’s it going? Hope...
Lined & Unlined: Discussing entrepreneurship →
linedandunlined:
Justin Kropp — who writes a blog called One Skinnyj — recently got in touch to ask if I’d be game for an interview and I was happy to oblige. His questions were thoughtful and wide-ranging, but one topic I enjoyed discussing in particular was entrepreneurship, so I thought I’d pull out two…
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“As an employer I want the best prepared and qualified employees. I could care...”
– Mark Cuban, “The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon”
