The most gratifying experience I have had in college is my involvement in the Youth Media Advocacy Project (YMAP). YMAP is a multifaceted course and service learning project offered through the School for Social Change at Carlow University. YMAP prepares Carlow students as advocates and facilitates research about the condition of Pittsburgh Public schools.
As a participant, I was deployed into a high school to serve as a mentor to students and assist them in uncovering an issue within their school that they felt passionately about changing. Together, the students and I gained support and developed a strategic plan to raise awareness. In the process, we became leaders and agents of change.
With the Presidential Scholarship for the “Around the World” voyage, I intend to build upon my experience with YMAP by replicating a similar mentoring and advocacy relationship between Semester at Sea students and children in Myanmar. I will also use video and audio to document the process. After the voyage, I will edit the footage and submit it for consideration to be presented at my university’s annual Scholarship Day. …show more content…
Burma has a tumultuous and convoluted political history, filled with unrest, oppression, and the violation of human rights. According to BBC, “from 1962 to 2011, the country was ruled by a military junta that suppressed almost all dissent and wielded absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions” (BBC, 2014). These conflicts have contributed to widespread poverty, the effects of which are observable within the educational system. The educational climate in Burma is best explained by this excerpt from a 2011 report by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural
As a participant, I was deployed into a high school to serve as a mentor to students and assist them in uncovering an issue within their school that they felt passionately about changing. Together, the students and I gained support and developed a strategic plan to raise awareness. In the process, we became leaders and agents of change.
With the Presidential Scholarship for the “Around the World” voyage, I intend to build upon my experience with YMAP by replicating a similar mentoring and advocacy relationship between Semester at Sea students and children in Myanmar. I will also use video and audio to document the process. After the voyage, I will edit the footage and submit it for consideration to be presented at my university’s annual Scholarship Day. …show more content…
Burma has a tumultuous and convoluted political history, filled with unrest, oppression, and the violation of human rights. According to BBC, “from 1962 to 2011, the country was ruled by a military junta that suppressed almost all dissent and wielded absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions” (BBC, 2014). These conflicts have contributed to widespread poverty, the effects of which are observable within the educational system. The educational climate in Burma is best explained by this excerpt from a 2011 report by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural