I Followed the Lives of 3,290 Teenagers. This Is What I Learned About Religion and Education.
By Ilana M. Horwitz
Dr. Horwitz is an assistant professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Tulane University and the author of “God, Grades, and Graduation.”
American men are dropping out of college in alarming numbers. A slew of articles over the past year depict a generation of men who feel lost, detached and lacking in male role models. This sense of despair is especially acute among working-class men, fewer than one in five of whom complete college.
Yet one group is defying the odds: boys from working-class families who grow up religious.
As a sociologist of education and religion, I followed the lives of 3,290 teenagers from 2003 to 2012 using survey and interview data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, and then linking those data to the National Student Clearinghouse in 2016. I studied the relationship between teenagers’ religious upbringing and its influence on their education: their school grades, which colleges they attend and how much higher education they complete. My research focused on Christian denominations because they are the most prevalent in the United States.
I found that what religion offers teenagers varies by social class. Those raised by professional-class parents, for example, do not experience much in the way of an educational advantage from being religious. In some ways, religion even constrains teenagers’ educational opportunities (especially girls’) by shaping their academic ambitions after graduation; they are less likely to consider a selective college as they prioritize life goals such as parenthood, altruism and service to God rather than a prestigious career.
However, teenage boys from working-class families, regardless of race, who were regularly involved in their church and strongly believed in God were twice as likely to earn bachelor’s degrees as moderately religious or nonreligious boys.
Religious boys are not any smarter, so why are they doing better in school? The answer lies in how religious belief and religious involvement can buffer working-class Americans — males in particular — from despair.
Many in the American intelligentsia — the elite-university-educated population who constitute the professional and managerial class — do not hold the institution of religion in high regard. When these elites criticize religion, they often do so on the grounds that faith (in their eyes) is irrational and not evidence-based.
But one can agree with the liberal critique of conservatism’s moral and political goals while still acknowledging that religion orders the lives of millions of Americans — and that it might offer social benefits.
A boy I’ll call John (all names have been changed to protect participants’ privacy under ethical research guidelines) was a typical example of the kind of working-class teenager I’ve been studying. He lived an hour outside Jackson, Miss. His father owned an auto-repair shop and his mother worked as a bookkeeper and substitute teacher. His days were filled with playing football, fishing and hunting with his grandparents, riding four-wheelers with friends and mowing the occasional lawn to earn pocket money.
John aspired to attend college, but given his parents’ occupations, income (the equivalent of $53,000 today) and education (both had earned vocational certificates), the odds were not in his favor.
Still, he reached a milestone that has become largely out of reach for young men like him: He earned his associate degree. And his faith and involvement in church played a large part in that.
Children with college-educated parents have many advantages that make their academic trajectories easier. They tend to live in neighborhoods with a strong social infrastructure, including safe outdoor spaces. They have more familial and geographic stability, which means they rarely need to transfer between schools, disrupting their educations and severing social ties.
Children from wealthier families also benefit from a network of connections and opportunities that many poorer children lack. College-educated parents tend to work in professional organizations and have robust social networks from college where they meet other members of the professional class. All these social ties — from the neighborhood, the workplace, and college — provide a web of support for upper-middle-class families, which sociologists refer to as “social capital.”
But working-class families like John’s do not have the same opportunities to develop social capital. The workplace used to be a central social institution for working-class families, but in the gig economy it is nearly impossible to feel a sense of stability, acquire health insurance or develop relationships with colleagues.
The lack of social capital — along with systemic problems and inequities — has contributed to the unraveling of the lives of millions of working-class Americans, especially men. Since the early 2000s, just as the kids in my study were entering adolescence, there has been a drastic rise in the number of working-class men dying “deaths of despair” from opioids, alcohol poisoning and suicide.
But despair doesn’t die: It gets transmitted to children. Most of the working-class kids in my study — especially boys — seemed to look out in the world and feel despair physically, cognitively and emotionally. I found that most of the working-class boys in the study had dropped out of the educational system by their mid-20s and seemed on track to repeat the cycle of despair.
But not John. He and dozens of other boys in the study had a support system that insulated them from the hopelessness so many of their peers described. Through his teenage years, John regularly attended his local evangelical church and was active in its youth group. There were organized social activities like rafting and weekly gatherings at the minister’s house to talk about what was going on in their lives.
Being involved with his church reinforced biblical teachings, leading John to think of Christ as the person he most wanted to emulate (most teenagers answer by referring to an actor, an athlete or a family member). By observing how his parents and others in his religious community behaved, John learned to see God as someone he “can talk to and tell personal things to.”
The academic advantage of religious working-class children begins in middle and high school with the grades they earn. Among those raised in the working class, 21 percent of religious teenagers brought home report cards filled with A’s, compared with 9 percent of their less-religious peers. Grades are also the strongest predictor of getting into and completing college, and religious boys are more than twice as likely to earn grades that help them be competitive for college admissions and scholarships.
Religious girls from working-class families also see educational benefits compared with less religious girls, but there are other factors that help them be academically successful outside of religion. Girls are socialized to be conscientious and compliant, have an easier time developing social ties with family members and peers, and are less prone to get caught up in risky behaviors.
Why does religion give boys like John an academic advantage? Because it offers them the social capital that affluent teenagers can get elsewhere. Religious communities keep families rooted to a place and help kids develop trusting relationships with youth ministers and friends’ parents who share a common outlook on life. Collectively, these adults encourage teenagers to follow the rules and avoid antisocial behaviors.
Although John cited peer pressure as the most stressful problem facing teenagers, he avoided falling into a pattern of drug and alcohol abuse that often derails kids from academic success. The research for my book focused on Christians, but I’ve found that religious communities are a source of social capital for Jewish people as well.
Theological belief on its own is not enough to influence how children behave. Adolescents must believe and belong to be buffered against emotional, cognitive or behavioral despair. I found that religion offers something that other extracurricular activities such as sports can’t: It prompts kids to behave in extremely conscientious and cooperative ways because they believe that God is both encouraging and evaluating them.
As John put it, religion “helps me in my problems or when I’m down.” When he is unsure of how to handle a situation, he looks to his minister and scripture for answers. John suspects that if he weren’t part of his weekly church youth group, he would be “doing a lot of things wrong.”
Religion doesn’t just help boys from working-class families during their teenage years — it also deters them from falling into despair in adulthood. We can see this in the way John’s life unfolded. In his early 20s, John stopped reading the Bible and no longer participated in his church community. Other parts of his life also started to fall apart. He dropped out of college and got arrested for marijuana possession.
That was a wake-up call, and John decided to return to church. Within a few years, he managed to get his life back on track. John is now living with his grandmother, whom he cares for, and his girlfriend, whom he plans to propose to. He believes that God has called him to serve others by working in the medical field. He returned to community college while working as an E.M.T. and plans to become a paramedic or a nurse. He attributes much of this to his faith.
In his final interview with researchers at age 26, John said, “The most important things in life to me is my family and my relationship to God.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/opin ... 778d3e6de3
THE YOUTH
Rising Stars 2021 - Featuring 30 Under 30
The Ismaili Council for Pakistan's Youth Coordination Forum is honored to launch the collective profiles of young Ismaili leaders from Pakistan under the “Rising Stars – 30 Under 30”.
The Rising Stars initiative was launched in 2021 by the National Council for Pakistan’s Youth Coordination Forum to celebrate the achievements of these Ismaili youth. The Risings Stars initiative has identified 30 young women and men under the age of 30 years from rural and urban Pakistan who have demonstrated distinctive excellence at the provincial, national, and international levels in diverse fields such as academics, media, sports, technology, arts, and civic service, whilst demonstrating a strong commitment to contribute toward positive social impact.
Together, let’s cherish and celebrate the diverse accomplishments of the young leaders of the Ismaili community in Pakistan.
The booklet can be accessed at:
https://the.ismaili/pakistan/news/ismai ... 0-under-30
Discreetly, the Young in Japan Chip Away at a Taboo on Tattoos
Exposed to body art on social media, more young Japanese are getting tattoos, even if that means hiding them at work.
Asami, a tattoo artist in Yokosuka, Japan, said that people with tattoos needed “to be extra well-mannered and follow the rules.” Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
TOKYO — Ayaka Kizu, a web designer in Tokyo, stood by her office desk one recent day, peeling Band-Aids off an apple-size portion of her right arm. A meeting with clients had ended, so she was now free to reveal what lay underneath: a tattoo of a multicolored unicorn.
Ms. Kizu, 28, is one of a growing number of young people who are bucking Japan’s longstanding taboos against tattoos, which remain identified with organized crime even as the Japanese mob has faded and body art has become widely popular in the West.
Inspired by Japanese influencers and foreign celebrities, Ms. Kizu decided at 19 to get a tattoo of a crescent moon on her right thigh, a homage to her favorite manga series, Sugar Sugar Rune. She has since gotten five more.
As she has cycled through jobs since college, including public relations at a big traditional firm and sales work in a department store, she has had to get creative to conceal her tattoos, whose display remains essentially forbidden in all but the most liberal of workplaces. That means, for instance, that she must leave her hair down to cover the ink behind her ears.
“It’s a pain, but as long as I hide them when doing business, I don’t mind,” she said, adding: “I wanted to be fashionable. I just decided to go for it.”
With each scroll of their phones, young Japanese have become more exposed to tattoos worn by famous singers and models, chipping away at the stigma against body art and emboldening them to challenge entrenched social expectations about their appearance.
Ayaka Kizu, a web designer, covering up the tattoos on her arms with gauze before getting ready for work in Tokyo.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
Takafumi Seto at the coffee shop where he works as a barista in Tokyo.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
Mr. Seto’s grandmother doesn’t know about his tattoos, so he sees her only in the winter, when he can wear long sleeves.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
“They’re often in places that can be hidden, but more people have tattoos than you would imagine,” Mr. Kakehashi said.
Tattoos have a long history in Japan, and they were important to women in Indigenous Okinawan and Ainu communities. Their association with organized crime goes back about 400 years. They were used to brand criminals on their arms or foreheads with marks that varied by region and crime: for instance, a circle, a large X or the Chinese character for dog.
After Japan ended more than two centuries of isolation in 1868, the country started promoting Western-style modernization policies. Among them: a law banning tattoos, which were seen as “barbaric.”
Although that ban was lifted in 1948, the stigma remained. Yakuza, or Japanese gangsters, often have neck-to-ankle “wabori,” a traditional Japanese-style tattoo done by hand using needles. Because of this gangster association, many hot springs resorts, beaches and gyms bar people with tattoos. Office jobs that allow tattoos are still sparse to nonexistent, with many companies expressly prohibiting applicants who have them.
Tattoos are also frowned upon as a violation of communal codes for how Japanese people should look — codes that can carry severe penalties for anyone who deviates from them.
Two subway drivers made headlines when they were given a negative evaluation after refusing to shave off their facial hair. A naturally brown-haired high school student in Osaka did too after she was punished for not dyeing her hair black. (When Ms. Kizu, the web designer, was in elementary school, her parents had to talk to her principal about her own naturally brown hair, saying that under no circumstances would she dye it black.)
Hiroki Kakehashi, a tattoo artist who has won a cult following among women in their 20s for his fine-line tattoos, said his clients now came from a broad range of professions.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
A tattoo artist’s work station at the Calico Circus parlor in Tokyo.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
But after protests by students, workers and school administrators, there have been some steps to loosen up.
In 2019, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan announced that it would allow workers to wear jeans and sneakers in order to “encourage individuality.” Last month, the Tokyo government’s Board of Education announced that nearly 200 public schools would drop five rules on appearance, including requirements that students have black hair or wear certain types of undergarments.
The case that led to the breakthrough Supreme Court decision on tattooing began in 2015, when Taiki Masuda, 34, a tattoo artist in Osaka, had his home studio raided and was slapped with a fine. Instead of paying it — as many veteran tattoo artists who had agreements with the police advised him to do — he went to court.
The lawsuit, Mr. Masuda said, “changed the image of the tattoo industry in Japan.”
During the trial, a group of veteran tattoo artists, suppliers and lawyers came together to create the Japan Tattooist Organization. In consultation from two doctors, they created an online course on hygiene and safety. Tattoo artists can now receive certification to display in their studios, modeled after practices abroad. The organization is currently in talks with the health ministry, with hopes that the government will eventually recommend all tattoo artists take the course.
Last year, about 100 artists took the course. Currently, at least 3,000 are working in Japan, and with more legitimacy, there is hope that more societal acceptance will follow.
Asami said he worried about some in the younger generation who ignore signs banning tattoos or take newly secured privileges for granted.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
Asami gained membership at his local gym only two years ago. People with tattoos are barred in many places in Japan.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
Some veteran tattoo artists advocate a gradual approach, worrying about some in the younger generation who ignore signs banning tattoos or take newly secured privileges for granted.
“We need to be extra well-mannered and follow the rules,” said one 50-year-old artist, who goes by the name Asami. “Although a good impression takes time to sink in, a bad impression is created in a second,” he added. Asami himself gained membership at his local gym only two years ago.
Among the new initiates into the world of the tattooed is Rion Sanada, 19, who one recent afternoon was lying nervously on a studio bed in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo, anxious to get her first tattoo.
Although she was about to start looking for full-time work, she said she was not worried about her job prospects.
“I’ll just get work where I can cover up my arms and legs in baggy clothes,” she said. “These days, tattoos are so much more commonplace.”
Three-quarters of an hour later, Ms. Sanada glanced down at her forearm, where an outline of a mouse, sprawled out on its stomach with little wings in the shape of hearts, now rested.
“I’ll work where I can until society catches up to me and I can be free,” she said.
Tattoos are frowned upon as a violation of communal codes for how Japanese people should look — codes that can carry severe penalties for anyone who deviates from them.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Asami, a tattoo artist in Yokosuka, Japan, said that people with tattoos needed “to be extra well-mannered and follow the rules.” Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
TOKYO — Ayaka Kizu, a web designer in Tokyo, stood by her office desk one recent day, peeling Band-Aids off an apple-size portion of her right arm. A meeting with clients had ended, so she was now free to reveal what lay underneath: a tattoo of a multicolored unicorn.
Ms. Kizu, 28, is one of a growing number of young people who are bucking Japan’s longstanding taboos against tattoos, which remain identified with organized crime even as the Japanese mob has faded and body art has become widely popular in the West.
Inspired by Japanese influencers and foreign celebrities, Ms. Kizu decided at 19 to get a tattoo of a crescent moon on her right thigh, a homage to her favorite manga series, Sugar Sugar Rune. She has since gotten five more.
As she has cycled through jobs since college, including public relations at a big traditional firm and sales work in a department store, she has had to get creative to conceal her tattoos, whose display remains essentially forbidden in all but the most liberal of workplaces. That means, for instance, that she must leave her hair down to cover the ink behind her ears.
“It’s a pain, but as long as I hide them when doing business, I don’t mind,” she said, adding: “I wanted to be fashionable. I just decided to go for it.”
With each scroll of their phones, young Japanese have become more exposed to tattoos worn by famous singers and models, chipping away at the stigma against body art and emboldening them to challenge entrenched social expectations about their appearance.
Ayaka Kizu, a web designer, covering up the tattoos on her arms with gauze before getting ready for work in Tokyo.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
Takafumi Seto at the coffee shop where he works as a barista in Tokyo.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
Mr. Seto’s grandmother doesn’t know about his tattoos, so he sees her only in the winter, when he can wear long sleeves.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
“They’re often in places that can be hidden, but more people have tattoos than you would imagine,” Mr. Kakehashi said.
Tattoos have a long history in Japan, and they were important to women in Indigenous Okinawan and Ainu communities. Their association with organized crime goes back about 400 years. They were used to brand criminals on their arms or foreheads with marks that varied by region and crime: for instance, a circle, a large X or the Chinese character for dog.
After Japan ended more than two centuries of isolation in 1868, the country started promoting Western-style modernization policies. Among them: a law banning tattoos, which were seen as “barbaric.”
Although that ban was lifted in 1948, the stigma remained. Yakuza, or Japanese gangsters, often have neck-to-ankle “wabori,” a traditional Japanese-style tattoo done by hand using needles. Because of this gangster association, many hot springs resorts, beaches and gyms bar people with tattoos. Office jobs that allow tattoos are still sparse to nonexistent, with many companies expressly prohibiting applicants who have them.
Tattoos are also frowned upon as a violation of communal codes for how Japanese people should look — codes that can carry severe penalties for anyone who deviates from them.
Two subway drivers made headlines when they were given a negative evaluation after refusing to shave off their facial hair. A naturally brown-haired high school student in Osaka did too after she was punished for not dyeing her hair black. (When Ms. Kizu, the web designer, was in elementary school, her parents had to talk to her principal about her own naturally brown hair, saying that under no circumstances would she dye it black.)
Hiroki Kakehashi, a tattoo artist who has won a cult following among women in their 20s for his fine-line tattoos, said his clients now came from a broad range of professions.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
A tattoo artist’s work station at the Calico Circus parlor in Tokyo.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
But after protests by students, workers and school administrators, there have been some steps to loosen up.
In 2019, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan announced that it would allow workers to wear jeans and sneakers in order to “encourage individuality.” Last month, the Tokyo government’s Board of Education announced that nearly 200 public schools would drop five rules on appearance, including requirements that students have black hair or wear certain types of undergarments.
The case that led to the breakthrough Supreme Court decision on tattooing began in 2015, when Taiki Masuda, 34, a tattoo artist in Osaka, had his home studio raided and was slapped with a fine. Instead of paying it — as many veteran tattoo artists who had agreements with the police advised him to do — he went to court.
The lawsuit, Mr. Masuda said, “changed the image of the tattoo industry in Japan.”
During the trial, a group of veteran tattoo artists, suppliers and lawyers came together to create the Japan Tattooist Organization. In consultation from two doctors, they created an online course on hygiene and safety. Tattoo artists can now receive certification to display in their studios, modeled after practices abroad. The organization is currently in talks with the health ministry, with hopes that the government will eventually recommend all tattoo artists take the course.
Last year, about 100 artists took the course. Currently, at least 3,000 are working in Japan, and with more legitimacy, there is hope that more societal acceptance will follow.
Asami said he worried about some in the younger generation who ignore signs banning tattoos or take newly secured privileges for granted.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
Asami gained membership at his local gym only two years ago. People with tattoos are barred in many places in Japan.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
Some veteran tattoo artists advocate a gradual approach, worrying about some in the younger generation who ignore signs banning tattoos or take newly secured privileges for granted.
“We need to be extra well-mannered and follow the rules,” said one 50-year-old artist, who goes by the name Asami. “Although a good impression takes time to sink in, a bad impression is created in a second,” he added. Asami himself gained membership at his local gym only two years ago.
Among the new initiates into the world of the tattooed is Rion Sanada, 19, who one recent afternoon was lying nervously on a studio bed in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo, anxious to get her first tattoo.
Although she was about to start looking for full-time work, she said she was not worried about her job prospects.
“I’ll just get work where I can cover up my arms and legs in baggy clothes,” she said. “These days, tattoos are so much more commonplace.”
Three-quarters of an hour later, Ms. Sanada glanced down at her forearm, where an outline of a mouse, sprawled out on its stomach with little wings in the shape of hearts, now rested.
“I’ll work where I can until society catches up to me and I can be free,” she said.
Tattoos are frowned upon as a violation of communal codes for how Japanese people should look — codes that can carry severe penalties for anyone who deviates from them.Credit...Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/worl ... 778d3e6de3
IN-PERSON NATIONAL YOUTH CAMPS ARE BACK!
The Aga Khan Youth and Sports Board for Pakistan (AKYSB) is excited to welcome back participants and facilitators for an unforgettable summer with the Broadening Horizon Youth Camp (BHYC).
BHYC inspires resilience in youth and nurtures their social, physical, cognitive and emotional growth. It is hoped that by the end of this camp, youth are better able to address contemporary challenges with ethical approaches; take pride in their identity and develop an increased sense of belonging towards Jamat and its institutions; enhance their leadership skills; and are inspired to become ambassadors of the Jamat. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the camp will engage youth through educational sessions, group-based activities, AKDN site visits, and adventure sports.
Participants:
Jamati girls and boys aged 15 to 17 years across Pakistan are invited to apply for BHYC. We want to get to know you and learn about your interests, passions, and motivation for applying to BHYC. We encourage you to be open and honest in your application. Your application will be peer-reviewed reviewed and shortlisted candidates will be invited to participate in BHYC.
Facilitators:
Facilitators will directly mentor, guide, and support participants to ensure their growth and development through transformational experiences. Facilitators are flexible, adapt quickly to dynamic situations, and are open to learning and being part of a team. Facilitators serve a key role in building relationships and fostering a sense of community at BHYC. Facilitators will be required to participate in virtual and in-person training prior to BHYC. Candidates aged 20 to 25 years will be prioritized as facilitators for BHYC.
Applications:
The residential camp will be held in various regions of Gilgit Baltistan from 15th to 22nd July 2022. The last date for applying for participants and facilitators is 15th May 2022.
Register Now (As a Participant) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1QAS3M_ ... ested=true
Register Now (As a Facilitator) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13L5Noq ... ested=true
https://the.ismaili/pakistan/opportunit ... s-are-back
*********
High School Student Helped Test James Webb Space Telescope Components
Faheem Chunara shared a picture of himself on Christmas Day, 2021, in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. He and a team of over 200 professionals worldwide prepared for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – the world’s largest and most complex space science observatory.
Faheem, now a recent engineering graduate of the University of Southern California and a full-time electrical engineer for Northrop Grumman, and gravitated towards math and engineering from a young age.
Starting as an Intern
“I didn’t think much of it,” says Faheem when his father encouraged him to apply for an internship with Northrop Grumman in 2016 while he was in high school. He was not expecting to receive an interview request a couple of weeks later. Nor did he realize then he would soon perform tests to ensure the JWST spacecraft’s 178 release devices were functioning properly, or to create code and perform tests a full-time engineer would otherwise do. All told, the testing process of the mirrors took a decade.
During our conversation, Faheem marveled that the telescope was only one million miles away from the sun, something his team planned and designed for during his 2019 internship. “A goal as a test engineer is to plan for survival situations. We designed tests for the spacecraft’s sun sensors which detect levels of radiation, and the spacecraft, in turn, maneuvers itself and flips around.”
Faheem Chunara at the launch site of the JWST in French Guiana on December 25, 2021.
Before its launch, the $10 billion instrument, developed by Northrop Grumman, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, had to be moved 5800 miles to French Guiana, a feat in itself. It required a nitrogen-cooled environment and a passage through the Panama Canal. Thankfully, it arrived there undamaged.
Faheem described the harsh conditions of space and anticipated the spacecraft facing both extreme hot and cold conditions throughout its journey, explaining, “the temperature on the cold side of the spacecraft can reach negative 348 degrees Fahrenheit.” The telescope has 18 mirrors and is 21 ft. wide.
In February 2022, NASA released the first images taken by the telescope, those of a star in the constellation Ursa Major, a group of stars commonly known as the Big Dipper, some 258 million light years away.
Peering into the past
The Webb is the largest and most complex telescope of its kind, fitted with all very sophisticated equipment. The telescope is designed to search the hidden depths of our universe, focusing on the faint light of early stars and galaxies created after the Big Bang, some 250 million years ago..It will be able to see through dense dust clouds that cover distant planets.
As reports begin to come in of the first photons of starlight being seen by the JWST team members, Faheem shares the amazing feat of people of all ages and from all parts of the world coming together to work on several individual components that now comprise the JWST. “The ability to take a concept to the discussion, to testing and code, and see all of it operating on a spacecraft while planning for contingencies is remarkable.”
Faheem recalls such a contingency where his team noticed the temperature of a thruster valve dropping rapidly just hours before the launch. He and his team immediately addressed the issue and worked to ensure sufficient power for heaters was available, and that the valves remained at an optimal temperature. “This was one hour before launch. The team did a phenomenal job recognizing and addressing the temperature, and managed to turn on the heaters.”
Faheem advises high school students that opportunities are present for those willing to seek them out. “A lot of things I thought as a high school student – that you have to be very knowledgeable and skilled to get a position - it’s never too early to start,” he says. “I’m glad companies are hiring individuals at a young age in high school. As long as you work hard, are curious and interested in something – go for it.” Faheem also serves as the lead for the Ismaili Student Network and is a part of the Aga Khan Education Board.
https://the.ismaili/usa/high-school-stu ... components
The adventure in Tapada de Mafra has already happened!
Youth & Sports and ITREB would like to thank everyone who took part in the weekend at Tapada de Mafra. Check out a little bit of what happened there. We hope you had fun!
Portuguese https://the.ismaili/portugal/aventura-n ... -aconteceu
During our adventure, we entered the wonderful world of bees and had the opportunity to learn more about them and their importance in our lives. We also got to taste their delicious honey and pollen and see all the other incredible things bees produce.
Next, we took an electric train throughout the Tapada and observed deers, turtles, wild boars, and more throughout the park. We returned to the main site, where we had a snack and a chance to socialize before getting back on the bus. On our journey back to Lisbon, our group sang and danced to their favourite cultural songs.
We had over 50 participants from Portugal, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kenya, Canada, India, and more! Not only did we get to learn about the history and diversity of the forest, but about ourselves too.
Thank you to all the volunteers who made this happen.
We hope to see you again next time!
https://the.ismaili/portugal/the-advent ... y-happened
National Steam Summer Camp
Science | Technology | Engineering | Art | Math
IBM CANADA’S NATIONAL STEAM SUMMER CAMP
Students in Grades 7 – 12 are encouraged to attend the 3-day, 2022 Virtual STEAM Camp. Students will attend virtual events and learn from real-world experts in STEAM fields! They’ll have fun creating, innovating, and exploring STEAM!
Registration https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... w/viewform
Flyer
Welcome Packet of Information for Students/Guardians/Educators https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... 611fb3_0_0
This July, with the help of 14 Client Partners, we will host 21 online workshop sessions including a “Learn from Leaders” panel, “Exploring the Digital Ocean,” “Be an Astronomer!” & “Intro to Scratch.”
The camp will take place from:
July 12 – 14, 2022 | 8:00 am – 1:00 pm Pacific
https://revelstokesecondary.sd19.bc.ca/ ... mmer-camp/
IBM CANADA’S NATIONAL STEAM SUMMER CAMP
Students in Grades 7 – 12 are encouraged to attend the 3-day, 2022 Virtual STEAM Camp. Students will attend virtual events and learn from real-world experts in STEAM fields! They’ll have fun creating, innovating, and exploring STEAM!
Registration https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp ... w/viewform
Flyer
Welcome Packet of Information for Students/Guardians/Educators https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ ... 611fb3_0_0
This July, with the help of 14 Client Partners, we will host 21 online workshop sessions including a “Learn from Leaders” panel, “Exploring the Digital Ocean,” “Be an Astronomer!” & “Intro to Scratch.” The camp will take place from:
July 12 – 14, 2022 | 8:00 am – 1:00 pm Pacific
https://revelstokesecondary.sd19.bc.ca/ ... mmer-camp/
After 4 Years of College, Too Many Students Don’t Know Where to Go Next
Dr. Storey and Dr. Silber Storey are the authors of “Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment.”
Our star student walks up to the lunch table with what seems like good news. The fellowship is now hers; next fall she will be off to teach English on the other side of the globe. She has trained her energies on this goal for many months and wants to accept it in grateful triumph. But her eyes are red and tired. She is not sure she wants the prize she has worked so hard to win.
Her adviser has just reassured her that this experience will “open doors.” She need not worry about where this is going — those who spend a few years in such fellowships emerge with plenty of choices. But that thought, which once compelled her, is beginning to leave her cold. What is the point of a life that is nothing more than an endless series of opportunities?
As her thoughts flit among the prospects to which this next step is supposed to lead, she seems less excited by the promise of so many adventures than exhausted by the thought of so many decisions. She wonders aloud whether she might just go back home and work in a coffee shop.
The thought is raised halfheartedly. It sounds more like a doubt about the step she is about to take than a choice she would seriously consider. It’s as though a life that rejects striving altogether is the only alternative she can imagine to a life of striving without purpose.
Colleges today often operate as machines for putting ever-proliferating opportunities before already privileged people. Our educational system focuses obsessively on helping students take the next step. But it does not give them adequate assistance in thinking about the substance of the lives toward which they are advancing. Many institutions today have forgotten that liberal education itself was meant to teach the art of choosing, to train the young to use reason to decide which endeavors merit the investment of their lives.
We spent many years teaching on a college campus, trying during office hours to help students struggling with their confusion. Eventually, we sought to address this problem systematically, by designing a course intended to introduce the young to the art of choosing. The syllabus begins with Plato’s “Gorgias” — a messy dialogue that turns on an argument between a browbeating Socrates and the ruffian Callicles over whether the pursuit of virtue or of pleasure is the way to a good life. The dialogue ends inconclusively; no one is satisfied. But with remarkable regularity, it awakens the kind of thinking that students need to better understand the choices that shape their lives.
Students’ first reaction to the “Gorgias” is incredulity, sometimes even horror. It is the dialogue’s premise that alarms them: the idea that we can seriously argue about what constitutes the human good. Everything in their education has led them to believe that such arguments cannot bear fruit.
“But happiness is subjective!” someone will exclaim, expecting to win over the room. We decline to affirm such assertions, which reliably astonishes the class. Our reticence is intended, in part, to dislodge our students from the idea that life’s purpose comes from some mysterious voice within. Once students are freed from this idea, they can consider the possibility that people can reason together about the best way to live.
Then we seek to create a conversation in our classroom that puts into practice this constructively countercultural way of thinking about happiness. We ask students to give reasons for their opinions on how best to live. With a bit of practice, one starts to hear the speech patterns of Socrates entering their conversations. They cease expecting their assertions to be showstoppers. They start asking one another questions. They begin lining up premises, making inferences and drawing conclusions.
These patterns of academic thinking soon penetrate their personal lives. To be asked to give reasons for one’s personal decisions is to entertain the possibility that such reasons exist. Thomas Aquinas, another author on our syllabus, calls the reason that is the orienting point of all your other reasons your “final end.” Those who discover that they have such final ends, and learn to assess them, see their way to the exit from the fun house of arbitrary decisions in which the young so often find themselves trapped.
For the number of final ends is not infinite. Aquinas usefully suggests that the ultimate objects of human longing can be sorted into only eight enduring categories. If we want to understand where we’re headed, we should ask ourselves these questions: Am I interested in this opportunity because it leads to wealth? Or am I aiming at praise and admiration? Do I want enduring glory? Or power — to “make an impact”? Is my goal to maximize my pleasures? Do I seek health? Do I seek some “good of the soul,” such as knowledge or virtue? Or is my ultimate longing to come face-to-face with the divine?
Most students find, to their surprise, that they can locate their desires on this old map. This does not leave students feeling constrained, as they have often been led to fear. It leaves them feeling empowered, like wanderers suddenly recognizing the orienting features of a landscape.
Like any good map, Aquinas’s reasoned analysis of the human goods can tell us something about where we’re going before we get there. We start down the path to wealth, for example, because it is a universal means to almost any end. But wealth cannot be the final goal of life, for it gives satisfaction only when traded for something else. Admiration signals that people think we’re doing something well. But it is conferred by the often errant judgment of others and can lead you astray.
Most students are grateful to discover this art of choosing. Learning to reason about happiness awakens an “indwelling power in the soul,” as Socrates puts it, which is as delightful as discovering that one’s voice can be made to sing. Why, then, do liberal arts institutions rarely teach it? In some cases, faculty members are incentivized to emphasize specialized research rather than thinking about the good life. In others, they share the conviction that reason is merely an extension of the quest for dominance, or the Rousseauean belief that sentiment is a better guide to happiness than the mind.
Most fundamentally, though, the reigning model of liberal education — opening doors without helping us think about what lies beyond them — prevails because it reprises a successful modern formula. Agnosticism about human purposes, combined with the endless increase of means and opportunities, has proved to be a powerful organizing principle for our political and economic life. It has helped create the remarkable peace, prosperity and liberty we have enjoyed for much of the modern age.
Modern liberty and modern anxiety are, however, two fruits of the same tree. As Alexis de Tocqueville noted long ago, people who have freedom and plenty but lack the art of choosing will be “restless in the midst of their prosperity.” Anxiety, depression and suicide — all of which are woefully familiar on college campuses — are the unhappy companions of the mobility and freedom modern societies prize.
This is why liberal democratic societies need universities to play the role of constructively countercultural institutions. At their best, such societies are aware of their own incompleteness and support institutions that push against their innate tendency toward moral agnosticism, and the disorientation and restless paralysis that it brings in its wake.
Colleges should self-consciously prioritize initiating students into a culture of rational reflection on how to live, and this intention should be evident in their mission statements, convocation addresses, faculty hiring and promotion, and curriculums. Doing so will hold them accountable for performing their proper work: helping young people learn to give reasons for the choices that shape their lives and to reflect about the ends they pursue. For that art of choosing is what their students most need — and what liberal education, rightly understood, was meant to impart.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Broadening Horizons Youth Camp - An eight-day residential camp in Hunza
From creating start-ups to igniting revolutions, young people have been toppling the old structures and processes that govern our world. Just imagine what solutions might be found if young people are given the space and encouragement to participate and lead – Kofi Annan, (Excerpts from a speech made on the International Youth Day in 2013)
With the advent of the 21st century and the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has changed its course for the future. Demanding creativity, collaboration, strong communication, leadership and resilience in the light of adversities, the youth today face unique challenges. Investment in our youth is the best investment a community can make to secure a dynamic future. Sensitive to the needs of the Jamati youth in Pakistan, the Aga Khan Youth and Sports Board for Pakistan (AKYSBP) organised the Broadening Horizons Youth Camp (BHYC), an eight-day residential camp in Hunza.
Through the experiential learning approach, participants of BHYC were engaged in activities that allowed them to explore their identities and develop crucial skills like critical and analytical thinking, problem solving and perseverance. Nasrin, an Afghan participant, noted, “It was a rare experience being part of this camp. Playing different games and facing varied challenges allowed us to find solutions to our problems creatively. More importantly, during its course, I discovered who I am and was able to reflect on what is happening around me.”
In a first of its kind, the BHYC opened its doors to eight Afghan youth, providing them, and the other 51 participants, with a platform to explore. With national and international participants, the youth were provided a rare opportunity to experience diversity and practice a pluralistic approach to dealing with the day-to-day challenges of life. “I learned that diversity may be hard to adapt to at first, but once you start to feel and explore its beauty, you find yourself loving and wanting it more. The real challenge we faced was not to solve the problem that was put forward to us but actually listen to each other, respect each other’s ideas, work as a team and most importantly, learn from those challenges,” Manahil, a participant, commented. Another participant, Wassay, shared, “I met and bonded with unique individuals from across Pakistan and Afghanistan, learning to understand and respect the different perspectives each individual shared.”
While the camp focused on developing individual identities, it also focused on helping the participants better understand the community and the work of Mawlana Hazar Imam and his institutions. To establish institutional empathy and help participants become aware of the work that the AKDN engages in, a whole day was spent with the Altit community in Hunza. “Working in remote areas is a challenge for everyone, but I learned that it was the resilience of the people and the leadership of Mawlana Hazar Imam and the AKDN that made things possible,” remarked one of the facilitators, Insha. She further added, “The locals inspired me so much; the way they interacted and presented everything reflects what the AKDN has been contributing to the community’s development.” Just like the AKDN, the camp inspired hope in its participants. Jalal, one of the participants who faced hardships in his life, feared he would not achieve a bright future. However, towards the end of the camp he shared, “I was afraid of my future due to lack of motivation and guidance, thinking that I am a burden on my environment and family. However, after the BHYC, my perspective on life completely changed. I feel satisfied and am hopeful for a better future, ready to face and overcome upcoming challenges.”
In accordance with the guidance and work of Mawlana Hazar Imam, the camp aimed to promote global citizenship in the participants and help them become tomorrow’s leaders. Exploring one’s identity and that of their community allowed participants to gain a broader perspective on life, a step toward what Mawlana Hazar Imam calls the “duty of responsible stewardship” (October 17, 2000, Islamabad, Pakistan). As important as it is to know oneself and the world around you, it is equally important to understand how one may contribute to it to make it a better place. Mehak, a facilitator from the camp, commented, “BHYC was a journey of self-exploration that made me believe in the power of my existence as an individual and how many lives I can influence by being my true, authentic self. It allowed me to go beyond boundaries for others and myself and positively impact the world around me.”
In all these learnings, the camp focused on developing future leaders who would become local, regional and national assets for the Jamat in the years ahead. Developing lifelong friendships, the participants situated themselves as positive change agents not just in the Jamat, but for the world at large. Through their acquired knowledge and shared experiences, camp participants are anticipated to play a critical role in Jamati and AKDN institutions for the betterment of the community and the world in the years to come.
More photos at
https://the.ismaili/pakistan/programmes ... camp-hunza
Building Bridges – Intercommunity Visits Allow Youth to Promote Social Harmony
"A cosmopolitan society regards the distinctive threads of our particular identities as elements that bring beauty to the larger social fabric," replied Mawlana Hazar Imam in response to a question about globalization at Harvard University. The trend toward globalization has ushered us into an age of residing as a global village. To navigate through the challenges posed by increasingly globalized societies, it has become imperative to enhance and promote inter- and intra-religious harmony and develop mutual understanding and empathy based on an acknowledgement of religious diversity and differences.
As an appreciation of pluralism and diversity, the idea of "harmony without uniformity" has, therefore, to be promoted so that all can work together to meet their most basic responsibilities towards social progress. To achieve this, as Mawlana Hazar Imam has stated, “We must explore every opportunity to have different faiths come together in addressing the problems of our respective societies.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam’s discourse of pluralism and cosmopolitan ethics has placed the worldwide Jamat at the forefront of engagement with an increasingly diverse world; the practical implementation of the vision that Mawlana Hazar Imam shares for healthy pluralism can be seen in the institutions such as Global Centre for Pluralism, which he has established and supported to develop a dialogue between communities and engagement with diversity.
The notion of interfaith dialogues involves, at the most basic level, people of different faiths coming together to have a conversation around mutual understanding and promote cross-community interactions. Building on this vision, Jamati institutions worldwide have been engaged in organising different activities and programmes to make the vision of Mawlana Hazar Imam translate into their individual and collective lives. One recent example is a series of events held in Karachi where more than 40 young members of the Jamat, ranging from college students to professionals, gathered to visit sister communities of Pakistan.
As part of the Leadership Enhancement and Advancement Program (LEAP-2022), these events were organized by Human Resource Development Program (HRDC) - a portfolio of the Ismaili Council for Karimabad. Under the theme of “Building Intercommunity Bridges,” the participants visited Dawoodi Bohra, Christian and Zoroastrian communities.
With its aim to develop the next generation of leaders of the Jamat, one of the aims of LEAP is to impart to young youth those values with which they emerge as future agents of reconciliation, dialogue, and peacemaking. Given the vital role that interfaith dialogues play towards peaceful goals and unlocking the path toward addressing current challenges the world faces, these community visits were designed to mobilize a keen sense of social conscience among the participants.
Broadly, at the programme level, these events aim to underline the importance of appreciating inter-cultural and -religious diversity while building real-life connections with sister communities. The programmes hoped to promote social conscience in building a healthy civil society and provide a chance to understand institutional structures and share best practices to serve humanity.
Providing an avenue to bridge building and productive relationships, these events served as an instrument in creating an array of topics for discussion and reflection. Participants were allowed to sharpen their thinking patterns, as an essential area of leadership skills. Reflecting on their experience one participant noted, “It is important and fascinating to have knowledge about and understanding of other religions and beliefs and this initiative helped us to learn the abilities required to communicate effectively with others.”
In addition to presentations of an introduction to the cultural and traditional aspects of each community, the programmes also allowed participants to hold more in-depth group discussions. Participants discussed their respective histories, customs and festivals commonly observed in order to familiarize youth with the expression level of faith through cultural heritage, values and norms that govern social patterns. The youth delved further into these exchanges which proceeded to discovering shared experiences.
Participants also acquired the opportunity to learn about different food and delicacies that are unique to each community. For example, participants tasted the food served in the traditional ‘thaal’ of the Bohra community, which provided an opportunity to sit together to exchange thoughts and understand each other’s histories. Another participant said, “Learning about people of different faiths and communities allowed us to realize the role that religion plays in shaping one’s life.”
While sharing knowledge and understanding of religious festivals, customs and traditions, members of Zoroastrian youth displayed a table of Haft Seen as a sign of the celebration of Navroz, observed by both the Zoroastrian and Ismaili communities. Commenting on the thoughts behind the display, Shireen Mehri, a member of the Zoroastrian community commented, “We believed it would be a true representation of the oneness of humanity and how interconnected we all are.”
Pervasive throughout the sessions was to evoke a spirit of goodwill and develop a lived experience of looking beyond one’s personal interests toward a greater good. Reflecting on this, one participant articulated, “These visits allowed us to understand how positive values, often overlooked, can contribute to feeding into social good.”
These encounters provided a valuable opportunity for participants to go beyond dialogue about faith and traditions in the context of an increasingly fragmented and globalized world and brought individuals together to reflect on how each community can join hands to make this world a better place for all.
https://the.ismaili/pakistan/our-commun ... al-harmony
Revisiting the legacy of Muslim intellectual traditions come alive, as Youth of Dubai Explore Expo 2020
A group of over 90 participants embarked on a much-awaited journey to the Expo 2020 site in Dubai. The trip was part of a curated two-day youth excursion where participants could see themselves as guardians of the universe protecting the future of our world.
Through the exploration of human imagination, intellect and future technologies at the Expo site, the group discovered ways of building a sustainable, equitable world that is grounded in the Muslim values of leadership, pluralism, and ideals.
In a world that largely attributes innovation, technology and development to the western world, Expo 2020 opened participants to the legacy of Muslim intellectual tradition coming alive. It was astounding to see 192 countries come together to participate in generating ideas and possible solutions to critical challenges facing humanity today.
Expo 2020 provided us with a unique platform to ponder humanity as a whole, and the idea of working together as a shared humanity. It encouraged us to unite our resources and intellectual capacities to know one another as mentioned in Qur’an (49:13), “we have created you into tribes and nations so that you may know one another”. It also helped us to forget our differences and work towards a more egalitarian world under the values of a cosmopolitan ethic, as emphasised by His Highness the Aga Khan.
Expo 2020, Dubai was built on three major pillars: opportunity, sustainability, and mobility – all of which came together under world-class architecture, showcasing mesmerising displays of art, culture, and flavour. A major objective of this visit to Expo 2020 was to awaken participants to the realisation that our world is facing serious socio-political, cultural, economic, environmental, and ethical challenges. Thus, as leaders, innovators and thinkers of tomorrow, how can we put our heads together to find creative solutions to these critical challenges facing humanity.
Divided in age-wise groups, the group embarked on independent journeys to explore the Expo 2020 site, to observe how different countries presented the connection from past to present, and to learn about what they hoped to build for the future. They interacted in a diverse environment, allowing an insight into how diversity can be navigated for understanding and growth. They reflected on the intellectual capacity of human beings to create a world grounded in the ethical values reflected in the Qur’an.
Counsellor Sasha Gulamani commented, “Personally, I learned a lot about the diversity that Expo 2020 encompasses. It was interesting to see how Expo 2020 fostered a pluralistic society through its numerous themes throughout the pavilions. Further, when diving deeper into the districts of opportunity, sustainability and mobility, one can see how individuals globally have been able to come together to create long term sustainability and social impact. Being able to participate at the Expo 2020 with the Youth was truly eye opening, as it was fascinating to see how students interpreted the meanings behind various pavilions and applied that knowledge to their learnings. Overall, a truly inspiring experience!”
Highlighting the impact of this trip, one participant commented, “it changed my understanding as I now know what we humans are capable of,” and another one said, “instead of modernising everything, keeping the learning from the past permits us to maintain our cultures and understand what brought us to this point.” Another fascinated youth said, “After getting to explore so much about different countries' stances on the future, we could clearly see how AI and technology are a common theme. A great example of this was the Belgium pavilion. The entire pavilion revolved around Belgium in 2050, and how the country looks to solve many of today’s challenges.”
More photos at:
https://the.ismaili/uae/revisiting-the- ... -expo-2020
illuminate 2022: Prize winners announced
This year’s competition examined the effects of the climate crisis and welcomed captivating submissions from young people across London/b]
Four young people have been awarded for the talent, curiosity, and skills showcased in their submissions to the illuminate 2022 competition. This year’s theme of climate change and environmental impact mitigation inspired thought-provoking art pieces and carefully crafted essays, all of which were created by sixth form students hoping to win monetary prizes, as well as invaluable tutoring and support with their university applications from experienced academics.
illuminate is an Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) initiative that offers aspiring students’ insight into transformational ideas that are shaping the world today and connects them with international development industry experts. Following the inaugural cycle in 2019 and a brief hiatus due to COVID-19, the 2022 cycle kicked off in July with an event at the Aga Khan Centre, welcoming climate change experts from across the world to inspire young people to become agents of change in the climate arena. The students in attendance were invited to take part in a multimedia competition, for which they could either enter a short essay, video blog or piece of art to portray, depict and answer questions on the climate crisis.
Upon receiving a number of brilliant entries, illuminate was delighted to welcome the four winning students and their families to the Ismaili Centre in London for the awards ceremony on 12th October 2022. Staff from ARK academies, AKF and members of the Ismaili community were also present at the event.
Guests gathered in the courtyard after the ceremony at the Ismaili Centre. Photo credit: Aliraza Pandaniya.
Naushad Jivraj, President of the Ismaili National Council UK, welcomed guests to the Ismaili Centre and congratulated the winners, noting that each of them “will be a conduit for action within local and global communities”. The quality of entries was duly acknowledged, as Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda, Project Lead for illuminate, introduced the programme and emphasised the astuteness, talent, and wisdom of the winners.
Following a keynote address from Mahmood Ahmed, Chairman of AKF UK National Committee, exploring a case study of one of AKDN’s climate resilience initiatives in Uganda, a member of the judging panel was welcomed to the stage. Professor Nacim Pak-Shriaz of the University of Edinburgh was one of three judges who, in her words, had the “privilege to study the submissions of such a talented group of students”. Professor Pak-Shiraz mentioned how the essays took the judging panel on a journey from Antarctica to Africa, from Bangladesh to China and further afield. The art pieces were equally as intriguing, with first prize being awarded to Gema Torres for her multi-dimensional art installation pictured below.
Gema Torres' art installation. Photo credit: Aliraza Pandaniya.
“This was an amazing experience; I’ve learned and developed a lot of new skills. This also gave me the opportunity to meet new people who have helped me through my university application.”
Gema Torres (1st prize)
Second prize went to Zalla Popalzai for her essay on the explicit role climate justice plays in advancing and planning climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Zalla argues higher-income countries disproportionately contribute to climate atrocities, leaving lower-income, more vulnerable countries to deal with the repercussions – only with global acknowledgement and collaboration, can the world holistically make a change to saving the planet for generations to come.
“The whole experience gave me a lot of life skills. It was really fun researching and expanding my knowledge on global issues.”
Zalla Popalzai (2nd prize)
So impressive were this year’s entries that two students were awarded with third prize. Monaza Husseini won third prize for her essay also exploring the importance of climate justice, noting “It was a really eye-opening experience, learning about climate justice and its impacts”. Beyza Gorur also won third prize for her provocative art piece pictured below (left), which featured damage in the canvas to symbolise the irreversible damage already done to our planet. Since taking part in the competition and researching sustainability, Beyza has decided to pursue studies in green architecture at university.
Beyza’s piece was displayed alongside Amirah Uddin’s artwork (right), which received a special mention for its bold colours and multiple messages.
Beyza Gorur's winning artwork (left) and Amirah Uddin's special mention artwork (right) on display at the awards ceremony. Photo credit: Shellina Karmali.
Following the prize giving ceremony, the Ismaili Community Ensemble performed their song, Child of the Ocean, which was composed for Prince Hussain’s photography exhibition The Living Sea – Fragile Beauty, most recently displayed at the Ismaili Centre in London in September 2022. The captivating performance was a fitting end to the event, reminding those present of the importance of protecting our planet and the critical role young people will play to ‘be the change’ as the future of our planet hangs in the balance.
The entire illuminate team were hugely impressed by the desire and commitment of the young people who attended both events to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our time. The illuminate team welcome the winners as alumni and ambassadors and look forward to supporting the four winners as they progress in their academic careers.
Beyza Gorur receives her certificate
Monaza Husseini receives her certificate
Zalla Popalzai receives her certificate
Gema Torres receives her certificate
The Ismaili Community Ensemble perform ‘Child of the Ocean’
The winners, their families, and staff from ARK Academies
Naushad Jivraj, President, Ismaili National Council UK
Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz, illuminate 2022 judge
Zuli Hassam, illuminate team member and AKF Project Lead for Prince’s Trust
Mahmood Ahmed, Chairman, AKF UK National Committee
Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda, Project Lead, illuminate
Photo credit: Aliraza Pandaniya.
Photos by Aliraza Pandaniya. Words by Kerensa Keevill.
https://www.akf.org.uk/illuminate-2022- ... 25c8c5fc8d
Four young people have been awarded for the talent, curiosity, and skills showcased in their submissions to the illuminate 2022 competition. This year’s theme of climate change and environmental impact mitigation inspired thought-provoking art pieces and carefully crafted essays, all of which were created by sixth form students hoping to win monetary prizes, as well as invaluable tutoring and support with their university applications from experienced academics.
illuminate is an Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) initiative that offers aspiring students’ insight into transformational ideas that are shaping the world today and connects them with international development industry experts. Following the inaugural cycle in 2019 and a brief hiatus due to COVID-19, the 2022 cycle kicked off in July with an event at the Aga Khan Centre, welcoming climate change experts from across the world to inspire young people to become agents of change in the climate arena. The students in attendance were invited to take part in a multimedia competition, for which they could either enter a short essay, video blog or piece of art to portray, depict and answer questions on the climate crisis.
Upon receiving a number of brilliant entries, illuminate was delighted to welcome the four winning students and their families to the Ismaili Centre in London for the awards ceremony on 12th October 2022. Staff from ARK academies, AKF and members of the Ismaili community were also present at the event.
Guests gathered in the courtyard after the ceremony at the Ismaili Centre. Photo credit: Aliraza Pandaniya.
Naushad Jivraj, President of the Ismaili National Council UK, welcomed guests to the Ismaili Centre and congratulated the winners, noting that each of them “will be a conduit for action within local and global communities”. The quality of entries was duly acknowledged, as Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda, Project Lead for illuminate, introduced the programme and emphasised the astuteness, talent, and wisdom of the winners.
Following a keynote address from Mahmood Ahmed, Chairman of AKF UK National Committee, exploring a case study of one of AKDN’s climate resilience initiatives in Uganda, a member of the judging panel was welcomed to the stage. Professor Nacim Pak-Shriaz of the University of Edinburgh was one of three judges who, in her words, had the “privilege to study the submissions of such a talented group of students”. Professor Pak-Shiraz mentioned how the essays took the judging panel on a journey from Antarctica to Africa, from Bangladesh to China and further afield. The art pieces were equally as intriguing, with first prize being awarded to Gema Torres for her multi-dimensional art installation pictured below.
Gema Torres' art installation. Photo credit: Aliraza Pandaniya.
“This was an amazing experience; I’ve learned and developed a lot of new skills. This also gave me the opportunity to meet new people who have helped me through my university application.”
Gema Torres (1st prize)
Second prize went to Zalla Popalzai for her essay on the explicit role climate justice plays in advancing and planning climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Zalla argues higher-income countries disproportionately contribute to climate atrocities, leaving lower-income, more vulnerable countries to deal with the repercussions – only with global acknowledgement and collaboration, can the world holistically make a change to saving the planet for generations to come.
“The whole experience gave me a lot of life skills. It was really fun researching and expanding my knowledge on global issues.”
Zalla Popalzai (2nd prize)
So impressive were this year’s entries that two students were awarded with third prize. Monaza Husseini won third prize for her essay also exploring the importance of climate justice, noting “It was a really eye-opening experience, learning about climate justice and its impacts”. Beyza Gorur also won third prize for her provocative art piece pictured below (left), which featured damage in the canvas to symbolise the irreversible damage already done to our planet. Since taking part in the competition and researching sustainability, Beyza has decided to pursue studies in green architecture at university.
Beyza’s piece was displayed alongside Amirah Uddin’s artwork (right), which received a special mention for its bold colours and multiple messages.
Beyza Gorur's winning artwork (left) and Amirah Uddin's special mention artwork (right) on display at the awards ceremony. Photo credit: Shellina Karmali.
Following the prize giving ceremony, the Ismaili Community Ensemble performed their song, Child of the Ocean, which was composed for Prince Hussain’s photography exhibition The Living Sea – Fragile Beauty, most recently displayed at the Ismaili Centre in London in September 2022. The captivating performance was a fitting end to the event, reminding those present of the importance of protecting our planet and the critical role young people will play to ‘be the change’ as the future of our planet hangs in the balance.
The entire illuminate team were hugely impressed by the desire and commitment of the young people who attended both events to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our time. The illuminate team welcome the winners as alumni and ambassadors and look forward to supporting the four winners as they progress in their academic careers.
Beyza Gorur receives her certificate
Monaza Husseini receives her certificate
Zalla Popalzai receives her certificate
Gema Torres receives her certificate
The Ismaili Community Ensemble perform ‘Child of the Ocean’
The winners, their families, and staff from ARK Academies
Naushad Jivraj, President, Ismaili National Council UK
Professor Nacim Pak-Shiraz, illuminate 2022 judge
Zuli Hassam, illuminate team member and AKF Project Lead for Prince’s Trust
Mahmood Ahmed, Chairman, AKF UK National Committee
Dr Gurdofarid Miskinzoda, Project Lead, illuminate
Photo credit: Aliraza Pandaniya.
Photos by Aliraza Pandaniya. Words by Kerensa Keevill.
https://www.akf.org.uk/illuminate-2022- ... 25c8c5fc8d
Re: THE YOUTH
NBC News
Meet the 23-year-old Indian American who flipped a Republican Illinois district
Sakshi Venkatraman
Fri, November 11, 2022 at 7:04 PM
Nabeela Syed, 23, came of age during the Trump administration. An Indian Muslim American who wears a hijab, she remembers the former president’s 2016 Election Day with perfect clarity. She was a a senior at her high school in Palatine, Illinois, and the racist, Islamophobic rhetoric being parroted around her sealed her first political memory.
“The day Trump got elected, I remember I cried in every single one of my classes,” she told NBC News. “I felt like this country was not for us. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I belong here.’ This is the only home I’ve ever known, and I was questioning whether or not I belonged here.”
Six years later, in November 2022, another election has come to mean something entirely different for Syed.
This year, her name was on the ballot to represent the Illinois General Assembly, and she won. In doing so, Syed flipped the Republican-held 51st District, in which she was born and raised. In January, she will become the youngest member of the assembly.
“It’s important for me — growing up in this community and knowing what it feels like to not belong — to make sure everyone feels like they do belong,” she said. “It’s a big moment for my family personally, and I hope it feels to other young people and to women of color that we can do this. We have space here.”
Her victory has led to an outpouring of support from all over the globe, and the news has gone viral on social media since the election.
“You broke the glass ceiling to pieces,” said one Indian American on Twitter.
Syed’s parents moved to Palatine from Hyderabad, India, in the 1980s. They came here looking for more opportunities, she said, and to establish a family in which their kids could thrive.
“I’m very grateful for all the sacrifices they made so that I could live here,” she said. “Never in their wildest dreams did they think that I would run for political office. And here I am running for office and winning, and it’s because of them…My mother said if I didn’t do it, who would?”
Her parents were not silent supporters either, she said. They were on the campaign trail, canvassing neighborhoods and spreading their pride and belief in their daughter.
“There were people that came up to me on Election Day, and they were like, ‘You look like your dad, he was knocking on doors in my neighborhood,’” she said. “We saw people that were lifelong Republicans, and my dad showed up at their doorstep…Seeing him there made them decide to vote for me.”
Nabeela Syed (Josh Ford)
Word about her win reached Indian news outlets, as well as U.S. ones, and Syed said her grandmother in particular was touched by the strides she’d made.
“My grandma was straight up sobbing,” Syed said. “She grew up in a completely different era, a completely different environment and culture. To see so many people support someone that looks like me was very very exciting and emotional for her.”
Spending time with her grandmother has instilled a deeply rooted care for her community in Syed, she said, and she’s proud a generation of South Asian women who lacked the support to pursue their dreams can watch that change.
“They’re the ones who have done so much so that I could be here today,” she said. “They’ve taken care of us.”
Like many Generation Zers, Syed grew up watching “Wizards of Waverly Place” and the Cartoon Network and fangirling over One Direction with her friends. She remembers when Twitter and Facebook became popular in middle school, and then when Instagram blew up in high school, but she never expected that within a decade, she’d be using those outlets to connect with her constituents.
After knocking on doors, Syed said she would ask community members to take a selfie with her on the campaign trail. Her social media accounts are full of these selfies, thanking the voters who spoke to her by name.
“That is what is necessary to make politics more palatable, to make campaigns more palatable and to make sure that we’re doing the work to listen to voters,” she said.
She campaigned on a platform of reproductive justice, gun reform and affordable health care, making prescriptions more affordable for those that need them. Social media helped her broadcast her messages louder than she could have hoped, she said. She’s now speaking to an audience of thousands, many of whom are other young South Asians who are looking to her as a leader of their generation.
“Your peers may not have looked like you, your culture is different, the food you bring to lunch, it might look different and smell different, your holidays are different,” she said. “I’m only 23, but I’ve grown a lot more comfortable in my identity. I’m honored to be a young South Asian.”
Her youth and the fact that she’s not far removed from her childhood allows her to recognize young voters’ experiences as her own, she said, and she’s working toward building an Illinois that makes space for everyone.
“This is just one story,” she said. “There are so many other young South Asian folks that are doing incredible things. Whether it’s politics, comedy, social media, medicine, it’s incredible to see how powerful this demographic is.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/me ... 27485.html
Meet the 23-year-old Indian American who flipped a Republican Illinois district
Sakshi Venkatraman
Fri, November 11, 2022 at 7:04 PM
Nabeela Syed, 23, came of age during the Trump administration. An Indian Muslim American who wears a hijab, she remembers the former president’s 2016 Election Day with perfect clarity. She was a a senior at her high school in Palatine, Illinois, and the racist, Islamophobic rhetoric being parroted around her sealed her first political memory.
“The day Trump got elected, I remember I cried in every single one of my classes,” she told NBC News. “I felt like this country was not for us. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I belong here.’ This is the only home I’ve ever known, and I was questioning whether or not I belonged here.”
Six years later, in November 2022, another election has come to mean something entirely different for Syed.
This year, her name was on the ballot to represent the Illinois General Assembly, and she won. In doing so, Syed flipped the Republican-held 51st District, in which she was born and raised. In January, she will become the youngest member of the assembly.
“It’s important for me — growing up in this community and knowing what it feels like to not belong — to make sure everyone feels like they do belong,” she said. “It’s a big moment for my family personally, and I hope it feels to other young people and to women of color that we can do this. We have space here.”
Her victory has led to an outpouring of support from all over the globe, and the news has gone viral on social media since the election.
“You broke the glass ceiling to pieces,” said one Indian American on Twitter.
Syed’s parents moved to Palatine from Hyderabad, India, in the 1980s. They came here looking for more opportunities, she said, and to establish a family in which their kids could thrive.
“I’m very grateful for all the sacrifices they made so that I could live here,” she said. “Never in their wildest dreams did they think that I would run for political office. And here I am running for office and winning, and it’s because of them…My mother said if I didn’t do it, who would?”
Her parents were not silent supporters either, she said. They were on the campaign trail, canvassing neighborhoods and spreading their pride and belief in their daughter.
“There were people that came up to me on Election Day, and they were like, ‘You look like your dad, he was knocking on doors in my neighborhood,’” she said. “We saw people that were lifelong Republicans, and my dad showed up at their doorstep…Seeing him there made them decide to vote for me.”
Nabeela Syed (Josh Ford)
Word about her win reached Indian news outlets, as well as U.S. ones, and Syed said her grandmother in particular was touched by the strides she’d made.
“My grandma was straight up sobbing,” Syed said. “She grew up in a completely different era, a completely different environment and culture. To see so many people support someone that looks like me was very very exciting and emotional for her.”
Spending time with her grandmother has instilled a deeply rooted care for her community in Syed, she said, and she’s proud a generation of South Asian women who lacked the support to pursue their dreams can watch that change.
“They’re the ones who have done so much so that I could be here today,” she said. “They’ve taken care of us.”
Like many Generation Zers, Syed grew up watching “Wizards of Waverly Place” and the Cartoon Network and fangirling over One Direction with her friends. She remembers when Twitter and Facebook became popular in middle school, and then when Instagram blew up in high school, but she never expected that within a decade, she’d be using those outlets to connect with her constituents.
After knocking on doors, Syed said she would ask community members to take a selfie with her on the campaign trail. Her social media accounts are full of these selfies, thanking the voters who spoke to her by name.
“That is what is necessary to make politics more palatable, to make campaigns more palatable and to make sure that we’re doing the work to listen to voters,” she said.
She campaigned on a platform of reproductive justice, gun reform and affordable health care, making prescriptions more affordable for those that need them. Social media helped her broadcast her messages louder than she could have hoped, she said. She’s now speaking to an audience of thousands, many of whom are other young South Asians who are looking to her as a leader of their generation.
“Your peers may not have looked like you, your culture is different, the food you bring to lunch, it might look different and smell different, your holidays are different,” she said. “I’m only 23, but I’ve grown a lot more comfortable in my identity. I’m honored to be a young South Asian.”
Her youth and the fact that she’s not far removed from her childhood allows her to recognize young voters’ experiences as her own, she said, and she’s working toward building an Illinois that makes space for everyone.
“This is just one story,” she said. “There are so many other young South Asian folks that are doing incredible things. Whether it’s politics, comedy, social media, medicine, it’s incredible to see how powerful this demographic is.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/me ... 27485.html
Teens Don’t Really Understand That the World Can See What They Do Online, but I Do
When Matthew McConaughey and his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, took to Instagram to jointly announce a new venture this summer, you might have expected it to be an upcoming film or a fledgling lifestyle brand. Their news was more unusual: the unveiling of an official Instagram account for their son Levi, which they were giving to him on his 15th birthday, long after many of his friends had signed up, they noted.
Celebrities have taken a wide array of approaches to granting their children access to social media — and thereby granting the public access to their children. Apple Martin, the daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, has always kept her Instagram private and once shamed her mother for publicly sharing a photo of her without her consent. DJ Khaled’s son has been on Instagram since shortly after birth. Whatever the approach, we’ve seen how easily personal revelations, flippant comments and family drama become fodder for public scrutiny and ridicule.
One of Ted Cruz’s teenage daughters became a viral sensation at age 13 after publicly disagreeing on TikTok with his political stances; a number of news outlets also latched on to her apparent disclosure that she was bisexual but not yet out to her parents. The teenage daughter of the political activist George Conway and the political adviser Kellyanne Conway went viral on TikTok and Twitter in 2020 for airing family conflicts, including a video she surreptitiously made of her mother yelling at her for airing family conflicts. And one night the daughter of the filmmaker Sofia Coppola and the musician Thomas Mars sneaked onto TikTok — a site, she noted in the video, she was explicitly barred from using — to talk about being grounded for using her dad’s credit card to try to charter a helicopter. She wasn’t worried, though; as she notes in the video, “TikTok’s not going to make me famous.” As it turned out, she was mistaken.
Whenever such a moment happens, the internet reacts gleefully to a rare peek into the private lives of someone famous, or fame-adjacent. Who doesn’t love to watch someone making an embarrassing blunder online? If the surreptitious peek happens to reveal something personal, private or embarrassing — well, the fault is theirs for posting it, right? After all, the internet is public.
Famous or not, teenagers today have never known a world without social media, so it’s easy to assume they just understand all the risks that come with making their personal lives public. But even for the most digitally savvy among us, it can be hard to conceptualize just what global visibility really means. This is especially true of teenagers, who are prone to risky behavior and bad judgment, and who are ill equipped to assess the potential impact of their actions. At a time when sites like TikTok have become the de facto way teenagers connect with friends, they’re much more likely to post a stray thought or embarrassing admission (or worse) with no consideration that it might end up capturing the attention of the world. I know this firsthand, because it happened to me.
In my own youth, way back at the turn of the millennium when I was an 18-year-old college student, I started sharing my personal life online. All of it. With the help of a webcam and a LiveJournal, I gave an audience access to every corner of my existence. If you wanted to, you could read about my relationship with my boyfriend; you could also watch the two of us having sex.
When I posted all of this stuff online, I technically understood that I was sharing the most intimate corners of my life with the public — that anyone could see what I had posted, even people I didn’t want to share it with. But on an emotional level, it was hard to comprehend just how public my posts actually were. My LiveJournal seemed obscure and hard to find, my webcam was locked behind a paywall, and I was sharing everything under a fake name. All of this helped me feel like the internet was my own private playground — one accessible to strangers but safely off limits to the people who actually knew me.
Of course, I was wrong, as I quickly learned. People I knew inevitably found my posts and they turned on me. Journal entries I’d seen as harmless recountings of college-age shenanigans were framed as hurtful gossip intended to sow discord and humiliate my peers. I may have been amassing a fan base, but it came at the expense of my real-life friends.
In the social media age, teenagers are more likely to suffer the opposite delusion: that their friends can see them online but the world can’t, or won’t care if it does. Yet again and again they’re proved wrong on both counts. So far, the big-picture protective measures championed by adults to shield teenagers have been legislative: laws like Louisiana’s HB 142 and Utah’s SB 152 and HB 311 that seek to limit kids’ access to the internet, either by mandating age verification for porn sites or imposing sharp restrictions on teenage social media use. But I don’t think we need to change the way teenagers interact with the internet. We need to change how the rest of us interact with online teenagers.
Ms. Coppola’s daughter, for example, deleted her video shortly after it began to go viral. It lived on only because adults, ranging from private citizens to legitimate news organizations, saved it, reuploaded it, shared it, wrote about it and mocked it. After all, the internet is public, right? That glib caveat may have started as a well-intentioned reminder for vulnerable users, but it has become a blanket justification for amplifying anything people find online, even if it’s been created by, or about, a child.
A kid clumsily practicing lightsaber moves? If you saw it in person, it would barely be worth paying attention to, let alone alerting your friends, and pointing and laughing would seem obviously cruel and gross. Yet when a video like this was uploaded in 2003 — around the time I was baring my soul to the world online — it quickly became one of the most viewed, and widely mocked, videos on the internet. If a politician’s daughter turns up at an in-person L.G.B.T.Q. youth group to discuss her sexuality, broadcasting it to the world would be a blatantly harmful act. But if she mentions it online in an unguarded moment, many people think nothing of amplifying that disclosure. In real life, we understand that teenagers deserve the space and privacy to be teenagers, free from mockery or public disdain. Why don’t we extend the same courtesy or display the same decency online?
The nonfamous among us can take a cue from the way celebrities approach this conundrum — after all, they have much more experience with the potentially scathing nature of the spotlight. Making a big deal of giving your child access to social media will, at the very least, help the kid understand that it’s a big step. One day that kid may make a public misstep. But the ultimate responsibility now lies with us, the people these kids encounter online, to give teenagers the space to explore their identities, to even make mistakes and mess up, without being party to their humiliation. We should be examples to them online, not perils lurking to pounce.
I’m fortunate that my own teenage mistakes happened when the internet was still relatively new. I never went truly viral, and the worst of the damage I experienced was confined to a relatively small blast radius. Yet 20 years later, I believe more than ever that we need to develop a new internet etiquette, one with a more nuanced understanding about what it means for anyone to post something in this “public” space. Teenagers especially deserve our consideration and our protection. If they post something mortifying, don’t repost. Don’t favorite. And definitely don’t download and repost. If you see it online, ask yourself what you’d do if you saw it in person. As we say to kids all the time: Make a better choice.
Lux Alptraum is a podcaster and the author of “Faking It: The Lies Women Tell About Sex — and the Truths They Reveal.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/11/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Acceptance and the Path to Accepting Your Current Circumstance
This Talk is about accepting our present situation. Life often brings surprises that are totally unexpected and sometimes they give us a new perspective on life. It is important to accept whatever comes our way in order to move beyond it.
Aman Ravji is a 17-year-old high school student who enjoys cycling, and playing soccer and video games. Recently diagnosed with a chronic illness, hospital visits and pain are part of his life. However, he chooses to live his life as fully as possible. Aman aims to share his journey with those who find themselves in difficult, and often unalterable, situations.
Facilitator: Yasmin Merchant
TED-Ed, TED's education initiative, inspires tomorrow's TED speakers and future leaders by supporting students in discovering, developing and sharing their big ideas in the form of short, TED-style talks. In the TED-Ed Student Talk program, students work together to discuss and celebrate creative ideas through TED-Ed's flexible curriculum. Check out https://ed.ted.com/student_talks if you're interested in getting started.
This presentation was completed by participating in a TED-Ed program and produced independently of the TED Conferences. Only approved participants are able to upload TED-Ed Student Talks.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyC0nU5mAUQ
Aman Rawji passed away. May his soul rest in eternal peace Ameen
Aman Ravji is a 17-year-old high school student who enjoys cycling, and playing soccer and video games. Recently diagnosed with a chronic illness, hospital visits and pain are part of his life. However, he chooses to live his life as fully as possible. Aman aims to share his journey with those who find themselves in difficult, and often unalterable, situations.
Facilitator: Yasmin Merchant
TED-Ed, TED's education initiative, inspires tomorrow's TED speakers and future leaders by supporting students in discovering, developing and sharing their big ideas in the form of short, TED-style talks. In the TED-Ed Student Talk program, students work together to discuss and celebrate creative ideas through TED-Ed's flexible curriculum. Check out https://ed.ted.com/student_talks if you're interested in getting started.
This presentation was completed by participating in a TED-Ed program and produced independently of the TED Conferences. Only approved participants are able to upload TED-Ed Student Talks.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyC0nU5mAUQ
Aman Rawji passed away. May his soul rest in eternal peace Ameen
Re: THE YOUTH
Australia Moves to Ban Young Teens From Social Media
The proposed legislation would put the country at the forefront of regulating social media access for children.
Australia has proposed a ban on teenagers from social media.Credit...David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Eve Sampson
Nov. 7, 2024
Australia wants to ban children from social media.
Far-reaching legislation announced on Thursday would make the platforms that are the lifeblood of many teenagers — among them TikTok — off limits to anyone under 16.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared at a news conference. “I’ve spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online.”
The proposed legislation, which puts Australia at the forefront of regulating social media access for children, would hold platforms accountable for enforcing the new rules, Mr. Albanese said. There will be no exemptions for children with parental permission, he said, but neither underage users nor their parents will face punishment for violations.
He said that the legislation would be introduced to the national cabinet at a meeting on Friday and that, if passed by Parliament, the new restrictions would take effect 12 months later.
Image
The Australian prime minister in a blue suit and red tie.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit...Mick Tsikas/Australian Associated Press
X, TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an open letter published last month, more than 100 experts and organizations in Australia and elsewhere acknowledged the serious risks posed by social media but raised reservations about keeping children from information and connections online that may help them develop.
“Any restrictions in the digital world must therefore be designed with care, and we are concerned that a ‘ban’ is too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively,” they wrote.
Experts say social media can be both positive and negative for children, depending on how they use it. But children’s undeveloped brains may make them especially sensitive to social feedback, and they may become overly preoccupied with securing “likes,” followers and comments from peers.
“Unfortunately, most kids are pushed to use social media simply to get followers,” said Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association. “They are likely to compare themselves to others. They are exposed to cyber-hate. They are often exposed to content that teaches them how to engage in unhealthy or dangerous or disordered behaviors.”
Dr. Prinstein said legislation like that proposed by Mr. Albanese may be a valuable interim measure.
“We really need the tech companies to make their products appropriate for kids, whose brains are in a really important period of development,” he said. “Until that happens, we may need policies like this to protect kids from the worst parts of social media.”
Mr. Albanese, the prime minister, said Thursday that he would meet soon with families, among them the parents of a 12-year-old Sydney girl who killed herself in September after being bullied, according to her parents.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/worl ... 778d3e6de3
The proposed legislation would put the country at the forefront of regulating social media access for children.
Australia has proposed a ban on teenagers from social media.Credit...David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Eve Sampson
Nov. 7, 2024
Australia wants to ban children from social media.
Far-reaching legislation announced on Thursday would make the platforms that are the lifeblood of many teenagers — among them TikTok — off limits to anyone under 16.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared at a news conference. “I’ve spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online.”
The proposed legislation, which puts Australia at the forefront of regulating social media access for children, would hold platforms accountable for enforcing the new rules, Mr. Albanese said. There will be no exemptions for children with parental permission, he said, but neither underage users nor their parents will face punishment for violations.
He said that the legislation would be introduced to the national cabinet at a meeting on Friday and that, if passed by Parliament, the new restrictions would take effect 12 months later.
Image
The Australian prime minister in a blue suit and red tie.
“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit...Mick Tsikas/Australian Associated Press
X, TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an open letter published last month, more than 100 experts and organizations in Australia and elsewhere acknowledged the serious risks posed by social media but raised reservations about keeping children from information and connections online that may help them develop.
“Any restrictions in the digital world must therefore be designed with care, and we are concerned that a ‘ban’ is too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively,” they wrote.
Experts say social media can be both positive and negative for children, depending on how they use it. But children’s undeveloped brains may make them especially sensitive to social feedback, and they may become overly preoccupied with securing “likes,” followers and comments from peers.
“Unfortunately, most kids are pushed to use social media simply to get followers,” said Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association. “They are likely to compare themselves to others. They are exposed to cyber-hate. They are often exposed to content that teaches them how to engage in unhealthy or dangerous or disordered behaviors.”
Dr. Prinstein said legislation like that proposed by Mr. Albanese may be a valuable interim measure.
“We really need the tech companies to make their products appropriate for kids, whose brains are in a really important period of development,” he said. “Until that happens, we may need policies like this to protect kids from the worst parts of social media.”
Mr. Albanese, the prime minister, said Thursday that he would meet soon with families, among them the parents of a 12-year-old Sydney girl who killed herself in September after being bullied, according to her parents.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/worl ... 778d3e6de3