TRANSFORMING KYRGYZSTAN, ONE SCHOOL AT A TIME
"On a daily basis, we try to see the enthusiasm with which the kids are in school: if they are happy, if they are signing up for extracurricular activities like chess, talking club, and summer camps. We track the exchange program admittances, and our kids get selected for highly competitive exchange programs."
FOSTERING EXCELLENCE IN THE ARAB WORLD—AND BEYOND
"Finding role models was a challenge at the beginning, because using role models and one’s story to empower others is such a new concept in the region. Most of the time we at Arab Excellence focus on the end result. But in this region, we don't want to talk about our achievements or story—because it means you're showing off. We have to change this mindset because, at the end of the day, some members of the young generations end up getting inspired by the wrong role models such as criminals or terrorist guys who lead them to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS."
LINH DOAN ON EMPOWERING YOUTH IN VIETNAM
"We are addressing two main issues. First, in Vietnam, there's no program in the summer for college students, so mostly they just go back home. It's not like in the U.S. when you have summer school program or internships—there's nothing to do there. There aren’t even many student clubs in universities."
FROM THE HEART: SPANDANA CHILDREN’S HOME
"One day we found an abandoned girl on the roadside—she was a mentally challenged child who could not speak. This child was on the streets for three days, abandoned by her family. She didn’t have anyone to take care of her; she was very dirty and didn’t have toilet training. We picked up the child and took her to one of the homes run for mentally challenged children"
DANIEL ROSE ON U.S. CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
"The private, for-profit prison industry today runs 130 private prisons containing 157,000 beds, with some 6% of all state prisoners and 16% of federal prisons. They take in some $4 billion a year, with great profits. And they spend millions a year lobbying fiercely in support of candidates who favor longer minimum mandatory sentences, stricter anti-parole regulations, more and longer imprisonment of anyone for any reason."
SUSTAINABILITY, COMMITMENT, AND THE VOLUNTEER SPIRIT
"The marketplace in business requires that you have to be financially sustainable. This factor is why corporations tend to be much sharper in the way they are managed. What CELA stands for now, in terms of the broader human aspect, is no different than it was when it was started."
ENVISIONING ALTERNATIVE FUTURES
"The future of countries, organizations, and individuals will not happen in a “vacuum”—that is, their futures will not be determined solely by a narrow set of parameters isolated from developments in the larger world around them. Nor will their destinies be simply of their own making or a result of navigating their immediate economic, political, or social ecosystem."
EDUCATIONAL RELIEF IN THE SYRIAN CONFLICT ZONE
"By now we are all too familiar with the nightmarish figures: 3.9 million displaced Syrians, with thousands more fleeing every day, are in exile in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt, where they see no prospects for returning home in the near future; have few opportunities to restart their lives; and in many cases, struggle to survive."
