Blogathon: #49 – WrapUp

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So this is the last post for the Blogathon! After our community projects on the tour, we would get together for a wrap-up session, which allowed us to process our experiences and share what we’ve learnt. So consider this a Blogathon wrap-up.
We managed to raise [...]

Blogathon: #48 – Songs Review 4

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So very near the end! Don’t miss out your chance to get exclusive Up With People tracks just for a simple sponsorship!
With Everything Changing – another Carpenters/ballad!ABBA-esque folky song wondering if anything ever stays the same; the subject matter’s rather different from all the other [...]

Blogathon: #47 – Songs Review 3

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We’re nearly at the end! We still need sponsorships though, and as I promised, any verified and proven donations get Up With People tracks for every $20. This post and the next will give more details on the songs you can choose from:
Keep The Beat [...]

Blogathon: #46 – In The News

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I get regular Google alerts whenever Up With People makes the news somewhere. Most of the time it’s just the string “up with people”, which doesn’t mean anything to me. Sometimes it’s something being compared to Up With People (i.e. it’s “shiny-happy-strange” reputation). Once in [...]

Blogathon: #42 – The Show

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Thank you Naoko for covering for me for the part hour!
I was just at a meeting for our college dorm – there’s a Dancefest happening soon and they want as many people in it as possible. They showed videos of the previous Dancefest entries (theirs [...]

Blogathon: #35 – Songs Review 2

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Here are more reviews of the Up With People songs I have on offer in exchange for sponsorships and donations:
Does It Really Matter? – Listening to it right now. It’s one of a handful of songs that reference or sample Martin Luther King’s speech. The [...]

Blogathon: #34 – Songs Review

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If I’m going to be offering songs for donations, I might as well tell you what the songs are about! So here’s the first set of the Songs Review:
Ayiko – an African-influenced, very upbeat song about working together as a community (”Ayiko” means “to pull [...]

Blogathon: #33 – Oh The Memories

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I just got this in my Google Alerts: Simon Gade’s photos of the current UWP tour. Simon is one of the road staff on tour with Cast A this year.
I travelled with some of the people in the photos…DeeAnn, Danni…helped Kerri-Ann our in April…sigh, sweet [...]

Blogathon: #32 – What I Strive For 2

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The link led to a website for the “WorldSmart Leadership Program”, which I gathered at the time to be an off-shoot of Up With People. The website advertised international travel, community service, and leadership training. Googling Up With People turned up information on their history [...]

Blogathon: #31 – What I Strive For

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The Blogathon front page has this question now:
What do you most strive for in your life: accomplishment, security, love, power, excitement, knowledge, or something else?
Let me explain this by writing a little bit about how I got involved in alternative education.
School was a mixed bag [...]

Blogathon: #29 – The People I Know 2

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Here’s some more highlights of the superstars that are my WorldSmart August 2005 crew:
Eli is from Ecuador but is based in Jordan now. She, like Myoungshin and Elizabeth, is also working with the United Nations, and I think she too is [...]

Blogathon: #24 – Re-Entry Shock

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Lorelle suggested I write more about re-entry shock – “culture shock” that happens when you go back home after your long trip (whether with Up With People, or some other study abroad program, or some form of international travelling). [...]

Blogathon: #23 – How Else To Help Up With People?

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There are more ways to help out Up With People, not just through monetary donations! Here’s how:
Apply as a student – Up With People aims to have around 100 people per cast starting 2007 – that could be between 200-400 people for the whole of [...]

Blogathon: #21 – Life Philosophies

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One very memorable Community Impact project we did during my WorldSmart tour was in Antwep, Belgium. Called “Life Philosophies”, this project had us exploring different faiths by visiting their houses of worship and talking to them about what they believe in.
We started off with a [...]

Blogathon: #19 – The People I Know

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Earlier I had posted a tribute to my WorldSmart August 2005 crew for our one-year anniversary. My crew consists of some of the most amazing people I have ever known; people with dreams, with ambitions, with goals. Here’s a sampling.
Katie is an aspiring performer and [...]