Welcome to my Blog

WELCOME TO MY BLOG................

The United Nations Website for reporting on the Millennium Development Goals (www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) reports that more than one billion people live in hunger and extreme poverty. Over 32 million children are out of school. In addition to an increased likelihood of being out of school as compared to boys, girls face gender discrimination that leads to lower earning, increased illness and violent crimes. The likelihood of a child dying before its first birthday is 8 times higher for those in developing countries than for those in developed countries, and 13 times higher for the bottom billion of the population. Maternal health, labor and sex trafficking, access to clean water, HIV/AIDS, and environmental sustainability each bear grim statistics that call for action, and perhaps the hardest of all to acknowledge, is that 24,000 children in developing countries die preventable deaths every day.

The purpose of this blog is to provide information related to understanding these issues and to provide multiple resources to enable readers of this blog to take individual action. The blog will also provide updates on current activities and partnerships addressing these issues as well as some “catch up” backstories as many have asked about the path that brought me to my current passion to address social injustices and the belief that real progress is not only possible it's essential and although many of the issues are complex there are many tangible and specific things that can be done now to reduce the suffering and improve the lives of literally billions of people.


Champions Education Association (CAE) - Taiwan


Background on Pepperdine Social Entrepreneurship and Change (SEC)Master's Program International Experience
Every student in the SEC program participates in an international project during the fourth term of the program.  Students from my cohort will be going to Uganda, the Congo, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, India, Nicarauga, and Honduras just to name a few.  They will be interning and researching social issues in alignment with their passion and calling including women's rights, human trafficking, poverty, sustainable community devleopment, animal rights, and education. When I began the SEC program I thought I would be visiting one of World Vision’s rural Area Development Projects in a developing country I had never visited for my international assignment.  But with encouragement from Dean Weber, and inspiration from my cohort teammates, I decided to stretch a bit further and partner with an organization that was unknown to me.  I feel blessed to have taken that route as I am very excited about the opportunity to undertake my international project working with Champions Education Association in Taiwan.

Champions History

On a visit to Taiwan in 1990 Steve and Vicky Long recognized a disturbing social issue in young people who were turning to designer drugs, not for an entertainment high, but to remain competitive in their school studies, and unfortunately often leading to addictions.  They were deeply touched and troubled by the situation they observed and after returning home to California and meeting a group in Hollywood who had produced a positive messaged film called Champions, the Long’s purchased the rights to the film and began using it as a “just say no to drugs presentation” in Taiwan.  In the following year the Long’s began creating and delivering a values based curriculum to students in Taiwan.  From 4 volunteers and 200 students in 1991 the Long’s have grown Champions to 50 paid staff and 5500 volunteers aged 18-93 serving more than 170,000 students. 

Champions Future 

The Champions curriculum has been exceptionally well received by students, administrators, and government officials. Over the years the curriculum and application has evolved and now addresses issues of gender education, anti-bullying, freedom through forgiveness, and fear resolution.  University level curriculum is currently being developed and taught, and the potential for significant expansion exists as the Taiwan government is in the process of initiating mandated service learning programs and 37 other countries are now interested in Champions.

Pepperdine SEC Project
I have met with Dr. Long and his wife Vicky a few times on the phone and over the course of a couple of hours of conversation I believe we are finding intersections of passion in education, values based education, values based foundations in curriculum design and content, college partnerships, and regional transformation through education. Another area of alignment is in the broad desire to see replicable education programs created and implemented across Asia. I'm hesitant to narrow the scope of our work together to a specific one of these areas at this point because I believe we will be better positioned to do that after spending more time together discussion the program.  I will be making my first trip to visit the Longs in Taiwan in early December and will spend time with students, volunteers, staff, and the Long’s themselves getting an immersion experience in Champions.

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