Students For Change
Students for Change is an association of students dedicated to promoting sustainable development and direct action that delivers humanitarian aide around the globe. Students for Change works in association with Partnerships For Change, a 501 (c )3, a non-profit working with the United Nations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The Millennium Development Goals set a target for ending severe and chronic poverty by 2025. We participate with and support One.org to “Make Poverty History” and most recently, on October 15, 2006 helped set a world record for people around the world (22 million) “Standing Up” against global poverty.
Students for Change is a new association and in its early formation. New projects may be added by the initiative of the student leaders. Garrett Hooper, of Towson, Maryland, a high school student, is the inspiration for Students For Change. A friend of his died recently, and he dedicated himself to make a difference in the world after that experience.
Students For Change began their work in Chennai, India. Students, who happened also to be television stars and singers with Disney, wanted to provide relief to those directly impacted by the Tsunami in India. They raised money through a series of concerts and then delivered the funds to a school that was being re-built. Within six months of their donation, the construction of the free school for many of the kids from the slums most impacted by the Tsunami was complete.
Students For Change is helping raise awareness, developing and fund the following projects around the globe. The next Students for Change trip is scheduled for 27 December 2006 to 9 January 2007 in Chennai, India.
INDIA
http://bonsecoursconvent.homestead.com
1.Creating a Women Resource Center in the Sendivakkam Village (70 Kilometers from Chennai, India) for women of the lowest caste in India. Ten sewing machines have been installed in a rented how where vocational training is now underway in a rented facility. Funds continue to be raised to build the Women’s Resource Center.
CAMBODIA
http://etsaw.homestead.com
2.Supporting an Orphannage and Vocational School called the Palm Tree Foundation in Cambodia. Developing a Ecological Trade System to Alleviate Waste (ETSAW) in Cambodia that uses a new finance model to self-generate funds to build a sustainable community from diverse crops with high value on the international market.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
http://www.partnershipsforchange.org/DoKyotoNow.html
3.The Kyoto Proto Now Campaign in the United States purpose is to develop public support to address climate change and place a limit on greenhouse gas emissions emitted in the United States. Kyoto Proto Now began in Kyoto, Japan with an intern that had spent time in the United States.
ISRAEL
http://shaharoot.kfar-olami.org.il/eilat2/IndexE.htm
4.Common Path – Education Club links Israeli Jews and Arabs and Palestinian students through ecological projects about water, and natural resources. Indirectly, the relations for a peaceful Israel are being built.
NEPAL
http://www.himalayankids.org
5. Students For Change supports CED International and Lama Tenzin Choegyal, a Tibetan monk living in India, who rescues abandoned children in the Dolpo region of western Nepal. Braving Maoist guerillas and some of the highest inhabited Himalayan villages, children are brought to live and go to school in Dehradun, India.
For more information on projects that Students For Change can take part in see http://www.partnershipsforchange.com and/or contact Garrett Hooper at kpshooper@aol.com or Andrew Michael at Andrew@partnershipsforchange.com
More background on Students For Change
Return to Homepage, Partnerships For Change
The Jeffersonian
Towson Maryland 02/02/07
There was a time when Towson High School junior Garrett Hooper spent his holidays partying or hanging out at the mall. But Hooper, who recently started a foundation called Students for Change, says those days are over.
The Towson resident spent the 2006-07 holiday season in India with his mother, laying the groundwork for his new foundation.
The two toured a Hindu prayer center and a hospital and delivered donated puppets to kids in an orphanage. They also participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for a new vocational and empowerment center for women of India's lowest caste of "untouchables."
Garrett Hooper said the trip gave him his first real look at poverty and how humanitarian groups are working successfully to break this cycle of poverty.
It also completely rearranged his world view.
"I think I learned more life lessons in India than I've ever learned here, where we take so much for granted," he said. "You really don't believe the poverty until you see it."
Hooper, along with his mother, Kathy, a real estate broker, created Students for Change as a vehicle for fulfilling his ambition of "making a difference" while also motivating his friends and fellow students to follow a similar path.
"It's all about empowering students to better the world, as corny as that sounds," he said.
Garrett has lofty plans for Students for Change. He'd like to forge partnerships with other nonprofit organizations and foundations and bring in guest speakers to inform members firsthand about various humanitarian efforts under way around the world.
Eventually, he'd like to organize an essay contest for student members of his foundation. The prize would be a free trip to the nation of the winner's choice to work on behalf of a humanitarian cause of his or her choice. The money to pay for the trip will come from corporate and private donations, he hopes.
"We will leave the meetings open to students who may have their own personal causes, and we will try to help them out," Hooper said.
For the time being, he is concentrating on spreading word about his foundation, organizing recruitment meetings and creating an atmosphere in which young people can start thinking seriously about public service and helping those in need.
"The plan at first is to meet every two weeks and talk about current events," he said. "Then it's up to them to decide what our agenda will be.
Kathy Hooper said Garrett has always had a generous streak, even when he was a little boy.
"He was always altruistic," she said. "We were always wondering what we could do, how we could help, but until now we never followed through."
Garrett first got the idea of starting his own foundation through Jacqueline Miller, a friend of his mother's who is co-founder and president of Partnerships for Change, a San Francisco- based nonprofit organization that promotes social and economic advancement around the world through humanitarian action and sustainable development.
Partnerships for Change has donated more than $1 million worth of computers, sewing machines and other items to schools, hospitals and orphanages in Cambodia and India, including the orphanage and hospital the Hoopers visited on their trip to India.
Miller and Kathy Hooper were friends and schoolmates at Roland Park Country School and Hooper serves on Partnerships for Change's board of directors.
When Miller learned that Garrett wanted to start a student version of Partnerships for Change, she arranged for him to visit the United Nations. The two of them had lengthy discussions about how to get high school students to buy into the notion of helping those less fortunate.
In India, Garrett took photos of the intense poverty he and his mother saw. He also documented programs launched by Partnerships for Change to break that cycle of poverty. Garrett posted his photos in a gallery on the Web site Facebook as a recruitment tool of sorts.
"When I went away, I told 12 or 15 people about where I was going," he said. "When I came back there were a hundred people who'd looked at my photos and wanted to know more about it.
Garrett said young people need to realize that with just a little effort and generosity they can make people's lives better.
"Any student who has a heart can participate in this organization," he said. "A little bit often goes a long way over in a place like India."
E-mail Bob Allen at BobAllen@patuxent.com
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