Online Education & Careers

Take Time to Make a Difference

May 13th, 2008

Service | Classes Online

So often in this blog, I talk about how to get a better job, make more money, and move up the ladder. As important as it is to pay your bills and have a secure future, you want your life to be about more than just the daily grind and accumulating things. Research has found that the happiest people are those who reach out and help others. In hopes of attaining this happiness, more and more people are striking out to make a living while making a difference.

Increasing numbers of workers are leaving their careers in the private or public sectors to make the world a better place. Their skills are invaluable to growing and enhancing the organizations they work in. Some join existing non-profits or new growth organizations (NGOs), humanitarian organizations that use business for-profit models to help the needy. Some just start their own.

Rock superstar Bono started his Red campaign to combat AIDS in Africa, partnering with companies like Gap and Apple. Every time a RED product was sold by a partner, the proceeds from that sale went to develop treatments for AIDS victims in Africa.

An American housewife, shocked by the mistreatment of lepers in India, started an organization to treat their illness, provide them with microcredit and work skills, and even educate their children.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, a Manhattan stockbroker vowed to make the world a better place and started a NGO that would provide health and educational services to impoverished children in rural South America.

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Opportunities to reach out to others are more plentiful than ever, and you don’t have to be Bill Gates to make a difference. With devastating natural disasters worldwide (earthquakes in China, cyclones in Myanmar, etc.), relief organizations will need all the help they can get, from donations to volunteers. The internet makes it easy to find causes to get involved in. If you’re the entrepreneurial type, you can start your own NGO. To get started, I recommend visiting the following sites:

Idealist.org – search for jobs with non-profits, NGOs, etc. Network with other do-gooders.

Unicef.org – Unicef provides funding to various smaller NGOs. A good place to start!

WANGO.org – One of the most comprehensive directories of NGOs worldwide.

If you can’t commit to a full-on career change, consider spending time on your weekends or nights in the beginning. In the end, you will be glad there was more to show for your life than just a regular paycheck.

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career advice, humanitarian, job advice, service

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5 Lamest Mascots

May 12th, 2008

Lame College Mascots | Online Degrees

Some mascots are symbols of power and prowess, like the USC Trojan or the LSU Tiger. And, um, some aren’t. Going instead for cuteness or humor has left some schools with less-than-cool mascots. These mascots provide comic relief (Isn’t that what drunk, fat guys are for?), but I pity the football team that has to march out onto the field behind one of these. You would almost have to be extra fierce to make up for a big dorky toadstool or a rainbow colored whatchamacallit. If you ask me, lame mascots really get your team off on the wrong foot in the intimidation department.

Some glaring examples of lame mascots appear below. I hereby petition, in the interest of the sports teams that must be represented by these sorry ambassadors, that these mascots be removed and replaced by something cool. The five lamest college mascots are:

1. The Evergreen State College Geoduck - A geoduck is a mollusk with a bizarre tube protruding from its shell to propel it through the water. The geoduck, although the longest living mollusk in the world, is seriously lacking in the intimidation department. The costumed geoduck used at sporting events is no improvement on the boring creature.

2. The Ohio State Buckeye - A buckeye is a kind of nut. That’s right, a nut. True, it’s a tough nut to crack, but it’s still just a nut. Their costumed mascot is a hearty-looking fellow with a buckeye nut head- it looks like someone wearing one of those dog attack suits.

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3. The Stanford Tree - Christmas trees may say alot of things, like ‘love’, ‘family,’ ‘the holidays’, and so on. But one thing they don’t say is, "Prepare for hell, you miserable cretins. Today you meet your maker!" The crooked eyes and loopy red lips don’t help either.

4. The Syracuse Orange - See all of the reasons in number 2.

5. The Saint Louis Milliken - If you’re wondering what a Milliken is, join the club. Milliken’s are an imaginary race of otherworldly creatures dreamed up, literally, by some lady. How they became a college mascot is beyond me. Can we expect to see Smurfs or TellyTubbies grace the sidelines? Heaven forbid.

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