Introductions

I'll begin with some background information on me:

I'm a current undergraduate student at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, studying Philosophy and Math with the hopes of becoming a lawyer and doing policy advocacy. Sometime recently, I've chosen a "cause": global education. This might require some explanation.

The "global" aspect is easy to explain: my heritage and my childhood existed in all corners of the world. At the age of ten, I traveled to India for the first time, and got a glimpse of social problems that plague the developing world in ways that America does not see. If I am to act to help the most in need, my issue will be an international one.

Ever since I wanted to be a lawyer, which was around age 11, I've known I wanted to represent children. This likely had to do initially with the fact that I was reading The Client by John Grisham, but it was accentuated by the lack of official representation I was awarded in my parent's divorce proceedings. However, I soon learned that I had a comparably good situation: kids all across New Mexico (my home state) were abused by their parents, abused by the schools, and neglected by the legal system.

As I got to internship-age, I was able to delve into a few facets of children's law. I had several wonderful mentors that were able to teach me about the issues facing local children as immigrants, students, foster care children, juvenile delinquents, children with disabilities, and children trying to get away from an unhealthy home. I learned how to do policy research, how to address law makers, how to define a "best practice," how to make an argument. 

Somewhere in between trying to decide on a college, trying to achieve something with my volunteer advocacy, and trying to initiate myself into adulthood, I began studying philosophy. Not only did this end up determining my major, and much of my intellectual enjoyment since, but it also enabled me to narrow my cause to advocating for the education of kids. No famous philosopher will dispute that education alone can change someone's way of thinking - hopefully for the better - and, for many, the ultimate goal of education is to perpetuate the existence of a more synchronized society. Just this morning, I read in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, "We need to have had the appropriate upbringing... to make up find enjoyment or pain in the right things; for this is the correct education" (1104b11-13). Aristotle argues briefly that it is this education that teaches us human virtue, the key to happiness individually and socially. If education can bring about this greater good, then education will be my cause.

So now we have an issue that is international, related to children, and in support of education. I best justify this by another quote, this time from Simone de Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity: "The constructive activities of man take on a valid meaning only when they are assumed as a movement toward freedom" (80). Beauvoir planted the seed for my own conception of freedom - I am only as free as the least-free person. And so I move to make that person free. Moreover, the freedoms that are tied to money, to food, to healthcare can all be reduced to increasing the quality and accessibility of education. Once again, my cause is justified.

My work is now just beginning: This past week I returned from a youth advocacy training in D.C. hosted by the Global Campaign for Education's U.S. chapter, with a fervor to spread awareness and share my thoughts. Last week, I was appointed one of A World at School's Global Youth Ambassadors, with instructions to get the word out. And so now I have a blog.