Group of Student Ambassadors with Guest Speaker

Group of Student Ambassadors with Guest Speaker

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Minutes-Feb 5 2009

Introductions
Present: Jason Abbott, Samantha Dolat, Jennifer Chevinsky, Nikki Rubin, Romana Heider, Dan Lin, Alana, Sharielle Applewhite, Adan Abbey, Hanna Etim-Gorst, Erinn Arbelaez, Stephanie Guirand, Allison Lex, Amanda Ploch, Simon Haley, Kara O'Brien, Rafael Pérez-Segura, Pronoma Srivastava, Shefali Mamak
Hoodies-Money must be in by Monday at UNESCO Office-$28.52
Art and Justice event: The Art of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
  • meet on Friday at 3 PM in the Office of the UNESCO Chair
  • Amanda, Hannah, Nikki, Erinn, Romana, Rafael, Kara, Shefali, Pronoma
  • leave by 3 PM Friday
If interested in Middle School, e-mail schedule by Sunday evening to unescoambassador@uconn.edu
  • sample workshop online
Discussion- Promises, ideas
  • highly thought of
  • some reservations on being out-of-date
  • Many view points represented
  • Hamas
    • Shown very favorably
    • doesn't address voting in of Hamas
  • will we be able to handle being apolitical on topic?
  • Erinn explains background behind Gaza-Israel video screening event
  • Jenn offers idea of seeing Israeli-Palestinian children together
    • Everyone please take a look at the website: www.onevoicemovement.org
    • Israeli and Palestinian youth leaders coming Feb 28th-March 5th
    • member leader for promises/onevoice movement=Erinn
  • advertising
    • advertise really well
    • emphasize humanitarian issue
    • Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
  • Romana brings up idea of panel discussions
    • make fact oriented
  • Adan
    • Facts not agreed on by all sides
Daniel Lin and Barnaba Institute
  • Asking to have a student endorse a play about Prostitution
  • Around April 24th (but not the 24th)
  • Institute would pay for space and plane ticket, but not necessarily for rooms at a hotel
MMS Workshops
  • Literacy Around the World-definite workshop for this semester
  • Ideas
    • consistently talk about UNUDHR, Convention on the Rigths of the Child
    • awareness->acceptance->understand->involvement/action (giving options, what you can do)
    • be very specific
    • child labor
    • 3 facilitators
    • Base workshops on Millennium Development Goals
      • End Poverty and hunger
      • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
      • Universal Education
      • Gender Equality
      • Environmental Sustainability
      • Global Partnerships
      • Child Health
      • Maternal Health
Prison and Human Rights-Amanda Ploch
  • Doing bible study at Correctional Facility near UConn Depot Campus
    • volunteered in South Africa at a detention center
    • has learned a lot about inmate's lives
  • Recidivism
    • real problem, many get out and come back again
    • no better or worse off than when inmates first came in
    • people need tools once they get out of prison
  • Why do prisoners deserve taxpayer money to learn when our own schools don't have enough money?
    • very difficult question
    • answer unclear
  • Discussion
    • Sharielle- Who people hang around with once out of prison has a lot to do with how much chance they have of going back
      • to answer about who deserves taxpayer money, it should be who wants it more.
      • idea-network of organizations that specialize in hiring back people who were imprisoned or wrongfully accused of something  
      • has relative that has had to deal with the stigma of going to jail now that he's out
    • Hannah
      • prisoners dynamic in personalities
      • asks: more expensive to keep people in jail than to educate them?
        • Jail per capita costs $22,000, education costs will pay themselves back over and over again
    • Amanda
      • no continuity between prison system and transition to society
      • Would choose to educate the person in prison because person in jail to begin with because law abiding student would generally have a better chance to figure stuff out
    • Dan
      • clarification-recidivism means going back to jail, not necessarily back to crime 
    • Adan
      • American prisons a shame
      • US holds self to higher standards
      • people come back many times worse than before.
    • Shefali
      • many prisoners sometimes encouraged to do crime again out of desperation
      • change is difficult
    • Simon
      • Asks: What actually happens when people get released? 
        • Amanda answers: Programs about only a year long, not enough time for most people to adapt again
      • Ask: Government incentives to have companies rehire people who have proved themselves out of prison
        • Amanda answer: doesn't really know, but it seems like a good idea. 
          • there actually is a bakery that hires many ex-convicts who actually stay there
      • important to recognize when ex-convicts are really willing to make change their ways

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