“Why is education so important? Education is a self-enlightening process. It is an important component of life. Education is knowledge gain.” Education is power.
Every time I think about why education is so important, I remember when I was young; growing up with hardship and striving to attend school, I believed that education would help me to have a better life. Once I finished college, it lead me to have an opportunity to land a better paying job, a job that lead me to the career I love and the pay I want.
“Education is important because it prepares us with all we need to make our dreams come true. Education opens the opportunities of great careers. It brings out better prospects in career and growth.” Nowadays, we’re not talking about high-school graduate, associate graduate, not even college graduate. Corporate America is now talking about MBA graduates to be competitive in the market place. All companies of today’s business world require prospective employees to be well educated.
“Schools and colleges define the basic framework of education. Schooling gives us the fundamentals, whereas we specialize in fields of our interest during the degree courses. But education does not end here. It is a lifelong process. Self-learning begins at the point that marks the end of institutional education.” Education is not about mathematic equations, scientific formulas, English literature and poems in textbooks. Education is the process of continuous experience – continuous learning. It is about what we learn through our experience. Education is lessons of life.
Work cited: Oak, Manali (2008). Why is Education so Important?
Too often, the debate about the state of Americans’ health focuses exclusively on lifestyle choices and individual decisions. We know that is only part of the story. Increasingly, neighborhoods, schools and workplaces limit access to healthy food and physical exercise. Yet, we are beginning to see that multi-sector collaboration is creating healthier environments.
Over the past three years, Kaiser Permanente has worked with our community partners on a project called Photovoice (http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/inthecommunity/2009/062609photovoice.html). Through Photovoice, residents are learning the basics of photojournalism and advocacy to create stories to promote social change. We have now released a video that showcases some of their amazing work and how it has resulted in important changes in their communities.
As the community voices highlighted in the Photovoice video show, the infrastructure in our communities too often impedes what used to be a simple way for children to exercise – walking or biking to school. Each of us has the power to drive awareness and action around creating safe places for kids to play and go to school, and encourage walking and biking to reduce childhood obesity rates.
Today is International Walk to School Day. I hope you took part in some way. If you joined in, please take a few moments to share your thoughts or pictures about the day here on this Safe Routes to School events page (http://www.facebook.com/kpthrive#/event.php?eid=160358436201&ref=mf).
Good health care is not a privilege. With 47 million Americans uninsured and the battle over Universal Health care at a fevered pitch, we all have to step in and help get a Universal Health care bill passed. Let’s remember, Health care reform isn’t just about getting insurance for the uninsured. It’s about improving the cost and coverage of insurance for the majority of people who do have health care insurance. During the month of August, there will be huge battles waged by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to prevent health care reform and to ensure that they can continue to reap huge profits at our expense.
We need to help mobilize our communities to understand how the Universal health care plan affects our families and communities. We need to call our legislators, sign petitions, and put pressure on our elected officials to get their support. President Obama is fighting our battle for us and calling on each one of us to let our legislators know how we demand support for affordable health care for everyone. Many of our legislators are treating health care like it’s a political football, or a game they’re playing to leverage their power. Reach out to your friends and families and together let’s make the Health care change happen now. Let’s talk to our college students, family members and community groups and ask them to get involved. We will be continuing a series of articles to keep you abreast of these issues and ways that you can take personal action and get your voices and votes counted!
If you want to do something now in August, go to: http://my.barackobama.com/CommitAugust and find out what Organizing for America is doing in your community and sign up to attend an event. Let’s all make Health care reform our priority!
A group of 26 women gathered at Flo and Ed Wong’s beautiful home Wednesday evening for the second Engage Her Silicon Valley Circle meeting. Multicultural women from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds gathered to meet, share, contribute and bond with one another. Crossing cultural lines and opening up their hearts and minds they were determined to step out of their traditional “silos” and connect with one another in a powerful, meaningful way.
The opportunity for positive change is upon us. Women are stepping up, taking leadership roles and engaging the community to take action in big and small ways. There are issues on a global and national scale. And there are issues in our own backyard. It is clear that there are many challenges ahead in regards to the economy, jobs, the environment, education, healthcare, civil liberties, immigration and more. But together, we can start the movement to change, one circle at a time.
I look forward to the next Engage Her Silicon Valley Circle in September (to be announced).
