Pittsford, N.Y., high school juniors Jared Whitaker and Drew Redish have always loved two things: skiing and helping others. So they founded the charitable group SSWISH, which stands for Skiers and Snowboarders Wish to Make a Difference. For their first project they raised money for Oasis Adaptive Sports, a non-profit that provides outdoor adventures and sporting activities to disabled veterans. On January 17, SSWISH held a “Ski-Lay”–a relay race on skis–at Bristol Mountain north of Rochester, during which costumed teams, including one wearing tutus and Mardi Gras beads, competed and raised money for Oasis. According to SSWISH’s Facebook page, adaptive equipment used to help disabled veterans learn how to ski was also on hand. Reddish told Stacey Pensgen of WROC, “Jared and I have always kind of been interested in helping veterans in some way, but we’re like, ‘we’re teenagers, what can we really do?’ so we decided to target something that we love, skiing.” The success of their Ski-Lay proves there’s plenty that teenagers can do to help vets.
Tag: teenagers
What Are All Those Teens Doing on Their Phones? Learning About Politics, Apparently
Researchers have long known that political engagement among young people increases with socioeconomic status—the more privileged the person, the more likely they are to participate in civic matters. But is there another force more powerful than money when it comes to getting young people to engage with the political process? A new study suggests that there is: social media. Young people of any economic background who used social media were more likely to be politically engaged than those who did not.
Michael Xenos of the University of Wisconsin, Ariadne Vromen of the University of Sydney, and Brian D. Loader of the University of York studied political engagement among young people in the United States, Australia and Great Britain. They surveyed a representative sample of people aged 16 to 29 in each country, asking about social media use and acts of civic and political engagement. (They did not ask about voting.) In their study published in Information, Communication & Society, they write, “We find a strong, significant, and robust positive relationship between social media use and political engagement.”
They also write, “Stated plainly, our results suggest that if one were seeking an efficient single indicator of political engagement among young people in the countries studied here, social media use would appear to be as good as, or better than, SES [socioeconomic status].” So watch out—those teenagers using Snapchat and Instagram today might fuel a new wave of political engagement tomorrow.
MORE: Meet the Undocumented Immigrants Who Created an App to Press for Immigration Reform
To Restore Water to the Colorado River, All These Teens Had to Do Was Send a Text
Change the Course is working to restore water to the Colorado River, which flows through seven thirsty states. Part of the nonprofit’s mission is to get young people involved with the cause, so they set up partnerships with donors who give money for every text they receive. As seen in this video, Christian McGuinn recently motivated young people attending We Day in Minnesota to text RIVER to 77177 and make a pledge to add their voices in support of water conservation. Partner organizations agreed to donate enough money to restore 1,000 gallons to the Colorado River Basin for each text received. At We Day in Seattle in March, teenagers’ texts restored 7 million gallons to the river. With the money from the pledges, Change the Course funds new irrigation methods, upgrades equipment to reduce water loss, and helps communities with the legal costs associated with water leases.
Source: National Geographic News Watch