Sunday, March 6, 2011

It's coming together

I made additional progress this week in many ways. 

Firstly, I purchased my plane ticket (I will be flying to Geneva on May 15 and flying home on August 8). Finalizing these dates will really help move the process along, as WOW will be able to more concretely set up my grassroots project and know what conferences and events I will be able to attend. Additionally, it gives me peace of mind to know exactly what dates I will need to plan my summer around. 

Secondly, I have continued researching the international initiatives being taken to empower women. A particular organization that will be helpful in my research is the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. They "conduct research and training for gender equality and the empowerment of women as a central focal point for research and training on gender issues within the United Nations system," (Commission on the Status of Women, fifty-second session). I will try to gain access to the ideas of the people involved with this initiative while I am in Geneva, and hopefully set up a few interviews.

I received a confirmation of the generous amount to be donated by Peace and Justice Studies (on the condition that I will keep in contact with Michael Minch throughout my internship/thesis process and present on my experience when I return in the fall). Additionally, I believe the School of Humanities and Social Sciences will be supporting my work with a donation as well, but I am still waiting for a confirmation of this. 

I will be meeting with Mark Olsen of Integrated Studies tomorrow to go over my paperwork and figure out the best way to set up funding for my thesis. It seems that it would be easiest to have all those on campus willing to contribute to collaborate on how to go about this, rather than having to fill out the same forms multiple times. Additionally, Mark brought to my attention the possibility that the donations might have to come as a reimbursement rather than a concrete donation to be received before departing for Geneva. This could potentially be really stressful, if I need to figure out a way to get money elsewhere and be compensated afterwards. I will be going over my options with Mark tomorrow.

The deadlines for my classes are proving helpful, as I am having them revolve around my senior thesis as well. This means that I will have to have an outline for a paper (focusing on international empowerment initiatives) turned in this week as well as a literature review. These deadlines give me something concrete to work towards. 

Additionally, we have been putting a letter together to send to a list of local businesses we are planning to ask for funding. we are also brainstorming some potential fundraisers, such as live bands playing during an otherwise silent auction.

This is where I'm at for now, let me know if you have any feedback! Thanks!

2 comments:

  1. omg you got so much done this week! So last thursday night (March 3rd) on Oxygen they had two shows back-to-back about sex trafficking with Lisa Lang as the news correspondent <-- that's not the right word for it... One show was called "Slave Girls of India" and I didn't catch the other name of the show but it talked about the trafficking of girls in the US (in Dallas and Vegas I think?). Maybe watching those would be useful if you wanted to compare how other countries try to combat the sex trafficking problem. They mentioned 3 organizations I wrote down:
    1. GEMS= Girls Educational and Mentoring Services
    2. SACS=which may stand for Special Agent in Charge???
    3. STOP=???
    Maybe those don't help at all, but keep up the good work. Good luck figuring out your funding!

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  2. Good practical progress. And with the work on the paper you mention, I'm guessing that you've made good theoretical progress as well.

    Keep up the good work, and post anything you'd like Mark and me to comment on.

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