Dear All, Ten years ago I was outside my home when the first plane that would hit the World Trade Center flew directly over head. I headed home and watched in shock along with the rest of the world as the events of the day unfolded outside my window. The following days and weeks felt like a nightmare but one of the most vivid memories I have of that time is of all the emails I received from my extended IDEA family. Voices of compassion and concern started arriving instantly from around the world and they were one of the only things that made me feel better. I am proud to still be a part of this community ten years later and proud of all the things this community does to actively combat ignorance and intolerance. And on this day, I want to take the opportunity to let you know about a few things IDEA is doing to commemorate 9/11 and to promote debate and discussion around the world. IDEA has launched a program and published a book, 'Securing Liberty' which challenges high school students in the US, and from around the world, to reflect on: What individual liberties are we comfortable to forgo for the sake of national security? Thanks to generous funding from the Open Society Foundation, 51,000 copies of this book have been given away for free to over 1,200 high schools and this number keeps growing. We encourage you to visit the site, watch the videos and join the debate. This week IDEA has launched a year-long competition, the Global Debate and Public Policy Challenge, open to undergraduate students around the globe on the topic "Securing Liberty: Balancing Security and Freedom". IDEA hopes that this Challenge will encourage debate on a topic that remains timely and of crucial importance ten years after 9/11. For more information on the Challenge visit www.gdppc.org. We are also happy to announce the opening this month of our offices in New York City in the United Charities Building. Our new space will allow us to expand our activities, engage in multi-media production and development work and coordinate activities in the United States and abroad. The opening of our offices marks a renewed commitment to promoting debate and discussion in the US in partnership with existing leagues and institutions. Among other partners, we are excited to work with the Interfaith Center of NY to promote debate among youth from different faith groups in New York City. Feel free to drop me an email if you are in town and want to visit. In closing, we encourage you to continue to confront challenging times with reasoned discussion and thank you for all your efforts to help make the world a better place. Sincerely, Nina Nina Watkins is the Director of Development for IDEA US |
High school students across the globe have grown up in a post 9/11 world: a world where America's reaction to terror threats has made a deep impact on individual freedoms. It is definitely time to discuss these issues with those high school students who have never known a different world, but who will be the arbiters of our democratic future. Click here for more.
Enter the competition
to win either a US$10,000 scholarship payable to a Graduate School of
your choice for study in a field related to Public Policy or a US$10,000
grant payable to a non-profit institution to work for one year in a
field related to Public Policy!
The Vidyashlip Academy School and
Govindadasa College won the Junior and Senior finals of Verbattle 2011,
held in Bangalore on August 19. Here are the full results.
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