Have you ever attended a Model United Nations Conference? Have you been confused by the Iran and Iraq delegates co-sponsoring a big resolution? Or wondered how the UN even functions, given the Security Council and the veto power? And what are you supposed to even do about "power delegates" anyway? Well then this class is for you! The class will be an open discussion of Model UN, looking at where Model UN fails in depicting international relations, the UN itself, and the general diplomatic process. There will be slides, but this class is intended to start a conversation, so please come prepared with any questions and/or answers you might have. Questions, answers, and comments will be welcome throughout.

Is there a cause you are passionate about? Would changing laws or regulations, or having new government funding for your area of interest be useful? By joining together and advocating and/or lobbying with others, you can work towards accomplishing your personal, community, and societal goals. This session will give you (and your collaborators) a great start at being able to plan and carry out campaigns to create or change laws that you feel will improve things. You will learn about strategies and tactics applicable to a variety of different kinds of causes. I will use as an example an effort I have been working on for a few years, to add environmental education language to the Every Student Succeeds Act (the education bill that replaced No Child Left Behind), but the lessons presented will be applicable to a wide variety of other issues and levels of government. We will spend much of the time helping you think about how to advance your causes or projects.

This session will be an open-ended facilitated discussion about important events and changes that are going on internationally beyond the US borders. We’ll focus on the areas in the world that you are interested in, both the struggles and the progress, and including the current situations and what led up to them. We’d like to hear from you about what you’re learning regarding the fast-paced changes in these times and, we encourage you to do some research ahead of time to share with your fellow students about what you’re focused on around the world.

Is there a cause you are passionate about? Would changing laws or regulations, or having new government funding for your area of interest be useful? By joining together and advocating and/or lobbying with others, you can work towards accomplishing your personal, community, and societal goals. This session will give you (and your collaborators) a great start at being able to plan and carry out campaigns to create or change laws that you feel will improve things. You will learn about strategies and tactics applicable to a variety of different kinds of causes. I will use as an example an effort I have been working on for a few years, to add environmental education language to the Every Student Succeeds Act (the education bill that replaced No Child Left Behind), but the lessons presented will be applicable to a wide variety of other issues and levels of government. We will spend much of the time helping you think about how to advance your causes or projects.

Is there a cause you are passionate about? Would changing laws or regulations, or having new government funding for your area of interest be useful? By joining together and advocating and/or lobbying with others, you can work towards accomplishing your personal, community, and societal goals. This session will give you (and your collaborators) a great start at being able to plan and carry out campaigns to create or change laws that you feel will improve things. You will learn about strategies and tactics applicable to a variety of different kinds of causes. I will use as an example an effort I have been working on for a few years, to pass the Federal “No Child Left Inside Act” H.R. 882, but the lessons presented will be applicable to a wide variety of other issues and levels of government. We will spend much of the time helping you think about how to advance your causes or projects.

Is there a cause you are passionate about? Would changing laws or regulations, or having new government funding for your area of interest be useful? By joining together and advocating and/or lobbying with others, you can work towards accomplishing your personal, community, and societal goals. This session will give you (and your collaborators) a great start at being able to plan and carry out campaigns to create or change laws that you feel will improve things. You will learn about strategies and tactics applicable to a variety of different kinds of causes. I will use as an example an effort I have been working on to pass the Federal “No Child Left Inside Act” H.R. 2702 (see www.NCLIcoalition.org), but the lessons presented will be applicable to a wide variety of other issues and levels of government. We will spend much of the time helping you think about how to advance your causes or projects.

Is there a cause you are passionate about? Would changing laws or regulations, or having new government funding for your area of interest be useful? By joining together and advocating and/or lobbying with others, you can work towards accomplishing your personal, community, and societal goals. This session will give you (and your collaborators) a great start at being able to plan and carry out campaigns to create or change laws that you feel will improve things. You will learn about strategies and tactics applicable to a variety of different kinds of causes. I will use as an example an effort I have been working on for a few years to pass the Federal “No Child Left Inside Act” H.R. 2547 (see www.NCLIcoalition.org), but the lessons presented will be applicable to a wide variety of other issues and levels of government. We will spend much of the time helping you think about how to advance your causes or projects.

Is there a cause you are passionate about? Would changing laws or regulations, or having new government funding for your area of interest be useful? By joining together and advocating and/or lobbying with others, you can work towards accomplishing your personal, community, and societal goals. This session will give you (and your collaborators) a great start at being able to plan and carry out campaigns to create or change laws that you feel will improve things. You will learn about strategies and tactics applicable to a variety of different kinds of causes. I will use as an example an effort I have been working on for a few years to pass the Federal “No Child Left Inside Act” H.R. 2547 (see www.NCLIcoalition.org), but the lessons presented will be applicable to a wide variety of other issues and levels of government. We will spend much of the time helping you think about how to advance your causes or projects.

Is there a cause you are passionate about? Would changing laws or regulations, or having new government funding for your area of interest be useful? By joining together and advocating and/or lobbying with others, you can work towards accomplishing your personal, community, and societal goals. This session will give you (and your collaborators) a great start at being able to plan and carry out campaigns to create or change laws that you feel will improve things. You will learn about strategies and tactics applicable to a variety of different kinds of causes. I will use as an example an effort I have been working on for a few years to pass the Federal “No Child Left Inside Act” H.R. 2547 (see www.NCLIcoalition.org), but the lessons presented will be applicable to a wide variety of other issues and levels of government. We will spend much of the time helping you think about how to advance your causes or projects.

Is there a cause you are passionate about? Would changing laws or regulations, or having new government funding for your area of interest be useful? By joining together and advocating and/or lobbying with others, you can work towards accomplishing your personal, community, and societal goals. This session will give you (and your collaborators) a great start at being able to plan and carry out campaigns to create or change laws that you feel will improve things. You will learn about strategies and tactics applicable to a variety of different kinds of causes. I will use as an example an effort I have been working on for a few years to pass the Federal “No Child Left Inside Act” H.R. 2054 (see www.NCLIcoalition.org), but the lessons presented will be applicable to a wide variety of other issues and levels of government.

Do you ever wonder why sometimes you can work with a group of really smart people but somehow nothing ever gets done? But other times you can get better ideas and get more done because you’re working with others? The better you understand how organizations work (or don’t!), and how they “learn,” the more effective you can be in using them to achieve your goals. This session will be a fun introduction to organizational theory using examples such as baseball teams, computer game companies, and brain surgery teams as models for organizations. Integral to understanding how organizations work is an understanding about how organizations learn and how you can shape this, whether or not you are officially “in charge.” These lessons are applicable to all kinds if organizations - businesses , nonprofit organizations, government, schools, etc. It’s a big world and organizations don’t just happen… you have to know how to create and manage them. Prof. Peter Senge, Senior Lecturer, MIT Behavioral and Policy Sciences (BPS), will be co-teaching the course with me. He is the leading world expert on learning organizations and founded the field.