On Wednesday, September 19, Rachel Wifall, Ph.D., associate professor of English and honors program director at Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s University, and honors students Sean Block ’13 and Ivani Proano ’15 attended the Opportunity Nation Summit at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
“The Opportunity Nation Summit featured a host of fantastic speakers from fields as diverse as education, entertainment and business, who all had one thing in common: a passion for devising ways in which to help American youth to stay in school and receive the training and support they need in order to lead fulfilling and productive lives,” said Dr. Wifall. <\/p>\n
According to the Opportunity Nation Summit’s website, more than 1,200 thought leaders attended the Summit to discuss and support Opportunity Nation’s national Shared Plan of Action – an eight-point plan combining public and private sector efforts to create new pathways for young adults to succeed in high school, post-secondary education and careers. Leaders such as senators Marco Rubio, Tom Harkin and Chris Coons; Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; media personalities Arianna Huffington, Judy Woodruff and Michael Gerson; Celebrity Jordin Sparks and many others were on-hand to offer their thoughts on America’s duty to ensure the skills and talents of an entire generation are not lost because of inadequate pathways to success.<\/p>\n
“All participating members came together to hear a series of speakers in the main auditorium,” said Block. “Many of these speakers were current legislators or former policy analysts, university presidents, journalists, CEOs of social networks and national nonprofit organizations, and more.”<\/p>\n
The national Summit also served as a backdrop for the issuing of the Opportunity Index, a groundbreaking measure created by Opportunity Nation in partnership with Measure of America, a project of the Social Science Research Council that aims to provide tools for understanding the distribution of well-being and opportunity in America and the facilitation of fact-based dialogue about issues such as health, education and living standards. The index ranks every state and assigns nearly every county in the country an opportunity score – ranging from “A” for excellent to “F” for failing – based on several social indicators: economic, educational and social.<\/p>\n
According to Block, “The primary aim is to improve every state’s Opportunity Index score by 10 percent over the next 10 years. The nation currently, on average, hangs at around 50 percent.”
In addition to the informational discussions held during the Summit itself, breakout sessions were also offered during a working lunch.<\/p>\n
“I attended a session on how to counteract gridlock and partisan politics in Congress so that critical reforms can be enacted at the national level,” said Block. “Dr. Wifall and Ivani attended a session considering the soaring costs of higher education.”<\/p>\n
Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s University is a member of the Opportunity Nation Leadership Council. The Council is committed to supporting and spreading the ideas of Opportunity Nation’s collation members – consisting of non-profit, business, faith or civic group organizations – who are working to generate opportunity at the national, state or local level, especially across the key areas of education, jobs, training and healthy communities. <\/p>\n
“As a Jesuit university that supports and promotes the concept of ‘men and women for others,’ it would be safe to say that our role as supporters of Opportunity Nation should include active participation and action,” said Block. “If we are to maintain a good relationship as a sponsor and supporter, it would be wise for us to get several of our own student and campus organizations involved in related outreach.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thought leaders attended Summit to discuss the Shared Plan of Action, which creates new pathways for young adults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-current-students","category-faculty-staff","category-future-students"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n