Our Story 

Today's young people are coming of age at one of the most critical moments in history, facing complex and interconnected challenges like no generation before. They also hold a profound opportunity to remake our world. 

We are an inspired group of educators, social change leaders, entrepreneurs, designers, teachers, youth workers, techies, and everyday global citizens committed to transforming education, empowering students, and creating a world that works for all.

Education today is largely an outdated product of the past century. A fundamental paradigm shift is underway, and a central part of it is providing today's students with 21st century knowledge, skills, and capacities so they can thrive in their lives, careers, and as global citizens. We are creating an innovative curriculum for broad-based change: one that inspires teachers, ignites student leadership, and transforms schools and local communities.

We need your help to make it happen!!

Background

Generation Waking Up (GenUp) is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California whose purpose is to ignite a generation of young people to bring forth a thriving, just, and sustainable world. Through our core programs - WakeUp, Thrive, and Synergize - we are helping the Millennial Generation realize its fullest potential and impact.

We awaken young people to a clear sense of who we are as a generation, an understanding of the global challenges and opportunities we face, and a calling to take action. We empower young people with the skills and tools they need to thrive as global citizens, leaders, and changemakers in the 21st century. We mobilize young people across lines of difference and connect them with a broad and diverse movement of social change.

Over the past four years, we have reached thousands of students with our transformational workshops across North America and around the world. We have trained hundreds of young leaders who have created local action projects on their campuses and in their communities. As our programs have spread, there has been a growing request from teachers to create a high school curriculum so that they can take the power of our work into classrooms themselves. We're ready to make this happen and to take our work to scale.

The Curriculum

Content & Skills

Timeline

Phase One - Winter 2014 to Spring 2015

Phase Two - Summer 2015 to Fall 2015

Phase Three - Winter 2015 to Spring 2016

Budget

The funds raised by this crowdfunding campaign will allow our team to make this project a reality.

Research & Design - $20,000

Web & Online - $5,000

Graphic Design & Publication - $10,000 

Piloting & Training - $15,000 

TOTAL = $50,000

The Larger Vision

The initial funding we raise will support us in accomplishing the first phases of the project, but we are holding a much larger vision that we are planning on and seeking funding for.

Stretch Goal 1: $75,000 

Stretch Goal 2: $100,000

Stretch Goal 3: $150,000 

Our Team

Joshua Gorman studied ‘Global Youth & Social Change’ at George Mason University and supports youth-led action around the world. He is the Founder and Coordinator of Generation Waking Up, and is a leading voice around the paradigm-shifting role of the Millennial generation. Joshua is a lifelong student of human development and transformational education with a focus on providing young people the experiences, knowledge, and skills they need to thrive in the twenty-first century. He is currently working on a book about Millennials entitled Generation Waking Up: How A New Generation Is Remaking Our World.

Cherine Badawi received her Bachelor's degree in Cultural Studies from UNC, Chapel Hill and her Master's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from ICU in Tokyo, Japan. She is the Curriculum & Training Coordinator for Generation Waking Up, and has served as a Senior Leader for Challenge Day and as the Curriculum and Training Director of The Mosaic Project. Cherine also works as an independent consultant offering instructional design and facilitation to a broad client base specializing in diversity and intercultural capacity building, leadership development, team building, and facilitating transformational experiences that bring diverse individuals and communities together in authentic, purposeful exchange.

Emily Zionts earned a MA in Peace Education in 2009 at The United Nations University for Peace and spent the next four years teaching international social justice issues and activism to teens at the Woolman Semester School in northern California. Through her international travel, service work, and time spent as a teacher and student; Emily has found a calling in education at the intersection of ecology, economics, and social justice. Her current pursuit of a PhD in Sustainability Education from Prescott College will be immediately applicable in designing this curriculum.

Will Grant has worked at the intersection of social change and education for 20 years, from high school classrooms to government policy. As a high school classroom teacher, Will taught students to collaborate on the creation of school wide programs that combined environmental regeneration, multiculturalism, and participatory democracy. For 10 years, he was the co-founder and Executive Director of Voz, a multicultural, state-wide organization that developed networks of student leaders from marginalized communities to democratize education systems in New Mexico. Voz’s curriculum became a national model and Will became the National Trainer for VALUE, training educators and community leaders how to create their own student leadership systems in 10 states, including California, Washington DC and Massachusetts. He currently works as an education system designer, helping schools and education programs to integrate organizational decision-making, transformative curriculum, and professional development. 

Gratitude!!!

Thank you for making the creation of this curriculum possible and helping to unleash a generation that is here to reboot, renew, and regenerate our world!

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