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VOL. VII, No. 10;  Tuesday, September 18, 2007   

Dear Arthur,

Latest Civitas News:  High School   •  Middle School   •  Events   •  Essay Contest  • Pulitzer Project

Our 1-Q-S (One Question Survey)

Contract talks are underway between General Motors and the United Auto Workers (union).  American automobile manufacturers have labor costs of $25.00 per hour more than Japanese companies.  What (if anything) do you think should be done to help American auto manufacturers?







General Motors Labor Contract           Click here for results of last week's survey.

 

High School Country Draft on Sept. 29

 School Country Draft on Sept. 29

With the Fall high school model U.N. coming up on Saturday, November 10, it is time for students from each of our participating schools to select their countries.  With inordinate generosity, we give you six weeks advance notice of the countries that you will be representing.  The country draft is one week from this Saturday -- on September 29 at Crossroads (map).  The draft will begin at 9:00 AM.  It will be followed by a workshop on how the model U.N. works, and if we have time remaining, we'll open discussion until our adjournment time of 11:00 AM.  So here's what you need for the country draft:

  1. How the Country Draft Works Explanation
  2. List of 192 General Assembly countries in the United Nations
  3. List of 15 Security Council countries in the United Nations.

Please remember that we will have three committees in the General Assembly, each dealing with different kinds of issues and resolutions.  The three are (a) Political & Security, (b) Economic & Social, and (c) Human Rights.  Thus a country will need at least three students as delegates (one for each committee).  In addition, if a country is also on the Security Council, a fourth delegate will be necessary.  If you want to "double-up" delegates in a committee, you can do so.  However, the more "single delegates" we have the more countries we can have represented in each committee.



We also want to thank the thirty high school students who came to last Saturday's third discussion of the year.  The first topic discussed was how the city of San Francisco is moving towards providing universal health care for its citizens and why comprehensive health coverage is not available to all Americans (and ultimately all world citizens).  Second we discussed the current problems with promotions in the St. Louis Fire Department -- an issue that is much more complicated than it may first appear.  Finally we talked about the current and on-going dilemma with Iraq.  That conversation focused on what we each thought were good sources of valid information on the war.

We also began preparation for our model U.N. country draft on Saturday, September 29.  We discussed what countries we were most interested in and why we wanted to learn more about them.  There was a remarkable degree of diversity on this issue.

More photos from last Saturday's discussion are available by
clicking here.


Pulitzer Workshop Dates Set

Journalists David Enders and Jon Sawyer from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting are coming to St. Louis on October 4-6 to meet with students and teachers about the refugee crisis in and around Iraq.  In advance of their visit, we have scheduled preparatory sessions with participating schools.  The dates and times of these sessions are:

 School    

Date     

Time 

Soldan International Studies High School     Mon., 09/17   7:25 AM - 8:13 AM
Crossroads College Preparatory School Thurs., 09/20  2:05 PM - 3:05 PM 
Parkway West High School Fri., 09/21   8:55 AM - 9:45 AM
12:15 PM - 1:05 PM
Rosati-Kain High School Fri., 09/21 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM
Maplewood-Richmond Heights High School    Mon., 09/24 10:21 AM - 11:03 AM 
Collinsville High School Mon., 09/24  12:00 PM - 1:00 PM 
St. Joseph's Academy  Tues., 09/25  8:39 AM - 10:23 AM 


In the way of review, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting was established two years ago to provide accurate reporting on global issues that often are not on the radar screen of the mainstream press.  Part of their program is an outreach project to St. Louis schools in which students get opportunities to communicate directly with journalists on the job.  In addition, reporters and videographers come to St. Louis three times a year to meet with students in St. Louis to further describe their experiences.  To the best of our knowledge, there is no other similar program in which students and journalists can actively interact in real time.

Three projects are scheduled for the 2007-2008 school year.  The first is this Fall on Iraq: Death of  a Nation.  Reporter/Teacher David Enders spent much of the past summer in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan meeting with Iraqi refugees who have been displaced both within their country and outside.

Blogs are available for each school to begin communicating with David Enders -- questions and comments alike.  The link to the blog web site is: http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/global_gateway_students/welcome/index.html.



Finally for teachers, the Pulitzer Center is sponsoring a workshop on its resources and curriculum development for teachers on Saturday morning, October 6.  It will be from 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM (location to be determined).  Participating teachers will receive a $50.00 stipend.  If you are interested, please e-mail us at [email protected].  Teachers who are currently signed up are Kristen Collins (Parkway West), Liz Morrison (Parkway Social Studies District Coordinator), Amber Booth (Parkway South), C.J. Kinney (Kirby Middle School), Margene Jerrolds (Lift for Life Academy), Jane Garvin (St. Joseph's Academy), Ronni Zagora (Lindbergh), Kelly Krejnik (U. City), and David West (Soldan International Studies).

You can access more information on the Global Gateway Project by clicking here.


Two ETwo Essay Contestsssay Contests

We want to keep students informed about essay contests with interesting topics -- particularly when there are attractive incentives.  Here is information on two:

Ron Glossop
and the local chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions is once again offering an outstanding opportunity for high school and college students in the St. Louis area to attend an all-expenses paid conference in Minneapolis in October.  The topics of the conference cover a host of United Nations related issues.  In order for a student to qualify for the trip, he/she must submit a thoughtful essay. 
Click here for more details.

Kenya Madison from Vianney High School has informed us of the Greg Freeman Memorial Essay Contest on "Improve St. Louis -- Build Racial Harmony."  The deadline for submission of this 750 word contest is February 8, 2008.  One contestant will receive a $500.00 savings bond.  Click here for more details.


Upcoming Civitas Events

(Preliminary Version; actual events in bold -- always subject to change when change occurs!)

Black: High School                                             Blue: Middle School


DATE

TIME

PLACE

ACTIVITIES

 

 

 

 

Sat.,

9/22/07

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Crossroads

Urban Go-Team Meeting with Tim Berry from Michelson Realty

 

 

 

 

Sat.,

09/29/07

9:00 AM -

11:00 AM

Crossroads

  Selection of Countries

  Prep Session for 1st MUN

 

 

 

 

Sat.,

10/13/07

9:00 AM -

11:00 AM

Crossroads

Discussion Group #4

 

 

 

 

Mon., 10/15/07

4:00 PM 5:00 PM

Richmond Heights Community Center

Middle School Teacher Meeting #2


 


Rev., September 4, 2007


See complete Civitas calendar for 2007-2008 by clicking here.

 



Results from last week's survey:



Civitas now takes donations and payment of fees with credit cards and PayPal.  If you want to make a tax-deductible donation or pay a fee, you may do so by clicking here.

 

 

 

ADDITIONAL LINKS

Civitas Home Page

Photo Gallery

Civitas Calendar for 2006-2007 

Civitas Intranets Site

Civitas Blog

Maps & Directions

Previous Newsletters

General Assembly Countries

Security Council Countries 

Conference (Feb., 2007) on "The Nuclear Club"  

Checklist for Writing a Model U.N. Resolution

Resolutions (High School U.N.) for 2004-2006 

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