Deadline in Less Than 7 Hours – An Important Bribe (Plus: Happiness Research for Economic Crashes)

Great post Tim.

I put the link in my Facebook status, as well as sent messages to everyone in the 10 largest groups I belong to on Facebook, with a “call to action” and almost the exact “One click here…” message you recommended, asking those that read it to spread the word as well. Those 10 largest groups have a total of about 5 million people, so if even 0.01% of those I messaged have an AmEx card and vote, DonorsChoose will get the 500 votes necessary to lock in the $500,000. For an extra margin of safety, I also sent a mass email to everyone on my email list (250+ people) asking them to forward on the message as well.

The teacher that had the biggest impact on my life was a professor named Tim Kasser. He taught a course titled “Psychology of Dying and Death”. I took this course while enrolled in the Semester at Sea study abroad program during college. The course focused around what is now called “Terror Management Theory”. It provided insight as to why people live life as they do and make the decisions they do, and how all the choices a person makes in one’s life is affected (whether consciously or unconsciously) by the knowledge of their own impending death. This may not exactly be a typical “school project” but taking his class, while visiting countries with cultures and religions as various as those of Japan, China, Vietnam, Burma, India, Egypt, Turkey, etc, was a truly life-altering experience.

Professor Kasser integrated the slices of life we observed in all these various countries with the material of the course, as well as with discussions centering on events from the lives of the students prior to the course. He could have just taught the material in the book, and it would have been fine. But he didn’t. He made it personal. I remember on the first day of class he told us details from his life far more personal and intimate than anything I’d ever heard from a teacher, let alone close friends. He set the tone for the most interesting course I’ve ever taken.

I’ve thought about the things I learned in his course hundreds of times since I took it several years ago, and I know his teachings have affected countless important decisions I’ve made in my life. They will no doubt continue to do so. I am 100% sure he positively and profoundly affected the lives of every student that took that class. Talk about a mind virus worth spreading.

I just voted! Thanks Tim for the lesson on maximizing our ‘sphere of influence’! My cousin is a 5th/6th grade teacher and it’s her birthday today. I posted a birthday greeting to her when I updated my Facebook status and posted the link. The teacher who made the most impact on me was my third grade teacher Mrs. Marrero. She taught us learning didn’t have to be boring. She had this huge poster of her favorite singer/performer (quite unconventional with his purple outfit) on her classroom wall. Her passion inspired us all to be the same way about whatever we were passionate about!

So, with a little time left, and my heart feeling stretchy and odd, I went ahead and I wrote up a weblog post about this project as well as a very recent seemingly nice act, and my mixed feelings about the incident (here, on my weblog: http://www.castlemzx.net/index.php?entry=58 ). And I put up the link to the project in my Facebook status and in Twitter (I’m sorry to say I have relatively few friends in either), and I showed this thread to people I know. And I guess I’ll continue to point this material out to people I know for a little while while my interest sustains. I’m not going to spam the forums I frequent. I’m at odds with myself about doing it for the money’s sake or the conversation’s sake. Too many projects like this one fail everyday without my support. I can’t help feeling a little hypocritical spending time only on the ones that might net me immediate cash.

I’d say the teacher I’ve always thought of most was Ms. Clearwater at East Hill Elementary of the fifth grade, graying and stern with an off-putting sweet streak; a probably complex and brilliant lady unfortunately filtered through my young incomprehension and the needs of an elementary school curriculum. I passed the fifth grade without flying colors, but I did alright compared to the years ahead, and in that vein I remember a time after a bad streak when I forced myself to finish my homework at home, and bring it in to class, and give it to her with my characteristic obvious and cavalier dismissal of my own pride, and she was so very happy with me that she gave me two gold stars and a real live hug.

I don’t really know if this teacher had the biggest impact on me. My middle school teachers who passed me when they could have failed me probably made a larger difference. But I remembered this, and it still seems so funny and strange and nice, and perfectly unnecessary of her. I don’t remember if it led me to turn in more homework that year, but I hope so.

And I can’t say I’ve finished spreading this project around. I’m having real thoughts about it, and because of it, and because you pointed it out to me. I think I know the importance of education, but in this rare case I’ve been made to feel I have a real stake in it.

Hi Tim,

I admire the “think big” aspect that seems to be a growing trend in your writing. I’m also at a place where I feel a nagging urge to do something that is greater than myself.

Besides voting with my Amex I have updated my facebook status, become a fan of the Member Project, posted on forums I frequent and contacted a few people directly. I suspect direct contact is more likely to get a vote than anything else.

The most valuable lesson I ever learned in school came in an unexpected way my freshman year of high school. The class was English Literature and the teacher was the stern but compassionate Mrs. Hickman. We had been assigned to read the first five chapters of A Tale of Two Cities, with an essay test the following day. Being slacker that I unfortunately was I wasted away my evening and only managed to read the first 4 chapters, leaving it to chance that none of the test material would be on chapter 5.

Kharma what it is, the first essay question was on chapter 5 and was clueless to the answer. I began to write some nonsense about “The main character felt sad…” and then I stopped myself. After a few minutes staring at the page I finally crossed out what I had begun writing and wrote the following note instead:

“Dear Mrs. Hickman,

I did not read the assigned chapters and will accept a 0 as my grade for this test.

-Ryan”

I sat quietly killing time for a while before turning in the test and waiting out the rest of the period.

The next day Mrs. Hickman called me to her desk. Of course I would get a 0, she explained, and she would also have to contact my parents. However, she admired my honesty and a new bond of respect had formed between us that remained the rest of my high school career.

I understood that day that the long lasting quality of being honest with yourself and others far surpassed the quick fix of a pointless lie.

-Ryan

Tim,

I love your writing and vision. I made up a flyer for my AMEX customers that come in my retail store. Will urge on Facebook as well.

My most memorable was my high school English teacher who not only read my teenage angst poetry, but told me I didn’t need rhyme. It was like a ticket out of jail at the time.

-Scott

Hola! voted with my amex card and emailed it to my contact list.

So awesome to see you “bribe” to encourage positive activities!

Allrighty my favorite teacher is my 1st & 2nd grade teacher —- Mrs. P.W. Why? First off, I have a severe-profound hearing loss (left ear is gone and lost over 1/2 in my right ear) — but there’s a good chance you wouldn’t know that if you had met me….I’m a lipreading maniac with too much speech therapy!

Since I was deaf/hard of hearing (whatever you call it!) I was actually initially going to a deaf school (this is in the very early 80’s, times were a little different back then — if you were deaf, you BELONGED to a deaf school). She was my ‘deaf’ teacher that simply said I didn’t “belong” in a hearing impaired classroom (because they were slower and demanded more time) — so she basically “threw” me in whatever classes she could into the ‘mainstream’ classes. I did have a few classes with Mrs PW though (actually she had me write a book to compete in the district — I was the only 2nd grader who won in my district, a pretty big deal. It was titled, Lydia the Girl Who Always Kicked”). Basically she really pushed me to do better, aim higher than what I had in mind….and when I didn’t believe in myself, she would continue to encourage me (heck, I remember crying because I couldn’t get the perfect small “a” cursive — and she just sat there smiling telling me just keep trying you will get it — well, I did pass with a C in penmanship). I owe SO much to her…..I would have to say she got me off the right foot to graduate from a “top 10 computer science university” and having a happy and “successful” life. (of course somebody like you comes along and redefines what that can mean! 🙂 )

In a nutshell, she basically taught me that deafness is a disability in the mind…..not the ears.

Dear All,

Just posted on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/tferriss:

“U ROCK! DC got 2nd place ($500K) by a thin margin. Your efforts made it jump & will impact 30K+ schoolchildren. Remember this! You did it.”

Seriously, you did it. We didn’t get first place, but we did get second place by the thinnest of margins, and more than 30,000 students in the US will benefit as a result.

In a world where we need educated problem-solvers and global citizens, this is a HUGE accomplishment and you should all be very proud.

Thank you for believing and participating! It worked 🙂

G’night y pura vida,

Tim

Thanks again for the awesome response, all. Having trouble sleeping I’m so excited that we just helped more than 30,000 students. Man! No matter what you got done — or didn’t get done — today, if you helped, consider this a most productive day indeed.

Well done, lads 🙂

G’night,

Tim

I didn’t read this post until this morning, so I missed the deadline. I think this is a great cause and kudos to Tim for trying his best to get this project the $1.5 m. Good news is that they came in second with a $500,000 award.

I still wanted to share my story about the teacher that made the most impact in my life. It was a high school social studies teacher named Arthur Stalbow. He was into Napoleon Hill and the whole PMA thing. He made us post papers all over our house and our lockers with the number 92 on it, saying that this was the minimum he wanted anyone to get on any of his tests or assignments. He even allowed us to write it on our desks in his classroom. It worked. He also taught me that it only takes a small amount of effort, just a teeny-tiny amount, to be better than average, and anyone is capable of being better than average if they just put out that small amount of effort. He was my Mr. Keating. He made a difference.

One day the class played a practical joke on him. We turned all of our desks around and faced the back of the room. When he came into the room, he walked to the back without missing a beat, without comment, and began teaching, pointing to imaginary maps that weren’t there, and writing with chalk on the wall in lieu of a blackboard. It was hilarious. I loved that guy.

Tim,

Thank you so much for helping us all remember how powerful our networks our. We all have the collective cabability to improve our communities. I put the link on my linked in page at http://www.linkedin.com/in/tristaharris. I have many foundation staff members in my network and I hope that my link not only encourages them to vote on the project but that it will encourage them to bring Donor’s Choose to the attention of their boards to ensure long term funding for this amazing organization.

The teacher that influenced me the most was Mrs. Ballard, my high school gym teacher and the advisor for the African American Student Organization. She taught me that true service requires personal preparation. Because of that advice I attended college and graduate school to better prepare myself for a life of community service. I am now one of the youngest foundation Executive Directos in the nation. I could not have done it without her unwavering support and encouragement.

Great project, I got the message too late to vote on amex, but looks like you got it to 2nd place and 500K aint bad.

Note: Tim, I was unable to post this before the deadline. I hope you still count it in the running. If not, I completely understand.

——————

Hi Tim,

Your challenge prodded me to take action where otherwise I wouldn’t have. So I thank you for that. I just sent an email to 35 of my biggest spheres of influence asking them to vote. I shared my passion for education and how easy it is to make a world of a difference. I posted the link on Facebook and added it to my Facebook status.

Father Malo. Yes, he was a priest. As an incoming freshman to my Catholic high school, Father Malo greeted me with a huge smile and an exuberant personality. His class soon became the favorite part of an otherwise painful freshman year. What truly separated this jovial, middle aged celibate priest apart from my other teachers occured during one 10 minute “lesson”. I remember it vividly to this day. He called on a student in the class and had him sit on a stool in the front of the room. Out of nowhere, Father Malo began to call him names, bully him, and physicall abuse him. Me and my classmates sat there while tears beginning to role down the student’s face. No one in the class knew what was going on. My love towards my teacher were being twisted…I didn’t know what to do, feel, or what the heck was happening. I looked around the class to see what others did as Father Malo called him every bad name in the book. And then my teacher spit on this classmates face. I wanted to melt in my seat out of fear…what should I do, I thought? Then Father Malo turned around to witness a group of shocked faces and told the class that this will be a common scene in high school. He explained that we need to stand up for those who cannot defend themselves. He said that we cannot let bad things happen in front of us, such as what had just occured. In that 5 minute lesson, he taught me more about honor and justice than I have ever experienced thereafter. Father Malo was an example of bravery, passion, and intensity. I still look back on that moment and admire him for his intense desire to teach us, despite breaking every rule in the book. He was a maverick and a leader. He led by example and through experience. I love him for that and will never forget him.

Hi Tim,

What a great project! I teach dance in public schools (Swing, Latin and Ballroom) and it is tough, the only way to get funding is in classroom based assessment funding which greatly manipulates what and how thoroughly I can teach these kids. We work on cultural dances (i.e. Salsa, Tango, Samba, Swing…) so they learn the culture and history behind them, but we would love to get into the rich history of the Waltz. Unfortunately for now the schools financially can only do 5 weeks per school, 2 days a week. I am thrilled to help with a project like this. I mass emailed everyone in my outbox. I posted it on my facebook and my myspace pages (personal and for Washington Ballroom Dance Teachers Academy). I don’t have an American Express Card, but I hope my small contribution helps.

My teacher who had the most impact on me was not my favorite teacher. It was my english teacher, and being I was into sports and dance I didn’t like homework. I had full reconstructive surgery on my knees from age 15-18 and was, of course, very bummed out. He pushed me hard in writing and debate (which I never did join in willingly). When I was arguing a C grade on a paper with him he told me I had more potential in writing then I put forward, and that being a good writer and communicator would open doors and help me build my life how I wish it to be. He taught me to express my idea’s, to think in ways that were unconventional, and to fail willingly because it was just one more step toward success. I was taught “do whatever it is you want to do in life, and whatever it is DO IT WELL.” He never ever changed that C.

Members Project Winners Announced

Today at 1:39pm

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Thank you for being part of Members Project(R) ’08. Cardmembers from across the country submitted inspiring ideas for projects that could make a positive impact in the world.

Your votes have been counted and the results are in. See what a difference you’ve made in the world.

PRESENTING THE WINNING PROJECTS

$1.5 million for 1st place goes to:

Alzheimer’s Disease: Early Detection Matters and its fulfilling organization, Alzheimer’s Association

$500,000 for 2nd place goes to:

Help 100,000 children thrive in the classroom! and its fulfilling organization, DonorsChoose.org

$300,000 for 3rd place goes to:

Loans That Change Lives and its fulfilling organization, Kiva Microfunds

$100,000 for each of the two remaining finalists goes to:

Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children and its fulfilling organization, International Medical Corps

Feeding 1 Million Children Daily and its fulfilling organization, Akshaya Patra Foundation

To see the winning projects, visit:

http://membersproject.com/fb

Well we got second place!

Hi Tim,

I’m posting a comment on donors choose to facebook and my 500 plus network. One thing to consider for a future campaign is to have people donate their birthdays in support of donors choose. They could even link up to particular schools or projects. For example, I donated my birthday to build a well in Ethiopia, and was able to get more than 100 people to donate. I asked for my age in dollars, with 100% of the money going to the life-saving gift of clean water, and the well posted to google earth, so people could see the results of my birthday gift. You can see the example page here:

http://www.charitywater.org/birthdays/fundraiser/sept/view/1790

Greg Baker was a championship swimmer throughout college and a world class human being. On a road trip to Greece he was paralyzed in a car accident. As an athlete, he said there was a moment in the hospital where he considered for a moment checking out. I believe that was the only moment Greg Baker ever thought about quitting.

I had the privilege of getting to know Mr. Baker years later as a student in a class on James Joyce. I has a learning disability which made writing a challenge. Mr. Baker, however, was the inspiration for me to accept nothing less than my best. In the dead of Chicago winter, he would plow through the snow in his wheelchair to get to school early and stay late, coaching an championship swim program in the way only he could. Mr. Baker was uncompromising. There was no place for excuses in his classroom, because he lead by example. He was ‘handicapped’, but you would never know it by the way he lead his life.

Looking at the man, who by the way invited us to his house on the weekends to read Joyce (everyone showed up), and who eventually treated our class to our first taste of Guiness, you could see how everyone was inspired by his passion and dedication. Mr. Baker showed up, day in day out, and gave his best, and demanded from everyone else their best in return.

Mr. Baker died an untimely death, and at his wake it was standing room only. More than five hundred people came back to Chicago from throughout his thirty-year teaching career and shared stories of how the man had moved them, inspiring their path in life. During the eulogy my father turned to me, fresh from a 15 month trip around the world, and said that if I wanted to become a teacher it was alright by him. I did. As a kid who at one point could barely put a sentence together, I wound up becoming a high-school English teacher.

Tim,

You and your readers did it. When the finals of the American Express Members Project opened two weeks ago, your tweet edged us from 3rd place to 2nd place. When we hit the homestretch of the finals, however, our margin withered from 3,700 votes to 370 votes. At that rate, we were headed to be overtaken on the last day of the contest. Your blog post—and your readers’ incredible response—was decisive in turning back the tide and securing $500,000 for DonorsChoose.org. 100% of those funds will now go to classroom requests on our site, delivering learning materials to tens of thousands of students in low-income communities. Those classroom requests represent the dreams of our most dedicated public school teachers—educators of the caliber and commitment that your readers have profiled in their comments.

In the span of seven hours, your network achieved massive philanthropic impact. On behalf of all the teachers and schoolchildren who will now benefit, THANK YOU.

-Charles

Filled out the survey & then added the link to my facebook page.

history & culture project where we spent an entire school year studying a country, preparing a lecture for 1 class to teach the rest of the class about our country, it’s history, culture, and food. this taught me how hard it was to teach, and how hard it is to keep a student’s attention. it also taught me the importance of looking at stuff globally and introduced me to other cultures and understanding that the states isn’t the only important country in the world.

Well, I twittered, voted, sent an email to my grandma asking her to spread it to her email list of friends, and facebooked it. Then I realized it was past the deadline. Doh!

My wife always likes comments on her blog so I’ll throw in my educational impact story for your reading pleasure. This one has more to do with a school then a specific project, class, or teacher.

I was born with a hearing impairment caused by structural malformation of the cochlea. My older sister had the same condition as well.

In San Antonio, where I grew up, there was a school started in the 1950’s called Sunshine Cottage School for the Deaf. Unlike other schools for the deaf they stressed oral communication over sign language — to some people in the deaf world it’s a big no-no.

There each of the teachers I had worked with each of us every school day on our speech skills I had problems with my R’s, a deaf accent, ch sounds and sh sounds — I still have problems with those sometimes, and even making clear, hard k sounds.

I left the school after 3 years of attendance. I went to Encino Park Elementary to be mainstreamed in with all the hearing kids. I’m happy to say I got along well and met weekly with a speech pathologist to continue improving.

While I’ve had more significant intellectual impacts in my life by wonderful teachers, this one allowed me to enjoy a life with music (I love to sing and play drums), to act and do improv where I use accents sometimes, and even to use the phone.

I’m happy to say I never needed to learn sign language.

And as it turned out, though we didn’t get back in touch until we were 16 and fully mainstreamed or go out until we were 18, I met my wife there in kindergarten. How’s that for impact?

Tim,

I’m so excited! What exciting news to log on to. (:

I’m a little late for the teacher post but I am going to post a story anyway…..

It’s about the power of bribes.

When I was in 6th grade, my math teacher used Candy to get us to learn math. I know it’s sounds crazy, but it worked. It worked on me anyway.

Smart lady, she got us motivated on a subject that is usually very dry for most kids. Math surely was not my favorite subject… but CANDY….that was exciting! We would have a contest once a week where two kids would go up to the chalk board and have to solve an equation. The winner got chocolate and would get to stay at the board until they were beaten by someone else.

I never considered myself all that good at math until her class. I was always an artistic child. It always seemed a little intimidating, but since I was so motivated by the wonders of chocolate, I managed to win multiple times. I was such a geek and I have to say having a big load of candy can help you to be more popular with the other kids. In fact, I became so exited about math I went on to teach a math game called “Equations” to children all over Michigan when I was in 6th grade and even skipped a grade in Math.

I’m not sure I would have applied myself in math if my teacher wasn’t so good at making the class so interactive. This boosted my confidence tremendously. My job today requires being creative and being logical about money at the same time, something I don’t know I would have developed the same way if it weren’t for my groovy teacher.

I think there might be a better way other than candy, but the moral of the story is to make learning fun.

Tim,

I didn’t get to this post until late.. (close to 11 pm. est.) but I tried my best to make an impact. I twittered and facebooked the post and link. I do not seem to be quite as online popular some of the others, but my posts should still be seen by about 200 people. Hopefully, regardless of the outcome of this contest, some of my friends will contribute to donorschoose.org.

I have some great teachers throughout my life, but to be completely honest, the best teacher I ever had was my mother. She is a single mom who taught me how to use my mind to achieve anything I want in this life. She put herself through college while raising 2 kids and working a full time job as a nurse. I have fond memories of spending countless nights in the county library with her while she studied and I read books about the solar system by Isaac Asimov(I can’t believe I still remember his name). I believe this is where I developed my affinity for books that still flourishes today.

My mother knew that getting a good education was the key to great success in life. Not necessarily just a career, but in the broader sense of a total life experience. She taught me that if I was truly going to get anywhere in life, I was going to have to use my mind to achieve. Perhaps this is why I refuse to commit the greater part of my most productive years to sitting in a cubicle and making someone else rich. She has always encouraged me to go onto great things; all the while reminding me that true happiness comes with patience and dedicated work. Once when completely down on life and my post-collegiate prospects she simply replied, “go set the world on fire.” This is exactly what I plan on doing. Based on her teaching and personal example, I don’t think I can ever give up trying.

Thanks and keep up the good fight for us little guys.

” Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Emerson

Thanks for the Donors Choose website info Tim! I have been looking for a way to do this *exact* thing for a while–directly supporting local schools/teachers, especially here in the States. While there are a lot of international charities available and that I support, I also would like to support the folks here at home too! This is a great way to do just that.

Awesome concept (and implementation). Thanks!!

-RacerX

Hi Tim,

I asked my friend Mike to vote on my behalf as I don’t have an AmEx card, and posted the link with suggested comment on my Facebook page. Good luck to the kids!

The most amazing and unexpected comment came from a teacher in my life very recently, so the impact from it is yet to come, but I think it will!

This May I finished an art degree in Illustration. I did this degree because I wanted to, not because I had any natural ability for it. And so, although my instructors considered me very hardworking and creative, they also said I was technically weak. In essence, I have oodles of vision but limited ability.

One instructor in particular, Elyssa, was very hard on me. She was a brilliant artist and teacher with whom I had several informative but excruciating classes- she told me at one point that I was “doomed to fail.” As you can see, our relationship was … strained. I was under no illusions as to what she thought of my work.

As a senior I was part of a group gallery thesis show, for which we held an opening event. At this event, Elyssa surveyed everyone’s work, and then came up to me and said “you have to get into children’s publishing, do it soon and make it happen. You have what it takes, and you know I don’t say things I don’t mean.”

I was stunned speechless. I was not praised for my work throughout school and if any instructor was going to, she was the last one I would have thought would do so. That one comment, from the person it came from, let me know that I had what it would take.

Now I’m working on a children’s picture book about an inchworm and a bee, and if I’m successful with that, the sky’s the limit!

That’s my story!,

Kathryn

Tim is, sadly, falling into the trap of ignoring the unseen. He sees $1.5M going to a worthy charity. He doesn’t see the charity that has that $1.5M taken away from it, because these extra votes bring Tim’s charity the win.

This contest is a zero-sum game. Some worthy charity will get $1.5M. The benefit to the world of Tim’s charity winning is the difference in the good it will do with the money vs. what the runner-up would have done. This may well be negative, if his favored charity is not quite as good.

All the time his readers spend reading the post and following his request is a waste, time spent on allocating wealth rather than creating it. The same goes for all the other charities fighting for the prize.

Don’t encourage wasting resources in pursuit of fixed prizes – it makes the world poorer.

I’ve spreaded out the words about the project at http://www.richmastery.com/blog/post.aspx?beid=2562&id=163278

Let’s hope this project wins the money and change the lives of so many kids for the better. But also wish the best of luck to other projects’ supporters. They are all for worthy causes. Good luck!

Hi Tim! This is beautiful. I am reading it too late to act but I am once again inspired by the actions that you are able to rally. It is right in line with how I feel this economic time is pushing us to respond- in collaborative efforts towards focusing on the positive- the creative. The philosophy you already compiled in The Four Hour Workweek is like a handbook on adaptation & creativity- cornerstones when combined with real community thinking towards a powerful next step in our current economic/social conditions.

I just posted an article on my site yesterday (dealwithitlikeayogi.com) that is called “The Possibilities Within Uncertainty” addressing some more of this.

The last time I commented was after the MLK quote when I was leaving for a service trip to Brasil- FYI we succeeded in a big way- there were 23 of us from many countries meeting in Fortaleza where in five days we delivered around 20,000 adjustments. We did this even though there was a possibility we would be apprehended or arrested for doing it. We kept going even when there was gun violence near us. It was an incredible act of human love that we were able to give, receive, and exchange.

Keep up the great stuff!! If you are in the bay area on Friday, October 24th you are invited to come to the slideshow presentation that five of us team members are giving at my studio in Napa. It will seriously blow you away. Love & Light All!!

Hi Tim,

Robert Heinlein, the American novelist, said that “A human being should be able to change a diaper, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

Thank you for empowering people everywhere with the real life education that shows professionals, entrepreneurs, and students everywhere how to make the most out of their life experience, right now.

School, teachers, and organizations offer children the opportunity to let their desire, their mind, and their dreams determine where they end up in life, rather than where they start. The teacher who gave me this gift was Professor Ali from Hong Kong University.

I studied abroad my junior year in college in a business exchange program. Hong Kong was an exciting place that symbolized the convergence of the Old and New, the East and West, and the Past and Future.

I took keystone business classes with graduating majors, even though I didn’t meet the supposed prerequisites for the courses. I knew I would get further in school and life by skipping steps and going straight to the top. I figured, even if I fail those classes, at least I would have learned something valuable.

Ali’s classes were like Donald Trump’s Apprentice. To start the class, he would come in and write two words on the board, like innovation and legacy. Then, he would ask us to think about it for ten minutes, and we would have a discussion on the paradoxes of life…those seemingly opposites that are just two sides of the same coin at the highest level.

Afterward, we would do challenges like go to the local bank and figure out why the line was so long, design the perfect wallet for each classmate, and create a e-commerce prototype that would change the world.

We would come prepared in class to do our presentations on case studies, then, we would have a surprise negotiation session with another random team. We would close our eyes and listen to Jazz for an hour, and then think about how it relates to business. We would go down to local art galleries and study how painters created their own worlds, and how entrepreneurs expressed theirs.

Professor Ali taught us much with real life experiential education that changed the core of our perception, and thus, our life. I always believed that the best teachings should be the ones that stay with you all your life, that you know and apply to real situations, that change the way you think, act, and even dream.

Ali taught me to look at the chaos and order of all life, to appreciate the creation in destruction, to love the truth of paradoxes. He taught us to understand that people do not resist change, but being change. He gave us the chance to go through the entire design process, from concept to reality. I have never met a professor who was so versatile, creative, and interactive as him, using everything from videotaping presentations, designing purses, thinking hats, writing blogs, and moving helicopters to jolt us to a new world.

It was such a blessing, honor, and gift to have been one of his students.

I know the fund raising event may be over, yet education is a life-long journey. I will donate some of my student success program to this organization, as well as to many public schools, libraries, crisis schools, and others. I know how one teacher, one comment, and one insight can change a life.

With greatest warmth and gratitude,

Andrew B Chang

Tim

Because I know you like Charities benefiting

-Children

-Education

And because I know that you have a spot in your heart for Omaha,

http://www.omahapubliclibrary.org/foundation/index.html

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the chance to raise awareness about a great cause, give my favorite teacher a shout out, and thanks for the $25 gift certificate for Donor’s Choose. You are really a great example of harnessing social networking for positive change and not just putting out useless pop culture garbage to keep your page rankings up. Keep up the amazing work!

Best wishes,

Trista

Hey Tim,

Just a quick note of thanks for gifting to DonorsChoose in my name. I just helped out a K-8 school in metropolitan Detroit (my old digs) since on a whole, Michigan has been struggling for the past decade or so. Thank you so much for the generosity and have a great 2009!

Cheers,

Tim

WHO WON?

did you *really* have these phone conversations with strangers?

making sure this was legit…