An EXTRAORDINARY all-day free event “Day at The Museum” took place on March 4th in Sacramento.

California’s First Lady, Maria Shriver partnered with The California Museum to kick off and celebrate National Women’s History Month.  This event was the first of many occasions that will culminate in the Women’s Conference that will take place on October 25th and 26th at the Long Beach Convention Center. As the sponsors of the Conference that inspires and empowers women, Foundation staff Ineko Tsuchida and Abby Nathanson took part in the festivities.

Over 10,000 women and men of all ages attended the event and filled every open or closed space, such as the Museum courtyard, the galleries, auditorium, lobby and classrooms with much excitement and enjoyment. Anyone walking by the corner of 10th and O Streets would probably have spotted an all-star line-up of female celebrities going into the Museum. Iron Chef Cat Cora, astronaut and educator Dr. Sally K. Ride, Environmental activist Erin Brockovich, award-winning journalist Lisa Ling and award-winning actress, singer and entertainer Rita Moreno were on hand to celebrate the accomplishments of women.

During the course of the day, activities that educated, inspired and empowered women took center stage – with poem recitals, meals cooked by top chefs, book readings, artists sharing their creations – made for an emotional and inspiring day with laughter and tears shared by all in attendance. Abby and Ineko connected with many of the Women’s Conference hosts and partners, including host of the Women’s Conference, First Lady Maria Shriver; President/Executive Director of The California Governor and First Lady’s Conference Erin Mulcahy Stein; and Secretary of Volunteering and Service for the State of California, Karen Baker.

In October 2009, the Shinnyo-en Foundation sponsored the pre-conference Day of Transformation at the Women’s Conference in Long Beach, CA. Thousands of participants learned about the Shinnyo-en Foundation through Haru Inouye’s speech at the opening ceremony of the Day of Transformation as well as the Shinnyo-en Foundation information booth. Maria Shriver, First Lady of the State of California and host of the Women’s Conference, applauded the Shinnyo-en Foundation’s efforts transforming the world by encouraging each person to define their path to peace through Six Billion Paths to Peace.

After the enormous success of 2009, the Day of Transformation will become an official first day of the conference in 2010. Shinnyo-en Foundation staff are already busy planning conference sponsorship and attendance next fall. The Foundation looks forward to collaborating with the Women’s Conference in 2010.

Sally Ride is the first American woman to fly in space.

Husband Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was present at Maria’s side to  introduce Brigadier General Mary J. Kight and other women in the military. Kight is the first female adjutant general of the California National Guard and first African-American female National Guard Adjutant General in the nation.

An All Women’s Color Guard.

Dozens of children participated in the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom.

Ineko Tsuchida and Secretary of Service and Volunteering Karen Baker.

“We wanted to put a spotlight on women and their significance in history,” says California Museum Director Claudia French. “It’s all about the energy and the ideas that are exchanged, and it’ll be nice to be in that kind of electric environment for a day.”

 This event marked an important start for many upcoming activities:

March 4:   Half the Sky CARE’s International Women’s Day Celebration

March 19-21:     WE Connect Weekend in Fresno to provide 10,000 families with free tax preparation, housing/foreclosure assistance, employment/resume advice, a large food distribution, flu shots, and other important programs, such as food stamps, medical & more.

March 26-28:     WE Connect Weekend – Los Angeles

June 24:    The Women’s Conference 2010 Online Ticket Registration

September 10-12:    Best Buddies Challenge on a cycling adventure along the Pacific Coast Highway from Carmel to the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, which also includes an optional 5K & 3K walk.

October 10:     Pier del Sol a family festival & fundraiser for Special Olympics, Southern California

ALL CULMINATING IN THE WOMEN’S CONFERENCE 2010 ON October 25-26

Alliance

An exciting meeting took place at the Shinnyo-en Foundation in late January.

A new and innovative alliance to explore new approaches to youth-focused civic engagement came to the table for its first discussion.

Key national civic service agencies came together and created a new partnership built on the ‘Heart of Service.’

The historic agencies that took the lead in the discussions included: UNITY (United National Indian Tribal Youth) Pride, Youth to Youth International, the Benevolent Order of the Elks, and the Points of Light Institute.

This new alliance is a national partnership built around:

-          Lowering neighborhood drug and substance abuse, create healthy environments and decrease negative behaviors among youth

-          Implement service programs at national scale for young people and challenge them to include community action as an integral part of their lives

-          And  re-invigorate those historic agencies in order to provide sustained opportunities, because they remain the unrivaled vehicles that deliver civic engagement in grassroots neighborhoods across the country.

The group agreed that it was time to turn a page and fully review civic service for the nation’s youth.  To do this it was equally important to reinvigorate the very agencies that have for so long provided these sustained opportunities, so that they may ready for a new millennium of American service.

After a fruitful discussion all in attendance felt that it was vital to provide a comprehensive set of service opportunities for every American under 20 create a plan to be a fully national, measurable, fundable program that can deliver a completely new way to see civic engagement in America.

James “Jim” Kielsmeier

Jim, thank you for agreeing to talk with us today.  To begin with, would you tell us about how you came to be the President/CEO of the National Youth Leadership Council?

Yes, I turned out to be the founder of NYLC and that was brought on by the need to build an organizational structure around some programs that I had been implementing for 4 years and the need to maintain the integrity of these programs in a way that could not be maintained if I was a part of another organization. I was invited in 1983 to teach part time at the University of Minnesota but also to build the youth service/service learning/ positive youth development program areas.  And to do that in the form of retreats and trainings for young people, eventually evolved into training and retreats for teachers and youth workers.

Could you give us some information about the National Youth leadership Council and your work here?

Our mission is to build peaceful and more sustainable communities through service and service learning. It’s work that is related to creating context where young people can be useful in shaping their surroundings, shaping their world, and that the experience of being involved in the service could be connected to their own academic development and personal development, and civic engagement capacity. In the process of contribution, they will build better communities, and also in the process, they would be enhancing their skills and understanding. At the same time, they will gain a better understanding of what it means to be a citizen in a democratic society, which means you have to contribute. It is more than just volunteering. It has to do with thinking critically about what needs to be supported in the society, what needs to be changed in the society and being an active contributor around making those changes.

What are the goals and objectives of your organization?

Our vision is that every child, every student, every year would have the opportunity to be encouraged to contribute through service learning. That’s our vision. We see now about 33 % of all schools in the US have some form of service learning in them. 66% has some form of community services which means it’s volunteering without the learning dimension, and that’s okay because it often leads to service learning.

What parallels and connections do you see between Shinnyo-en Foundation and your organization?

I think we have a shared focus in our respective work of creating a more just and peaceful world. Both organizations have a profound respect for what young people say and how they contribute to society. We both understand the role of formal education in the process of working with young people, and lastly but not least I think it has to do with the spiritual dimension, in that we accept and encourage people of all faith traditions to be invested in service. All success in life does not revolve around one’s personal achievement, but is very closely related to the well-being of our families, well-being of our communities, well-being of our countries, and well-being of all the world citizens.  And I think in that perspective we have a share outlook with Shinnyo-en.

Can you tell us a little bit about the NSLC next year in San Jose?

The conference itself is built around the theme very close to the heart of what California has been about for years, especially in San Jose and the Silicon Valley which is the theme of Inspire, Imagine and Innovate. The one thing we are going to highlight is that it’s time for another generation of ideas and creativity to address important issues of our day. We have reached the point in human history where doing more of the same at a greater level is not going to be enough. We need new thinking and new creativity, and the hope is that the conference will demonstrate how young people working with older people as they invest in the world through service learning can be catalysts for greater creativity which will lead to greater problem-solving and greater solution development for issues about which we’re all concerned.

One of the things that we are introducing is the idea of the generator school network, a network of schools and teachers from around the country and eventually around the world, who will be joined together around service learning.  They will be able to support one another, through a professional development online community through the generator school network.  Over 200 schools have joined in a matter of a month. I was in London two weeks ago at the invitation of Federal Dept of Education. I spoke about the generator school network and how they can become involved in service learning. We’re beginning to explore networking. I know by talking to Haru that there’s an interest in Japan and other parts of East Asia, and it would be wonderful to have a dialogue on how there could be a parallel effort that involves a collaboration between countries and shared vision of encouraging active service by young people.

What were your impressions of the Six Billion Paths to Peace event in San Francisco?

I was very impressed in that the Six Billion Paths to Peace awards highlighted the contributions of some people who normally are not recognized in society for what they contribute. I think Shinnyo-en demonstrates a commitment to the ideal that everyone has something to contribute and in so doing they bring about the possibility of a more peaceful and sustainable world.

I was also at The Lantern Floating service in Honolulu, and I think the combination of recognizing the contributions of today and the strand of connectivity to our ancestors are something quite distinctive and important

Now Jim, we’d like to learn a little about your interests outside of your professional work?  What is the best book you have read recently?

As far as books I’m reading, I’m reading several at once, and the one I just finished is The Omnivore’s Dilemma and particularly influenced by the author Michael Pollan.  It’s a history of our food system in the United States and how incredibly unhealthy and destructive the foods can be, or healthy and very beneficial. The idea is that we can “vote” with our forks, and choose what we consume.

When not working, how do you spend your free time?

I have a fairly large garden, it’s almost a quarter acre, so I’ve been cultivating it now for well over 12 years. My apple trees are mature and producing apples, my cherry trees are mature and producing cherries, I have raspberries, and strawberries. I grow potatoes, squash, carrots, beans, peas, cabbage, and corn.

So, gardening is your passion?

It is a passion, yes.  And I’m very passionate and interested in the natural world and the outdoor world that I explore through hiking, through paddling my canoe or through cross-country skiing. When I was a younger person I did quite a bit of mountain climbing.

And in closing please share with our readers, what is your personal path to peace?

My path to peace has to do with my family. I find now that I have a much greater appreciation for meaningful relationships with the people that I’m the closest to: my wife, my three daughters, my two grandsons, and my extended families of sisters and cousins and nephews and the like. It’s important for me to maintain peaceful relationships with them, and then by extension people I work the most closely with, namely the people in my office, to work on being fair, being a good listener, to be honest when I have to provide a critique but at the same time encouraging in their own growth and development.  So this really starts first and foremost with me and my own spirit and my own heart, of being attentive to the things that bring me spiritual wholeness and includes my spiritual practices in appreciating my personal relationships starting with my family and then going out from there.

Center for Service and Community

Hands on Bay Area

Interfaith Youth Core

Life Learning Academy

Manhattanville College

Volunteer Resource Center of Hawaii

Volunteer Resource Center of Hawaii

Haas Center for Public Service- Grant: r. Pratt, Haas Fellowship

Deep Streams Institute

Yorba Linda Veterans Memorial Association

UC Berkeley- Spirituality and Service

Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center, Jewish-Palestinian Peacemaking Camp

White Plains Performing Arts

City of Burlingame/Community Wish List

City of Burlingame/Burlingame Neighborhood Network Emergency Preparation     Program

Diocese of San Jose/Immersion Experiences

Environmental Science Center Foundation at Seahurst Park

Islamic Networks Group/Interfaith Speakers Bureau

National Indian Youth Leadership Project/Peace Building Speakers Series for Native Youth

Life Learning Academy/Nonviolence Program and Service Learning Program
Center for Sustainable Change

Buena Vista United Methodist Church/SPOT Youth Activities

Environmental Science Center foundation at Seahurst Park

City Year-New York/ATR & Leadership Development Days

National Youth Leadership Conference

PassageWork Institute

Pathways to Peace

What Kids Can Do, Inc.

Silicon Valley Conference for Community and Justice

Putney School Summer Program

Triskeles Foundation

Pachamama Alliance

Stanford Center for Buddhist Study

Destiny Arts Center

City of White Plains Liberty Park Marine Science Program

Sweat Equity Enterprises
Care

- GRT-Acorn Charities

Japanese Community Youth Council
Manhattanville College
LeadershipSpring

The Blake School

White Bison

Alternative In Action

University of San Diego’s Center for Character Development

World Savvy

Youth Community Service

Seattle University’s Center for Service and Community Engagement

University of California Japanese Buddhism Fund

Search Institute

White Plaines School District

University of California Berkeley- Peace and Conflict Studies Department

Stanford University Buddhist Studies

Haas Center for Public Service

GRT International Association- National youth Service Conference

North Dakota students share their paths to peace through Six Billion Paths to Peace activities

Former Shinnyo-en Foundation intern Naomi Shachter models the Six Billion Paths to Peace T-shirt

Last December, Shinnyo-en representatives traveled to North Dakota to spread the message of Six Billion Paths to Peace and help about 250 of the high school student council members gathered find their paths to peace.
Greg Tehven, one of the young social entrepreneurs responsible for Student Today Leaders Forever (STLF)(http://www.stlf.net/) attended the Shinnyo-en Foundation’s annual peace and service retreat last summer and invited Naomi Shachter, a summer Shinnyo Fellow and Ineko Tsuchida, Associate Director of Programs to facilitate two workshops at the North Dakota Association of Student Council’s conference on December 14, 2009. Despite the -18 degree weather in Bismarck, Ineko and Naomi felt comfortable and welcomed.
The conference brings together young student council leaders from high schools across the state and over 1,300 students attended this exciting annual event. The foundation gave a Six Billion Paths to Peace t-shirt to each of the conference attendees and ignited their already sparked interest in service and peacebuilding.
Naomi and Ineko lead two workshops, the first with about 200 students, and the second about 50 to introduce the Shinnyo-en Foundation and the Six Billion Paths to Peace Initiative.
The workshops continued with an interactive exercise called “What’s Important to Me” designed by Nan Peterson, service-learning director of The Blake School and the Shinnyo Senior Fellow of the Foundation. “What’s Important to Me” began with students writing brief lists of things that are important to them – from baseball to their family to the environment. They continued by walking around the room, noticing each other’s lists, and reflected on some of the important issues and aspects of their lives to gain more insights into themselves.

Following this first activity, students were invited into deeper reflection in composing a poem about their family, cultural and heritage roots through “My Roots Are” activity in the Foundation’s Reflection Cards. Finally, students took what they’d learned about themselves in the first two activities to identify what their paths to peace were. Though many of these activities are simple by design, the culmination of activities resulted in deeper connection with past experiences, present beliefs and actions and future beliefs and actions.

Young leaders from high schools in North Dakota walked away with a deeper understanding of themselves and the core message of Six Billion Paths to Peace, that is, anyone can serve and create a ripple effect of compassion to build more harmonious and peaceful world.

Asia Society

California Volunteers

City of White Plains

Destiny Arts Center

Diocese of San Jose

Environmental Science Center

Future Leaders for Peace

George Mason University

Hands on Bay Area

Manhattanville College

Pathways to Peace

Points of Light Foundation

Portland Service

Putney School Summer Program

Redwood City 2020

Seattle University’s Center for Service and Community Engagement

Stanford University Haas Center for Public Service

The Blake School

The League

Triskeles Foundation

University of California Cal Corps

University of California Peace and Conflict Studies

White Plains School District

Youth Service California

Conference Sponsorship

Character Education Partnership

National Conference on Volunteering and Service

National Service Learning Conference

National Women’s Conference

Small Contributions

Center for Sustainable Change

Impact for Youth

Interfaith Youth Core

Lend-a-Hand Foundation

Nihonmachi Little Friends

Oakland Fukuoka Sister City

Youth to Youth International

To support its Caring School Community program in the Placentia-Yorba Linda School District as they create caring school communities in 20 schools in the district.

Interfaith Youth Core

To support development of its Shared Value Curricula and its National Days of Interfaith Youth Service.

The Putney School- Scholarships

Mediators Foundation- Omega Institute/Global Leadership Network

To support their development of the Global Leaders Book, which will focus on Global Leadership and how to foster cross –border leadership on global issues.

White Plains Performing Arts- Diversity Theater Programs

City of White Plains- International Sculpture Exhibit

Destiny Arts Center- Non-violence and leadership programs

Foundation for Global Community- Jewish-Palestinian Peacemakers Camp

Maiden Voyage Productions- “Just Like Me, But Different”

The Mosaic Project- Peace and Diversity Outdoor School

National Youth Leadership Council- Resources for Recovery

Pathways to Peace- “We the Peoples Website” and International Peace Day

The River School- Ho’ala Philosophy Teacher Training
To support in developing and sharing its Hoa’la Education Model with other teachers and parents.

Seattle University’s Center for Service

UC Berkeley Cal Corps Public Service Center

To support the University of California, Berkeley’s Reflection in Leadership Project, which seeks to enable 300 student leaders of community based service projects to explore the importance of reflection and spiritual practice in order to improve their own service as well as to sustain themselves for a lifetime of engaged service.

White Plains School District- Eastview Middle School

To support its Youth Summits for Global Harmony program and the international dialogue amongst teachers and students all over the world.

City of Yorba Linda- Coordinated Approach to Childhood Health Collab.

White Plains School district- Eastview Middle School

To support its Youth Summits for Global Harmony program and the international dialogue amongst teachers and students all over the world.

Burlingame High School
Support of Burlingame High School and their second Camp Everytown experience. Camp Everytown is an intensive, transformative youth leadership development program that seeks to break down prejudices and attitudes of discrimination.