Introduction: The idea you are about to read offers an ongoing solution to many of the worlds toughest situations. Imagine these issues being solved. At the same time of solving them people are being put to work, enrollment throughout the world of colleges and universities is increasing, new companies and jobs are being created, colleges & universities are interacting with businesses locally and internationally, world governments are showing new signs of commitment and communication and the advancement of society has the benefit of progressing at surprising new speeds. (The acceptance of the idea about to be presented has a strong possibility of success as long as it is first looked upon with an open mind. Read this idea once and walk away from it for a while. Try not to find flaws in it at first. Allow your imagination to see the possibilities of its success. Then, read it once more. Now, for the reasons you might have decided it would not work, start thinking about its weak links and try to create manageable solutions to them.)
Think for a moment and try to come up with ten of the world’s toughest situations: problems that seriously affect most of the population simultaneously. Problems that if controlled, could allow the world to spend it’s time and efforts progressing in other areas of advancement. Lets work with these ten for example; 1) World Hunger 2) Climate Change 3) Waste Disposal 4) Alternative Energy 5) Adequate World Wide Health Care 6) AIDS 7) Air & Water Pollution 8) Endangered Species 9) Over Population 10) Drugs.
At this time there are approximately 15 million people currently enrolled in colleges either full or part-time across the United States. There are more than 95 million people currently enrolled in colleges and universities worldwide. The majority of these individuals are between the ages of 18 and 25 years of age. Their minds are opening up, experiencing and experimenting with more ideas than they know what to do with. College teaches people to not only accept the world the way it is, but it challenges them to go out and make it different. Make a change for the better by making the world a better place.
If a small number of minds could be fueled and funneled in a particular direction toward a specific problem, there is no limit as to the solutions they could devise. Set up an ongoing program that will allow the college students of the United States and the world to create workable solutions to assist in solving the world’s biggest problems. Problems of this caliber need a mass of creativity to be solved. No where but in the massive numbers of students in colleges across the country, and throughout the world is there more creativity just sitting stagnant, waiting to be organized and put to productive use as a whole (instead of individually, as a student goes through school, thinking and being directed to only think about making her/his own, life better.) Here is a plan of how this could get started and progress successfully and continually.
On an international scale, a panel or board needs to be established in a central location in the country or world. This panel would not need to hold much power and it doesn’t have to be very large. Its basic function would be to keep track of each college that is enrolled in this program, the specific problem that they chose to solve and the progress they are making. This will be carried out through updated reports from the school’s student councils that are in charge of the projects.
Students in the school organize themselves and decide what issues they would like to solve. A brief report would have to be written up with the basic plan of what they are to do, the approximate length of time and how they are to accomplish this task. It will be forwarded to the panel or board for overall approval and suggestions. Only one school shall be allowed to work on one problem at a time. If, however, another school later decides to attempt the same solution, the overseeing panel will place the two schools in contact with one another so they may arrange whatever working arrangements they may come up with together. The goals can be the same. But it is easily foreseeable that the solutions for China might be different than the solutions for Denmark. Then in conjunction, schools together can be working on the same project but in different parts and directions, communicating between one another and both working for the same common overall goal.
In order for this process to take effect it has to be profitable for all involved. Nobody is going to pay for this out of sheer generosity and if someone did, it would not have the same lasting affect. Here are some examples of different types of incentives and profits. The contributing number of hours and work spent by each student will go towards their particular major or degree. The student council and administration at each school will arrange their curriculum in order to make this valuable to students and the school alike.
The school will benefit because enrollment will increase. Future students will have the opportunity to become aware of what schools across the country and world are attempting execution of what projects. These projects will likely have a minimum time length of 5 to 10 years with programs continuing there after, giving many students ample opportunity to become involved with them. If a junior in high school wanted to become involved in studying oceanography, she could have the opportunity to possibly attend a university that has been involved with the establishment of an organization to manage the food source of the world’s oceans and start ocean farming on a global scale, as a major contributing factor in solving world hunger.
A type of hierarchy in the student council would give students the chance to consistently move up with increasing responsibility in the project they have chosen. As students progress through their years in school they will be associating with businesses and other companies that are involved with the accomplishment of the task. It would be quite natural for the students to work themselves directly into a job they have already been performing for some time, while at school working part-time for a company over the last few years.
The education system and the business community of the countries would also benefit throughout. Businesses would have much more say in the necessary educational requirements of the students. The students would also be in direct contact with the business communities trying to establish new projects, directions of growth, joint ventures between companies, or highlighting new products or services that need to be offered to fill gaps in the market place. The students will have to put together the plan to get from point A to point B. If new companies for the development of projects have to be established, they will need to get in touch with the business community and help coordinate the efforts to see this through. The education system benefits because business is involved discussing directly, what the students will need to learn several years down the road.
The business community benefits in other ways also. Kind of like the ultimate screening process, they have a chance to work with many students before they hire them. It has the potential to be better than a co-op program because companies would be working with students and not be obligated to pay them any type of wage. This would essentially allow businesses to choose the best students firsthand. It would also be feasible for one business to be taking part on several projects at one time; thereby enabling a variety of students and corporations to work together.
Governments of countries are at chance one of the best beneficiaries. They would have many of the major problems of their countries and the world being solved for them and it would not cost any conceivable amount of money from their standpoint. Basically all they would have to do is regulate businesses, colleges and students in a trade or business fashion. Various types of new legislation and bills would possibly need to be lobbied for and passed. But the end result would mean more power back in the states control and less needed government regulation.
Never before in the history of mankind has the world been so open. The United States might not have the best higher education system in the world, but it does hold the most opportunities for expansion and growth. More students from more areas of the world choose to study in the United States than any other country.
Economies and markets of separate countries are becoming easier to merge into almost overnight. Old hostilities between governments are defusing at rapid paces as backward populations strive to gain footing with first world economies. The opportunity is at hand for a program such as this to develop. What better time and place for this to occur, then here and now. All that needs to be done is to make it happen.