Did you know?
Let’s Get Engaged (Search Institute, Citizenship Project, http://www.civicroots.org)
Civic engagement is linked to important youth outcomes, such as:
- Healthier individuals, including increases in the satisfaction and positive emotions. Kids feel good when they help others!
- Fewer problem behaviors and higher school achievement
- Stronger communities, where young people are valued and feel committed to supporting the greater good
Just so you know:
- One-third of kids report their parents volunteer, follow the news, or work to improve their neighborhood
- 40% of youth report they have too much schoolwork or would rather do other things than participate in extracurricular activities
- 70% of parents report that their family discusses problems facing their community
- 30% of youth report that their family discusses problems facing their community
- 72% of youth feel supported by their parents
- 54% of youth feel supported by their teachers
Values and Variables
- $1.2 trillion – The amount spent in one year of fast-food and casual-restaurants
- $545 billion – the amount spent on pre-k through secondary education by federal, state and local governments combined in 2014
A Time for Everything (extracted from Sleep Deficit, Kermit Pattison, ExperienceLife, May 2015.)
- Adults need 7 to eight hours of sleep daily, according to the National Institutes of Health. Teens require 9 to 10 hours of sleep each day
- 70% of American adults and teens get insufficient sleep
- 31% of high school students report getting at least 8 hours of sleep on an average on a school night
- The average American gets 2 hours less sleep per night than the average American did 40 years ago
- There was a 34% increase in of-the-job performance in a study done of pilots who took naps and a 54 percent improvement in alertness
- Functions like short-term memory and high-level mental tasks that require us to pay attention to several things at once, are particularly vulnerable to sleep loss
- Studies consistently demonstrate that good sleep sets up the brain for positive feelings
Energy Overload
- 50% of adolescents consume energy drinks
- 32% of adolescents consume energy drinks on a daily basis
- 46% of energy drink ads appear on TV air on channels favored by adolescents
- According to a 2010 study, sugar-free energy drinks can increase the risk of adverse heart events
- Research indicates that energy drinks make it harder for kids to pay attention in school
- Middle schoolers who consume sugary energy drinks are 66% likelier to show symptoms of hyperactivity
- Between January 2012 and November 2014, the FDA received 224 adverse-event reports from energy-drink companies
Considering Careers (based in part on Time Magazine, The Answer Issue, careers, July 6/13, 2015)
When students select a career path to pursue each of the following merit consideration:
- Compensation (annual pay not including benefits)
- Level of stress (measured by CareerCast.com based on 11 factors including travel and deadlines)
- Growth of field (projected change in the number of jobs in that field from 2012 to 2022) (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- Satisfaction (measured individually and personally by level of interest, ability to contribute and workplace environment)
Currency Quiz
- What woman should be represented on the next ten-dollar bill and why?
- What Latin phrase appears “E Pluribus Unum” mean?
- A mile of pennies laid out is $844.80. By this standard, America is about $2.5 million pennies wide, coast to coast
- What does the so-called “all-seeing eye” that sits atop the pyramid on dollar bills represent?
- What bill makes up 80% of all U.S. currency?
- What bill has the shortest lifespan of any currency?
Definitions
Engage:
- Occupy, attract or involve (someone’s interest or attention)
- Participate or become involved in
Engagement:
- The act of engaging or state of being engaged
Employee Engagement:
- Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. (Forbes)
- The harnessing of organization members to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. (William Kahn)
- Emotional connection an employee feels toward his or her employment organization, which tends to influence his or her behaviors and level of effort in work related activities. (businessdictionary.com)
Community engagement:
- The process by which community benefit organizations and individuals build ongoing, permanent relationships for the purpose of applying a collective vision for the benefit of a community (Wikipedia)
Quotable
- The more engagement an employee has with his or her company, the more effort they put forth. Employee engagement also involves the nature of the job itself – if the employee feels mentally stimulated; the trust and communication between employees and management; ability of an employee to see how their own work contributes to the overall company performance; the opportunity of growth within the organization; and the level of pride an employee has about working or being associated with the company. (businessdictionary.com)