Young Gets It Done: Sal Khan, 33

Never thought that tutoring/education from a Harvard MBA could be free? Think again. Sal Khan and his non-profit, Khan Academy, does just that. Through on-line lectures and tutorials on YouTube, Khan teaches 200,000 students math, science and an array of other subjects, all at no cost:

Khan Academy, with Khan as the only teacher, appears on YouTube and elsewhere and is by any measure the most popular educational site on the web. Khan’s playlist of 1,630 tutorials (at last count) are now seen an average of 70,000 times a day — nearly double the student body at Harvard and Stanford combined. Since he began his tutorials in late 2006, Khan Academy has received 18 million page views worldwide, including from the Gates progeny. Most page views come from the U.S., followed by Canada, England, Australia, and India. In any given month, Khan says, he’s reached about 200,000 students. “There’s no reason it shouldn’t be 20 million.”

And, his eager students aren’t Khan’s only supporters. A little guy named Bill Gates is also a big fan! Gates found out about Khan Academy through YouTube (naturally) and began watching the videos with his son. In Gates’ own words: “This guy is amazing. It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources.”

At just 33 years old, Khan, a former hedge fund manager, is quite accomplished. Born in New Orleans to immigrant parents from India, Sal went on to become a star student. In addition to an MBA from Harvard, he holds three degrees from MIT. A BS in Math and both a BS and Masters in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Making education affordable and accessible should be one of our main priorities in America. No one should miss out on an education because they can’t afford it. Sal Khan is doing his part to make this dream a reality. We have no doubt he is going to make a huge difference in many people’s lives.

Also, don’t forget to save the date for our 2nd Annual Young Gets It Done Party & Fundraiser! Details here.

CNN Money – Bill Gates’ Favorite Teacher

Young Got It Done

The Daily Politics is having a caption contest…

(h/t: Gothamist)

NYS Welfare Recipients Win A Battle In The Fight For Equal Access to Education

A group of about 20 people met in the backroom of the Black Bear Lounge in late June to listen to Maureen Lane from Welfare Right Initiative speak about her efforts to promote “Access to Education for all”. Over the course of an hour we were given the short history of a movement predicated on the principle that making higher education opportunities available to those who need it most is our best weapon for reducing welfare dependency and providing the life changing catalysis that can turn lives around.

The Welfare Rights Initiative is a 15 year old organization dedicated to addressing the systemic issues behind welfare reform by providing education, legal, social service and advocacy program training. These tools empower young men and women to organize for fair and equal access to among other things, the right to a higher education.

Part of what allowed this program to flourish was their successful push in 2000 to get college enrollment and work-study recognized as sufficient for fulfilling  the welfare work requirement . However to get this passed advocates had to jump enormous hurdles. The passage of the Work Study and Internship Bill in 2000 essentially rested on the leadership of State Senators Tom Duane (D) and Ray Meier (R) ability to foster bi-partisan cooperation between the parties and correct an injustice in the CUNY system that had already “lost over 20,000 students receiving public assistance because of misguided federal, state and city welfare policy”

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21 Year Old Could Stop Gulf Oil Leak

21 year old Alia Sabur has caught the attention of BP and the Coast Guard with an innovative idea to capture the flow of oil pouring into the Gulf. A simple and elegant idea, it’s great that they’re considering it but a shame that they couldn’t figure it out sooner. What, exactly, do they get paid for? See clip from CNN below.

County Committee E-Board Update 3/25/2010s

We  did it again – we attended a meeting of the County Committee E-Board so that you’re not left in the lurch. If you don’t read the whole synopsis, and I think you should, here are some important bullets to take away:

• You’re Invited (yes, everyone)! County Committee Attorney General Forum – April 22, 2010, Thursday, 6:00 p.m. at 32BJ SEIU located at 101 Avenue of the Americas. Please RSVP your attendance to the forum to Alison Walsh at 646.214.3397 or ACW@warroomconsulting.com.
• Next County Committee E-Board Meeting will be before the AG’s Forum at 5:30 in the same location.
• The County Committee sub-committee on the judiciary is selecting judicial nominations. It’s fascinating and the details of their report at the last meeting are below.

Manhattan County Committee Executive Board Meeting

The March 25, 2010 Manhattan County Committee meeting was at the Hudson Guild in Chelsea.  About 25 people attended, mostly State Committeepersons, District Leaders and a few County Committee and MYD members.  Attendees discussed issues in their local areas and snacked on sandwiches, chips, cookies and soft drinks from Subway before the meeting came to order.

Keith Wright (Manhattan Democratic Chairman & Assemblyman 70^th AD) was in Albany for the budget debate. Maria Luna (Democratic State Committeewoman and Chair of the Executive Board of the Manhattan County Committee) presided with Mark Landis (UWS District Leader) who filled-in for Keith.

Summary of Past Meeting

Maria Luna summarized the previous Congressional Forum meeting as being very informative and giving attendees the opportunity to hear from many congressional candidates as well as incumbents.  The Q&A session helped people get to know their Representatives and Congressional challengers.

NY State Democratic Convention: May 23 – 25

The Convention will be held at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers. (811 7^th Avenue on 53^rd Street, New York, NY 10019. 212.581.1000)  For more information, contact the NY State Democratic Committee: 212.725.8825

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MYD Top 5 Under 35 Honoree Making National News Again

On September 30th of 2009 the Manhattan Young Democrats honored our top 5 leaders under 35 at our “Young Gets it Done” event at the nightclub Griffin. With over 250 people packing the room, and many elected officials in attendance, the Manhattan Young Democrats honored State Senator Daniel Squadron, Assemblyman Micah Kellner, Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, LT. Daniel Choi, and the progressive grassroots organization Living Liberally. Although all of our top 5 under 35 honorees continue to have incredible accomplishments, LT. Daniel Choi has been making headlines lately for his fight against the US Army’s antiquated and nonsensical Dont Ask Dont Tell policies. MYD honored LT. Choi for his incredible courage and honor, and today his fight against Dont Ask Dont Tell has taken a major victory. LT. Choi has been reassigned to serve our country and will continue to fight for America with courage without trying to hide his sexual preferences. MYD would like to once again congratulate LT. Choi for this major victory and we are all hopeful that it is one of many to come.

Young Getting It Done: The Bruno Gap

I live in Carroll Gardens, and I’m lucky enough to have Dan Squadron as my State Senator. A couple months ago, I bumped into him talking to constituents outside of the entrance to the Bergen Street subway stop on the F line. (He’s now put together a town hall with actual MTA reps for people who use the F — I should go and give them a piece of my mind…) MYD also honored him with a “Young Gets It Done” award at our party at the Griffin.

He’s not even 30, but he arrived at the State Senate in 2008 and has been introducing legislation many of his fellow Senators have nightmares about.

Exhibit A: Ethics overhaul, which is gaining steam in light of the conviction of former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R) on corruption charges.

“I call it the Bruno gap, and it needs to be filled,” Squadron said.

The draft bill would abolish the much-criticized Public Integrity Commission and replace it with two different bodies – one to oversee the executive branch and another the lobbying industry.

A third commission, with an independent investigatory arm, would be created to police the Legislature.

That commission also would have the power to randomly review lawmakers’ financial disclosure forms.

Any recommendations investigators made would be public, a change from current law.

Lawmakers would also be subject to more stringent public disclosure laws.

For the first time, they would be required to publicly report the range of their outside income.

Lawmakers with consulting businesses, like Bruno, would be required to list all clients, their compensation level and what services they did for them.

The bill would not require legislators who are lawyers, like Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, to list their clients. Schneiderman, a lawyer, said that’s because of lawyer-client issues.

The bill has an anti-nepotism provision that would bar the hiring of relatives of elected officials to high-level positions in the same house or for state jobs with salaries over $84,000.

The bill would also revamp the toothless Board of Elections and make it easier for investigations to move forward.

Young Gets It Done: The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

Trite but true: Youth is humanities best renewable resource:

If our Young Gets It Done series is about anything, it’s about serving up proof that you don’t need to have experience to save somebody’s life, change an entire community or inspire thousands. You can be 14 and develop cutting-edge surgery techniques. You can be in high school and capture images from space using a $200 hot air balloon.

If you can get to this blog, you can change the world.

Show your support for YDA’s DNC Committee Woman Stephanie Hauser & NYC Council Candidate Kevin Kim

From time to time, we at MYD like to share events put on by other organizations throughout the city. We know we aren’t the only ones who can throw a huge party.

Youth involvement in politics doesn’t just mean lobbying our elected officials and starting grassroots movements. It means becoming elected officials! Town Council may not seem like the biggest most important race to some of you, but future leaders like Stephanie need to start local and grow from there. We started local with the Open Seat Project, putting about 80 MYDers on the ballot.

Joint Fundraiser for Stephanie Hausner and Kevin Kim

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
7:30pm to 9:00pm
Arctica Bar and Grill, Top Bar (384 3rd Avenue)

Host Committee: Dr. Fergus Ambe, Al Benninghoff, Evan Berger, Jennie Berger, Marvin Bing Jr., Matthew Bishop, Julie Blitzer, Costa Constantinides, Keith Dumanski, Daniel Getman, Jake Honigman, Erica Kagan, Dan Kasell, Ksenia Koban, Jamaal Mobley, Jen Nedeau, Thaler Pekar, Alfred Rutherford, Jonathan Stone, Josh Warren

Tickets will be $40, $20 for students, and each candidate takes home half. If you are contributing by check, please bring 2 checks. If you are contributing by cash, please bring two $20 bills.

More information on the event’s Facebook page

Learn about Kevin and Stephanie (and their Twitter accounts!) after the jump. Read more

Young Gets It Done. Amen.

Pictures speak louder than words. See the full set from MYD photog extraordinaire Juan Carlos here.

Thank you to every member of the Host Committee for making this amazing event possible. Special thanks to Academy Engraving for donating the awards we gave to our honorees. And most of all, to the amazing young leaders who are working hard every day to make the world a better place (cheesy, but true): Dan Squadron, Jessica Lappin, Justin Krebs, Living Liberally, Lt. Dan Choi, and Micah Kellner.

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