UG’s job search program for professional immigrants is currently open only to those presently living in the San Francisco Bay area, New York City Metro area and the Chicago Metro areas.

All UG job candidates have a Bachelor degree (or higher) from an accredited university, and have worked in professional environments for at least three years.

Free services of UG include:
* Assistance with resume and cover letter writing.
* American job search skills workshops.
* Instruction in targeted internet job searching.
* Job leads for professional positions in San Francisco, New York and Chicago.

UG’s services help professional immigrants overcome job search obstacles such as lack of personal connections in the industry, difficulty in writing a US-style resume, difficulty in understanding what to say in job interviews, and employer misconceptions about foreign-born job candidates.

Upwardly Global currently has a 180 Degrees of Change Campaign to raise $180,000 in 180 days. UG hopes to provide employment services to 700 refugees, asylees and legal immigrants in 2008.

Information on donating, volunteering, or participating as a job seeker or employer can be found on their website.

26% of teenage gamers played 2 hours or more per day (when asked how many hours they played yesterday). 34% of boys and 17% of girls played 2 hours or more per day.

On any given day, 50% of teen gamers report playing video games.

62% of parents say that video games have no effect on their children one way or the other.
19% of parents say that video games have a positive influence on their children.
13% of parents say that video games have a negative influence on their children.

Is this gaming experience good or bad for America’s youth? This study admittedly doesn’t take into account the effects of gaming on physical health, exercise, and other concerns, but gives some interesting insights.

Some of the findings of the research study indicate:

* Race, ethnicity and family income do not make a difference in the length of time teens spend gaming.

* The quantity of game play is not strongly related to teens’ interest or engagement in civic and political activity.

* But the characteristics of game play and the contexts in which teens play games are strongly related to teens’ interest and engagement in civic and political activities.

* Teens who take part in social interaction related to the game, such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards, are more engaged civically and politically.

* The most active, frequent gamers are just as communicative and socially engaged as less-active gamers.

* Among teens who play games, 63% report seeing or hearing “people being mean and overly aggressive while playing,”. Of those who have had these experiences, 73% state they have seen or heard other players ask the aggressor to stop.”

* Teens who play games also witness a large amount of “pro-social” behaviors. More than three-fourths of teens who took the survey report witnessing “people being generous or helpful while playing.”
The five most popular games among American teens are Guitar Hero, Halo 3, Madden NFL, Solitaire and Dance Dance Revolution.

The category of games listed in order of popularity are:
1) Racing
2) Puzzle
3) Sports
4) Action
5) Adventure
6) Rhythm
7) Strategy
8) Simulation
9) Fighting
10) First-Person Shooters
11) Role-Playing
12) Survival-Horror
13) MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Games)
14) Virtual Worlds

The rankings are based on surveys of college officials, graduation rates, retention rates, financial resources, student selectivity, educational resources and other factors. The top national schools in this survery are listed below:

1. Harvard
2. Princeton
3. Yale
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
4. Stanford
6. California Institute of Technology
6. University of Pennsylvania
8. Columbia University
8. Duke University
8. University of Chicago
11. Dartmouth
12. Northwestern
12. Washington University in St. Louis
14. Cornell
15. Johns Hopkins
16. Brown
17. Rice
18. Emory
18. University of Notre Dame
18. Vanderbilt
21. University of California-Berkeley
22. Carnegie Mellon University
23. Georgetown
23. University of Virginia
25. University of California - Los Angeles

Amherst College, Williams College, Swathmore College, Wellesley College and Middlebury College are the 5 highest ranked liberal arts colleges.

If you look at only children, more than 50% of children of the children in the USA will be minorities by the year 2023, and 62% of the nation’s children will be minorities by the year 2050.

By the year 2050, the single-race whites (non-Hispanic) will number 203.3 million.
By the year 2050, the minority population will number 235.7 million.

The non-Hispanic, single-race white population is expected to drop from 66% in 2008 to 46% by the year 2050.

The Hispanic population’s share of the total U.S. population is expected to double from 15% to 30% (132.8 million) by 2050. About 1 in 3 U.S. residents would be Hispanic.

The black population is expected to increase to 65.7 million in 2050 (about 15% of U.S. total population).
The Asian population is expected to increase to 40.6 million in 2050 (about 9% of U.S. total population).

The number of people over the age of 65 is expected to be 88.5 million in 2050 (currently 38.7 million).

The number of people over the age of 85 is expected to be 19 million in 2050 (currently 5.4 million).

Lopez Lomong (1,500-meters track and field runner), formerly from Sudan, will carry the U.S. flag at the Opening Ceremony. Lopez was given the honor by a vote of the team captains of the entire U.S. Olympic Team.

Some of the foreign born athletes competing for the U.S. Olympic team include:

Russia - Nastia Liukin - One of the world’s top gymnasts.

Kenya - Bernard Lagat - 1,500 meters in men’s track.

Mexico - Leo Manzano - 1,5000 meters in men’s track.

Soviet Union (1992) & Georgia (1996, 2000) - Khatuna Lorig - Archery.

Peru - Giuseppe Lanzone - Men’s rowing team.

United Kingdom - Heather Corrie - Women’s kayaking.

India - Raj Bhavsar - Men’s gymnastics.

China - Gao Jun, Chen Wang, Crystal Huang, David Zhuang - Table tennis.

Australia - Phillip Dutton - Equestrian team.

Laos - Bob Malaythong - Badminton.

“Between 88 and 90 million adults aren’t prepared to meet the demands of today’s global economy or secure a family-sustaining wage job.”

“Our nation’s 25 to 34 year-olds are the first generation in U.S. history to be less educated than their parents”.

“America is losing its place as a world leader in education, and in fact is becoming less educated.”

“About 8,000 people turn 60 every day. As these “baby boomers” leave the workforce, their places are being taken by the smaller cohort of workers born in the mid-to-late 1960s and early 1970s. As a result, the U.S. workforce is increasing more slowly and, without intervention, is likely to become less educated on average.

“The Commission concludes that the present situation threatens not only America’s ability to compete in the world economy, but its civic preparedness, its national security, and its very democratic core. It offers an action program to overcome crisis and throws down the gauntlet: the time to act is now!”

Some other findings of the report:

* “Every year, one in three young adults—more than 1.2 million people—drop out of high school. Even more alarming, many high school graduates who do complete high school lack basic skills and readiness for job training and college.”

* “One in every 100 U.S. adults 16 and older is in prison or jail in America (about 2.3 million in 2006). About 43 percent do not have a high school diploma or equivalent, and 56 percent have very low literacy skills. Ninety-five percent of incarcerated people return to our communities. It is hard enough for them to find jobs burdened with a prison record, but it is nearly impossible without the necessary education and basic skills.”

* “About 2 million immigrants come to the U.S. each year seeking jobs and better lives—the promise of America. About 50 percent of them have low literacy levels and lack high school education and English language skills, severely limiting their access to jobs and job training, college, and citizenship.”

The National Commission on Adult Literacy is an independent panel of leaders from labor, business, government, education, literacy and philanthropy.

Information about the Commission’s 9 Recommended Actions and other details of their report can be found on their website.

Men’s sports included basketball, baseball, cross country, football, golf, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor track, outdoor track, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.

Women’s sports included basketball, bowling, cross country, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, indoor track, outdoor track, volleyball and water polo… see the actual rankings of colleges below …

Coed fencing, rifle, and skiing replaced a lower score in a few instances.

The Top 10 Colleges were:
1. Stanford- 90+ points for mens golf, mens gymnastics, womens basketball, womens cross country, womens volleyball.
2. UCLA- 90+ points for mens golf, womens golf, womens tennis, womens water polo.
3. Michigan - no 90+ ratings.
4. Arizona State- 90+ points for mens indoor track, womens softball, womens indoor track, womens outdoor track.
5. University of Texas- 90+ points for mens swimming, mens tennis.
6. Florida - no 90+ ratings.
7. California- 90+ points for mens water polo, womens tennis.
8. Louisiana State- 90+ points for mens football, womens indoor track, womens outdoor track.
9. Penn State- 90+ points for mens volleyball, womens field hockey, womens volleyball.
10. Georgia- 90+ points for mens baseball, mens tennis, womens gymnastics.

The colleges ranked just below the top 10 are:
11. Ohio State
12. Texas A&M
13. USC (Univ. of Southern California)
14. North Carolina
15. Florida State
16. Tennessee
17. Virginia
18. Wisconsin
19. Duke
20. Auburn

Winners among smaller colleges include:
Division 2 - Grand Valley State (Michigan)
Division 3 - Williams (Massachusetts)
NAIA - Azusa Pacific (California)

If you look only at the U.S. Government, … the U.S. Government comes in near last among developed nations in terms of foreign aid as a percentage of gross national income … but if you look at American individuals and families and non-governmental organizations, you would see … American people are some of the most generous people in the world.

*Americans (outside government channels) give a higher percentage of their income for aid to underdeveloped countries than citizens in any developed country in the world.

*The U.S.A. (government and non-government combined) leads the world in total financial flow to developing countries- 192-billion (USD) in investments, philanthropy and remittances … and 88% of America’s foreign aid to developing countries comes from non-governmental sources.

* The USA is 6th in the world in terms of foreign aid spent per person if you take into account all private and public sources of financial support.

The statistics above are according to the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity in their annual report analyzing 2006 data.

America’s $192-billion amounts to about 45% of the entire OECD’s (30 countries forming the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) contributions (public and private) to developing countries.

Those that complain the U.S. Government does not provide enough foreign assistance, must also realize the tremendous generosity of American individuals, churches, foundations, nonprofits, colleges and other organizations.

The model of philanthropy worldwide has changed. The study shows about 88% of America’s aid to developing countries comes from individuals and organizations not affiliated with the U.S. Government. And it’s happening in the U.K. and many other countries.

Government aid worldwide is now a minority participant in the growth and development of poor nations … accounting for less than 25% of the financial aid. Worldwide, in 2006, private financial flows of money accounted for over 75 percent of donor countries’ entire economic dealings with developing countries. In 1990, worldwide government aid to developing countries was larger than private aid. Why such a rapid change? That would be an interesting study. I’m sure many would argue that private efforts are administered more effectively than government efforts.

Sweden, Luxembourg and Norway follow the old model and give about 80% of their assistance through government aid. In terms of total USD value of Government Official Development Assistance, the U.S. Government leads the world with 23.53 billion USD. Rounding out the Top 5 are the U.K. with $12.46 billion, Japan with 11.19 billion, France with 10.60 billion, Germany with 10.44 billion.

In terms of a percentage of Gross National Income, the U.S. Government comes in 21st (0.18%) of the OECD countries, with the governments of Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark leading the list … providing 0.80% or more of GNI in ODA assistance.

But any measure of a country’s commitment to foreign aid must look at both government and non-government sources of foreign aid. This measure of both government and non-government financial flows to developing countries may provide the most useful ‘generosity index‘ … the results below:

% of Gross National income sent to developing countries (combining goverment and non-government sources):

Sweden - 1.28% 
Luxembourg - 1.09%
Norway - 1.08%
Netherlands - 1.05%
Denmark - 0.99%
United States - 0.99%
Canada - 0.91%
Spain - 0.88%
Australia - 0.85%
United Kingdom - 0.84%
Ireland - 0.84%
Austria - 0.83%
Switzerland - 0.77%
France - 0.76%
New Zealand - 0.67%
Belgium - 0.66%
Germany - 0.66%
Greece - 0.48%
Finland - 0.44%
Italy - 0.40%
Portugal - 0.36%
Japan - 0.34%

American professional soccer, hockey, basketball and baseball leagues have a large number of foreign players. American football does not yet have many foreign born players. The list of professional Asian baseball players in America:

12 Pitchers:
Daisuke Matsuzaka - Boston Red Sox
Hideki Okajima - Boston Red Sox
Hiroki Kuroda - Los Angeles Dodgers
Takashi Saito - Los Angeles Dodgers
Masahide Kobayashi - Cleveland Indians
Kazuo Fukumori - Texas Rangers
Yasuhiko Yabuta - Kansas City Royals
Kei Igawa - New York Yankees
Cha Seung Baek - Seattle Mariners
Jae Kuk Ryu - Tampa Bay Rays
Hong-Chih Kuo - Los Angeles Dodgers
Chien-Ming Wang - New York Yankees

1 Catcher:
Kenji Johjima - Seattle Mariners

6 Outfielders:
Kosuke Fukudome - Chicago Cubs
Dave Roberts - San Francisco Giants
Ichiro Suzuki - Seattle Mariners
So Taguchi - Philadelphia Phillies
Hideki Matsui - New York Yankees
Shin-Soo Choo - Cleveland Indians

5 Infielders:
Tadahito Iguchi - San Diego Padres
Akinori Iwamura - Tampa Bay Rays
Kazuo Matsui - Houston Astros
Chin-lung Hu - Los Angeles Dodgers
Yung Chi Chen - Seattle Mariners

He will replace the retiring USC pioneer, current Dean of Religious Life Rabbi Susan Laemmle, who was the first non-Christian to lead a major university in religious life.

Dean Soni holds a bachelor’s degree in religion from Tufts University, a master’s degree in Theological Studies from Harvard University, a master’s degree in comparative religion from UCSB, and a juris doctor degree from UCLA. A native of India, he was raised in Southern California.

USC has the largest enrollment of international students at an American university, with over 7,000 scholars from more than 100 countries. USC has 70 student religious groups and 35 Religious Directors on campus.