Youth Guide

Leadership & wellness for all youth

Careers with an International focus heat up in North America

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Although global business has been an attractive career choice for young people for the past few decades, jobs that support international awareness have trended upwards more recently, providing those that adhere to language and culture study along with specialized training a variety of opportunities throughout Canada and beyond.

international careers

Here are some of the fastest growing international careers and how to get there:

Immigration Consultants:

Canada is one of the top places for people from Commonwealth and former Commonwealth countries to choose to immigrate to. As each typical immigration lawyer or service company requires several people that work on the cases to be qualified as immigration workers, there is a need for qualified immigration consultants that can meet with those wishing to immigrate and handle all of the details of their case. One school in Toronto, The Academy of Learning Toronto, has even created a immigration consultant program that provides all of the training necessary to become a certified immigration consultant, a qualification that can be used worldwide in order to help those interested in immigrating to Canada move their cases forward.

Language and Culture Instructors:

Several years ago, Canada gained a reputation for having the clearest English speakers around. By listening to Canadians, many people that are interested in learning English have been able to improve their English pronunciation faster than they have with other countries that speak English natively. To capitalize on this trend, Canadians that would like to work in Canada or abroad helping people to learn English as a second language or as a foreign language need to finish a bachelor’s degree program, preferably in language or culture. The upside for those that choose to join the industry is that they will be able to travel while earning a decent income, giving them even more opportunity to expand into either higher level language instruction or linguistics. [Read more…]

3 Ways Caitlin Jenner’s Story Reveals How Much We Have to Do

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Think that the fight for our rights is over just because Caitlin Jenner has a docu-series on TV right now? That couldn’t be any farther from the truth. The reality is that we have to keep speaking up. While we admire Ms. Jenner’s boldness, the truth is that there are still thousands upon thousands of people that are still silently suffering. After all, not everyone has the money to go through facial reconstruction and body shaping to finally look the way on the outside that they feel on the inside. They feel female on the inside, but they can’t express that because surgery costs too much. Hormones are expensive. Things are super difficult for them, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll have the support of their family. Many transgendered teens are still threatened with eviction if their status were discovered by their parents.

Here are three key points that show we have a lot of work to do.

1. Lack of Counseling for Transgendered Teens

Counseling is still a major issue in terms of helping transpeople, especially transgendered teenagers. This is a very hectic and complicated time of life, because many relationships depend on the teen having a positive state of mind. The connections we make as teens can really open doors for us, but if you’re spending all of your time worrying about what others are thinking about you it’s hard to get anything done. [Read more…]

The Hard Truth About Returning Home For the Holidays as an LGBT Youth

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Growing up is hard for any child, but making the transition from teenager to young adult as an LGBT youth is even harder. The level of discrimination that’s allowed is absolutely ridiculous. Just when you believe that you have things under control, someone else comes in to stereotype and degrade you. But thankfully, things have gotten better for many LGBT people. We’re on TV, in newspapers, represented in the sciences, and just about anywhere else that we want to be. Hollywood has realized that unflattering portrayals of LGBT people aren’t acceptable, and that’s really improved the image of this community tremendously.

Yet there’s one part of life that hasn’t seemed to change all that much, and that would be the families that we moved away from in order to pursue work or school. When you return home for the holidays, you may have found things have changed.

For example, if you have a significant other, they may not be welcome at the house. Before you take the time to book travel accommodations, you need to have a serious talk with your family. They need to meet the people that matter in your life, but you also need to realize that you can’t force them to change. If you encourage them to open their minds a little bit, you’ll go further than condemning them for being homophobes or transphobes. [Read more…]

Dressing Up as Caitlyn Jenner For Halloween is a Terrible Idea – Here’s Why

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We thought we wouldn’t have to really explain this to people, but we don’t mind educating folks on such a sensitive topic: Halloween costumes. Specifically tasteless ideas like dressing up as Caitlyn Jenner.

Far be it from us to police our fellow LGBTs: you can do what you want, when you want, how you want. Some have even told us face to face and on the hone that they feel like Caitlyn Jenner is such a hero that they want to dress up to honor her. These are all fair emotions, and we certainly don’t wish to take anything away from people that want to dress up as Jenner in order to celebrate her boldness and courage.

However, we don’t live in a vacuum. This means that when you do something, everyone sees it…including the groups that won’t necessarily get what you’re trying to say. When you step out on Halloween night as Caitlyn Jenner, you’re actually sending the message that you can take on and take off an image of what it means to be LGBT. You can’t turn being transgendered on and off like that. If it were that easy to turn off, do you really think that transpeople wouldn’t look into it? Do you believe that people love being discriminated against? What saddens us even further is when gays, lesbians, and bisexuals turn around and shame transpeople, while failing to see the irony in that. The truth is that we’re all one, and we all have to share the same planet. It makes more sense to celebrate each other rather than tear each other down. [Read more…]

The Equality Fight is Far From Over, Part 2

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It’s only been a little under a month since the landmark Supreme Court ruling opened the doors for same-sex marriage in all 50 states. And since then, the fires of discrimination and prejudice are still burning brightly. Oh, some people are busy talking about how a decision that affects two people they don’t even know infringes on their rights. Thankfully, we live in a country where things can’t be decided based on a majority religion.

But setting aside marriage, there are plenty of areas for us to fight for. Even if you’re not thinking about getting married yet, there are issues that affect you as you grow up, go into the workforce, and even when you start looking for suitable housing.

Equality Fight

In 29 states, you can be denied service at a hotel or another establishment, simply because of your sexual orientation. Yes, that’s right: you can get legally married, but if the hotel doesn’t want you to sleep there with your new spouse, they don’t have to allow it. This is the case even after gay marriage is now legalized in all states. Some say that it’s perfectly fine to discriminate along these lines. However, if a sign outside a hotel said “We only serve men” or “Asians only, please”, that would be absolutely unacceptable. What if there was a sign that only atheists could stay at the hotel, and Christians had to go somewhere else? Christians would take to every radio show possible to decry such a thing. Yet it’s OK to do this to gay people?

This is where people say, “Well, you choose to be this way!” We disagree with the idea that one chooses their sexual orientation. Some people are gay, some people are straight, others are bisexual, and some are transgendered. The idea that anyone would choose to visibly identify with a group that’s targeted for a wide array of discriminatory practices is absurd. Why would anyone want to risk being bullied, alienated, denied jobs, pushed out of clubs, refused services, or even viciously beaten if they could avoid it? [Read more…]