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It's Up to Us by John Graham
It’s Up to Us brings concepts of character, leadership and service to high school-age kids that are attractive and credible to the kids, acceptable to parents, and compelling enough to counterbalance other powerful influences in kids’ lives, such as television, advertising, and the streets. It’s Up to Us is community-oriented. It coaches kids to assess community needs and to implement their own service projects to meet those needs. Some of the chapters deal with profound topics—such as meaning, courage and compassion. Some build specific skills, such as handling stress and conflict, planning, setting and managing goals, working in teams, assessing risks and making decisions, giving presentations, and working with media. Two chapters deal with the challenges of leadership. And the entire program is full of exciting, credible stories of "Giraffes"—real-life people honored by the Giraffe Project for sticking their necks out for the common good.
Paperback
First published December 15, 1999
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About the author
John Graham
5 books5 followersJohn Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was sixteen, took part in the first ascent of Mt. McKinley’s North Wall at twenty, and hitchhiked around the world at twenty-two.
A Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO’s top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John Glenn. As an assistant to Ambassador Andrew Young at the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in Southern Africa, South Asia and Cuba.
By most measures, he was very successful. But something was missing.
In 1980, a close brush with death aboard a burning cruise ship in the North Pacific forced him to a deeper search for meaning in his life. Now out of the Foreign Service, he began teaching better ways of handling challenge and conflict. Since 1983 he’s been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization moving people to stick their necks out for the common good. The Project finds ordinary people acting with extraordinary courage on a broad range of important issues—then tells their stories to millions of others through the media, and in schools.
Graham is a familiar keynote speaker on themes of leadership, courage, meaning and service. He also leads Giraffe Heroes Project workshops, helping organizations, businesses and individuals handle their challenges more effectively.
Graham has done TV and radio all over the world and articles about him have appeared in major magazines and newspapers. He is the author of Outdoor Leadership, It’s Up to Us (a mentoring book for teens), and Stick Your Neck Out—A Street-smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond. He walks his talk, including today as an international peacemaker, active in the Middle East and Africa.
He has a degree in geology from Harvard and one in engineering from Stanford, neither of which he ever expects to use.
A Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO’s top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John Glenn. As an assistant to Ambassador Andrew Young at the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in Southern Africa, South Asia and Cuba.
By most measures, he was very successful. But something was missing.
In 1980, a close brush with death aboard a burning cruise ship in the North Pacific forced him to a deeper search for meaning in his life. Now out of the Foreign Service, he began teaching better ways of handling challenge and conflict. Since 1983 he’s been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization moving people to stick their necks out for the common good. The Project finds ordinary people acting with extraordinary courage on a broad range of important issues—then tells their stories to millions of others through the media, and in schools.
Graham is a familiar keynote speaker on themes of leadership, courage, meaning and service. He also leads Giraffe Heroes Project workshops, helping organizations, businesses and individuals handle their challenges more effectively.
Graham has done TV and radio all over the world and articles about him have appeared in major magazines and newspapers. He is the author of Outdoor Leadership, It’s Up to Us (a mentoring book for teens), and Stick Your Neck Out—A Street-smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond. He walks his talk, including today as an international peacemaker, active in the Middle East and Africa.
He has a degree in geology from Harvard and one in engineering from Stanford, neither of which he ever expects to use.
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January 15, 2019
This book describes effective ways to make changes in yourself and your mindset in order to change the world. Graham uses many examples of people who are doing what he describes, and step by step action plans to show how everyone can do it. I encourage anyone who see’s an issue that needs attention to read this book to get some ideas for ways to fight that issue, and make a difference.
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