A student at Drake University studying Law, Politics, & Society with a concentration in Business Law. I am taking Global Youth Studies and we are working on a project to expand youth topics within Wikipedia. Youth is often overlooked, as it is a fluid category that takes many shapes and forms. I will be creating a page on Youth in Guatemala.

Topic Proposal

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For my Global Youth Studies project, I will be creating a Wikipedia page on Youth in Guatemala. I was originally torn in my decision of choosing a topic but found myself more interested and passionate about the youth living in Guatemala. I traveled to Guatemala a few years ago and feel that my experience will lay a foundation for my Wikipedia page. I am very passionate about the low standards of health and education in Guatemala. The influence of government within these fields will be interesting. I am excited to explore areas outside of the cities I visited and see how their youth population compares. The customs and traditions of different areas will be interesting to learn about as my research progresses.

Within my page, I will be talking about the health of youth, specifically how malnutrition in the early stages of life affects their life trajectory. It was quite common for infants and children to be hospitalized due to the lack of substantial food. It will be interesting to see how this impacts them as they grow up. There is also a subsection on demographics that highlights the vast number of youth in Guatemala. One topic within the demographic subsection that will be necessary to analyze is the number of Guatemalans that leave the country for various reasons.

Education will also be an important part of my discussion of youth. There is a section on the page about education that seems to be lacking crucial information. In my experience in Guatemala, parents often undervalued education. Education is often inaccessible due to transportation and other barriers. I think barriers will develop into a more broad theme in my page. I am excited to research higher performing schools and see the tactics they use to retain students and how schools harness their students' aspirations and turn them into success. The location of youth will be crucial in an analysis of the education system, as many areas in Guatemala lack basic necessities. One topic that could be incorporated into this page is violence and the presence of crime and delinquency. The structural factors that push youth to commit crime must also be analyzed.

I am still struggling with my lead paragraph. As mentioned earlier, barriers may be an underlying current throughout my page. However, I do not want it to come off in a way that would be offensive to Guatemalan youth. Youths in every country face barriers to certain things and it will be interesting to see how it unfolds in the fields of health, education, jobs, etc. and how certain youth face more barriers than others.


Sources

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[1] This article will be useful to use in the crime section of my page.

[2] This article focuses on higher education and the usefulness and practicality of it. It also touches on how it may interfere with employment.

[3] Youth and their involvement in gangs and violence is the primary focus of this article. This will be especially interesting especially in a social mobility context.

[4] I think this article will fit nicely into a family subsection of my page. It will be beneficial to examine adolescents and their life after their parents migrate elsewhere.

[5] Open Schools is something I had never heard of. They essentially aim to make youths more productive members of society.

[6] The World Health Organization essentially provides statistics that would be useful to analyze in various contexts.

[7] This World Health Organization page will mainly help in the health section of my page. Although not necessarily specific to youth, they are definitely affected by policies covered in this page.

[8] This article discusses the occupational structures that youth settle into in certain areas of Guatemala.

[9]Statistics

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Crime in Guatemala

Health section of the Guatemala article

Education in Guatemala

References

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  1. ^ Brenneman, Robert. "Wrestling The Devil". Latin American Research Review: 112–128.
  2. ^ Bonilla, Kleinsy; Kwak, Jae Sung. "Challenges of Highly Educated Human Resources in Guatemala". Asain Journal Of Latin American Studies: 17–43. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  3. ^ Winton, Ailsa. "Youth, Gangs And Violence: Analysing The Social and Spatial Mobility Of Young People In Guatemala City". Children's Geographies: 167–184. doi:10.1080/14733280500161537. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  4. ^ Lykes, M. Brinton; Erin, Sibley (2013). "Exploring Meaning-Making With Adolescents 'Left Behind' By Migration". Educational Action Research: 565–581. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  5. ^ Magnifico, Claudio (2011). "Open Schools". Americas. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  6. ^ http://www.who.int/countries/gtm/en/. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); External link in |website= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  7. ^ http://www.who.int/countryfocus/cooperation_strategy/ccsbrief_gtm_en.pdf?ua=1. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); External link in |website= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  8. ^ Liliana, Goldin (2014). "The Labor Topography Of Central Highland Guatemala Youth: Employment Diversification, Health, And Education In The Context Of Poverty". Research In Economic Anthropology. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  9. ^ "Statistics". UNICEF. Retrieved 2015-10-25.