Are you fashionable? Are you the first to know the latest trends? Are your friends constantly in awe of your stellar wardrobe and rockin' ability to accessorize like a rock star?

Did you answer yes to all of these questions?

I definitely didn't.

I am not what you would consider hip...by any stretch of the imagination. But you know who is? Celebrities. And it just so happens that Seventeen magazine wants to help people become more fashionable and support young girls around the world - all at the same time.

WOWZERS

Seventeen's Style Stars of 2008 auction features awesome (and fashionable) clothes and accessories from today's hottest young stars: The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Leighton Meester, Blake Lively, Hayden Panettiere and many, many more.

The best part? (Besides the opportunity to drastically improve your wardrobe...) All of the proceeds from this auction go to support the Girl Effect on GlobalGiving.

The idea behind the Girl Effect is that when you help a girl in the developing world get an education or training to start a business, she is less likely to marry early, have an unplanned pregnancy, or contract HIV/AIDS. Her success can help her family, her community and her country. And ultimately, when you put all of these successful young women together, they can change the world.

Watch this incredibly cool video below to learn more. You can donate directly at GlobalGiving.

Or even better, bid on your favroite auction items - become a little more fashionable and help empower girls around the world.

TAGS: Girl Effect, GlobalGiving, Seventeen, Style Stars, Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas, Kevin Jonas, Hayden Panettiere, Kate Perry, Miley Cyrus, Leighton Meester, Pink, Whitney Port, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Blake Lively, Ashley Tisdale, Lo Bosworth, Leona Lewis, Lauren Conrad, Rihanna, Beyonce, Demi Lovato

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October and kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on
And on. [U2 - October]

Earlier this week, I was joking with my brother that the song "October" from the U2 album of the same name must have been written about October baseball.

It wasn't, but the lyrics are apropos. If you're a baseball fan, October is thrilling or devastating; a relief or a surprise; golf season or postseason.

Between the late start times (10 p.m. ET first pitch for west coast games), marathon games (5 hours and 19 minutes?!) and post-debate (Election, not baseball) spin into the early morning hours, I've been fairly sleep-deprived so far this month.

And it's only the 9th.

But I love it. TBS is right; "There's only one October." (Thank goodness!)

That's why I was excited to find that there were Game 5 NLCS tickets for the Dodgers v. Phillies being auctioned off, with a portion of the proceeds going to Restore Historic Castle in Szadvar, Hungary - a project on GlobalGiving.

Bid on these tickets. Let me repeat: BID ON THESE TICKETS.

This series is definitely going at least 5 games. In my (unsubstantiated) opinion, I think Torre, Manny and the rest of the boys in blue will win the series in 6. Don't believe me? In Keith Law's (substantiated) opinion on ESPN, he thinks the Dodgers will win in five. If that's true, imagine how completely awesome it would be to have the Game 5 tickets then!

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TAGS: baseball, dodgers, phillies, manny ramirez, postseason, nlcs, alcs, league championship series, october, globalgiving

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Matt Taylor spent the summer at GlobalGiving as an intern, and he reflected on his experiences over the last few months. Matt is from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and graduated with a Bachelor's of Business Administration from the Ross School at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). He also loves bad reality TV (e.g., The Hills)

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a “No Sad Goodbyes at GlobalGiving” Happy Hour to celebrate the interns’, myself included, summer at GlobalGiving and to acknowledge the fact that we’ll slowly be trickling out of the office over the coming weeks.

As we reminisced and reflected on our experiences this summer, there was an ephemeral undertone of hopelessness for us interns:

Where do we go from here?

How can any other professional experience live up to the standard GG has set?

Katie mentioned the incredible work/life balance at GG. How can you top having an actively used Wii in the office?

Alison mentioned the culture of generosity that thrives at GG, even in the face of scarce resources, and the passion people have for what they’re doing. She also shared her affinity for the appliances here.

Appliances aside, what both said really resonated with me and got my wheels turning around what I appreciate-and will fear leaving-about GG.

I didn’t mention these things at the time, partly because these appreciations/fears may have contributed to my most likely already robust business school persona (note the bullet points), but…

- When will I again be a part of an organization that truly exemplifies “excellence” from a management perspective?

- When will I again be a part of such a highly effective team?

- Most importantly, when will I be a part of an organization with the impossible vision and the people to pull it off?

Manmeet came late to the gathering and when we asked why, she said “I was changing the world.” While clearly said kiddingly at the time, it’s true: GlobalGiving, through the people in this brightly-colored office and the people it empowers, is changing the world.

So, after spending three months with the fun-loving, compassionate people at GlobalGiving changing the world, I could be asking where the heck do I go from here? Instead though, as corny as it may sound, I’m asking how the heck do I use what I’ve learned from this experience to shape the organizations I’ll be a part of and the world around me? Fortunately and unfortunately, I am so overwhelmed by lessons learned from GlobalGiving that I can’t yet articulate the answer.

TAGS: globalgiving, summer

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One of our summer interns, Katie, joined the GG team a couple weeks ago and has hit the ground running, coordinating our guerrilla marketing campaign last week and becoming a blogger extraordinaire. After her amazing blog entries about her experiences in Myanmar after the Cyclone, I asked her to help the GG team blog on WG. Inspired by some of the eBay auctions listed in the name of GG projects, Katie waxed...um...philosophical...


Specific trends define a generation. I’ll be twenty-one next week (woohoo!) which means I was born in 1987. Whenever I’m with peers and someone mentions things like pogs, “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego” or those cuddly little Pound Puppies, eyes light up and reminiscent conversation starts to flow. It’s crazy how TV shows, music and movies affect the culture of a generation.

But besides media, another trend my generation gets to be a part of is the giving trend. It’s exciting to see the number of donations up on the monitor in the GlobalGiving office. Or when the cyclone hit my home country of Myanmar, I was fielding phone calls left and right from people who wanted to help. There’s a lot more generosity out there than people often think. This is why it made me especially happy to see The Simpsons Movie being sold on ebay, with a percentage of the profit going to help the Myanmar cyclone relief! Friends, the trends are comin’ together in a real good way.

My brother and I grew up watching The Simpsons, the longest running comedy on television. Sure the characters make their share of mistakes: Bart sells his soul to Millhouse for five bucks, Homer gains 60 pounds to qualify as disabled.

But if you stick with them through the episodes, good almost always prevails. We learn that even a guy like Homer Simpson has a generous heart. He offers Apu a place to stay when he loses his job, arranges a second wedding with Marge to make up for their lousy first ceremony (complete with a Doobie Brothers wedding band), and gives up a chance at wealth to allow his daughter Maggie to keep her beloved teddy bear.

If Homer can give, we all can give.

So feel good about giving: sit back and enjoy the movies with America’s favorite family. D'oh!

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TAGS: globalgiving, simpsons, 1980s, myanmar

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