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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
New Efforts, New Training
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Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Making Kites for Somalia
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Expanding into Skateboards
Monday, July 20, 2009
Expressing Individuality
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Making World Class Works of Art
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Award Winning Community Involvement
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Embracing Errors
Monday, June 15, 2009
Celebrating $5000 in Profits
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Custom Made Kites
Creating new kites has been a wonderful endeavor for the toy project, yet also rewarding has been taking orders from outside institutions to make custom kites as well. Business development, quality control, and the pressure of delivering a new product with little flexibility has been quite a gratifying experience.
Friday, May 22, 2009
King's Academy Partnership
Monday, May 18, 2009
Support Through Soft Landings
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Global Concern
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Connecting Through Language
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Advanced Design
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Global Connections
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Listening to the Community
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Jumpstart International is currently laying out the specific aims for its vocational media project in Amman. But in doing so, it has deliberately included a wide variety of potential participants in the design phase to ensure that the local community is learning the skills and sharing the stories they feel are most important. With such an inclusive approach utilizing Jumpstart’s familiarity with the latest technologies, in concert with the perspectives and connections of all of its partners in Jordan, everyone involved is optimistic that together we can ensure that cutting-edge tools and training are increasingly available to all – no matter the background – and that in turn, a wider variety of viewpoints are shared with the world.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Testing the Next Round of Kites
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The first two classes of participants have finished their latest round of kites, and in turn, we’re eager to get them up in the air and see what‘s successful, and what needs to be reexamined. Beyond being both a productive step in the development process and a fun outing to blow off some steam, it has also become an additional aspect of the project to be managed completely by participants. Now consequently who exactly to blame if there is no wind will be an interesting question -- yet like all things, we’ll work it out together!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Digital Designs
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Building upon our previous work with graphics, the toy project is now moving into utilizing design and engineering software to lay out the planning of our latest products. This is useful as it provides genuine experience using such software towards professional aims. Beyond that, however, is also a meaningful evolution in our learning process. Where before we made our mistakes by hand and well into the construction process, we are now learning to put more initial thought into our subsequent actions – a change that will presumably result in less effort and greater accomplishments over the months ahead. While a small modification, it is our hope that the experience will reinforce the growing belief that everything should be open to healthy reevaluation and reinvention now and again.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Recycled Toys
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The vocational toy project is pleased to share that it is slowly beginning to work with recycled materials. Our first kite made from post-consumer plastic bags was recently completed, and our work with making dominos and other various toys from discarded shipping pallets is currently under way. Until we test the reprocessed (melted) plastic kite in the air this weekend, we’re unsure if this is an area we can justify expanding into. Yet for plastic bags, as well as discarded wood, the important issue for us is that we are exploring what fun and educational treasures we can make from items others deem unworthy – a test of our entrepreneurial creativity to encourage seeking value in areas others choose to ignore!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Project Logo
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The outside border is a merger between our first two projects, a wood and canvas square frame, overlaid with a diamond kite. This creates a frame in itself that has 24 independent lines (one for each member of the team) and is filled with colors most representative of our Arab participants. Within the frame is the Arabic name of the project – “Ibda” – spelled out as the heart we all share. In turn, everything we produce is “Made with love in the Middle East.” A true collective accomplishment.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Encouraging Leadership and Decisionmaking
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Introducing Graphic Design
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Because of the advantages technology can play in working – either for oneself or a larger firm – Jumpstart’s vocational toy project has increasingly been cultivating the use of software in our larger training efforts. Our primary focus remains designing and manufacturing toys by hand. Yet by demonstrating the usefulness of certain cutting-edge tools, such as the latest graphic design software, the project aims to complement the natural abilities of its participants with the tools that will allow them to create even greater accomplishments in the next phases of their careers. For now, our technological efforts will be focused primarily around creating a group logo and laying out toy designs, but hopefully in the months ahead we will increasingly employ Internet media, both for marketing and sales, and in turn expose our participants to virtually all major aspects of a vertically-integrated business.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Seeking to Stimulate Demand
Because of the recently depressed economy in the Middle East, along with much of the world, local markets are currently experiencing lower prices for the majority of their recycled commodities. This impacts our vocational recycling efforts, as well as the larger efforts of the community. Because of this, Jumpstart continues to seek out the most sensible way to stimulate demand for recycled goods through our support of community-based vocational recycling projects, so that we can play a small role in maintaining current momentum and encouraging demand-driven innovation of recycled goods in the Middle East. We’re not as far along as we hope to be in the next few months, but for now we’re optimistic that stimulating demand, as well as supporting vocational training, is our most useful contribution.
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