Youth Venture

About me,
I am a senior at the University of Michigan majoring in a field I designed myself: Personal, Social, and Global Change, making my university help me to "be the change [i] want to see in the world." My academics focus on Spirituality, Sociology, Philosophy, and Economics, and my extracurricular life has me involved in labor rights, immigrants' rights, peace advocacy, ethical sourcing (our venture is called "Fair Tees"), documentary work, media design and assistance at a community service learning center (work-study), cooking, free-running, and yoga/meditation (in the work I do and in typical forms). I enjoy almost everything except the low amount of hours in the day.

About the Fair Tees Venture at UMich:
This initiative, endorsed as a conscious lifestyles youth venture in fall '08, is aimed at connecting as many student and community groups as possible with various alternative apparel suppliers. The groups we (ie myself, Aria Everts, Austin Land, and John Oltean, with friends) have worked with on our pilot program include: a women's cooperative in Nicaragua called Nueva Vida - producing ethical and organic apparel, as well as with Justice Clothing - a US union-made conventional apparel outfit.

We hope to expand our reach to our wider campus and city community in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and have hopes to help groups interested in their own version of this initiative across the country. We have already presented this to the national United Students Against Sweatshops, a wider university and high-school coalition affiliate to our own labor rights group on campus - and they were very excited at the national conference - and had their own ideas to contribute to the growth.

With goals of having a zero-fee, karmic policy, we'd love to hear if you would be interested in starting up your own group, or in placing orders through us. Toss an email to fair.tees@umich.edu with any of that. awesome.

• I launched a venture in the last 12 months and could use help
• I have started a venture and want to share insights
• I want to reach out to YV alumni

Animals, Arts and Culture, Business, Children, Civic Engagement and Voting, College/University, Community Beautification, Community Development, Community Organizing, Cultural Awareness, Disabilities Awareness, Discrimination, Education, Elderly, Employment, Environment, Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Queer, Health, Healthy Lifestyles, Higher Education, HIV Prevention, Human Rights, Immigration, International Issues, Literacy, Media, Mentoring, Music, Peace and Non-Violence, Poverty, Safety and Violence Prevention, School Community Development, Substance Abuse, Support for Young Women, Technology, Teen Pregnancy, Youth Empowerment